The Wonderful House

It seems to me that Brown became ubiquitous for two reasons: there just wasn't a lot of competition and everybody loves surrealism. Just now I have reread this book, one I read innumerable times in my childhood, and probably to the Offspring in their youth when they lacked the ability to flee. But it's been, eh, maybe 14 years, and now I'm bugging, because WTF Brown?

We start with a standard children's book format: on each righthand page there's a picture, and beneath it a variation on the question "who lives here? " Turn the page and see the inhabitants. There's children and standard mid-century farm animals and the top several woodland creatures the audience would list on Family Feud. Now it's a cliche but it was still freshish in show more '58.

And then, in the distance, something unexpected. "But what is that flying through the air?" Who knows? The wheels don't come off, oh no, they suddenly appear in midair. And it just gets weirder. Can you guess? "No! All guesses are wrong."

Seriously, I have no idea what was up with her, but I will cheerfully amuse myself with idle speculation. All of her books have something really off about them, and it worries me a little that her books are still popular. In Goodnight, Moon she gets her repetition wrong. The Runaway Bunny is a nightmare from Kafka with terrifying illustrations. It's all bizarre and inexplicable.

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