Today’s Christmas Pet is a “2 fer” and it comes to us via my friend Debby Deweese. Debby and her daughter, Hillary, are the human companions for Shelby and Champion.
Shelby and Champion
Shelby the 10 year old poodle and Champion the 1 year old, three legged chihuahua are new friends for the holidays. Champion can be found on Instagram at champion_the_tiny_dog
Poor Maurice Sendak… always landing on the Banned List because you insist on depicting humans in their natural form in your fun, imaginative illustrations. Don’t you know that little kids can’t cope with seeing an illustration of a nude little boy frolicking through a night kitchen?
That’s the only reason I can think that this 1971 Caledcott winner was banned… Nudity.
The second offering in our “12 Days of Christmas Pets” comes from artist Jedediah Kahl.
Puppies First Christmas.
Copyright Kahl 2014.
Jedediah Kahl is a young illustrator. He earned his AFA degree in Fine Art at the Community College of Baltimore County in 2008 and then transferred to the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design where he earned is BFA is Illustration in May of 2013. Since graduating he has been creating illustrations for several different organizations and companies and operates his own company, Jedediah Kahl Illustration. Some of those organizations and companies include: Cliffs of the Nuese State Park in NC, Saint Joan of Arc Catholic School in Aberdeen, the Maryland Ranger School, Cedar Fort Publishing and Media in Utah and many more.
Jedediah traditionally works by hand with the inclusion of some digital media. Recently his work has incorporated hand drawn black and white ink work with either watercolor or digital color.
Within his company he has published two different books. The first, “You Don’t Understand” is a children’s book meant to teach about sharing and the second, “Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of the Mind” is an illustrated collection of ten different Edgar Allan Poe stories that explore the workings of peoples minds. He also has a collection of greeting cards and a series of Christmas ornaments.
You can visit his website at: http://jedediahkahlillustration.weebly.com.
To contact him you can either submit a submission on his contact page on the website,
e-mail him at jedediahkahl@yahoo.com or call him at (443) 847-3227.
Updated this post with the 12 Days of Christmas Pets logo (thanks Hannah) and another Photoshopped pic of Honey. Hope you like it.
Merry Christmas every one! This year’s Holiday feature is “12 Days of Christmas Pets” and we’ll be featuring a different animal from now until 12th night (Or until I run out of adorable images.) Last year’s “12 Days of Christmas Stories” was a big success, and I’m hoping this with help spread some Holiday cheer as well.
I think I’ll start off this year’s fun with a dog who is near and dear to my heart — indeed she is at my feet as I write this. I bring you my sweet, spirited, cockapoo, Honey.
Honey likes to take walks, bark at inanimate objects and sleep. She is blond with very curly hair. And she is an excellent guard cockapoo (just ask the mailman.)
Just a reminder to all your pet lovers… don’t forget to send me your artistic impressions of your furry, feathered or fishy friends enjoying the Holidays.
I’ve had a few artist submit their work already but I’m looking for more illustrations, paintings, photos, musical compositions (you decide on the art form) to round out the 12 days.
This somewhat grumpy Christmas Cat is actually from BIGSTOCK.com stock photography, not from one of my readers, but he gives you an idea of what I’m looking for “12 Days of Christmas Pets.” I’m sure with a little creativity you’ll come up with the purr-fect image.
Some of the books I’ve read on the ALA’s list of 100 Most Banned Books kind of slap you in the face with their banned-ness. (I’m looking at you 16. Forever, by Judy Blume — starting on page on that book aches to grow up too quickly and be cool with the other banned kids.)
A Prayer For Owen Meany isn’t like that. At 680 pages you are sure to find something you DON’T like in the book. There’s a little bit of Nudity, Offensive Language, Alcohol, and Violence, but that’s hardly what the books revolves around. If I had to guess… it got banned for Political Viewpoint and Religious Viewpoint.
I liked this witty, engaging, loooooooong book.
The only reason I would ban it is that it might make some one’s backpack too heavy. (Yes, I realize that isn’t a problem in the digital age — I’m old.)
This year to celebrate the Holiday Season I’ll be hosting 12 Days of Christmas PETS, a loving, fun-filled reflection of man’s best friend at Christmas time.
I just got my first submission from illustrator Jedediah Kahl and it is just terrific.
I’m looking for art work in all forms (from painting to photography to musical compositions to poetry) so get your pencils out and your creative juices flowing.
Send me a message if you want to participate.
Cheers,
Rita
I suspect that SOMEONE is actually following my quest to concur the ALA’s Banned and Challenged Book List, and it is to you that I dedicate this blog.
I have put two more notches into the proverbial banned book belt with # 74. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and #98 I Saw Esau, by Iona Opte. Thus the giant block of titles featured in the last blog is slowly turning red from being READ.
The Lovely Bones (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Author Alice Sebold’s (literally) haunting novel The Lovely Bones was written in 2002. It tells the story of Susie Salmon — like the fish — a normal, every day 14-year-old who in 1973 took a short cut through a corn field and never makes it home. Raped, killed and dismembered by her psychopathic neighbor Mr. Harvey, Susie spends the rest of the novel in heaven watching as her family copes (or doesn’t) with her death. The book was adapted to into an equally scary, engaging movie by director Peter Jackson in 2010. Stanley Tucci plays just about the creepiest guy to ever cross the screen.
The Lovely Bones (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
My best guess as to why it was banned? Violence, Sexually explicit, with smoking, alcohol and homosexuality.
I Saw Esau is a well produced collection of nursery rhymes and riddles collected by Iona and Peter Opte and illustrated by the great Maurice Sendak. As to why it was banned… I’ll set Robert Beveridge ‘s Amazon book review handle that…
It will come as no surprise to anyone who’s read I Saw Esau: The Schoolchild’s Pocket Book that it has been challenged as “obscene” in Murfreesboro, TN (viz. The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal, Feb. 7, 2007). I Saw Esau is exactly the kind of book that begs a challenge. First it’s illustrated by the wonderful Maurice Sendak, who seems to trail controversy wherever he goes. Second, the Opies actually collected the rhymes, sayings, and other nonesuch here from actual children, and of course, children must be protected from anything else said by their real-world contemporaries. After all, morons who challenge kids’ books in schools either never were kids, have forgotten what being a kid was like, or are such humorless sticks-in-the-mud that they don’t feel their own children deserve to have as fun a childhood as they did. (Any other interpretations of such boorish behavior– and they are legion– would verge on libel, and thus will not be speculated upon here.)
Wow. Take that Murfreesburo.
As far as I’m concerned it is brilliantly naughty at times, but, since “naughty” isn’t on the matrix of why books are banned… I’d have given this one a wink would have let it slipped by.
Continue reading
Continuing in the quest to (collectively) read all 100 books on the ALA’s Top 100 Books of 2000-2009 I finished #61 Draw Me a Star by Eric Carle and #99. Are You There God? Its Me Margaret. I’ve also started on several others.
Here’s what the list looks like so far. The titles in red are, well, read. Those in Blue are either in progress or are in the queue.
Eric Carle is probably best known for The Very Hungry Caterpillar which was first published in 1969. Draw Me A Star was published much later in his career (1992), and I guess the author was feeling secure in his writing style and audience, because he dared to do the unthinkable. He included two nude figures. The people are barely anatomically correct. His signature collage, tissue paper style produces crude, childlike illustrations, and, yes, the female figure has two circles to indicate breasts and the man has an appendage that is a penis. So I guess that’s it.
Draw Me A Star got banned for Nudity 8 pages and 53 words into the book.
Like just about every girl I knew growing up I read Are You There God? Its Me Margaret by Judy Blume. I don’t remember there being much fuss about it 35 years ago and I can’t figure out what would put it on the list now.
The book is a coming of age novel where Margaret talks to God and tries to find her place in a new school in a new city. She is also trying to decide which religion she wants to align with (her father is Jewish; her mother is Christian.) Margaret longs to get her period and grow into her new bra, but, after reading Wallflower and Catcher this teenager comes off VERY innocent and sweet.
My best guess to why it is on the list? Some one must have gotten offended on Religious grounds.
Blume is on the list more than once. Now I’m looking forward to reading her Tiger Eyes (which I have not read before)
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