In this way, a relationship is developed between the characters despite the simplicity of the text…. In their final meeting her hat is even more elaborate and finally meets the approval of the boy dog. Again, he does not like her hat, but as they part, he has made off with the feather. Now they are riding scooters, she has a hat with a feather. The girl dog asks the boy dog if he likes her hat with its little flower: he does not they part. Throughout the book, details in Eastman’s illustrations seem to invite the reader to notice the deeper significance of small things. For the sanity of parents required to read it dozens of times, it also manages to pack some character detail into its bare-bones storyline: Go! indicates, the book serves children pretty well as an introduction to colour, space and movement. Go! (1961) were written much later, when Eastman was in his 50s and down on his luck.Īs the amusing Wikipedia entry for Go Dog. His two most popular books Are You My Mother? (1960) and Go Dog. During his Disney period, Eastman met and married Mary Louise Whitman, who had been working in the ink and paint department.
Born in Massachusetts, he studied design at college in Amherst and spent his early working life in the two great cartoon factories of the so called Golden Age of animation – first in production design and story development at Disney studios from the mid 1930s until 1941, and much more briefly, at Warner Brothers. Six or so weeks ago – November 25th 2009 – was the 100th anniversary of Eastman’s birth. While Philip Dey Eastman was certainly a friend and workmate of Theodor Geisel aka Dr Seuss, he was an accomplished writer and artist in his own right – and a victim of some of the turbulent political events in Hollywood during the 1940s and 1950s. Eastman wasn’t another nom de plume for Dr Seuss, but not so. For years, I hadn’t been sure whether P.D. Like a catchy Top 40 tune, the ceaseless rhythm and motion in this book is so compelling that surrender is the only option. Go! is one of those books once read, never forgotten. That’s why it seems worth singling out some of the enduringly good books that, thanks to librarians and online purchasing, are still available.
There’s so much crap in children’s bookshops and children’s tolerance of what is put in front of them is so immense, it should not be abused. The Red Scare of the 1950s helped create this hymn to perpetual motion.
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