''Little Fur Family'' is a 1946 picture book written by
Margaret Wise Brown
Margaret Wise Brown (May 23, 1910 – November 13, 1952) was an American writer of children's books, including ''Goodnight Moon'' and ''The Runaway Bunny'', both illustrated by Clement Hurd. She has been called "the laureate of the nursery" for ...
and illustrated by
Garth Williams
Garth Montgomery Williams (April 16, 1912 – May 8, 1996) was an American artist who came to prominence in the American Post-war, postwar era as an illustrator of children's books. Many of the books he illustrated have become classics of Americ ...
. It tells the story of a little fur child's day in the woods. The day ends when his big fur parents tuck him in bed "all soft and warm," and sing him to sleep with a bedtime song.
Publication history
This book is the first Brown and Williams collaboration; Harper's answer to
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
's hugely popular ''
Pat the Bunny
''Pat the Bunny'' is the first "touch and feel" interactive children's book, written and illustrated by Dorothy Kunhardt. Since its publication in 1940, it has been a perennial best-seller in the United States. Rather than follow a linear narra ...
''. Other books Brown and Williams worked on together include ''Wait till the Moon is Full'' (1948), ''Fox Eyes'' (1951), ''Mister Dog: The Dog Who Belonged to Himself'' (1952), ''
Scuppers The Sailor Dog'' (1953), ''Three Little Animals'' (1956), and ''Home for a Bunny'' (1956).
''Little Fur Family'' is notable for its front cover, which features a patch of "fur" on the fur child's body that the reader can touch. The original edition of the book was entirely wrapped in real rabbit fur. At 50,000 copies printed, it has been estimated that 15,000 rabbits were killed and skinned to provide enough fur.
The fur-covered original edition also—perhaps unintentionally—references
Méret Oppenheim
Meret (or Méret) Elisabeth Oppenheim (6 October 1913 – 15 November 1985) was a German-born Swiss Surrealist artist and photographer.
Early life
Meret Oppenheim was born on 6 October 1913 in Berlin. She was named after Meretlein, a wild c ...
's well-known
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...
art piece ''
Breakfast in Fur'' (''Object'
''Le Déjeuner en fourrure'', a fur-covered teacup, saucer and spoon.
Editor
Ursula Nordstrom
Ursula Nordstrom (February 2, 1910 – October 11, 1988) was publisher and editor-in-chief of juvenile books at Harper & Row from 1940 to 1973. She is credited with presiding over a transformation in children's literature in which morality tales ...
knew the book would be a success when a mother wrote to tell her that her little boy had held open his copy at the dinner table and tried to feed it his supper.
[Marcus, Leonard S. (2008). ''Minders of Make-Believe''. New York: Houghton Mifflin. .]
Plot summary
A little fur family (mother, father, and a child) live in a cozy house in a tree trunk. Secure in his cozy home, the fur child goes out to explore his world. He finds some creatures that are like him and others that are very different, including fish, a flying bug, and in one of the book's most memorable sequences, a tiny version of himself (which he kisses and sends it on its way). Even in the fur child's comfortable, familiar surroundings, there are just enough unfamiliar things to make his day interesting. At the end of the day, the child's parents and his dinner are waiting for him at home.
Themes
The fur family are unidentifiable
mammals
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
. The book examines themes of exploration and discovery, the familiar and unfamiliar, and the simultaneous excitement and fear of the unknown. It has also been suggested that the book is a story of life and death, and "... the power struggles implicit in growing up.... By sparing the lives of the fish, the bug, and his miniature counterpart, the fur child shows that he knows how to use his new-found power benignly and well. In the poignant logic of the tale, acquiring that knowledge is recognizing the power of love."
[Marcus, Leonard S. (1999). ''Margaret Wise Brown: Awakened by the Moon''. HarperCollins. p. 18.]
Brown's text, always lyrical, alternates between rhyme and straight prose; as well as making much use of
onomatopoeia
Onomatopoeia is the process of creating a word that phonetically imitates, resembles, or suggests the sound that it describes. Such a word itself is also called an onomatopoeia. Common onomatopoeias include animal noises such as ''oink'', ''m ...
.
See also
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Little Fur Family
1946 children's books
American picture books
Books by Margaret Wise Brown
Harper & Brothers books