Books with author Margot Zemach

Once again, Margot Zemach brings new life to a traditional story: the tale of the three wishes granted to those who are kind and compassionate. In Zemach's interpretation, a poor woodcutter and his wife are working in the forest when they hear a faint voice calling: "Help, someone help me!" They promptly rescue an imp whose tail is caught under a fallen tree, and in return he rewards them with three wishes. "Wish wisely, my friends," the imp says in parting. Prophetic words indeed.It soon looks as if this windfall will be nothing but trouble for the woodcutter and his wife. The legendary dilemma they face--which involves a long string of sausages--is subtly dramatized in Zemach's simple text and wry yet heartfelt pictures. She takes particular joy in showing how, in the end, the woodcutter and his wife get just what they wanted all along.Margot Zemach won the Caldecott Medal for "Duffy and the Devil" and was the United States nominee for the 1980 Hans Christian Andersen Medal for illustration.

The legendary, lovable little red hen, famous for her industriousness and independent spirit, returns with more verve than ever in Margot Zemach's interpretation of the classic story. Though small in stature, the little red hen comes through loud and clear when she asks her friends the goose, the cat, and the pig: "Who will plant this wheat?" When they reply "Not I!" our sturdy heroine, assisted by her brood of chicks, sets about planting the wheat herself.At each step along the way--harvesting, threshing, taking the grain to the mill--the little red hen's lazy friends refuse to lift hoof, paw, or wing to help. But when her efforts yield a warm, fragrant loaf of bread, the little red hen is glad to say: "Now I'm going to eat it myself!"

A charming book of children's rhymes by the Caldecott Medalist.I'm the king of the castle, Get down, you dirty rascal!There she goes, There she goes,All dressed up in her Sunday clothes.When I make a book for children, I draw it the same as I would for grownups. I draw for people of any age. —Margot ZemachMargot Zemach was a visionary artist whose contribution to twentieth-century children's literature is one of the most significant and innovative ever. Farrar Straus Giroux is proud to be publishing her final book, a collection of timeless verses paired with Zemach's glorious watercolors. From the familiar "This Little Pig Went to Market" to the lesser-known "Brave News Is Come to Town" to the enduringly popular "Bingo," these twenty-seven rhymes and songs — many of them favorites from Zemach's youth — are lovingly presented for readers of all ages.Completing the volume is a brief scrapbook of Zemach's childhood artwork, family photographs, and autobiographical writings and sketches, assembled by her daughter Kaethe Zemach-Bersin. It is a unique personal glimpse into Margot Zemach's life for those encountering her work for the first time, as well as for those who have long admired her.

Duffy and the Devil was a popular play in Cornwall in the nineteenth century, performed at the Christmas season by groups of young people who went from house to house. The Zemachs have interpreted the folk tale which the play dramatized, recognizable as a version of the widespread Rumpelstiltskin story. Its main themes are familiar, but the character and details of this picture book are entirely Cornish, as robust and distinctive as the higgledy-piggledy, cliff-hanging villages that dot England's southwestern coast from Penzance to Land's End.The language spoken by the Christmas players was a rich mixture of local English dialect and Old Cornish (similar to Welsh and Gaelic), and something of this flavor is preserved in Harve Zemach's retelling. Margot Zemach's pen-and-wash illustrations combine a refined sense of comedy with telling observation of character, felicitous drawing with decorative richness, to a degree that surpasses her own past accomplishments.Duffy and the Devil is a 1973 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1974 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books, and the winner of the 1974 Caldecott Medal.

Duffy and the Devil was a popular play in Cornwall in the nineteenth century, performed at the Christmas season by groups of young people who went from house to house. The Zemachs have interpreted the folk tale which the play dramatized, recognizable as a version of the widespread Rumpelstiltskin story. Its main themes are familiar, but the character and details of this picture book are entirely Cornish, as robust and distinctive as the higgledy-piggledy, cliff-hanging villages that dot England's southwestern coast from Penzance to Land's End.The language spoken by the Christmas players was a rich mixture of local English dialect and Old Cornish (similar to Welsh and Gaelic), and something of this flavor is preserved in Harve Zemach's retelling. Margot Zemach's pen-and-wash illustrations combine a refined sense of comedy with telling observation of character, felicitous drawing with decorative richness, to a degree that surpasses her own past accomplishments. Duffy and the Devil is a 1973 New York Times Book Review Notable Children's Book of the Year and Outstanding Book of the Year, a 1974 National Book Award Finalist for Children's Books, and the winner of the 1974 Caldecott Medal.

"One after another, five prisoners before the bench beg to be released on the grounds that they did not know they were breaking the law, they only reported what they saw...Told in wonderfully humorous illustrations and verse, with an ending that is a perfect climax to the suspenseful buildup."-Starred, Booklist A horrible thing is coming this way Creeping closer day by day-- Its eyes are scary, Its tail is hairy... I tell you, Judge, we all better pray!Anxious prisoner after anxious prisoner echoes and embellishes this cry, but always in vain. The fiery old Judge, impatient with such foolish nonsense, calls them scoundrels, ninnyhammers, and throws them all in jail. But in the end, Justice is done--and the Judge is gone. Head first! Harve Zemach's cumulative verse tale is so infectious that children won't be able to avoid memorizing it. And Margot Zemach's hilarious pictures are brimming with vitality as well as color.