The 'possum that didn't;

by Frank Tashlin

The Possum That Didn' Story and Illustrations by Frank Tashlin, author of The bear That Wasn't, Published by John Murray, Albemarle London, First Edition, 1951. Mr. Tashlin's previous delightful satirical fable The Bear That Wasn't is the best recommendation for his new book. In some fifty drawings with text he depicts the adventures of the most charmingly bewildered Possum that ever had entertainment thrust on him or was forced to leave his primitive woods for the benefits of the "happy" organised world of humans. The sting of Mr. Tashlin's satire is in its simplicity - in this case in the fact that a happy smile seen upside down appears to be an unhappy grimace and vice versa. It is this that inspires the inference of as fearful a quartet of determined, well-meaning busy bodies as could be imagined.

Genres: Childrens, Picture Books, Graphic Novels

53 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1950

About the author

Frank Tashlin, born Francis Fredrick von Taschlein, also known as Tish Tash or Frank Tash (February 19, 1913 – May 5, 1972) was an American animator, screenwriter, and film director.

He wrote five books: "The Bear That Wasn't" (1941), "How The Circus Learned to Smile" (1949, "The Possum That Didn't" (1950) and "The World That Isn't" (1951) and a self-help cartooning book "How to Create Cartoons" (1952). He even briefly returned to animation in 1967, adapting one of his childrens books "The Bear That Wasn't" into an MGM animated short, directed by his former colleague Chuck Jones.

Reviews

[Martina_H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Velký příběh v krátkém textu.

O veselé šťastné vačici, kterou skoro potkalo neštěstí, neboť ji potkali lidé, kteří si myslí, že ví, co druzí chtějí. A neváhají jim to vnutit. I vačicím.

Chvilku mi bylo o vačici úzko. "Ale najednou... se usmála!"

A boží ilusturace. Frank Tashlin mi připomíná Josefa Čapka.

[Edna Nová · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dokonale upřímné. Precteno po výstavě v Doxu.

[Michal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Velmi hezky provedeno.

[Lenka Letadlo · Rating 5 out of 5]

To bylo drsné! Úplně se ve mně hromadila frustrace, evidentně skvělé provedení.

[Veronika · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Byla to ta nejšťastnější, nejusměvavější a nejzavěšenější vačice v celém lese.”

[RoseB612 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Na Tashlina se už chystám nějakou dobu, byť tedy primárně na Medvěd, který nebyl - nakonec jsem začala Vačicí a nevím, zda to byl ten rozhodující moment, proč mi přišla lepší než Medvěd nebo nikoliv. Tématicky jsou to dost podobné knihy, byť tedy Medvěd rozporuje identitu hlavní postavy a Vačice její rozpoložení - ale vždy je to o tlaku z vnějšku, který zpochybňuje vnitřní obraz hlavní postavy a dočasně se podaří lidem (oni jsou ta vnější síla) zvířecí hrdiny rozhodit, ale ve finále zvítězí zdravý rozum a celý ten "pochybovačný" příběh je vnímán postavou jako sen.

Příběh je to velmi jednoduchý, ale ve své podstatě archetypální a když si člověk uvědomí, že je to ze čtyřicátých let dvacátého století, tak se tomu až nechce věřit - jak je to stále aktuální.

Samostatnou kapitolou je kresba - komplexní obrazy s množstvím detailů, ve kterých se stále dá nacházet něco nového - to opravdu miluju. A tady je velké plus Baobabu, že v rámci překladu skvěle přeložili i texty uvnitř kreseb.

Vačici chceme vyzkoušet na pětileté dceři - jsem zvědavá, jestli se ji to bude líbit.

Vynikající kniha, velmi chytrá - jedna z těch, ke kterým se budete vracet.

Je strašná škoda, že originální název se nedá nějak rozumně přeložit do češtiny, aby bylo zřejmé propojení s dalšími Tashlinovými knihami - takže doporučuji mrknout i na ten originální název a ano, opravdu tam nechybí na konci jedno slovo.

Kontext: Šla jsem dětem koupit Hilda se vrací - Hilda a Ptačí slavnost, Hilda a černý pes a místo toho jsem odešla s třemi Tashliny :-)

První věta: "Jednou, docela nedávno, v jednom nedalekém lese žila vačice."

Poslední věta: "A on to byl sen. Nebo ne?"

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another biting—yet very funny—children's book from Frank Tashlin!

My kids prefer THE BEAR THAT WASN'T but I think I found the absurdity of this one just a little bit funnier. A group of entitled picnickers mistake a hanging possum's upside-down smile for a frown, and take it upon themselves to righteously make him happy in the ways they think best, even though he's perfectly content the way he is.

Also like THE BEAR THAT WASN'T, it's a pointed social satire. This time more pointed, but still not dated in its message.

The illustrations are even more detailed, with some wide open overheads of busy streets and the inside of a night club hiding many sight gags (a specialty of Tashlin, the director) for those so look more closely.

A cute, lush, biting little book you can read to kids or just enjoy on your own.

[Meric Aksu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kimsenin kimseyi kurtaramayacağının ve de değiştiremeyeceğinin hikayesi, keselisıçanın hikayesi. Hele hastalıklı bir toplumu oluşturan bireylerin, ötekini normalize etme gayreti insanın yüzündeki gülümsemeyi solduruyor okurken. Neyse ki keselisıçan çekip kurtarıyor kendisini. Ve gülebiliyor tekrar hiçbir şey olmamış gibi. Anormal gibi görünenin, normallerden daha normal olduğunu kabul etmek gerekiyor bundan böyle. Sıradanın köleliği, baskılamasın orijinalin ruh halini.

[Katniss Lavender · Rating 5 out of 5]

Naprosto dokonalá kniha / komiks. Půjčil mi ji brácha a já se do ní naprosto zamilovala! Úžasné obrázky a ještě úžasnější příběh! Její přečtení vám zabere pár minut, ale zahřívat u srdce vás bude mnohem déle!

[Petr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skvělá, nadčasová satira o jedné moc roztomilé vačici a o potřebě člověka škatulkovat, organizovat, ovládat a všechno vědět nejlíp.

[Soňa · Rating 5 out of 5]

O domyšľavosti a snahe iných manipulovať a presadiť svoj názor. Malá spokojná vačica je vďaka tomuto nútená prežiť sen ľudí, ktorí si myslia, že to vedia lepšie....

[Eliska · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jak to dopadne, když si někdo myslí, že ví nejlépe, co je pro druhého dobré? Příběh lehce předvídatelný, ale ty ilustrace!

[Jane Maple · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a Possum who is always smiling but when he climbs in a tree and hangs from his tail people passing by think he is frowning since they are seeing him from below. He tries to assure them that he really is happy, but they don't listen and take him and his tree to the city to try to cheer him up. The illustrations of the city are great - huge pictures full of lots of tiny details to look at. The people try taking him to a movie and a night club. The people who brought him to the city still thought he wasn't smiling. But when the Possum starts thinking about all the people he has seen in the city it makes him sadder and sadder and when he frowns the people think they finally did it. The people who brought the Possum to the city are lauded in the newspaper and on radio and the city gives them medals and the story says they became very famous as we see them on tons of advertising billboards. Possum is only run over by a parade held in the honor those people, but he makes his way back to his forest and finally starts feeling better. "And for the rest of his life, he was a smiley, smiley 'Possum, because he knew that everything that had happened to him, must have been a dream. He was sure it had been a dream. For nowhere, could there really be people, like the people he had seen. And it was a dream, wasn't it?"

[Daniel Palička · Rating 4 out of 5]

Čtenářská výzva na Goodreads 2018 (13/205)
Čtenářská výzva Lovci perel 2018 (Třetí kniha)
Překvapivě to ve výsledku nebylo vůbec špatné. Vůbec bych nečekal, že knížka, která je spíše zaměřená na mladší čtenáře, by mě mohla takhle velkoryse překvapit. Bylo to příjemné počtení, které má něco málo do sebe,
Franku Tashlinovi parádně sedla poloha psaní kratší úderné povídky, takže má všechno dobře načasované, hlavní postavu v podobě vačice má zajímavě napsanou a ilustrace vypadají výborně.
Určitě bych si chtěl ještě něco od tohoto zajímavého autora přečíst, jelikož mě příjemně potěšil.
4/5 (75%)

[Maughn Gregory · Rating 4 out of 5]

Frank Tashlin was a cartoonist and director of comic, live-action films who also wrote a pair of picture books for children that comment on the modern human relationship to nature. In "The Possum that Didn’t," a possum whose smile is mistaken for a frown when it hangs upside down is removed to a city in the attempt to cheer him up. Tashlin's children's books go philosophical in two different directions. One is the direction of satire: they use humor and exaggeration to criticize human stupidity and vices. The other direction is existential: from the perspective of the animal characters they dramatize the question, What do I do when the world I thought I lived in becomes unrecognizable?

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

As in The Bear that Wasn't, Tashlin again tells us how he really feels! This seems surprisingly critical of the people and lifestyles of 1950. Here the city slickers leave a littered campground after their picnic, and in an insensitive and misguided way take the possum out of his natural habitat because they think they know best. They don't! The city illustrations are chaotic and unpleasant. It comes out alright in the end, though.

[Errol Castens]

My wife gave me a copy of this book that my mother had read to my brother and me when we were toddlers 60-something years ago.

It’s still a delightful story illustrating how easy it is to assume what we like is what everyone should like.

[Ayşe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Konusu çok zevkli ve çizimleri çok eğlenceli. Çocuk kitabı tutkunlarına tavsiye ederim :)

[plachá srnka · Rating 5 out of 5]

povinné čítanie.

[RobinKa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Krásný a smutný příběh o lidské hlouposti a bezohlednosti. Moc hezké ilustrace a roztomilá vačice :)

[Lukas Sanek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Povinná četba pro všechny chmurné i veselé dny.

[Ondra Král · Rating 5 out of 5]

Je to sice knížka pro děti, ale je úžasná.