Karla Kuskin (1932–2009)
Author of Under My Hood I Have a Hat
About the Author
Karla Kuskin was born in Manhattan on July 17, 1932. She received a bachelor of fine arts degree from Yale University in 1955. Her first book, Roar and More (1956), was the result of her senior graphic-arts project, for which she had to design and print a book on a small press. She was the author show more or illustrator of more than 50 children's books during her lifetime including In the Middle of the Trees (1958); The Rose on My Cake (1964); The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (1982); The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed (1986); Jerusalem, Shining Still (1987); City Dog (1994); The Upstairs Cat (1997); Moon, Have You Met My Mother? (2003); and Traces (2008). She died of cortical basal ganglionic degeneration on August 20, 2009 at the age of 77. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Works by Karla Kuskin
Dessous de l'orchestre (Les) 1 copy
Associated Works
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 3, No. 4, December 1975 — Contributor — 5 copies
Who woke the sun? — Illustrator — 3 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Kuskin, Karla Seidman
- Birthdate
- 1932-07-17
- Date of death
- 2009-08-20
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Yale University
- Occupations
- children's book author
children's book illustrator
poet - Awards and honors
- NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children (1979)
- Short biography
- Karla Kuskin grew up in New York City, and wanted to write and draw from an early age. Her many books include those written by her, or illustrated by her, and those she has both written and illustrated. She first became well-known with her 1956 book Roar and More, and went on to produce such award-winning and popular titles as In the Middle of the Trees (1959), The Philharmonic Gets Dressed (1982), The Dallas Titans Get Ready for Bed (1986), and The Sky Is Always in the Sky (1998). In 1979, she won a National Council of Teachers of English Poetry prize for her body of work.
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- New York, New York, USA
Seattle, Washington, USA - Associated Place (for map)
- USA
Members
Reviews
A Gray Cat Wanders – New Poems About Our Animal Friends
By Karla Kuskin
Illustrated by Marcellus Hall
Astra Publishing House | Wordsong
To call this book charming would be an understatement. The previously unpublished poems by Karla Kuskin are entertaining, but the star of the book is the gray cat and the illustrations by Marcellus Hall.
In the beginning, the gray cat enters the book wandering alone beside a river, “filled with gray cat thoughts / pleased to be alive / alive, / and show more wandering alone.” The illustration is the cat, walking, and a wide sweep of blue river. The magic of these illustrations is that the objects and composition are bold, clear, and simple, and the details of texture and movement are fascinating. Each illustration tells a full story, and as I read this book I could easily imagine reading it with a child and turning it into an adventure – What do you see? Where is the cat? Why is it hiding? Who else is in the picture? What is happening?
The cat dreams of being a queen in a previous life. Then the cat looks into a sky filled with beautiful multicolored birds and says “What I love about you / are your wings / blurring and rising / lifting you in and out / of cloud / and sky blue sky.” The cat visits fish, a bird on a nest, a bird on a clothesline, a harvest mouse, a python … a skunk, a toad, and so on. Each visit, each animal, gets a beautiful illustration, usually with the animal or the cat half-hidden – lots of mystery, lots of movement.
The illustrations show changes in size – tiny animals, large ones – and changes in perspective – viewing from a rooftop, lying on a floor. The dynamic changes from page to page.
The poems are quirky and whimsical, many of them not quite poems at all but just playing with words. This book would be fun to read, for a child or an adult, and certainly for an adult and child to read together. I wouldn’t really call the writing poetry – but it is fun, and whimsical in exactly the way children can be inventive and whimsical with words. I think this book is a delight.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #Wordsong for the ARC of #AGrayCatWanders. show less
By Karla Kuskin
Illustrated by Marcellus Hall
Astra Publishing House | Wordsong
To call this book charming would be an understatement. The previously unpublished poems by Karla Kuskin are entertaining, but the star of the book is the gray cat and the illustrations by Marcellus Hall.
In the beginning, the gray cat enters the book wandering alone beside a river, “filled with gray cat thoughts / pleased to be alive / alive, / and show more wandering alone.” The illustration is the cat, walking, and a wide sweep of blue river. The magic of these illustrations is that the objects and composition are bold, clear, and simple, and the details of texture and movement are fascinating. Each illustration tells a full story, and as I read this book I could easily imagine reading it with a child and turning it into an adventure – What do you see? Where is the cat? Why is it hiding? Who else is in the picture? What is happening?
The cat dreams of being a queen in a previous life. Then the cat looks into a sky filled with beautiful multicolored birds and says “What I love about you / are your wings / blurring and rising / lifting you in and out / of cloud / and sky blue sky.” The cat visits fish, a bird on a nest, a bird on a clothesline, a harvest mouse, a python … a skunk, a toad, and so on. Each visit, each animal, gets a beautiful illustration, usually with the animal or the cat half-hidden – lots of mystery, lots of movement.
The illustrations show changes in size – tiny animals, large ones – and changes in perspective – viewing from a rooftop, lying on a floor. The dynamic changes from page to page.
The poems are quirky and whimsical, many of them not quite poems at all but just playing with words. This book would be fun to read, for a child or an adult, and certainly for an adult and child to read together. I wouldn’t really call the writing poetry – but it is fun, and whimsical in exactly the way children can be inventive and whimsical with words. I think this book is a delight.
Thanks to #NetGalley and #Wordsong for the ARC of #AGrayCatWanders. show less
Nonsense poems that aren't funny, with cartoon illustrations that neither enhance the text or provoke the imagination.
But I could be wrong; perhaps the poems aren't meant to be nonsense... if that's the case, then the book is even worse.... After all, if there is no sound within a wood, something is very wrong, and pigeons are not dumb, and it's not amusing to think about all the bugs we kill just walking down the street, and "Write about a radish/ too many people write about the moon" has show more potential until it ends with "A radish rises in the waiting sky."
Agh. GR says one star means "I did not like it" and that is true. show less
But I could be wrong; perhaps the poems aren't meant to be nonsense... if that's the case, then the book is even worse.... After all, if there is no sound within a wood, something is very wrong, and pigeons are not dumb, and it's not amusing to think about all the bugs we kill just walking down the street, and "Write about a radish/ too many people write about the moon" has show more potential until it ends with "A radish rises in the waiting sky."
Agh. GR says one star means "I did not like it" and that is true. show less
What a little treat, just charming. Picked it up because it was mentioned in Wild Things and I can't imagine anyone would be bothered by the nudity (implied but not really shown), honestly, the things people get worked up about, sigh. The integration of text and image was so well done I would have imagined a single mind behind it, but not so, apparently. There's so much to see, this could easily be a favourite that's returned to again and again. A real pleasure.
One might mention to children show more that it was written a long time ago, and there are likely to be many more women in the Philharmonic Orchestra these days!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less
One might mention to children show more that it was written a long time ago, and there are likely to be many more women in the Philharmonic Orchestra these days!
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s). show less
This is a marvelous book about the orchestra. It introduces the concept of the symphony by showing the musicans preparing for a concert by bathing and dressing and going to the concert hall. It's a little long for storytime, but for a kid with a good attention span it would be a great one-on-one. It makes me kind of sad that it's no longer very well known, because it's just terrific.
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Statistics
- Works
- 45
- Also by
- 16
- Members
- 3,043
- Popularity
- #8,387
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 94
- ISBNs
- 105
- Languages
- 4