Fuse 8 n’ Kate: Drummer Hoff by Barbara Emberley, ill. Ed Emberley
As many of you already know, I hate to start a podcast off in this way with my sister’s #1 dislike (honest!fer sure! you betcha!) but since listener Ann Burke was so kind as to send us a remarkable piece of clown-related kidlit history (and I am RAPIDLY making an amazing Vintage Horrifying Picture Book Clown collection for myself) you cannot blame me if I feature it on the podcast right off the bat.
Meanwhile, (and not to bury the lede) our actual book featured today was DRUMMER HOFF. An odd mix of 1960s psychedelia meets Colonial woodcuts, in 1968 it was the ultimate Vietnam War bit of picture book commentary. NOT that the Emberley ever embraced that interpretation, but I am DANG sure the librarians had that in their minds when they selected it for a Caldecott Award. In today’s talk we discuss our various interpretations of this book as well as what its ultimate contribution was to children’s literature as a whole.
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Listen to the whole show here on Soundcloud or download it through iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, PlayerFM, or your preferred method of podcast selection.
Show Notes:
Trigger Warning: If you do not like clowns, this may be the post to skip. But to do this book right, I’m showing you the following right off the bat. The publication date is 1953. This is what stood in for nonfiction in that era. It’s The Book of Clowns by Felix Sutton, ill. James Schucker:
It gets worse.
Okay, let’s just count them down at this point. So you’ve got ableism . . .
Fatphobia . . .
Uh. . . . oh boy.
You know what? I’m out. I’m just out at this point. Let’s get on with our real book today, shall we?
Kate: re the cover: “It’s so busy”. And why is the cannon named “Sultan”?
Kate’s argument is that Corporal Farrell is our best representation of Sgt. Pepper.
Kate: “If an illustration could show PTSD, it is what it would be. It would be this guy.”
“None of these outfits are appropriate for the battlefield!”
“And then we meet, Major Scott… He looks like he’s going to pass out.” And the little bird on it is clearly standing on his shot, mocking him.
This is the page where you can really appreciate the variety of noses amongst the men.
Like I said, the Emberleys did NOT want to engage in a big discussion of what this book “means”. I respect that. At the same time, I cannot help but notice that on every single page, Drummer Hoff, the guy who is setting off the weapon at our command, is staring directly at us. Breaking the fourth wall. Holding us accountable for what he is about to do. This man, and I mean this sincerely, terrifies me.
Stare into the soul of Drummer Hoff and repent your sins.
Do you like the word “Kahbahbloom” for this cannon going off?
I will say this much. If, as the Emberleys said, this wasn’t an anti-war book, how do you justify this last image?
Kate Recommends: The Devil Next Door
Betsy Recommends: Oppenheimer
Filed under: Fuse 8 n' Kate, Uncategorized
About Betsy Bird
Betsy Bird is currently the Collection Development Manager of the Evanston Public Library system and a former Materials Specialist for New York Public Library. She has served on Newbery, written for Horn Book, and has done other lovely little things that she'd love to tell you about but that she's sure you'd find more interesting to hear of in person. Her opinions are her own and do not reflect those of EPL, SLJ, or any of the other acronyms you might be able to name. Follow her on Twitter: @fuseeight.
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I’ve always wondered how Drummer Hoff beat out Frederick for the Caldecott (especially, you know, me being a collage guy) but I grudgingly admire all the work that went into those woodcuts. This deep a reading of the anti-military angle didn’t occur to me, though, and now I can’t help but think there a commentary in Hoff’s slightly anxious, mostly dispassionate face and the fact that the lowest of the military is complicit in its greatest horrors.
re Sultan, from Wikipedia:
The Ottoman Cannon is one of the largest cannons ever built. The cannon was first offered to Constantine XI, who turned it down. It was later offered to the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II, who ordered the cannon built after learning that it could smash through walls.
Just gonna read your comment on our next episode recording is all. That info on Sultan? In the words of Ken, sublime.
Frederick is dreadfully dull! I have it on my grandkids’ bookshelf and none of them ever ask for it! Bought if for the Caldecott honor, read it and went ‘meh’.
I always thought of it with the anti-military interpretation. The art delighted me. The chance to pick different voices/accents to read each line to my kids really stuck with me. I can still remember some of them and how the kids would giggle as a new character was introduced.
Your mention and share of that clown nightmare book above reminds me I had a clown book growing up . . . wasn’t quite so bad as that. Look Look a Clown Book was one my mother read over and over to me. It had a running gag of Freddy who’s busy getting ready and is so slow, the clown parade has gone when he finally gets his act together.
Oo. Different voices! That didn’t occur to me as a possibility, but you’re spot on with it.
I know that somewhere out there someone has an amazing vintage clown picture book collection, but it’s never too late to start your own, right?
I spent hours as a child poring over the illustrations in Drummer Hoff. I’m sure this was my pacifist hippie mother’s plan. But our favorite part was always KABAHBLOOM! So I’m not sure the message took.
That’s the problem with making it so doggone enticing.
Somehow I loved this book. It’s got suspense. Each page and character 8s building up to the kahbabloom. And you have to really look at each character. They’re so detailed. I think it’s way better than Frederick!
Never realized Drummer Hoff is looking directly at the reader breaking the 4th wall till you mentioned it. And I do love the final spread. The bird that’s taunting the guy with the cannonball eventually wins in the end making the barrel its nesting site.
Oops took another look and it’s not the same bird. But maybe what the last image is saying is that peace will eventually prevail and the world will go back to it’s natural state in the end and the soldiers will eventually pass away.
This is primarily why the song Where Have All the Flowers Gone gets caught in my head every time I see it.
I grew up singing Where Have All the Flowers Gone in music class but that never occurred to me when reading Drummer Hoff. Really the book is about an explosion! LOL And what anarchist little kid doesn’t have a destructive streak in them?
To be honest, I’m actually most upset Lionni’s Inch by Inch lost to Baboushka and the Three Kings in 1961. Drummer Hoff is most certainly a deserving win, in art and impact of book.
I’ll go in with you on being weirded out about the Lionni loss to Baboushka. That’s a weird one.
We need a web series where children’s librarians yell at one another about old Caldecott wins and losses. I would watch that show.
Betsy, have you ever come across a book called The Rooster’s Gift?
It’s an odd little throwback in terms of its style, and yet quite moving.
Now that book I’ve read to my grandkids a number of times and at the end of it, we would sit for a minute and ponder what the story means.
I love it when a book can do that!
Is that Pam Conrad? No, I never read it. It came out before I started seriously librarianing. I missed a lot of stuff in the 90s.
Yes! By Pam Conrad.
I didn’t realize it was such an old book!
I miss ‘story’ books. So many pb’s these days are concept books.
I wish to defend my beloved Drummer Hoff. I have always loved this book. I have always loved these illustrations. This is the book I saw as a child and decided to illustrate books. And I read it to my kids. In conclusion, KAHBAHBLOOM!
You, sir, are NOT alone! The Drummer Hoff love that I’ve seen pouring in at this time firmly convinces me that it is a pivotal text in terms of how it has influenced artists since its inception. KAHBAHBLOOM, indeed, sir.