Paris From a Distance

Last night I lurked behind a clock in Paris, thanks to Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed new film Hugo, based on Brian Selznick’s wildly creative novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret. The entrancing vistas featuring the Eifel Tower, the city’s twinkling lights, and the dizzying tiers of iron stairways that support the massive timepiece swept me back to a magical era. While I approach cinematic versions of novels with a soupcon of skepticism, I can wholeheartedly recommend this one as worthy of its literary source.          

For a fresh peek at an older Paris, pick up Victoria Griffith’s recent picture-book biography, The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont, which highlights the overlooked Brazilian inventor who was the first to lift off and land a completely self-propelled plane. (The Wrights’ 1903 airplane needed strong winds and even a rail system to send it aloft.)  Alberto’s remarkable flight, which occurred November 12, 1906, outside Paris, is depicted with cheerful movement and intriguing perspectives in the pastel-and-oil paintings of Eva Montanari.

At first, we get to float over the city with Alberto in his dirigible, the inventor’s own unique and celebrated mode of transportation. Griffith’s story sparkles with Montanari’s double spreads bubbling with images of ladies’ elongated gowns, a wave of rushing horse-drawn carriages (no match for Alberto’s airship!), and the sidewalk cafes filled with coffee drinkers at  little round marble-topped tables.

Alberto devotes the next three years to building a new and better flying machine. Touchingly, he envisions a world where his invention would mean the end of all wars. “Once people are able to fly to different countries, they will see how much we have in common. We will all be friends,” he tells a hat-shop attendant in the book.

If only that vision had prevailed. Instead, others would get credit for inventing the airplane and then profit from its use for warfare, as Griffiths explains in her note, accompanied by vintage photos of Alberto Santos-Dumont and his inventions.

For a child (ages 7 to 10) with a taste for reality, this biography is just the ticket.

Related Articles: Parents’ Choice Award for The Fabulous Flying Machines of Alberto Santos-Dumont.

“Watch and Read: Starring Hugo Cabret”

     

The Puppeteer Who Made the Parade

              Some movers and shakers are in it for the sake of sheer fun. Tony Sarg loved toys so much he never abandoned them. Instead, he devised puppets that could float along Broadway for a parade like no other. Balloons Over Broadway: The True Story of the Puppeteer of Macy’s Parade is Melissa Sweet’s  joyous tribute to the man and to creativity itself.

Oh, the snipping and flipping and sketching that went into creating this fantastic nonfiction book. Beginning with end papers featuring vintage pages of The Tony Sarg Marionette Book and finishing with a dramatic 1933 New York Times ad (“HERE COMES THE PARADE!! IT’S IMMENSE! IT’S COLOSSAL! COME A-RUNNING!!), Ms. Sweet delivers a package that soars with color and energy.

Tony Sarg (rhymes with “aargh”) might not be a household name, but he invented the floats that fill multitudes of TV screens every Thanksgiving Day. Here’s how Sweet opens the story:

images courtesy of author/illustrator

As with her other inventive work, including the Caldecott-Honor book A River of Words by Jen Bryant, Melissa Sweet constructs her illustrations with a bright array of materials. You can see behind the image of young Tony, appearing as if from an old book, she includes a layer of magenta topped with a cut-fabric border featuring whimsical circles. Throughout the book, she intersperses her own lively drawings and paintings with a pleasing variety of objects — rulers, buttons, and even her own actual puppets, to tell this story in an engaging and original way. I can’t imagine the Caldecott committee will overlook this book as a contender for the upcoming annual prize for illustrations.

The story of how Tony Sarg initiated a Thanksgiving rite with his 1928 parade based on street carnivals from around the world makes for a rousing read-aloud. And how many children will be inspired to make their own puppets? For ideas, see Sweet’s appealing activity kit at Houghton Mifflin.

Related Article

“Five Questions for Melissa Sweet” from Horn Book.

What They Found in the Attic

One of the most exquisite joys of reading is not knowing when a book will embed itself in your own memories and consequently, in your world view. I was 13 when I first read Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.  Like so many others, I was a shy, awkward girl when I discovered a tender kindred spirit, a bolder, more talented and more perceptive version of the self I inhabited. I continue to picture Anne at a small desk, writing in her diary (called Kitty), as in this photo from the Anne Frank Museum.

This image of Anne Frank is forever incomplete. Recently, though, a remarkable cache of 6,000 family photos, letters, drawings, poems, and postcards stored in the attic of Anne’s aunt has been curated and published in Treasures From the Attic: The Extraordinary Story of Anne Frank’s Family.

Last week, Anne’s cousin Buddy Elias recalled at a reading in Manhattan how they were “two wild kids” who liked to put on puppet shows, ice skate, and tramp in the Swiss Alps. I inadvertently stumbled upon the site of her summer playground a few years ago when I ventured to the pristine hamlet of Sils-Maria. There, in a stark room of the whitewashed two-story house where Nietzsche wrote parts of Thus Spoke Zarathustra, I found a photo of Anne Frank on the wall. From the window by his old wooden desk I glimpsed the chalet where Anne and cousin Buddy (whom she nicknamed “Bernd”) frolicked. Today, the beauty of that region Nietzsche called “the land of silver colors” still feels set apart from an often grim world.

One of the touching chapters of Treasures from the Attic focuses on the experiences the two cousins shared. After Anne and sister Margot’s death, Otto sent Buddy a copy of Anne’s diary entry for October 18, 1942, which is reproduced in Treasures … . As an energetic 13-year-old, she anticipated becoming Bernd’s skating partner. Anne imagined “a film later for Holland and Switzerland,” in which she would wear a white costume of her own design. The book enables us to see Anne’s sweet, childish drawing and her strong, slanted penmanship.

Then we get to see the humorous playing cards Buddy drew for the children when they vacationed in Sils-Maria. The sense of loss must descend upon all who read the story of this family who perceived themselves as quite bourgeois. Others, of course, had a very different outlook, and we continue to live with the results of that unfathomable tragedy.

Image via Wikipedia

I am  offering a free copy of Treasures from the Attic to one random reader who leaves a comment about this post or about how he or she has been affected by Anne’s diary. The new book by Mirjam Pressler with Gerti Elias is for young adults and older readers and adds much to our understanding and appreciation of the Frank family’s unique legacy. Deadline: November 24, Thanksgiving.

Related articles

• A Dear Cousin Recalls His Childhood Playmate, Anne Frank (cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com)