kiddie books

[godream]

Back when I was a kid, one of my favorite to-be-read-aloud-to-me books was "The Story of Wuggie Norple". (That, and "The Dinosaur Who Forgot Her Birthday".) It's a great kids' book, absurd and awesome, about this cat that just keeps growing, and after discussing it with my mom tonight I decided that I needed a copy, and so did she (but she says that we have one kicking around the house somewhere).

So I went to Amazon and searched, and lo and behold it's out of print, and prices start at $20 (for the well-loved taped-up ex-library copies) and make their way up to over $200. Wow. And I understand that Daniel Pinkwater (the author) is an NPR personality and so much less obscure, but it still boggles the mind a bit. I hope it comes back into print someday; the world would be a better place with more copies of Wuggie Norple in it. And the more I think about it the clearer the memories get: my dad, reading to me -- one of the repeated lines is "I hope you are satisfied", and I can remember exactly his intonation there. Sometimes the "I hope you are satisfied" would be immediately followed by me complaining, "Daddy, don't do the voices!" or "Stop being silly, Daddy!" It's possible I was a pretty bratty kid.

Comments

[cassandraia.livejournal.com]

I loved Wuggie Norple!!!
It's the best book. I remember having it memorized so that when my parents tried to skip a page I'd know and get all pissed off.
I'm not really sure that I liked voices, either.

[godream.livejournal.com]

It's fantastic -- the more I think about it the more tempted I am to buy a used copy after all, $20 or not. Such a great book.

[shaktool.livejournal.com]

I hope you are satisfied" would be immediately followed by me complaining, "Daddy, don't do the voices!"

That's cute... I think I would have been bothered by that too. I hate it when people are angry.

[godream.livejournal.com]

Oh, it wasn't really a matter of angriness. The story went: this father (Lunchbox Louie) gets a kitten (Wuggie Norple) for his kid (King Waffle). The kitten starts growing and doesn't stop -- each morning the father says "I think Wuggie Norple is bigger than a (dog, sheep, horse, whatever) and the mother (Papercup Mixmaster, I think?) says, "No, Wuggie Norple is certainly not larger than a (dog, sheep, horse, whatever)". So Lunchbox Louie brings home the (dog, sheep, horse, whatever) and Wuggie Norple is indeed bigger than it, and he goes "I hope you are satisfied", and it's extremely amusing; lather, rinse, repeat.