Miss Rumphius - or as I called the book growing up, The Lupine Lady - is one of my favorite books of all time. This is not to say that I can't turn a critical eye on the text and pictures, and I will. Later. But first I want to talk about the good parts of the book.
Format: Miss Rumphius is in landscape orientation, allowing a child in a lap-sit reading session to be encircled by the reader's arms, or for an older child to be able to "help" easily with holding the book. Ie, the reader holds the left half of the book, the child the right half. This landscape format is also beneficial to group story time settings, as the wideness of the pictures allows for ease of viewing. However, the length of the text makes the book better suited for story times for older children. I would not recommend this for a preschool story time.
Cover art: The cover art is a wrap around picture. The front shows a woman atop a hill by the ocean, going for a walk. Since I have read the book about a thousand times, I know that this woman is Miss Rumphius. Without this knowledge, she appears to be a proud, independent woman. Her head is up, and she seems to be walking with a purpose. Way in the distance is an island, hinting at travel and exploring the world. Even the fact that Miss Rumphius is on a walk, hints at her desire to explore. As we turn the book over, the walking path leads our eyes up to a house on another hill, overlooking the ocean. So the cover art depicts Miss Rumphius traveling and exploring, but always returning home.
End papers: The end papers are green, grass green. For me, this hints at the love of nature that permeates the story.
Pictures: For the most part this book follows a pattern of the verso page with text on it having a small picture hinting at upcoming events in the story, and the recto page having a full page illustration. Occasionally the illustration actually bleeds over across the gutter into the verso page, or completely takes over both pages. The size of the pictures allows the child to feel fully immersed in the story, and the small preview pictures begins to teach them foreshadowing. The colors are soft and muted, and the colors most often used are the same you would see in a lupine plant - green, purple, blue, and a little bit of pink.
Story: Our narrator is Miss Rumphius's great niece. She tells us about how when Miss Rumphius was a young girl named Alice, she would help her grandfather in his art shop, and how he encouraged her to travel the world like he had. But, that he also encouraged her to make the world more beautiful. And so, Alice grows up to work in the library, and to spend winter days inside the conservatory. Eventually though, she decides to start traveling the world. Everything is grand until she hurts her back getting off a camel, and decides to work on step two of her life goals- having a house by the sea. While resting and healing her back, Miss Rumphius starts to wonder how she can make the world more beautiful. And of course, she decides on lupine flowers! She starts scattering lupine seeds everywhere she goes, which probably makes the local bird population very happy as well. And maybe that little black and white cat who is in most of the pictures at this point. And Miss Rumphius keeps doing her thing, even when they start calling her That Crazy Old Lady. Eventually though everyone grows to respect her, and she tells stories to the narrator and her friends, and encourages them to travel the world, and make the world a more beautiful place.
Things I love: The messages! Let's recap them, shall we? First, the ones that are actually stated. To travel, and to improve the world. And finally the unstated one, that a woman doesn't have to marry and have children to have a rich, fulfilling life. I might be able to find another book depicting a single and happy woman, but this is the only one that I can think of off the top of my head.
Things I don't love: Apparently, people of color only exist in these faraway exotic lands that Miss Rumphius travels to. Everyone else? White as snow. Furthermore, although I know that cigar shops frequently had a statue of a Native American outside their shops and that depicting Grandfather making them is historically accurate, this tradition has always bothered me.
Even with the questionable depiction of race in this book, I still love it. It has a wonderful message that children need to hear, that even the little bit that they can do is enough to make the world a better place. And especially since the length of the book is better suited to slightly older readers, it would be simple enough to have a conversation about the lack of representation.
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