Write a title to your blog post like that you are just SETTING YOURSELF UP for trouble.  But I like trouble.  I eat it for breakfast.  Or, at the very least, gnaw on it idly at lunch.

In the past I’ve noted each appearance of a statue pertaining to children’s literature when it crops up, but I’ve never been particularly systematic.  That ends today!  This post, which I shall continually update with your points and suggestions, shall serve as a place to find all statues pertaining to books for kids residing in the continental U.S. where they can be viewed regularly.  Those are the parameters.  Should someone ever wish to do a road trip in which they visit of them helpful reader Sarah McElfresh suggested using www.batchgeo.org to create a map.  She’s already started one here (which gives a nice sense of how the locations fall out).  For my part, I will also note the sculptor whenever I am able on each of these but I warn you that I am lazy and haven’t been able to track them all down. Here are the results:

Book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Location: Central Park, New York City, NY
Sculptor: José de Creeft

We all know this classic Alice statue that kids somehow manage to climb all over without killing themselves in the process (a miracle in and of itself). Originally constructed in 1959, the face of this particular Alice was modeled after the sculptor’s daughter.  My heart, however, belongs to a much lesser known statue featuring Alice & Co. in the nearby Levin playground.

Book: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Location: Levin Playground, Central Park, New York City, NY

It has a monkey spitting water at you.  What more do you need?

Book: Alice’s Through the Looking Glass
Location: The White Marsh branch of the Baltimore County Public Library, MD
Sculptor: William F. Duffy

Boy, I would love to see this someday. Isn’t it gorgeous? Sadly that’s as big a photo of it as I was able to find. You can read the artist’s thoughts on their creation here.

Book: Amelia Bedelia
Location: Harvin Clarendon County Library, Manning, South Carolina

This little bronze has been in the possession of the Harvin Clarendon County Library since around 1999, it would seem. Isn’t she a beauty? The little dog makes for a nice touch. Thanks to Charlotte Johnston for the tip.

Book: The Bears of Blue River
Location: Shelbyville, IN

Not all children’s literary statues are of books you’ve heard of. I confess that until I ran across this image of the character Brent Balser holding aloft two bear cubs from Charles Major’s The Bears of Blue River, the book was unknown to me. What cannot be in doubt, however, is how friggin’ cool the image is. There’s even an annual Bears of Blue River Festival. Boo-yah, Shelbyville! Thanks to BHT for the link.  And speaking of bears . . .

Book: Blueberries for Sal
Location: Boothbay Harbor, ME
Sculptor: Nancy Schön

Remember the name “Nancy Schön” because it’s going to come up more than once here.  In 2008 she was commissioned by the Board of Directors of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens to make a sculpture of Little Bear from the book Blueberries for Sal by the author Robert McCloskey.  The result is this cute little feller who is surrounded by actual honest-to-goodness blueberry bushes.  You can read more about it and see Ms. Schön’s process here.

Title: The Bremen Town Musicians
Location: Morgan County Public Library, Madison, GA
Sculptor: Elbert Weinberg

Created originally for the Lenox Square Shopping Center (see some of the Uncle Remus statues below for others created for this open air mall), this beauty was apparently moved from the mall to the library as recently as 2012.  Love the look.  You can read a plaque with more information in this blog post.

Title: The Bremen Town Musicians
Location: The Lynden Sculpture Garden, Milwaukee, WI
Sculptor: Gerhardt Marcks

A little more representational than its Georgian equivalent, this statue was originally constructed in 1951. And lest you think this is the only children’s literary statue of Milwaukee, be sure you check out Gertie the Duck as well.  Thanks to JoAnn Early Macken for the tip!

Book: The Cat in the Hat
Location: The Nichols Library, Naperville, IL
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

Standing at a whopping eight feet tall, this is one of the rare Cat in the Hats to stand on his own two feet without his creator’s statue anywhere nearby.  Get more information (as well as an audio tour of the statue) here.  See the cat yarn bombed here.  Thanks to Mr. Schu and Andrea Beaty for the suggestion!

Book: The Cat in the Hat
Location: The Storybook Garden, The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

Now this Cat does indeed share quite a few similarities with the Cat in Naperville, it’s true.  From what I can tell this Cat is significantly smaller, coming in at roughly the size of a small child.  Still, it really feels like there should be some kind of connection.

Book: The Cat in the Hat
Location: The Geisel Library, University of California, San Diego, CA

Ah! A very nice one. Clearly Seuss is planning on taking over the world here. Spoiler Alert: He did.  Thanks to Lauren for the tip.

Book: The Cat in the Hat
Location: Cohen Children’s Hospital, North Shore, Long Island, NY

Tina wins for finding what may well be the most unknown Seuss sculptures to date. Indeed, if she hadn’t sent me a picture herself I might not have believed it. I’ll let her explain: “At the entrance of the Cohen Children’s Hospital at North Shore Long Island Jewish in Lake Success (just over the Queens border in Nassau County) are two wonderful bronze statues of the Cat in the Hat, and Sally and Nick riding their bicycle.” You can see them in the background in the first picture and too too close in the second. If anyone can send me something a little more clear, I’d be grateful. This one’s pretty obscure.  Thanks to Tina for the tip!

Book: Charlotte’s Web
Location: Wellesley Free Library, Wellesley, MA
Sculptor: Rion Microys

I never said the statues had to be made out of a particular substance, did I? So by that logic papier maché is a-okay. Here, Charlotte and Wilbur reside in a children’s room alongside Templeton the rat (he’s in there somewhere). For more information you can go here. Thanks to Jill Hilycord for the link!

Book: Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures With the Family Lazardo
Location: The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX
Sculptor: Bob ”Daddy-O” Wade

From 2001 to about 2007 or so, Bob lived on the roof of The Grace Museum’s garage. Originally the sculpture was commissioned for the 20th annual Outdoor Sculpture Exhibit, and the council’s Outdoor Sculpture Committee received permission from The Grace to put Dinosaur Bob on its garage. From what I’ve been able to piece together, Bob was challenged by someone in town and the city told The Grace to remove Bob.  Eventually he was saved and refurbished and given to the NCCIL where he lives today. Here’s an article about Bob and his controversy.  A brochure from 2013 shows where he eventually landed.  Thanks to Sidney Levesque for the tip and Morgan Mogler for the image!

Book: The Dinosaur Who Lived in My Backyard
Location: Stagecoach Park, Evergreen, CO
Sculptor: Greg Wasil

Based on a book by B.G. Hennessey, I always assumed that Bob here was based on Bill Joyce’s Dinosaur Bob. Not the case!  Check out more info on Bob here.

Book: The Enormous Egg
Location: The National Zoo, Washington D.C.

Do we count statues that were named for children’s books after the fact? We do when it’s a book like Oliver Butterworth’s classic. Plus I like having the three dinosaur statues here together. As it happens the name makes a lot of sense if you’ve read the book. In it a boy raises a dinosaur but when it becomes too large, “the boy brings him to the ‘National Museum’ in Washington, D.C. He remains there until he is eventually transferred to the National Zoo’s Elephant House because there is a law against stabling large animals in District.” Apt, no? You can learn more about the dino here. Thanks to L. Quirk for the link.

Books: Everything by Dr. Seuss
Location: The Dr. Seuss National Memorial at The Quadrangle in Springfield, MA

Can you believe that this is just a small sample of the statues you’ll find in this remarkable place?  To learn more about it, go here.

Book: Gertie the Duck
Location: Milwaukee Riverwalk, Wisconsin Avenue Bridge, Milwaukee, WI
Sculptor: Gwendolyn Gillen

Ill-remembered today, this 1959 classic by Nicholas P. Georgiady and Louis G. Romano was based on a true story about a mother duck that nested on a wood piling under the Wisconsin Avenue Bridge. Today that same bridge sports statues of that little duck and her offspring as a reminder. There are five statues of Gertie and her chicks (which were named Black Bill, Dee Dee, Freddie, Millie, Pee Wee, and Rosie) along the Riverwalk.  There’s also a bronze statue of the Fonz known as The Bronz Fonz not too far away, but that’s neither here nor there. You can find more info on Gertie here.  Thanks to JoAnn Early Macken for the tip!

Book: Goodnight Moon
Location: Grenville, South Carolina
Sculptor: Jim Ryan and Zan Wells

One of the rare cases where sculptures have been made of a near forgotten character in a classic work of literature. As the story goes, there are a total of nine images of mice in Goodnight Moon. So for his senior project, Jim Ryan decided to make these mice and place them around the city’s Main Street. Technically there is a mouse in the book, and who’s to say it’s the same one in every picture? More info can be found here. Thanks to Jill Hilycord for the note.

Book: Green Eggs and Ham
Location: 95th Street Library, Naperville, IL
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

Naperville again. You’ve got to credit the people there. They like their Seuss. Mind you, I can never look at Sam-I-Am without wondering what the name of his top-hatted picky eating best friend was. A mystery for the ages, that one. Don’t be deceive by the photo of Sam, by the way. This little feller stands at a good nine feet tall! More information can be found here.

Book: Green Eggs and Ham
Location: The Storybook Garden, The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

Same sculptor, different location.  As you can see the stick holding the food items is much shorter in this version than the one in Naperville.  Otherwise they’re mighty close.  Thanks to Sidney Levesque for the tip.

Book: Harry the Dirty Dog
Location: Bookworm Gardens, Sheboygan, Wisconsin

Now here’s a location I can truly get behind! Apparently the Bookworm Gardens pride themselves on providing a, “garden based completely on children’s literature—over 60 different books are represented, selected by reading specialists, librarians, teachers, and kids.” Best of all, you get to actually wash Harry. See the location and all its cool ideas here. And thanks to JoAnn Early Macken for the tip!

Book: Honk the Moose
Location: Pavilion Park, Biwabik, MN

If the original book isn’t ringing any bells it’s a shame. This was a 1936 Newbery Honor book written by Phil Strong and illustrated by the legendary Kurt Weise. It’s always interesting to me when statues are made of books that were, themselves, based on true stories. In this case, the tale is about a moose that holed up in a stable with some horses when the weather was particularly grim. There’s a great MPR piece on it. The statue itself is made of fiberglass. No idea who made it but I believe its plaque suggests that it was created in 2000.  Thanks to Tina Larson and Laurie Johnson for the tip.

Book: Horton Hears a Who
Location: The Storybook Garden, The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

A beautiful bronze sculpture of Horton is available for viewing in Abilene.  A lovely little feller from tip to toenails.  Thanks to Sidney Levesque for the tip and Morgan Mogler for the image.

Book: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Location: Naper Boulevard Library, Naperville, IL
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

And we’re back in Naperville once more! You may recall that one of the Cats in the Hats was located outside the Nichols Library and Green Eggs and Ham outside the 95th Street branch. Artist Leo Rijn is back again as well with a Seuss character, and a holiday themed one at that.  Go here for more information.  Thanks to Crystal Brunelle for the tip!

Book: How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Location: The Storybook Garden, The National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature, Abilene, TX
Sculptor: Leo Rijn

And like a ping-pong ball we shoot back to Abilene.  I just love how his feet have sunk into the “snow”. Thanks to Sidney Levesque for the tip and Morgan Mogler for the image.

Book: The Jungle Book
Location: Bensenville Public Library, Bensenville, IL
Sculptor: Tuck Langland