On Cherry Street Part 2

For me, the most memorable part of On Cherry Street (besides its name) was its great illustrations. Each one is a nice little slice of life, full of warmth, but without being corny. They really were a nice window on the world for first graders, showing kids interacting with kind, understanding adults.

The paintings were done in a realistic style that you don't see very much any more.  Unfortunately, realistic illustrations done in the style of Norman Rockwell or Lorain's Stevan Dohanos don't seem to be very popular these days in childrens' books. Instead, very cartoony and stylized illustrations are used instead – with none of the heart of these vintage examples.

The Acknowledgments page of On Cherry Street indicates that the illustrations were by George Garland, Bob Candy, Art Saaf, Phoebe Erickson and Catherine Scholz.

From what I can tell from the available samples of work on the internet, George Garland was the heavy hitter of the bunch. Like Lorain's Stevan Dohanos, he contributed excellent covers and illustrations for the Saturday Evening Post. Here's a sample of Garland's art from the July 16, 1949 issue.

Courtesy of www.comicartfans.com

Here's one of his covers; this one is from the March 13, 1943 issue.

Courtesy of www.coverbrowser.com

After looking at a few examples of Garland's work, it's easy to pick out his detailed illustrations in On Cherry Street.; they're just a little more detailed and realistic than the others, which are still nice.

Here's one of Garland's from the very first story in the book. (If you look just below the mother's dress, you can see part of his signature that managed to sneak into the live area of the page.)

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I almost forgot to mention that Alan Hopewell isn't the only one who remembered the names of the children in the book! (By the way, Alan's got a nice post about Lorain's Boone Elementary: check it out here.) 

I brought On Cherry Street to work last week and our Sally, our Human Resources manager saw it, and said,"Hey, isn't that book all about Tom, Betty and Sally?" I was dumbfounded until she reminded me that her husband's name is Tom, and she remembered the book because both of their names are in it as main characters. 

Here I thought I was doing well just remembering the title and the organ grinder!