Chris Loker is the proprietor of Children’s Book Gallery, an antiquarian children’s bookshop in San Francisco, specializing in children’s books and original book art from 1750 to 1950. She is also the curator of “One Hundred Books Famous in Children’s Literature,” an exhibition of landmark children’s books at the Grolier Club in New York City. She has written the (colorful) picture books In Awhile, Crocodile; Sapphire Starfish; and Alastair Acorn. Loker is married to an antiquarian bookseller, has one son, two cats, and not nearly enough picture books. She recently wrote an essay for our Open a World of Possible initiative, reflecting upon her early experiences as a reader, which we've repurposed here. The full version is also available in our Open a World of Possible book, which you can download for free here.
Strong narratives, unforgettable characters, illustrations that stir the imagination, and insights that engage the mind and heart—these are the forces that drive children’s picture books.
I remember the first time this power became apparent to me, at least in simple terms. I was a small girl, and I had picked out a book from our much-used family book basket, handing it to my mother who read to me daily. We snuggled up together on our couch, cross-legged on my father’s old college letterman blanket, and my mother read these wonderful words aloud as I savored the pictures in the book she held:
We looked!/Then we saw him step in on the mat.
We looked! And we saw him!
The Cat in the Hat!
That picture book, Dr. Seuss’ immortal The Cat in the Hat, lived with me daily during my early childhood—at one point I had heard it so many times I could recite it from memory. It followed me through primary and secondary school, and then off to college where I read it to Kindergartners as part of my English Literature major. Later, it followed me to business school, where it brought me respite between economics and finance exams. And then it accompanied me throughout my career in Human Resources as the memento I would give colleagues, and later my staff, when there were heartfelt events to celebrate.
I never guessed that book would stay with me as long as it has. After a 25-year career in the corporate world, and the untimely death of my first husband, this picture book helped carry me over the bridge into a new career as a rare book dealer, specializing in antique children’s books. And that’s where Dr. Seuss’ iconic picture book finds me today—sitting at my desk in my bookshop in San Francisco, its bright blue cover residing near me as I locate antiquarian children’s books for collectors, and exercise my hand at writing my own children’s picture books.
What I’ve learned from my love of reading, and from reading The Cat in the Hat in particular, is that there is always a shimmer of pure joy in a fine picture book. Picture books have this impact across the ages, regardless of their century, starting in 1658 with the short illustrated encyclopedia Orbis Sensualium Pictus, one of the earliest efforts to integrate pictures and words for young readers. Even though the picture book is primarily considered a 20th century development, there are precursor books that show how magic can happen through the interdependence of illustration and text, such as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, and Just So Stories.
The books that have changed my life are those picture books fully illustrated in glorious color, the ones that “hinge . . . on the drama of the turning of the page” as children’s picture book authority Barbara Bader has written. Think of the groundbreaking picture books of the first half of the 20th century that present color-saturated, enticing worlds to explore: The Velveteen Rabbit, Millions of Cats, The Story of Babar, The Story of Ferdinand, Madeline, Curious George, Make Way for Ducklings, Le Petit Prince, Eloise, and perhaps the most colorful of all, Goodnight Moon. And then think of the equally glorious picture books of the second half of the 20th century that celebrate color, texture, and message: The Snowy Day, Where the Wild Things Are, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar, to name just a few.
It’s a joyous world that picture books create, and a world that has inspired me since I was small. You can imagine the joy in my heart when my young son brought a book over to read, sitting with me in our big “reading chair”—a book that he learned to recite from memory before he began school. I’m sure you can guess what that book was: The Cat in the Hat.
