Thursday, February 25, 2010

It's STORY TIME: Frisker (Or the Dog Who Wanted a Home)

Today I'm sharing another vintage children's book from the Whitman Tell-a-Tale Books series copyrighted 1956; FRISKER by Mary Lauer Nowak. Other than the pages coming away from the cover and some wear on the spine, this book is in pretty good shape.

Little Lisa S. once owned this book. I'm acquainted with her --I actually know who Lisa is! The reason is her last (maiden) name is on the book. I've considered trying to contact her to see if she might want it back; I bought it at a garage sale that wasn't at her childhood house, so she may not have seen this in YEARS! Well, she took good care of it for it to make it through all of these years. I'm glad she saved it, because it's one of my favorites!


Now, stick with this story, it gets a little sad but it has the happiest of endings. I like the illustrations which were done by Leonard Shortall. (I wonder, was he short or tall?)

Either way, Leonard did a wonderful job on the drawings..they are some of the most crisp and colorful in my whole collection. When you think about it, what would a children's author be without an illustrator to make the story come alive?


(Click any photo to enlarge.)



















Now wasn't that ending worth the wait? Frisker looks so proud! So sweet....I want that little red doggie house!

9 comments:

Julie Harward said...

That was so cute...we have a red dog house that our son built for us, it even has a coupala on top!
Shortall...I think he was short, then he got tall, right! LOL
Very cute book, I LOVE these old ones the best! :D

Amy O/picketfencemom said...

Faithful reader here...but first time commenter, I think. I had this book when I was a little girl, and it was one of my favorites. My mother probably still has it somewhere. LOL
I'll have to dig around and see.
Thanks for bringing an old 'friend' back to my attention.
Love your blog!
Blessings,
Amy O./picketfencemom
amyoquinn.com
www.homeschoolblogger.com/picketfencemom

Jennifer said...

Just stumbling around this morning & found your blog. Such beautiful pictures!...But I had to grin when I read your post about the dog who wanted a home.

I'm a dogaholic myself & life in Korea (and how they treat their dogs) isn't helping.

Case in point:

My black dog
http://www.ourjennericlife.com/jennifer/he-needs-a-name/

And the Jindo pup
http://www.ourjennericlife.com/jennifer/black-ops-house-guest/

Thanks so much for sharing such great stories & pictures about life back home.

Much love from an overseas Army wife,
Jennifer

Vicki's Bit-o-earth said...

What fun! That was a trip back to memory land for me! I remember this book. Still love it. Thanks Joni

Thistle Cove Farm said...

Cute book and story; found dogs are the best, aren't they?

Pauline said...

What a sweet story!! Loved it - brought back lots of happy memories from my childhood spent with my nose in a storybook. Thanks for sharing it with us!

Blessings - Pauline

Anonymous said...

Hello, and thank you for posting the Frisker book. What a flood of happy memories came back when I saw the book on your site!

It's probably been 50 years since I'd last seen it, and I'd forgotten all about it.

Thank you again!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for posting Frisker. I was thinking of him lately. Frisker was one of my favorite picks to have read to me by my Grandmother in the early and mid 70's. I woke up one day, i'm 45, and wanted to read about my little guy. Thanks for the post.
Matthew.

Anonymous said...

This was a favorite book of mine when I was a very little girl of 2 or 3! My big brother used to read it to me, time after time. He mentioned it not long ago, and remembers how my eyes filled with tears every time we got to the page where Frisker felt unwanted. Now I am 59 and my brother is 71, and I'm so glad you posted the book here so I could enjoy the story again!