Filed Under: "Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys"

Hand-drawn two-page spread of figure studies for Flora’s third book for young readers, Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys (1959). The pages, which do not appear in the published edition, were scanned from the Dr. Irvin C. Kerlan children’s literature collection at the U of Minnesota. On the mock title page at right, the author refers to the book as “An Old Fashioned Scissor and Paper Adventure.” Although the characters above were drawn in pencil…
Continue Reading... Charlie Yup’s cast of characters ►
Detail from title page, Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys, Flora’s third children’s book, 1959. That’s Charlie, snipping away at right; the villain with the lasso is Red Mike. In the book, Red Mike is … red. However, as with many illustrated books of the period, color pages alternated with black and white to make printing more economical. A number of Flora’s kiddie books reflect this trend.
Continue Reading... Red Mike hunts the scissor boy ►
Left half of endpaper, Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys, Flora’s third children’s book, published in 1959. This seems to be the rarest of Flora’s out-of-print kid-lit. Antiquarian book dealers ask three figures for used copies. This book also betokens the end of Flora’s classic, edgy 1950s commercial illustration style, which became tamer in the 1960s.
Continue Reading... Charlie Yup (endpapers) ►
Detail from Flora’s third children’s book, Charlie Yup and His Snip-Snap Boys (1959). Charlie, who wields a mean scissors (his “Snip-Snap Boys” are paper cut-outs), is in the upper left astride Beezer, his “helicopter horse.” For fans—like us—of Flora’s 1950s big-eyed figures, this was the end of the line, his last satisfying children’s book on an artistic level. He wrote and illustrated 14 more, which sold well and charmed generations of young readers. But our…
Continue Reading... Charlie Yup and pals ►