by Moe Zilla

Created on: August 07, 2010

"There was a little fur family
warm as toast
smaller than most
in little fur coats..."

Margaret Wise Brown is best remembered as the author of "Goodnight, Moon." But in the previous year - 1946 - she'd also written a popular story called "The Little Fur Family." It follows a day in the life of the child of "the little fur mother." Straddling both poetry and prose, it's written in a rambling loose-form rhyme that suggests the aimlessness in the adventures of a very small child.

"The little fur father
said good morning one day
put on his hat and went away
out into his little fur world..."

After a bath, the "fur child" ventures past the tall flowers with an adorable smile on his face. He sneezes under a wild nut tree - "Kerchoo!" - and the sneeze wakes up his grandfather in a hollow stump. The grandfather walks out - "thump thump thump" - to visit his grandson, and then sneezes himself. And then walks back into the stump...

There's almost no plot, but the story book is still a lot of fun. Illustrator Garth Williams contributed some charming drawings of the tiny family nestled in the forest. Margaret Wise Brown once said that "I wish I could write a story that would seem absolutely as true as Peter Rabbit..." and the illustrator seems to be going for a Beatrix Potter effect. The drawings aren't as detailed - leaving more to the reader's imagination - but there's lots of personalities in the characters faces.  And there's one spectacular illustration of "the wild woods," with tall branches lit up by distant sunlight - and a sunny path to grandfather's house.

Garth Williams would become one of the most famous illustrators of children's literature, according to Wikipedia. He believed that illustrations can impact a child, awakening "something of importance... humor, responsibility, respect for others, interest in the world at large.'" The little fur child moves through the majestic forest, and his eyes suggest an innocent but powerful curiosity about what he sees. When he pulls a fish from the river, his paws lift it at a tender angle, and when he sees an even tinier furry animal running by - he tilts his head to look after it, thoughtfully.

Williams went on to create the illustrations for Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and Laura Ingalls Wilder's entire series of "Little House" books. That lends an interesting historical significance to Brown's quirky little story book. There's no tension in the little fur child's journey , though he seems to be looking for another animal that looks like himself. And the book's loose rhyming scheme returns when he finally seems to spontaneously resolve the question - when he returns to his family's home in the hollow tree.

"And there was his father
who put him to bed
and they tucked him bed
all soft and all warm."

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