Pottery Painting Finale: The Winners

It is quite obvious that the winner of my little pottery painting identification contest is "my name is emily" - which I could have predicted before I made the post. I don't blame you all for being too intimidated by Emily's expertise to try to make any more guesses, her natural skills and fierce competitiveness makes her proficient at many activities and certainly intimidated me out of games like ping pong back in college (also, she realized trying to play ping pong with me was really a waste of her time and talent, cause wow, I'm not good at that game! Move on over to the foosball table, and its a different story. Watch out!). Therefore! Emily - you can feel free to send me a few suggestions for how you would like your own pot decorated, and I'll get to work! Congratulations!

Honorable mention goes to Stephen Chen, who while he did not post his guesses online, did successfully identify every single story and most authors to me in person. Stephen's proficiency is just one of the many marks of his being a super great dad to the adorable little Mayah, who is fully and wonderfully spoiled with an incredible library of children's stories that I hope my own little gal can come visit and enjoy some day in the not-to-distant future. I happen to have exactly two blank pots left - which means Stephen, you also get to make your own request for a pot design.

The official answers are:
1. Le Petit Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery 
2. The Giving Tree, by Shel Silverstein
3. Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory, by H.A. Rey [not to be confused with the I Love Lucy episode in the chocolate factory, though that was a likely inspiration, or "monkey meatball factory" - though those were entertaining guesses]
4. the poems "Hug o War" and "Early Bird," by Shel Silverstein
5. Where the Wild Things Are, by Maurice Sendak [I also very much enjoy the Dave Eggars movie rendition, especially as a play therapist - more sad than you would expect, but beautifully done]
6. the poem "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me Too," by Shel Silverstein
7. The Mysterious Tadpole, by Steven Kellogg
8. the poem "Where the Sidewalk Ends," by Shel Silverstein [he was obviously a favorite of mine growing up, and also, his drawings were quite easy to mimic - especially the ones without color, so the large number of pots are both an homage to him and a sign of my laziness]
9. an assortment of Beatrix Potter characters
10.   Corduroy, by Don Freeman

Now everyone can look forward to seeing how I can manage the challenge of pots-on-request vs. just what seems do-able in my own little mind! This might get interesting . . .