"George and Martha: The Complete Stories of Two Best Friends" by James Marshall, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, $25
There's nothing like true friendship. And nothing like the George and Martha stories to portray the durability of true friendship.
Marshall's hippo friends were written and illustrated during the '70s and '80s. Old fans will need no reminder about them; new ones are up for a great surprise. All seven of the George and Martha stories (there are 35 in all) are combined in a celebrated edition.
This special version also contains a foreword by award-winning Maurice Sendak and seven other authors/illustrators who treasured the friendship of James Marshall, an extraordinary artist and individual.
George and Martha are hippos that scold, tease, promise and always forgive each other. They constantly plan surprises and are careful not to hurt each other's feelings.
In "The Clock," George gives Martha a cuckoo clock for her birthday. She thanks him and says she likes it, "But to tell the truth, the cuckoo clock got on Martha's nerves." The culmination, of course, is her offering to share it with George in his house.
Marshall's portrayal of the hefty twosome is what makes the stories rich and endearing. These are simple line-drawings with no extraneous designs.
Emotions are felt and movement is achieved with simple dots for eyes, a slight tilt of an eyebrow and small body gestures from hippo tonnage, which is often light as a butterfly.
While these appear "seemingly simple," they bring the complexity of two unique friends together in stories that profess devotion time and time again. For example, George puts florist-bought tulips in Martha's garden when she cries over a lack of a green thumb.
"Marshall's work is undated, fresh and fragrant as a new spring garden," writes Sendak in the foreword to the book. "If James's most remarkable attribute was his genius for friendship, then George and Martha are the quintessential expression of that genius."
Other friends and associates such as Marc Brown, Jack Gantos, David Wiesner and Anita Silvey write similar tributes, applauding the memory of Marshall.
With more than 75 books to his credit, James Marshall's work is well-loved by young readers who recall "The Stupids" and the "Miss Nelson Is Missing" series. His awards include a Caldecott Honor for "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." In 2007 the American Library Association posthumously honored him with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Lifetime Achievement Award for "substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children."
e-mail: marilou.sorensen@att.net