Books with title Now Open the Box

Peewee’s in the box! Peewee the dog doesn’t know any tricks, “not a single one not even how to roll over not even how to shake hands but never mind he is so teeny weeny that everybody loves him,” the clown, the fat lady, the thin man, the huge tall giant, the strong baby, the acrobats, the elephants, and all the other amazing performers in the wonderful circus of the man with the quite tall red hat. But then something unexpected happens that threatens to bring Peewee’s time under the Big Top to an end.Now Open the Box is a beautiful example of the art of Dorothy Kunhardt, the author of the timeless classic Pat the Bunny and the pioneering picture book Junket Is Nice. Here Kunhardt speaks with wonderfully reassuring directness to children’s hopes and fears while making magic out of the simplest things.

Benny spots a big cardboard box with a note taped to it saying, "Do Not Open." His imagination runs wild, and it's almost too much for a curious boy to bear. He thinks about all of the things, good and bad, that could be inside that box. A birthday robot? A wolverine? An entrance to another world? What should he do? This endearingly illustrated tale of a classic childhood dilemma has a surprise ending and offers a peek into a young boy's mind as he weighs tantalizing possibilities against the risks of breaking the rules.

With this book Stephen Crane has succeeded in making a collection quite unique and more satisfying than any of his earlier works. The opening chapter recounts the author's own experience off the coast of Florida, and is a most vivid and dramatic presentation of the behavior of a company of castaways fighting to the last limit of endurance against a destruction that seemed inevitable. So searching is the psychology of the narrative, so vivid is the de scription of the sea, which is represented, not as Hugo pictures it, as a monster fiend, clutching at man for a prey, but as an utterly indifferent power; and so striking are the phrases which bejewel this story that it has taken its place among the short-prose classics of our language.