Nutshell Library Throwback

Today marked the passing of one of the greatest children's book authors of all time, Maurice Sendak. While he's mostly known for Where the Wild Things Are, my favorite book (or actually books) was this mini library Nutshell Library.

 Image from Amazon

It's a collection of four books: Chicken Soup with Rice, Pierre, Alligators All Around and One Was Johnny. I know almost every word in each of them....because I performed them! I'm not sure what it was, maybe Girl Scouts or some drama thing my mom had me do when I was in kindergarten. In the 70's, the stories in the Nutshell Library as well as The Sign on Rosie's Door were made into an animated TV special called Really Rosie with the songs sung by Carole King. We based our play on this TV special.

The one that I remember the most was Chicken Soup with Rice and I can still kind of remember the dance moves we did to it.

I also remember Pierre, the bratty boy that always responded "I don't care" to his parents. I guess Mr. Sendak was great at portraying terrible children!

This is one of those great childhood memories that I have and I was so happy to remember it today with the passing of Maurice Sendak. The little library is still at my parents' house, the covers tattered from years and years of reading. I can't wait to look at them again the next time I go home.

Really Rosie, part 1
Really Rosie, part 2