‘wings on wednesday’
written by natalie scott
illustrated by sandra smith
published by paul hamlyn 1969
ISBN 0600039714
(click images to enlarge)
wings on wednesday tells the story of a little girl named hatty. every wednesday, hatty and her mother spend the day with aunt zoe. ‘fly out of the room like a good little bird and let me have a nice long chat with your mother’ aunt zoe would say to hatty.
hatty would go out to the garden, where a squawking cocky (a parrot) lived. hatty didn’t like the cocky, but she did like the feathers it dropped and so she began collecting them each week.
finally, when she had collected enough, she made her self a pair of wings… and off she flew (much to the envy of the caged cocky!) each week, hatty flies off, over the town, until one week she sees a forest. she lands in the forest to find it full of different species of birds who find her fascinating and rare…
all the birds want to talk to hatty, and so each week she returns to talk to a different kind. they all tell her what species they are, and what makes them special or rare.
“but all the birds were certain that hatty, who could take off her wings and leave them on the ground was the rarest of them all”
then her aunt moves away, (apologies for the patchy job of scanning it) and though her parents joke about it, hatty knows what it is like to ‘fly out of the room like a good little bird’
i’m not sure where this book came from – i’ve always had it and i’ve always been fascinated with the illustrations. my copy is dogeared and missing a cover and back page and i haven’t been able to find any information on author natalie scott or illustrator sandra smith, but i love the psychedelic magic marker illustrations with art nouveau overtones. the publisher, paul hamlyn seem to have been behind a number of really fab picture books of that era, lots of psychedelia.
i also own ‘firebrand, push your hair out of your eyes’ and ‘please sit still’, also by scott and smith, and although both are excellent i love ‘wings’ best. if anyone can offer any further information, please comment below. this book has played such a huge part in developing my aesthetic, i would really love to know anything about the ladies who created it.
[...] wings on wednesday and please sit still (both written by natalie scott) this book was written by louise kent who is [...]
I love Wings on Wednesday too. My childhood book disappeared and my mum and I would love to find a copy. does anyone know where??
susie – alas i’ve had an ebay watch on ‘wings on wednesday’ for over a year and nothing’s shown up. you can bet if i snag one i’ll blog it and offer it up to a reader
it needs to be republished!
Hi I loved your extract from Wings on Wednesday. I have actually been trying to find the other book you mentioned “Firebrand push your hair out of your eyes”. I am now 43 and I remember having it when I was 4 at kinder!!! Is it possible for you to do a similar layout like you did for Wings on Wednesday as I would love to show my 2 girls this book that I loved. Thank you so much.
tracey, i definitely will do a post on firebrand! stay tuned
[...] seen wings on wednesday, you’ve seen the wizard of the umbrella people and you’ve seen please sit still (if you [...]
Hey there, not sure if you remember me. We used to email back and forth about Sandra Smith a bit. I know I asked you this before, but I can’t remember the answer…Sandra Smith illustrated just four books, right? Any more than that?
Firebrand
Wings on Wednesday
Please Sit Still
Wizard of the Umbrella People
Thanks
Still trying hard to find “Wings”.