While I am out and about on the bookmobile, visiting preschools and child care centers, I come across interesting changes that happen to children’s picture book characters. Sometimes there will be subtle differences when a new illustrator takes over an old series:
Sometimes an existing book gets completely revised by a different illustrator, which can alter the mood of a book:
… And occasionally causes a family to switch species altogether:
What I always find the most interesting is when an illustrator changes a character over time. This can be a subtle bunny lift and jowl reduction:
… Or the taming of a little critter:
The most drastic example of this is everyone’s favorite anxious aardvark, Arthur. Marc Brown’s first Arthur book was Arthur’s Nose (1976), where an aardvark named Arthur is unhappy with his nose, considers a nose job and decides, of course, that he likes his own nose best after all.
In the book Arthur’s Eyes (1979), in which he gets glasses, he has lost about a third of his nose length:
Today’s Arthur definitely changed his mind about the plastic surgery and decided to get some pretty serious work done. His head is ovoid, his ears are rounder, and the only evidence that he even has a nose is two little commas for nostrils. To make things a bit more confusing, the publisher reissued Arthur’s Eyes with the furry, snouted 1979 Arthur inside, but a new cover that shows the current Arthur.
Have you noticed any interesting changes to any of your favorite children’s book characters? How would you explain to kids why Arthur looks so different in his older books?
~ Robin, Mobile Services
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