I was delighted to finally stand by one of the New York Public Library lions. I've wanted to do that since I heard Andy and the Lion on Captain Kangaroo's tv show in the early Sixties. Andy is one of my heroes. He checks out library books AND he keeps pliers in his back pocket. Between wire sculpture and Buick difficulties, I often have pliers in my back pocket. James Daugherty's picture book was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1939. Just realized when I was asking students to squeeze the clay with all their might last week, I was channeling Andy!
Andy braced one foot against the lion's paw
and pulled with all his might
until the thorn
CAME
OUT.
© 2011 Nancy L. Ruder
2 comments:
You think I'm younger than you because my kids are so much younger than yours....but surpise! I'm 53 and I loved Captain Kangaroo as a kid, too. I just started my family ridiculouly late in some traditional sense, yet at the right time in the spiritual sense. Really, you must visit Kathy and I in Illinois...we have much to discuss! And then you can go to Ohio to visit our friend Bruce who is ... a librarian.
I have a 28 year old son in Ohio. Somehow this reminds me of Jim Harrison's book, "The English Major" that I enjoyed in the past year or so. It sure would be fun to drive around the country dropping the state-shaped pieces of a USA puzzle everytime I crossed a state line.
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