Tasha Tudor First Friday Book Review~JACKANAPES

This month's Tasha Tudor book review is on a small book titled JACKANAPES that was published in 1948 by Oxford University Press and is 62 pages long. It includes some full color illustrations and several black and white drawings. It is not a highly collected book and it was difficult to find much information about why Tasha chose this book to illustrate.

The book was written by Juliana Horatia Ewing who was a late Victorian writer of children's books. She lived from 1841 to 1885. This picture was taken in London, England in 1884.

The story is about a little boy who is an orphan. His father was in the Waterloo Cavalry and was killed in battle. Three days after his birth, his mother dies, so he is raised by his spinster aunt. He becomes good friends with a little boy named Tony Johnson. Tony and Jackanapes are two very different littel boys and have different abilities. At the end of the book,Jackanapes gives his life for Tony in battle. Not Tasha's usual type of book or story, but interesting. It seemed like a good subject for this July 4th weekend.

Origianlly, the book was first published in 1879 without any illustrations. Four years later, Juliana reissued an illustrated version. It was illustrated by Randolph Caldecott. Below is a picture of that copy. You can read more about it at the Victorian Web.

I found this to be a charming book and a different type of book for Tasha to publish. It's not real easy to find, but worth the hunt and the read.