Around the Year.

TUDOR, Tasha.

Item Number: 1649

New York: Oxford University Press, 1957.

First edition. Oblong quarto, original cloth. Fine in a very good dust jacket. Signed by the author, “greetings Tasha Tudor.” A very sharp example of this wonderfully illustrated Tudor title.

Two-time Caldecott honor artist Tasha Tudor invites readers to celebrate the many joys of family life throughout the year. Although her verses and quaint ink and watercolor illustrations depict Tudor's signature idyllic New England scenes, her embrace of fundamentals such as friendship, togetherness, and fun are universal. From January to December, each month is marked by four pages of illustrations (black and white spreads alternating with earthy watercolors) with a short verse: "March promises / the hope of spring, / In swampy places peepers sing." Tudor's gentle humor comes through in such images as October's drawing of three children running from a graveyard as a be-sheeted child flails in a ghostly manner while others crouch, giggling behind the stones.