As noted in last Tuesday’s post,I encountered Maurice Sendak when I was myself a child. My
Here’s what I learned from Frances: children have a job, and that job is growing up. This is clear in the first book, when her exasperated father explains the facts of life. “Everybody has job. I have to go to my office at nine o’clock. That’s my job. You have to go to sleep so you can be wide awake for school tomorrow. That’s your job.” And if she doesn’t do it, Father will have to resort to corporal punishment, but fortunately Frances takes the hint. On her way to adulthood, she meets the challenges of everyday life with the force of her developing personality and creative imagination. She has a little song for every occasion. On eating eggs, for instance: I do not like the way you slide,/ I do not like your soft inside,/ I do not like you many ways,/ and I could go for many days/ without eggs. What a way to give voice to a young child’s feelings!
When the wasps and the bumblebees have a party, nobody comes who can’t buzz.
When the chicks and the ducklings have an outing, everyone has to wear fuzz.
When the frogs and snakes have their yearly clambakes, there’s plenty of wiggling and hopping:
They splash in the pond, and the marshes beyond, and everyone has to get sopping!
Hoban’s other classic for children is The Mouse and His Child (1967), a novel about a clockwork mouse
He wrote for adults too—almost as many adult novels as children’s books, of which the best known is Riddley Walker. This is worth reading if you have the patience: a dystopian story of Britain in the far future, with civilization’s infrastructure long gone but her spiritual roots still twitching. The part that requires patience is the voice, which Hoban invented, kind of a pidgin English with technological, biblical, and quasi-medieval echoes.
His last book, Rosie’s Magic Horse was published early this year, 14 months after Hoban’s death in December 2011. Illustrated by another legend, Quentin Blake, it’s a
If wishes were horses, beggars could ride, but Rosie’s ice-pop sticks give her the ride of her life—and it may not be all a dream. It turns out that anything can be put to good use with determination and creative thinking. Though the story doesn’t have the down-to-earth veracity of Frances or the poignancy of The Mouse and His Child, it’s a fanciful ride into the sunset for a children’s writer of noteworthy accomplishment.
NOTE: Each of the Frances books is available in an “I Can Read” edition. I would give these a pass. The original books are easy enough to read, with a certain elegance-in-simplicity that’s hard to match even in a slightly-altered version.
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As a Frances lover, it’s interesting to hear about the other books and characters that Russell Hoban created. I look forward to investigating them further; Riddley Walker sounds particularly intriguing!
My heart skipped a beat when I saw Bedtime for Frances in the corner of your article. What a blessed thing it is to have grown up in the 70’s and have Frances become a part of the voice of your childhood. Now I sing her silly songs to my own children and am so glad to know that Russell Hoban had a further literary career. Thank you, thank you for continuing to review all kinds of book insightfully and with a Biblical worldview. This is my favorite Website!!!!
Amie–you made our day! Thanks for weighing in.