Bunny Business

I came across Du Bose Heyward's "The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes" (1939) while thrifting in Utah over Christmas. I'm used to finding vintage books with beautiful illustrations, but this one was especially delightful because of its unexpectedly feminist message.

The story follows the life of a little country bunny with the big ambition of someday being an Easter Bunny-- in this story there are five Easter Bunnies, and "they must be the five kindest, and swiftest, and wisest bunnies in the whole wide world" (and they are all also dudes). Although the Country Bunny puts her dream on the back burner as she grows up and raises a family, she eventually gets her chance to show that pesky patriarchal cunicular society what she's made of. 

One day a little country girl bunny with a brown skin and a little cotton-ball of a tail said, "Some day I shall grow up to be the Easter Bunny: you wait and see!" Then all of the big white bunnies who lived in fine houses, and the Jack Rabbits with long legs who can run fast, laughed at the little Cottontail and told her to go back to the country and eat a carrot. But she said, "Wait and see!"

See more about this book at Vintage Kid's Books My Kid Loves

Tough Cookies

A lot of my favourite books growing up were about kids who lived during the Depression and WWII, like To Kill a Mockingbird, or The Sky is Falling. The kids in these books always seemed so brave, so tough, and wise beyond their years; yet somehow still children. Fittingly, the kids in these photos really seem to evoke all those qualities. Especially the pre-teen with the finger curls in the first picture, no?

These beautiful photographs and more can be found in an archive from the 1930s and 40s on flickr.

Family Photo Project

I've always loved looking through family albums, especially at the clothes and hairstyles of my relatives when they were younger. Here are some favourites of my grandparents Keith James (top) and Elsie Finch (middle, bottom) as children in the 1930s. I'd love to track down some pieces like these for Filly and Foal-- especially the funny little summertime romper in the middle.