May 13th is National Tulip Day. I have picked a bouquet of books for your enjoyment.
This book, “Myths and Legends of Flowers, Trees, Fruits, and Plants” by Charles M. Skinner, 1911 has been used before, for other flowers and fruits. One myth on Tulips was a folk-tale in Devon where pixies had no beds for ther children, so they put them to bed at night in tulips, to be cradled by the wind. A women found them, and was so delighted, that she planted more tulips. The pixies rewarded her by making the tulips take on bright colors and even began smelling sweet. When the woman died, a man took over the house and destroyed the tulips and planted parsley. The pixies, every night would jump and dance on the parsley, making it fringed and ragged, as it looks today. The old woman’s grave always had tulips, kept up by the pixies.
The book also talked about ‘tulip-mania’ in Holland with tulip speculation. And it mentioned the book “The Black Tulip” by Alexandre Dumas not being just a story, but having some truth to it. So in researching this, I have just bought an old copy of the book, with an interesting dust jacket, from London. Sometime next month, I will be able to read it, and add it to the library.
I have the book “The Little Dutch Tulip Girl” by Madeline Brandeis, 1929. Madeline Brandeis wrote books about children of all lands. I have five or six of these books. When she traveled the world, she took her camera, and her daughter, taking pictures of children, and writing their stories.
This book is about a little girl is a wonderful kids book. It tells a story of Trynje, and the life in Holland. One reads about home life, foods eaten, special jobs, and of course tulips. There is a chapter on tulips, including how bulbs are harvested. They say that when dug up, each tulip has laid an egg, an additional bulb.
All of Madeline Brandeis books are interesting for the views of children in various countries, at least different from ours. Really, children are the same, just the customs, dress, and and stories are intriguing and curious.
My last book will be “Paper Blosssoms, Butterflies & Birds”, by Ray Marshall, 2014.
This is a wonderful pop-up bouquet of tulips from the book. Tulips are a beautiful flower. I am told that red tulips are a declaration of love, variegated tulips mean beautiful eyes, white means asking for forgiveness, yellow for cheerfulness and hope, pink affection, and purple is for luxury-truly special occations like bridal bouquets.
We planted tulips for the first time in our front garden last fall. Wow. It is true that tulip blooms just make you smile. Thank you for reading and smiling with me.
Librarytomes 