Alfred, Are You Up Yet?
Baby Dog almost tore the cover off Over in the Meadow the other day, but I got hold of it in time and was able to repair the tear with her blue duct tape (used to be our duct tape but somehow or other its taken up residence in her toy box). Also patched in blue are Ten Little Ladybugs and Owl Babies. Ten Wishing Stars, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Good Night, Sweet Butterflies seem not too far behind. I wasn’t there when it happened so I’m not too clear on the details, but somehow Pat the Bunny got rent thoroughly asunder.
Watching Baby Dog gradually batter her favourite books to bits and pieces has inevitably brought to mind all the books I mauled, defaced, and abused as a child. Sometime during dinner tonight a curiosity I’d been harbouring blossomed into something like an obsession, and now I find I need to know about Alfred, Are You Up Yet?
That, as best I can recall, was the title of my favourite book as a baby. I’m not sure if I even remember the book, or if I just remember being told about it, but I believe it was a story about a cartoony little fellow wandering through a house, calling, “Alfred, are you up yet?” In the last panel, he sees another cartoony fellow dangling from a chandelier and exclaims, “Oh, Alfred, you ARE up!”
Not great literature and not the stuff of classic children’s books. I imagine it was just a cheap and flimsy little paper book for babies. I know that by the time we moved to Nepean when I was four it was, like Baby Dog’s copy of Pat the Bunny, not so much a book as a collection of loose papers. I think maybe I just had the last page.
Tonight after dinner I took a little stab at research. I looked on Google and Alibris and Ebay and even the Library of Congress catalogue with no success. I’m doubting now if I’m remembering the name of the book correctly. Is it “Albert Are You Up Yet?” Or maybe “Are You Up, Alfred?” Or any of a million other near misses or variations?
I know this is a great big stab in the dark, but if what little I can recall about this book rings a bell for anybody out there, please let me know. Any information will help. Or any suggestions for other sources to search. I must find this silly little book.
Watching Baby Dog gradually batter her favourite books to bits and pieces has inevitably brought to mind all the books I mauled, defaced, and abused as a child. Sometime during dinner tonight a curiosity I’d been harbouring blossomed into something like an obsession, and now I find I need to know about Alfred, Are You Up Yet?
That, as best I can recall, was the title of my favourite book as a baby. I’m not sure if I even remember the book, or if I just remember being told about it, but I believe it was a story about a cartoony little fellow wandering through a house, calling, “Alfred, are you up yet?” In the last panel, he sees another cartoony fellow dangling from a chandelier and exclaims, “Oh, Alfred, you ARE up!”
Not great literature and not the stuff of classic children’s books. I imagine it was just a cheap and flimsy little paper book for babies. I know that by the time we moved to Nepean when I was four it was, like Baby Dog’s copy of Pat the Bunny, not so much a book as a collection of loose papers. I think maybe I just had the last page.
Tonight after dinner I took a little stab at research. I looked on Google and Alibris and Ebay and even the Library of Congress catalogue with no success. I’m doubting now if I’m remembering the name of the book correctly. Is it “Albert Are You Up Yet?” Or maybe “Are You Up, Alfred?” Or any of a million other near misses or variations?
I know this is a great big stab in the dark, but if what little I can recall about this book rings a bell for anybody out there, please let me know. Any information will help. Or any suggestions for other sources to search. I must find this silly little book.
posted by PapaDogDuvalier | 10:42 PM
2 Comments:
I remmber reading it to you!
Do you remember Harold and the Purple Crayon?
I'll check the library here.
The big one for my wife, and now both my daughters was "The Monster at the End of This Book" starring Grover from the Muppets. (My childhood predates the muppets by a decade, so not on my list. ) There is also a sequel, "Another Monster at the end of this Book" which adds Elmo to the mix.
Harold and the PUrple Crayon was also high on the favorate list. By age 4 anything by Robert Munch is great -- the Paperbag Princess being the first and most famous of his books.
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