Hop on Pop, first published in 1963, is a book written by largely unknown author and illustrated with a normal name. Okay, so I’m clearly talking about a Dr. Seuss book here and I’m not going to add anything to the mountain of well-deserved praise for the amazing rhymes and art. I will however add that the copy we have is from the sixties and it just gives off a great vibe. I mean the book just feels cool. It’s neat to read a book that is 50 years old that was ahead of its time then and in some ways feels ahead of its time now.

On a separate note, I would like to share the following and instead of going for the obvious joke I will allow you to think up your own at your leisure. “Former First Lady Laura Bush, listed Hop on Pop as her favorite book in a 2006 Wall Street Journal article. ‘It features Dr. Seuss’s typically wonderful illustrations and rhymes, of course, but the main thing for me is the family memory—the loving memory—that the book evokes of George lying on the floor and reading it to our daughters, Barbara and Jenna. They were little bitty things, and they took Hop on Pop literally, and jumped on him—we have the pictures to prove it,’ she wrote.”

Last week we tackled Gerald McDermott’s Pueblo inspired tale, Arrow to the Sun, for this review we turn to the East to examine McDermott’s Japanese inspired tale, The Stonecutter. The book began as McDermott’s first animated film and was turned into a book in 1978. The Stonecutter is a widely known folk tale about man’s never satisfied desire for power, however McDermott end’s his tale on a darker note than the original. This new ending allows parents to slightly scare their kids while making a point, which always makes the point stick better.

The folk tale follows the path of a ordinary stonecutter who sees the world around him and wishes he had more money and fame. His wish is granted, but of course it is not enough as he realizes money and fame only get you so far, but if you want real power you must become like the sun or the clouds. Yet, even these powerful elements aren’t enough and when he realizes that the mountain is strongest, he asked to be turned into stone. In the end, the story circles back to the title of the book and you can guess what happens. The Eastern influenced art makes the story spooky and darker than most children’s books made today, but it serves to remind us that in the seventies everyone was trying to “keep it real.”