The big hand of the clock is at 12. The little hand is at 7

[sovay]

Why did I not know until after he died that Russell Hoban of Riddley Walker (1980) also wrote Bedtime for Frances (1960) and Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas (1971)? I read the latter as a very small child and the former in college; I never put the names together. I was prepared to miss a luminary of science fiction and now I'm grieving for a small pencil-drawn badger.

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

My favorite was Bread and Jam for Frances, though I was partial to A Baby Sister for Frances, too.

The incredibly fancy lunch Frances makes for herself once she's embraced a gustatory world beyond jam appealed to me tremendously. I wanted to take a doily and a vase of violets to lunch, too.

[snowy-owlet.livejournal.com]

I still want to pack a doily and tiny cardboard containers of salt and pepper with my lunch. (Inner voice: so what's stopping you?)

It's a shame that the Muppet adaptation of Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas doesn't get much airplay anymore. It was one of the very sweetest of the Christmas specials. Plus, you know, the concept of being paid in mashed potatoes.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I only put it together a few years ago that the Emmett Otter author was the same as the Frances author, and that was a really pleasant surprise.

The Muppet adaptation may yet make a come-back, as they've been doing a live theater version of it up at the Goodspeed Playhouse in CT. I don't know that they'll mount it again, but it was awesome, and I hope other theater companies pick it up.

My sister adored the Frances books growing up, and went so far as to go on a bread and jam eating craze for months at a time, leading my parents to despair that she would ever eat anything else. My favorite was always Harvey's Hideout, with its sibling rivalry aspect and hidden clubhouses. A full list of Hoban's children's books is here. There are a remarkable number I've never even heard of. I hope someone omnibuses them in the future.

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

I forgot to say that in our household, ice cream was frequently, though not universally referred to 'QPM' after France's attempt to spell it in, I think, A Birthday For Frances, which also had the memorable sequence about the Chompo bar.

Oh look! Someone came up with a recipe. :)

a recipe for a chompo bar

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Excellent!

[thistleingrey.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the list link! I had no idea about Frances et alia, only Riddley.

[moon-custafer.livejournal.com]

I barely remembered it until the CBC (I think) reran it a few seasons ago, but my mom went on for years about how much she'd loved that Christmas special.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

We've been reading them to Peter, and I think MY favorite is "Best Friends for Frances", which contains even MORE detailed descriptions of picnics.

[It also made my mind want to write Frances FanFic. That is Not Right.]

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Frances fanfic with illustrations like his would be great :D

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Illustrations of the fic I'm imagining would be...dangerously imaginable, actually.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

My favorite was also Bread and Jam for Frances. So adorable! The wee salt shaker!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I *made* those for my kids for lunch.

Well no. Not really. But I made little envelopes of salt to take in with boiled eggs. (Because they would surely never find salt in the cafeteria? Yeah....)

[genarti]

Me too. I'm nowhere near so organized enough to ever do it, but I think Frances shaped my secret heart's vision of an ideal packed lunch.

[barry-king.livejournal.com]

Oh, my; I just saw the obituary, and just yesterday I was just asking my writing group if any of them had read Riddley Walker.

I had the good luck to have had Hoban around nearly a lifetime: I was introduced to both the Hoban's work through Bread and Jam for Frances. The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz was a book that helped me make sense of the dysfunctionality inherent in all families in my teen years, and Riddley Walker is the book that first made me realize that SFF can contain great art, and that it's not just about imagining the future, but re-constructing the past-possible.

I hope some of his backlist is brought back out for reprints. Very few writers, even among the most skilled, have such facility with making both objective and subjective reality integral part of their plotlines.

[caprine.livejournal.com]

Alas!

Riddley Walker was one of the most awesome things I read in my teens.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

I never realised that, either. I remember Bedtime for Frances well.

May he rest in peace.

I was prepared to miss a luminary of science fiction and now I'm grieving for a small pencil-drawn badger.

*hugs*
I'm sorry for your loss.

[martianmooncrab.livejournal.com]

the first book of his that I read was The Lion of Boaz Jachin ...

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Russell Hoban? Oh no.

I grieve with you.

Nine

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Goddamn - I loved Riddley Walker with a passion. I know some of his late work: Amaryllis Night And Day, and a couple of other novels I can't name right now; but nothing of his children's novels.

[peripeteia.livejournal.com]

Gutted to hear of Hoban's passing. I just discovered him earlier this year (The Sea-Thing Child is remarkable) and feel like there's a lot of catching up to do.

Hello, also, from a new reader.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

I have a thing for tea sets even today because of Frances. *sigh*

The dichotomy struck me too, when I figured it out. He must have been quite an interesting person.

[gaudynight78.livejournal.com]

I know a toddler in North Carolina whose name is Emmett Zaphod Lastname, after Emmett Otter and (obviously) the Hitchhiker's Guide.

I actually had no idea Russell Hoban was still alive, so hearing of his death was, in a way, a kind of double whammy.

[ibid.livejournal.com]

Not to mention The Mouse and His Child!