First there is one stork, then there are two. They build their nest on a wheel that a Hungarian farmer has tied to his chimney. The farmer is glad. Storks bring great honor and good luck to the house where they choose to build their nest. All summer long the storks raise their family of two small white silent storks in the nest on the wheel on the chimney. Then autumn comes and joined by thousands of other storks they silently fly south, always south, heading for the deep warm wilderness of Africa, their winter home. And when springtime returns, the storks fly north, build new nests on wheels on chimneys, and their story begins all over again. Wheel on the Chimney is the result of a wonderful collaboration between artist and author. Tibor Gergely had always wanted to do a picture book about the beautiful storks of Hungary, his native land. And when Margaret Wise Brown saw his lovely paintings, she was eager to write the story of the marvelous, brave birds whose cycle of migration brings them back each spring to build their nests on farmers' chimneys.
Author
Margaret Wise Brown wrote hundreds of books and stories during her life, but she is best known for Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Even though she died nearly 70 years ago, her books still sell very well. Margaret loved animals. Most of her books have animals as characters in the story. She liked to write books that had a rhythm to them. Sometimes she would put a hard word into the story or poem. She thought this made children think harder when they are reading. She wrote all the time. There are many scraps of paper where she quickly wrote down a story idea or a poem. She said she dreamed stories and then had to write them down in the morning before she forgot them. She tried to write the way children wanted to hear a story, which often isn't the same way an adult would tell a story. She also taught illustrators to draw the way a child saw things. One time she gave two puppies to someone who was going to draw a book with that kind of dog. The illustrator painted many pictures one day and then fell asleep. When he woke up, the papers he painted on were bare. The puppies had licked all the paint off the paper. Margaret died after surgery for a bursting appendix while in France. She had many friends who still miss her. They say she was a creative genius who made a room come to life with her excitement. Margaret saw herself as something else - a writer of songs and nonsense.
