No man has a right to bring up children without surrounding them with books . . . Children learn to read being in the presence of books. — Horace Mann (1796-1859)
Book Related Links
The Cotsen Children's Library is an important historical collection of 23,000 illustrated children's books and related items on deposit at Princeton University.
DareWright.com is a special site for the many admirers of Ms. Wright's delightful photographic books.
The Afterlife of Alice and Her Adventures in Wonderland, a recent exhibit held in the University of Florida Smathers Library, included "other editions (of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland), including the early draft Alice's Adventures Underground which includes Lewis Carroll's own illustrations, later editions and illustrated versions of the book, texts that reference Alice, and other materials from popular culture." Some images are available online and there is also a downloadable PowerPoint file.
If you loved this author's books as a child (I did!), you'll enjoy the website of the Thornton W. Burgess Society whose aim is "to inspire reverence for wildlife and concern for the natural environment."
A collection of Children's Books of the Early Soviet Era was displayed at McGill University in 1998 and is here reproduced online. The Russian children's books of this era are characterized by the most amazing and wonderful graphics.
An exhibit of Frank Baum's American Fairy Tale The Wizard of Oz can be found at the website of the Library of Congress.
The Elizabeth Nesbitt Room at the University of Pittsburgh houses several special collections on the history of children and their books dating from the 1600's to the present.
The American Library Association (ALA) features the home pages of the Caldecott Medal and the Newbery Medal. Complete lists of medal winners and honor books (from 1938 and from 1922 respectively) can be found on the site.
"I, Florence Figg, am a bookman. I dream of a gentle world, peopled with good people and filled with simple and quiet things." —Ellen Raskin, Figgs & Phantoms
How long have dustjackets been around, you've sometimes wondered? Ponder no longer - 1832. NYPL has a fascinating collection of the jackets preserved by aesthetically minded librarians in an online exhibit: Dust Jackets from American and European Books, 1926-1947. Definitely worth a look. Click the link at the top of the page on the left which says, "See all Images". Among many other interesting digital collections on the site you can visit are: America's First Illustrator: Alexander Anderson and Publisher's Proofs and Related Work from L. Prang & Company. Prang published some wonderful children's books; the firm's chromolithography was outstanding.
For those of us who can't get enough of printed words and images, Wikipedia has a multi-linked treatment of the subject: The History of Printing. Quite a nice overview.
And going in a slightly different direction, here's a bang-up site for those who find languages intriguing (and who want to figure out how to make sense of something a little obscure). It's Omniglot: writing systems and languages of the world. Enjoy!
"Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth's and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and dawn seen over ocean from the beach." — Henry Beston, The Outermost House
Art Links
The site of Kent Twitchell, our
favorite muralist, features his well-known works, many of which are Los Angeles landmarks. His beautiful Freeway Lady is here to enjoy, just as she was before she was painted over. Her re-creation is ongoing. You will encounter some pop-up ads on the introductory page of Kent's site but the rest of the site is pop-up free. We think Kent's incredible art is worth it!
Wear Art Now is the site of award-winning teacher, artist and master craftsman Joseph Gatto. Joe works with fine metals and Egyptian scarabs, Japanese ojime beads and Mexican fetishes, ancient coins and other antiquities of metal, stone, bone, ivory, and wood from various parts of the world to create one-of-a-kind pieces of wearable art.
"Night in Tunisia" (Homage to Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie)
The fine work of George McClements can now be seen locally and on his website ArtStorm. George's paintings are inspired by jazz and blues.
Animal Rescue Links
"We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. Remote from universal nature, and living by complicated artifice, man in civilization surveys the creature through the glass of his knowledge and sees thereby a feather magnified and the whole image in distortion. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err, and greatly err. For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the earth." — Henry Beston, The Outermost House
The Stray Cat Alliance is dedicated to the care and protection of feral cats.
The Stray Cat Alliance's Online Store offers unique items. All proceeds from sales go to support the humane work of this dedicated TNR (trap, neuter, release) organization.
Visit the United Pegasus Foundation website where you can sponsor or adopt a retired racehorse or PMU horse or foal.
A must-see video. Important 'stuff' - don't miss it!
And finally, a fun site for wordsmiths: play and donate rice to feed the hungry (though the donation is sadly meagre).
By that hidden way
My guide and I did enter, to return
To the fair world: and heedless of repose
We climb’d, he first, I following his steps,
Till on our view the beautiful lights of Heaven Dawn’d through a circular opening in the cave: Thence issuing we again beheld the stars. — Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy
The site of 
"Night in Tunisia"
