Anna Elise, She Jumped with Surprise
No place: 1978. Watercolor and ink on paper, measuring 7.25 x 8 inches, image, on sheet measuring 9.5 x 17.25 inches. Pencil rules and printing notations in margins; verso blank.
Original watercolor by Caldecott winner Arnold Lobel, creator of the celebrated Frog and Toad series, for Gregory Griggs and Other Nursery Rhyme People. This series of eight framed scenes illustrates “Anna Elise, She Jumped with Surprise,” a rhyme about a startled young girl whose first reflexive jump leads to a comic series of acrobatics. Lobel playfully exaggerates Anna Elise’s motion by extending three of the images outside the frames, toward the reader. Lobel himself selected the lesser-known nursery rhymes collected in Gregory Griggs, which was published by Greenwillow Books in 1978; this illustration appears on page 38. At the time of publication, he had already received Newbery and Caldecott Honors for his work on Cheli Durán Ryan’s Hildilid's Night and his first two Frog and Toad titles. Lobel would go on to win the 1981 Caldecott medal for Fables, his take on Aesop. A delightful illustration from the collection of children’s illustrator Mo Willems.
Price: $1,000.00