The Golden Chain of Reading: Ruth Krauss

Ruth Krauss is, perhaps, best known for her distinctive ability to capture a child's point of view (and often a child's vocabulary and language patterns) in her books. Two of her best loved books, A Hole is To Dig: A First Book of Definitions and The Carrot Seed, showcase her talent in this area. Although Ruth Krauss never studied writing specifically, she enjoyed writing from an early age and attempted many different types of writing in addition to children's books, including poetry, novels, and even a "first book" of anthropology.

Krauss was born in Baltimore, Maryland on July 25, 1901. She enjoyed art, reading, and writing as a child and often entertained herself with these activities. Her father and grandfather also read to her frequently. She left high school after two years and went on to study art and violin at the Maryland Institute of Art. Several years later, she earned a bachelor's degree from the Parsons School of Fine and Applied Art in New York City. Krauss states "I feel that much of my writing is tied in with training in the graphic arts - I am a graduate of an art school - and also with the study of music." She attributes her understanding of children in part to her study of anthropology commenting "I have also had some education in anthropology, which, although not undertaken too seriously by me at the time at Columbia University, extended over a period of four years and broadened my understanding to the point where it fused with the understanding of many other things, including (I hope it includes) that branch of people categorized as 'children.'" Like Margaret Wise Brown (Featured Author July 8, 2007), she was also a member of the experimental Writer's Laboratory at the Bank Street School in New York during the 1940's. This program emphasized the "here and now" in children's literature; that is, writing about things in children's every day experience and in language that would be familiar and accessible to children. Many of the writers associated with this program also approached their books attempting to capture a child's point of view and a child's sense of wonder at the world around them.

Krauss' first book, A Good Man and His Good Wife was published in 1944. It was followed the next year by one of her most enduringly popular books, The Carrot Seed, which incidentally was illustrated by her husband, Crockett Johnson who was a cartoonist, illustrator, and children's author in his own right (see Featured Author essay from July 1, 2007). The Carrot Seed is a very short, simple story about a little boy who plants a seed and waits for it to grow, despite the fact that everyone around him tells him that it won't. In the end, the seed sprouts "just as the little boy had known it would." This book won acclaim not only from those knowledgeable about children's books, but from unlikely sources including a corporation who ordered one thousand copies to be distributed to its personnel.

In 1952, Ruth Krauss published the other book that she is particularly well known for: A Hole is to Dig: A First Book of Definitions. This book was the first time she collaborated with illustrator, Maurice Sendak. Sendak (who was not yet a well known illustrator) had brought a sketch book into Harper Collins that Krauss (who was looking for an illustrator) happened to see. She was very taken with his style and so began a collaboration that would span many years and many books. When A Hole Is To Dig was released, it was such a fun book with such an unusual approach that people actually lined up in bookstores to purchase a copy. It remains a well-loved book today, along with its companion book: Open House for Butterflies. Both these books capture the spirit and the outlook of childhood with definitions such as

"dogs are to kiss people"
" a lap is so you don't get crumbs on the floor"
"mud is to jump in and slide in and yell doodleedoodleedoo."

Or observations like

"A little tree is not a good thing to be because you might grow up to
be a telephone pole."

Ruth Krauss continued to write children's books throughout her life, the last one written five years before her death in 1993. Interestingly, the 1940's and 1950's seem to have been her most successful period; a number of the books that she wrote during this time are still in print. Perhaps these books are perennial favorites because they offer those of us who may have lost touch with the wonderfully fresh perspective of childhood the opportunity to re-experience it through her books or, even better, by sharing her books with a child. The following is a list of her books that are currently in print.

Picture Books