The child, she is obsessed with Puff. It's all she wants to hear in the car and it's what she asks the music guy at school to sing (so she can sing into his microphone in front of her classmates, the little ham).So when I wandered into Barnes & Noble last week looking for a book that the nearby independent children's bookstore didn't have (which made me feel bad, because I was all set to give them my money for a full-priced book, which they didn't have in stock and seemed to have no intention of ordering) and saw that they had a mess of dragon books - perhaps as some loose Harry Potter tie-in? - and one of those books was a new illustrated Puff, the Magic Dragon complete with a CD of the song, I had to buy it.
And it's quite sweet. The text is just the lyrics to the song, with lush full-page paintings as illustration. The sadness in the song, where Puff crawls into his cave because Jackie Paper has outgrown him, is ameliorated in the book by the appearance of a new playmate for Puff at the end. And that, to me, works in the context of the original song, which ends with an upbeat reprise of the chorus.
Edited to add: Snopes says there's NO drug references in the song. I do so love Snopes.
It's so sad when independent stores won't let you give them your money -- personal service is where they can really stand out, and so many independents don't take those extra steps (like special orders). Looks like a fun book, though.
ReplyDeleteAs a small child, I loved Puff the Magic Dragon. That is, until one of my teenage babysitters told me that it was really about (gasp) drugs. Whether that was true or not, I never wanted to hear it again.
ReplyDeleteI'd do the same thing. I love indulging their positive interests.
ReplyDeleteBut yeah, the service thing. Baffling. I've been running up against that lately. Do not understand.
Julie
Julie
Ravin' Picture Maven
We knew all these songs. And, like niobe said, we didn't know at all the deeper meanings behind any of them.
ReplyDeleteMany of the old nursery rhymes used to have meanings behind them. Ashes, Ashes -- that was about the Plague.
I find it disheartening not to find the same books I loved available.
ooh, yes, ashes, ashes: quite macabre, that rhyme.
ReplyDeleteThe colors in the cover of that version of Puff are really lovely, I think.
Did I ever love that song.