I read this book in the 2nd grade, which was in 1956. So this is a faint hope, but maybe someone will know.
It concerns a boy. I seem to remember his name was Penny, which seems like a girl’s name, so maybe that’s not correct. I believe the boy had red or coppery hair (hence, perhaps, the name). The only concrete detail I remember is one of the illustrations: a drawing of this boy, from the back, who wore a nightshirt, and was shinnying down a tree at night from his 2nd floor bedroom, and the nightshirt was hiked up all the way to his shoulders. He had nothing on underneath.
Not much to go on, I know. This illustration has stayed in my memory for nearly 50 years. It was a revelation to me, and at some point I may reveal why. Especially if someone can tell me the name of the book.
I thought at first the book of your memory might have been something by Maurice Sendak, his books have been controversial for featuring nude children … but the date is too early.
As an aside, if anyone is looking for some cheap entertainment, some of the Amazon reviews of “In the Night Kitchen” will make your roll your eyes.
Back to the OP, these people might be able to help you though: Stump the Bookseller.
I also recommend the “Stump the Bookseller” site. I have it bookmarked. It’s helped me and my sister to recover books we are collecting from our childhood, but could not always remember titles of. I even solved a search for someone else.
Those books are by Carolyn Haywood, and the first one is Here’s a Penny. There is also Penny and Peter and another one about two dogs, I think Really and Truly. Haywood wrote about a million books, most famously the Betsy series.
I was just heading out to the library when I read this post, so I checked out Here’s a Penny. I think the picture you mean is on page 45 of the book that was reprinted in 2005. I can scan it if you want to see it. Penny had been out trying to rescue his kitten from a drain pipe, and he took his PJ.s off to use them to rescue the cat, then couldn’t untie the knots so he hung the pj’s around his neck with the cat tucked inside while he climbed back down.
Thank you **dangermom ** and kittenblue, I am eternally grateful (and astounded! that someone actually knew). And thanks for the referral to the bookseller website, I will certainly check them out for other questions.
So now I’ll tell how this was a revelation to me (not necessarily of interest to anyone but me). Remember that I was seven years old, and that this is just a drawing that included the bare backside of a young boy (I haven’t looked at the book for a long time, clearly I have mis-remembered some of the details). I was fascinated and couldn’t take my eyes off of it, but I knew I had to hide my interest from everyone else. I knew I would not have been interested at all if it had been a similar drawing of a girl. I had no idea what this meant in any sexual context, but I knew from that moment forward that I liked boys. And that I was different from all the other boys for that reason (although, thankfully, that part turned out not to be true).
I’ve told this story to one or two people, and they have said that it was just natural curiosity, it didn’t mean anything, I’m reading to much into it, and so on. Well, I can’t explain it any better, but I know they’re wrong. This drawing didn’t cause anything, it just brought it to my attention. It was probably the single most life-changing moment in my life (that I can remember, at least).
Must be like finding an old friend!