Ten Books By Wanda Gag: TOP TEN BOOKS

Wanda Gag

About the time that A.A.Milne began writing his tales of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin, and 12 years before the arrival of Curious George, the Minnesotan artists Wanda Gag, the daughter of impoverished immigrants from Bohemia, was quietly, almost inadvertently, launching a revolution in book publishing. Her first title, Millions of Cats, the oldest American picture book still in print, was the touch paper for a new era in which children’s book were conceived, written, and illustrated by a single artist. Not many books, for children or otherwise, become a classic overnight, but Gag’s tale of “thousands and millions and billions and trillions of cats,” was a hit from the moment it came off the presses. She would bless us with many more illustrated classics before her untimely death, from lung cancer, at the age of 53.

Below, our ten favorite books by Wanda Gag, available to purchase individually or as a set.

$165.54 BUY ENTIRE BOOK COLLECTION
1

Millions of Cats

Wanda Gag
When Maurice Sendak was asked if he thought picture books were better in the past, he answered “yes, there was Wanda Gág.” In this enduring tale, the oldest American picture book still in print, an old couple longing for companionship decide to adopt a cat. What results is an epic struggle for survival as “hundreds of cats, thousands of cats, millions and billions and trillions of cats” compete to be the one.
$16.99
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2

The Funny Thing

Wanda Gag
How do you stop a dragon from eating dolls heads? That’s the conundrum of Gag’s follow-up to Millions of Cats. The answer involves “jum-jills” and a lot of flattery.
$14.95
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3

Snippy and Snappy

Wanda Gag
A rodent road trip as sibbling field mice wander from their hay field while playing with their mother’s ball of yarn.
$14.95
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4

The ABC Bunny

Wanda Gag
A Newberry Honor recipient in 1934, The ABC Bunny tells the story of Bunny, driven from Bunnyland to Elsewhere after an unfortunate accident with an apple.
$14.95
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5

Gone is Gone

Wanda Gag
“Wanda Gag has magic at her command,” raved a reviewer for The New York Times in 1935. In Gone is Gone Gag reconstructs a remembered story from childhood that she’d tried and failed to locate in Grimm’s Household Tales.
$14.95
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6

Growing Pains: Diaries and Drawings for the Years 1908-1917

Wanda Gag
Gag’s record of her life, between 15 and 24, is full of charm and spirit. Her father, who died of tuberculosis when she was 14, encouraged her to pursue her artistic career, saying "Was der Papa night thin knot, muss die Wanda halt fertig machen." ("What Papa has left undone, Wanda will have to do.”). The diaries reflect her determination to honor his words.
$24.95
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7

Nothing at All

Wanda Gag
Three puppies desire to be adopted, but one of them, who looks like “nothing at all," has to overcome a particular disability: he is invisible. How he gets to be seen is the plot of this quirky story.
$14.95
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8

Tales from Grimm

Wanda Gag
Gag’s 1937 collection highlights 17 tales from the Brothers Grimm, including some well-known (Rapunzel and Hansel and Gretel) and some more obscure (Spindle, Shuttle and Needle, and Lazy Heinz) but her greatest feat is finding a way to preserve the Low German dialect of the originals.
$16.95
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9

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Wanda Gag
When, in 1937, Disney made “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves,” Anne Carroll Moore, who headed children's library services at the New York Public Library, prevailed on Gag to create a version authentic to the spirit of the original. Gag did not disappoint. As Cox points out in his essay on Gag, “her seven dwarfs are frugal, hard-working, sensible men, not Disney's famous likable, comic fools.”
$14.95
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10

More Tales from Grimm

Wanda Gag
Published posthumously, not all the illustrations in this collection of 30 tales are finished, though Gag’s particular wit and refusal to pander shine through.
$16.95
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