I am an absolute sucker for old books. I just can’t resist them! So when I saw a set of old A. A. Milne books at a library book sale, I just couldn’t leave them sitting on the shelf. While Milne is best known for his Winnie the Pooh books, he was also a poet for children, and I remember being read poems from his collections When We Were Very Young and Now We Are Six when I was a little girl.
This is one of my favourite poems – I adore the driving rhythm, the simplicity of the subject, and the title, which doesn’t immediately make sense unless you know a thing or two about children, or remember being a child yourself. For many a young child (like the brother and sister in my picture book A Good Day for Ducks) jumping and splashing on a wet day is happiness!
And if that isn’t sweet enough, check out these charming endpapers! Oh, how vintage books make my heart sing!
I hope this week brings plenty of happiness your way, with or without great big waterproof boots!
Oh, it does bring happiness. I’ve taken to searching out library sales for old children’s poetry books. I don’t know what on earth I’m doing with so many old and musty books in my house. I”m a librarian for pete sakes….I should keep work at work, right?! But, I cannot resist. I have been taking some poems and turning them into paper crafts. Stay tuned.
Oh, I’m the same way! I spend all day surrounded by books, why on Earth do I need more? But I can’t resist either. I’d love to see your paper crafts, what a lovely way to breathe new life into worn out books.
Those old books are wonderful, I agree. I have an older Milne book, too, and another that was mine when I first started teaching. He was a clever writer for sure, always brings a smile. Thanks, Jane, glad you found the books.
Isn’t Milne a treasure? I’m not sure my partner’s quite so glad I found the books…we’re starting to run out of room in the bookshelves! 🙂
Yes, Milne was a kid at heart. 🙂 Look at how happy those ducks are, too! The illustrations match the poems for charm. Thanks for sharing the endpapers — they are SO sweet.
There’s such a charming innocence to the pictures, and since I wrote a picture book about having fun in the rain, this poem just spoke straight to my heart! 🙂
I will sing with you and your heart Jane. I love this poem (and the whole collection) for its apparent simplicity. And that is that!
Agreed!
I love that poem too! My favorite was “Disobedience.” “James James Morrison Morrison Weatherby George Dupree…” Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Such fantastic rhythm to the words!
Those endpapers! So much fun. A good purchase, indeed. Thank you for sharing!
Puddle jumping is indeed happiness. I just wrote a poem in a similar vein for this week too 🙂
I love that we’re on the same wavelength this week! 🙂
What a great find — charming poem (one of my faves too)! Shepard’s drawings are marvelous too.
They just work so perfectly together, don’t they!
Jane, I adore vintage books too. I also have a library of antique classics. When I was decorating my home with Victorian antiques, I met a woman who was selling her uncle’s home in the town near me. She not only had a magnificent rosewood couch that in her family since the 1850’s that I purchased but her relatives’ inscribed books from pre-1900 to the early 1900s. One of her ancestors must have been a prolific reader. Now they are mine and these books are dear to me. Thanks for sharing your love of books, especially vintage ones.
Oh, what a wonderful discovery! Yes, I feel the same way about old books – I imagine the people that held them and read them and cherished them all those years ago, it’s like being connected to the past and to each other through holding paper in my hands. Magical!
That book looks like a treasure!
Lovely–so glad you have these books for your own now Jane. This is a favorite poem of mine–as are these books which I still have, but I don’t know if my end pages are as crisp as yours are–I’ll have to revisit them–Enjoy!
These are the books of my childhood, too! And they live safe on my shelf close by my Pooh Bear and Piglet!
These are wonderful! There is nothing quite like splashing in a puddle either with or without great big waterproof boots!