Garth Williams

Hugo Cabret

In my review, I said that Selznick's illustrations in The Invention of Hugo Cabret evoked Garth Williams.

Almanzo Wilder

Williams illustrated not only Laura Ingalls Wilder, but also The Rabbits' Wedding. I read both when I was young.


Later, I was exposed to Williams's pigs (Wilbur) and mice (Stuart), but Laura and her family have always reminded me of rabbits.

I suppose I should also mention that I was very troubled when I read Stuart Little, an otherwise excellent book with an indeterminate ending that does not neatly resolve the plot. Even at 7, I knew from my Scholastic Book Club selections that newborn mice were tiny enough that several would fit in a tablespoon, and I was preoccupied by the question of how a human mother would even know that she had given birth to a mouse. I was so concerned about this that I had a hard time suspending my disbelief about the invisible car.