Pollyanna Reprints

 

My best selling project at the moment is these reprints of the first several Pollyanna books. Each of mine is two of the original books in one volume. I published a paperback version of Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up all the way back in 2016, when only the first two of the original Pollyanna books had entered the public domain--all the others were trapped on the opposite side of the copyright freeze. I was a little reluctant to reprint the next books anyway, since I knew they were written by a different author. I shouldn't have worried! Harriet Lummis Smith's books are every bit as charming as Eleanor H. Porter's. They were a bit harder to find than Eleanor H. Porter's books, though, so to get the original illustrations to add to my reprints I had to track down and buy early editions of the books. All but the earliest editions were printed with no illustrations.

Here's a picture of the original copies I bought of all four Harriet Lummis Smith Pollyanna books. It took some hunting to find ones that were both in good condition and in the price range I was willing to pay for them, as they are close to a hundred years old.

The second of these three reprints, Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms and Pollyanna's Jewels, is currently the most popular. There are many more competing options available for Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up; that's why mine tends to disappear into the "see all formats and editions" link on the Amazon listing. The third one, Pollyanna's Debt of Honor and Pollyanna's Western Adventure, was new this January because Pollyanna's Western Adventure, being published in 1929, only entered the public domain this year. I believe I am currently the only one who has reprinted it since it did become public domain, though there are of course still secondhand copies available from when it was newer. But I think people are buying the previous book before that one, which makes sense if they haven't already read it. 

In Pollyanna of the Orange Blossoms, Pollyanna is a bride and a newlywed, and in Pollyanna's Jewels, she is a young mother. That obviously makes these a little more mature in theme than the original two books, but not in a weird way. Pollyanna is still her sweet, sunny self--and still getting into trouble in entertaining ways. There's also plenty of drama with higher stakes, though usually it's not Pollyanna herself who is in any real danger. I enjoyed these books quite a lot, probably even more than the first two. 

The plot of Pollyanna's Debt of Honor centers on some friends and neighbors of Pollyanna's family, as Pollyanna herself is pretty much settled down by now. Pollyanna gets to do some matchmaking and other well-meaning interfering. But in Pollyanna's Western Adventure, the whole family is uprooted and sent on, well, a Western adventure. No one seems to remember that Pollyanna spent the first eleven years of her life in "a little Western town," which should have prevented too much culture shock when she goes back West as an adult. I suppose by this point she had lived longer back East, but eleven is old enough to get used to a place and remember it. So it's kind of weird when she makes a rookie mistake like leaving the door open when she just has to go outside and get a drink of water straight from the pump in the middle of the night.

Pollyanna and Pollyanna Grows Up was my second attempt at designing a book cover, and it was my first attempt at formatting a book over five hundred pages long, so it was a valuable practice project. I gave it a font change and new hardback version in late 2023, when I was getting ready to publish the next book in early 2024, but since I had saved all my files from 2016 I could make the books match without having to do a complete redesign. One could argue that I went a bit overboard on the flowers and rainbows, but if you can't go overboard with flowers and rainbows for Pollyanna, when can you?

Stereo Card Recolor--Pilgrim's Progress 1, Evangelist Talks with Christian (1877)

 

Here's a stereograph recolor I've been working on for quite a long time. When I first discovered, back in I think 2022, that F.G. Weller had printed a set of Pilgrim's Progress stereoviews in 1877, I couldn't find as much information about them as I wanted. I couldn't even find a complete list, since the backs of the cards advertised Weller's Allegorical Series as a whole and only mentioned that the Pilgrim's Progress set had twelve cards. So I compiled my own list of their names by combing eBay listings and museum websites and wherever else I could find snippets of information about them. Surprisingly for something that was published in 1877, the cards themselves were not actually that difficult to find, and I was able to acquire several of them on eBay for a reasonable cost. The prices vary wildly, though, so I've only got about half the set in my collection of physical stereo cards. But I've at least found digital copies of them all by now! Maddeningly, the Library of Congress had eleven out of the twelve cards but at the time had not yet digitized them. In the end I was able to get a good scan of the first card in the series from the friendly people at the Davis Museum at Wellesley College, though they have updated their web page since and I can't link directly to the page that showed me they had a copy of "Evangelist talks with Christian."

Image from the Davis Museum at Wellesley College.

Here's a nice image of what the original card looks like, credited to the Davis Museum. The Library of Congress did eventually digitize their copy as well, but since it's more faded than this one and I was already in the middle of coloring it, my version is based on this scan and not the Library of Congress one. 

Here's the full list of the twelve cards:

No. 667 Evangelist talks with Christian.

No. 668 Christian starting on his Journey.

No. 669 Christian at the Wicket Gate.

No. 670 The Fire secretly sustained.

No. 671 Christian losing his burden at the Cross.

No. 672 Christian passes the Lions.

No. 673 The arming of Christian.

No. 674 Christian's combat with Apollyon.

No. 675 Vanity Fair.

No. 676 The Pillar of Salt.

No. 677 Land of Beulah

No. 678 Christian and Hopeful cross the River

These are pretty fun cards if you're familiar with the book The Pilgrim's Progress. The 3D effect on them looks very much like a pop-up book, which makes me wonder if their creation involved paper figures set up in dioramas. Of course, each view matches up to a scene in the book. 

Here's the relevant scene for this one:

Now, I saw, upon a time, when he was walking in the fields, that he was, as he was wont, reading in his book, and greatly distressed in his mind; and, as he read, he burst out, as he had done before, crying, "What shall I do to be saved?" 

I saw also that he looked this way and that way, as if he would run; yet he stood still, because, as I perceived, he could not tell which way to go. I looked then, and saw a man named Evangelist coming to him and asked, Wherefore dost thou cry? 

He answered, Sir, I perceive by the book in my hand, that I am condemned to die, and after that to come to judgement; and I find that I am not willing to do the first, nor able to do the second.

Then said Evangelist, Why not willing to die, since this life is attended with so many evils? The man answered, Because I fear that this burden is upon my back will sink me lower than the grave, and I shall fall into Tophet. And, Sir, if I be not fit to go to prison, I am not fit, I am sure, to go to judgement, and from thence to execution; and the thoughts of these things make me cry.

Then said Evangelist, If this be thy condition, why standest thou still? He answered, Because I know not whither to go. Then he gave him a parchment roll, and there was written within, Flee from the wrath to come. 

The man therefore read it, and looking upon Evangelist very carefully, said, Whither must I fly? Then said Evangelist, pointing with his finger over a very wide field, Do you see yonder wicket-gate? The man said, No. Then said the other, Do you see yonder shining light? He said, I think I do. Then said Evangelist, Keep that light in your eye, and go up directly thereto: so shalt thou see the gate; at which, when thou knockest, it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.

I think the background looks like the Slough of Despond, which is the next scene in which Christian meets Evangelist. That's why I chose a sort of murky green color for the flat part that could possibly be a wetland. The figure climbing up toward the shining light is Faithful, a neighbor of Christian's who began the journey a little earlier. I've purposely colored the light on only one half of the image, for effect. Anyway, since the Pilgrim's Progress book was (and still is) so massively popular, I'm sure the stereoviews were also popular. 

Jeremiah's Robot ABC

 

My newest book is a thing I promised to one of my kids. When I published A Apple Pie: An Active Alphabet, back in January 2023, I showed it to my then-four-year-old and asked what he thought of it. "I hate it," he told me. "There aren't enough robots." Preschoolers are a tough crowd. Anyway, I told him that I didn't know how to draw robots, but if he would draw them for me, I would make him another book. So he did, so I did, and now Jeremiah's Robot ABC is a real book, with twenty-six robots drawn by my son when he was five years old. Since my last alphabet book was a rhyming one, I wanted to do something different with this one, and since my son is at an age when he likes to count things, I decided to make this one a counting alphabet book. That means the illustrations got progressively more complex as we went along, until I was trying to stuff over twenty counting objects onto each page. It was a wild ride. 

Oh, and we also threw in a bit of art appreciation. All the illustration backgrounds are from paintings by Vincent van Gogh. Here's one of my favorite pages--how can you resist counting sheep in Van Gogh's Starry Night?

My son insisted on holding a shiny gold plastic egg in his other hand when I took his picture with the book. That's what I get for sneaking in a photo session on Easter Sunday, I guess. Anyway, he's also happy with our new book.

The Angel's Name--Spanish Translation Available

 

The Spanish translation of The Angel's Name is now available on Amazon! El nombre de la angelita was translated by Amy Hernandez and has illustrations only slightly altered from the original ones. Here's a picture of the new book with the angel that inspired the story--she's not made of glass, but she did belong to my grandma when I was a kid, and I remember once asking my grandma why her angel didn't have a name. She was eventually christened Faith, perhaps because I wouldn't sit down to dinner until the angel had a name. There was also a glass music box that used to sit on my grandma's electric organ, with the angel next to it at Christmas time. One day the music box fell off and broke, and I guess that became part of the story, too.

You can see from this picture that the Spanish and English versions are meant to match each other. I added a banner across the bottom with the translator's name, but otherwise it's pretty much the same cover. 

Realistic Heart Valentine 2025

 

Happy Valentine's Day! Here's another silly valentine with a more realistic heart on it. (Two I've made in the past can be found here and here.) This one is just a heart I found and a frame that I colored to match it, but it might come in handy if you want something bold and a bit unusual. Below is a sheet with eight small copies of it that can be printed out and cut apart.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

 

I'm a bit late this year, but I still wanted to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year! And I'm posting my apparently now-traditional group photo of Christmas tree angels, because I think that's fun (here's a link to last year's). I spent Christmas with my sister, and between us we found four matching tree angels this year (or mostly matching, since one of my sister's is blue). The one in the back middle is my grandmother's original angel--the one I thought ought to have a name when I was a kid, which eventually inspired my first picture book, The Angel's Name. I actually misplaced one of my angels and didn't find her in time to pack her for the trip, but my sister recently bought a new one, so the choir is growing anyway.

I had a particularly wonderful Christmas this year, as we were able to spend it with my parents and sister and also my husband's parents. Also, I unexpectedly got a new job right after Christmas and New Year's, so I've been preparing for and starting that instead of blogging. I'll have less time for writing for a few months, but I'm close enough to the end of a couple of projects that I'll be posting about them soon enough anyway. I'm looking forward to an exciting 2025!

The Angel's Name--Spanish Translation Proof Copy

 

Today I got my proof copy of the upcoming Spanish translation of The Angel's Name, El nombre de la angelita. I've had the recolored illustrations ready for years, but it's only just been translated. My friend Amy Hernandez did a great job--it was a new type of project for both of us, but I'm pleased with the results so far. It still needs to be proofread again for typos and accent marks, but it's very close to finished. I'm excited! The Spanish I learned in high school and college is quite rusty by now, but a picture book like this is about at my reading level. I'm having fun with it already and can't wait to be able to share it!