Helen Oxenbury is one of the world’s most acclaimed children’s illustrators and twice winner of the Kate Greenaway Medal. Her numerous books for children include the Quangle Wangle’s Hat; her classic Board Books for Babies; We’re Going on a Bear Hunt; Farmer Duck; and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its companion, Alice through the Looking Glass, both by Lewis Carroll. Helen recently wrote an essay for our Open a World of Possible initiative, reflecting upon an early experience with reading, which we've repurposed here. The full version is also available in our new Open a World of Possible book, which you can download for free here.
I had asthma as a child. There were no inhalers in those days, which would have enabled me to carry on normally. Instead, I was confined to bed and missed a lot of school days. No television and no computer games to keep me amused—just piles and piles of old envelopes and wrapping paper to draw on, lots of crayons, and, of course, books. I was left (quite happily) to myself for hours. My father was at work and my mother was busy around the house. During the war years, my father was an architect, and most of the books in our home were technical books—plumbing and drainage manuals and such—not very inspiring for a small child. My parents were not great readers, although, late in life, my mother took to reading in a big way.
So as a child, I had to rely on the local library. Every Friday morning my father would collect my previous week’s books and take them back to the library. I could hardly bear the waiting for him to come home. In the evening when he returned from work, he would come into my bedroom with a fresh pile of books under his arm. I still recall the excitement of looking through each one to see what was going to be in store for me that week. These treasured books were, I see now, quite dreadful and boring and badly printed by today’s standards, but they inspired my love of books. One, especially, I read over and over again and I remember it vividly to this day. It was called The Good Master by Kate Seredy.
Kate, a wild and undisciplined young girl, is sent by her father to stay with his brother. Kate’s uncle lives on a ranch on the Hungarian Plains. Horses play a large part in the story as does Kate’s cousin, Jancsi, who has been brought up with horses and rides like a dream. He somehow manages to teach the willful Kate to ride and they have great adventures together.
Only after a great deal of wonderfully funny and outrageous behavior does Kate settle down and become one of the family, loved by them all, and guided by the hand of the kind and wise father, the good master. Finally, joy oh joy, Kate is given her own beautiful white horse.
What would I have done without that library when I was growing up? And how many people must feel the same today? I hope libraries never cease to exist.
