Today I’m continuing my exploration of the Nutshell Library, of books illustrated by Maurice Sendak that aren’t Where the Wild Things Are, and, more generally, of pocket-sized picture books from the 1950s and 1960s. In this case, that means Sendak’s 1962 Chicken Soup With Rice: A Book of Months.
As the subtitle indicates, this book moves through the year a month at a time. Each two-page spread gives readers words about chicken soup with rice on the left page and illustrations on the right. Though the rhythm of each page shifts around, as do line lengths, the writing rhymes, giving readers 12 short poems on chicken soup with rice. Some of the poems fit with their months’ weather quite directly, with ice skating in January, a snowman in February, and so on. Other poems are less anchored/more freewheeling, like April, where the first person narrator dreams about soup in “far off Spain/or old Bombay.”
After the 12 months, there’s a two-page reflection or summing up.
Except for reviewing the months (and maybe the holidays–Christmas gets mentioned, but not Thanksgiving), there’s no lesson here.
There’s just a fun, meditative, causeless obsession: what will he say about chicken soup with rice NOW?
Good fun. Classic early Sendak drawing.
Oh, the images are very different, but there’s a short cartoon of the book, with a Carole King song.
