Jessie M. King - Mummy's Bedtime Stories
Mummy's Bedtime Stories by Jessie Marion King
Jessie Marion King is known as an accomplished illustrator and designer. Less known is the fact she wrote several books as well. Mummy's Bedtime Stories is one of such works. She wrote, illustrated, and designed it, leaving to posterity a fine example of her characteristic fairy world. This is a book for helping to get your kids into bed and lull them to sleep.
Stories are accompanied by pictures (all by Jessie M. King, of course) which don't serve just as a decoration but offer an experience on its own. You'll notice that just a limited amount of colors was used for printing this book (published by Cecil Palmer, London) which gave just another challenge to the artist's creativity.
You be the judge of her success.
As far as we know, Jessie M. King had only one child, so this dedication opens a few questions we won't try to answer.
The frontispiece already shows what we may expect inside the book. All the major Jessie Marion King's signature elements are here. Angels, fairies, children, strong outlines, soft and bright colors, a lot of dots, and, obviously, everything is neatly placed inside the border.
The book consists of twelve stories of approximately equal size.
Peter and Mary
Peter and Mary are brother and sister. He is a naughty boy and she is a good girl. Two fairies and an elf, who lived in the garden, decided to play with her. But would they take Peter to the fairy party too?
The Story of the Tiresome Rabbit
A very simple tale about a bunny who played in the woods and got lost. He wanted to return home for supper but couldn't find his way to the mummy. He asked several animals and none of them knew where his mother lived. Finally, a robin showed him the way.
A Lesson in Manners
Mrs. Bumble and Mr. Beetle always eat jam together. But one day there was just a tiny amount of it in the jar. Instead of being polite, they rushed to the jar and fell in ...
Jack Frost
Golden Sun, Silver Moon, and Jack Frost are siblings. Every one of them has a job to do. The story focuses on Jack Frost who lives in the North Pole and takes care of the world when Golden Sun is too tired to provide warmth.
Mother England
Mummy had many little boys. When they grew up, one by one left home and settled in different parts of the world. When Mummy stayed alone, her neighbors got a wicked idea ...
If One Eats One Must Work
A Horse, a Pony, and a Donkey lived together. Two of them were hard workers but Donkey always complained and when he got a chance ran away. Yet the freedom came with a price. The food was not tasty, the outside was not warm, and when the rain started ...
All presented stories are very educational but this one is the closest to the form of the fable. It clearly presents the author's philosophy on books and art in general. In her opinion, the educational part was a must. And let's not forget she worked as a teacher for many years as well.
The Two Imps
There are supposed to be two kinds of tiny people: good ones and bad ones. Good ones are called fairies and bad ones are imps. This is a story about imps. Two of the most notorious imps are called I Want and I Don't Want. Yet they can be also useful from time to time ...
The Grandfather Clock
Every hour an old grandfather clock strikes so many times as the clock is. Mary, a little girl lies in her bed and wonders how was life before she was born and where she came from. Suddenly, a grandfather clock comes to her room and offers her some answers...
The Story of the Cruel Boy
There was a boy who had a very bad temper. He made the life of his parents sad and all animals tried to get out of his way because he liked to hit and kick them. Once he hit a cow with a stick and laughed at her fear but then the punishment came...
The Country of Let's Pretend
Sorry, this tale is missing from my copy
Little Wee Mister Brown Hoppity Hop
Jill was a very naughty girl who often had a very simple problem. Nobody wanted to play with her. One day she fell asleep and woke up seeing a brownie playing in the tree. He asked her if she was naughty and if nobody wanted to play with her. Then he offered a solution.
Where Babies Come From
The little girl overheard her parents about a little boy, her brother, would come soon. She asks her Nunny where babies come from and she suggests she ask the fairies in the Dreamland. Maybe they will not just tell but show her.
Conclusion
As we can see, all the stories are made pretty much the same. Even more, the characters are very shallow and similar to each other (curious and naughty) and have the very same questions and problems. All problems are also solved in the same form - by visits and talks with fairy people.
Such stories are very easy to write, especially if they are as short as these ones. Yet they never become popular and are very soon forgotten. Jessie Marion King's stories suffer from the very same facts. She was a top illustrator but not much of a writer. Even much more successful writers of her time had almost identical approaches. They all wanted to use fiction for children for educational purposes.
Simplifying stories into educational lessons is especially typical for illustrators who decide to write the stories for their illustrations. Pictures are, obviously, their main occupation, so they focus on scenery but don't work enough on plots. Publishers encourage illustrators for such an approach because it's easier to work with an author-illustrator than with an author and an illustrator. They believe that commercial success (and in the short-term, it's very often true) is mostly dependent on promotion.
The magic of classic fairy tales, already present on the market, was not understood. The necessary condition for a successful fairy tale was (and still is) a transformation of the main character through actions by using action-reaction laws. That's why so many people try to write fairy tales and so few of them achieve at least publishing, not to mention commercial success or even survive long enough to be considered a classic.
If you want to learn more about writing fairy tales, I recommend you to read an article simply titled How to write a fairy tale.
Enjoy and good luck!
Jessie Marion King is known as an accomplished illustrator and designer. Less known is the fact she wrote several books as well. Mummy's Bedtime Stories is one of such works. She wrote, illustrated, and designed it, leaving to posterity a fine example of her characteristic fairy world. This is a book for helping to get your kids into bed and lull them to sleep.
Stories are accompanied by pictures (all by Jessie M. King, of course) which don't serve just as a decoration but offer an experience on its own. You'll notice that just a limited amount of colors was used for printing this book (published by Cecil Palmer, London) which gave just another challenge to the artist's creativity.
You be the judge of her success.
As far as we know, Jessie M. King had only one child, so this dedication opens a few questions we won't try to answer.
The frontispiece already shows what we may expect inside the book. All the major Jessie Marion King's signature elements are here. Angels, fairies, children, strong outlines, soft and bright colors, a lot of dots, and, obviously, everything is neatly placed inside the border.
The book consists of twelve stories of approximately equal size.
Peter and Mary
Peter and Mary are brother and sister. He is a naughty boy and she is a good girl. Two fairies and an elf, who lived in the garden, decided to play with her. But would they take Peter to the fairy party too?
The Story of the Tiresome Rabbit
A very simple tale about a bunny who played in the woods and got lost. He wanted to return home for supper but couldn't find his way to the mummy. He asked several animals and none of them knew where his mother lived. Finally, a robin showed him the way.
A Lesson in Manners
Mrs. Bumble and Mr. Beetle always eat jam together. But one day there was just a tiny amount of it in the jar. Instead of being polite, they rushed to the jar and fell in ...
Jack Frost
Golden Sun, Silver Moon, and Jack Frost are siblings. Every one of them has a job to do. The story focuses on Jack Frost who lives in the North Pole and takes care of the world when Golden Sun is too tired to provide warmth.
Mother England
Mummy had many little boys. When they grew up, one by one left home and settled in different parts of the world. When Mummy stayed alone, her neighbors got a wicked idea ...
If One Eats One Must Work
A Horse, a Pony, and a Donkey lived together. Two of them were hard workers but Donkey always complained and when he got a chance ran away. Yet the freedom came with a price. The food was not tasty, the outside was not warm, and when the rain started ...
All presented stories are very educational but this one is the closest to the form of the fable. It clearly presents the author's philosophy on books and art in general. In her opinion, the educational part was a must. And let's not forget she worked as a teacher for many years as well.
The Two Imps
There are supposed to be two kinds of tiny people: good ones and bad ones. Good ones are called fairies and bad ones are imps. This is a story about imps. Two of the most notorious imps are called I Want and I Don't Want. Yet they can be also useful from time to time ...
The Grandfather Clock
Every hour an old grandfather clock strikes so many times as the clock is. Mary, a little girl lies in her bed and wonders how was life before she was born and where she came from. Suddenly, a grandfather clock comes to her room and offers her some answers...
The Story of the Cruel Boy
There was a boy who had a very bad temper. He made the life of his parents sad and all animals tried to get out of his way because he liked to hit and kick them. Once he hit a cow with a stick and laughed at her fear but then the punishment came...
The Country of Let's Pretend
Sorry, this tale is missing from my copy
Little Wee Mister Brown Hoppity Hop
Jill was a very naughty girl who often had a very simple problem. Nobody wanted to play with her. One day she fell asleep and woke up seeing a brownie playing in the tree. He asked her if she was naughty and if nobody wanted to play with her. Then he offered a solution.
Where Babies Come From
The little girl overheard her parents about a little boy, her brother, would come soon. She asks her Nunny where babies come from and she suggests she ask the fairies in the Dreamland. Maybe they will not just tell but show her.
Conclusion
As we can see, all the stories are made pretty much the same. Even more, the characters are very shallow and similar to each other (curious and naughty) and have the very same questions and problems. All problems are also solved in the same form - by visits and talks with fairy people.
Such stories are very easy to write, especially if they are as short as these ones. Yet they never become popular and are very soon forgotten. Jessie Marion King's stories suffer from the very same facts. She was a top illustrator but not much of a writer. Even much more successful writers of her time had almost identical approaches. They all wanted to use fiction for children for educational purposes.
Simplifying stories into educational lessons is especially typical for illustrators who decide to write the stories for their illustrations. Pictures are, obviously, their main occupation, so they focus on scenery but don't work enough on plots. Publishers encourage illustrators for such an approach because it's easier to work with an author-illustrator than with an author and an illustrator. They believe that commercial success (and in the short-term, it's very often true) is mostly dependent on promotion.
The magic of classic fairy tales, already present on the market, was not understood. The necessary condition for a successful fairy tale was (and still is) a transformation of the main character through actions by using action-reaction laws. That's why so many people try to write fairy tales and so few of them achieve at least publishing, not to mention commercial success or even survive long enough to be considered a classic.
If you want to learn more about writing fairy tales, I recommend you to read an article simply titled How to write a fairy tale.
Enjoy and good luck!
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