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May 2009
Bernard Waber
Brief Biography
Bernard Waber was born in Philadelphia in 1924. He started to earn a degree in finance from the University of Pennsylvania, but left school to fight in WWII. When he returned from the war, he earned his degree from the Philadelphia College of Art and began his career as a commercial artist. He wrote and illustrated his many picture books on nights and weekends. He now lives in Long Island, New York with his wife and grandchildren.
You can read a detailed autobiographical essay on the Houghton Mifflin website at the following link: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/authors/waber/waberbio.shtml
The message of this inspirational picture book is that "There are many kinds of courage. Amazing kinds. And everyday kinds. Still, courage is courage — whatever kind." Waber's recognizable illustrations show the many forms of everyday courage from "not peeking at the last pages of your whodunit to find out who did it" to "being the first to make up after an argument" to "trying to cover up your mean, jealous side."
We've been reading the Lyle books since The House on East 88th Street was first released in 1962. Since finding his home with the Primm's on East 88th Street, Lyle has found his mother, gone to the office with Mr. Primm, been taken to hospital, had a party, been put into the zoo and then rescued from it, and even befriended a cat. Lyle is without question the most lovable crocodile.
A city mouse creeps into a very quiet house one stormy night and wakes the household with his snoring. The family lets him stay and teaches him to be quiet. He learns to be quiet all the time, except when he sleeps. But he no longer wakes the household "for now wach goes to sleep wearing earplugs."
Alison Wonderland is a pretty tough name to bear with everyone making jokes about rabbit holes and mad hatter tea parties. Sometimes it can make a girl mad enough to wrestle a boy to the ground and not let him get up until he apologizes, even if that doesn't make her feel better. But things are better so long as the girl who grows up to be Dr. Wonderland, veterinarian, remembers that her name was given her with love.*
*By the way, Dr. Wonderland knows all about rabbits.
Ira and Reggie live next door to each other and are best friends. They even keep their turtles Oscar and Felix in the same cage so the turtles can be best friends as well. One day, Ira hears some really bad news, Reggie is moving away. Ira thinks this is terrible. Even worse, Reggie thinks it's terrific. One day Reggie comes to take his turtle home with him. Ira knows that turtles get lonely. And they get sad- especially if a friend is taken away. And they start to mope…and they might even die from losing a friend. So he tells Reggie to keep both turtles. Waber's sensitive story about what it means to have your best friend move away also reminds us that you don't have to live next door to a person in order to be best friends.
A Couple Other Books by Bernard Waber
