Tobias and his Big Red Satchel

This is the 50th anniversary of "Tobias and his Big Red Satchel", published by Alfred Knopf and my first children's book, . Tobias has a satchel filled with the 'terribly usable' things he must have at hand every day as he rescues animals and people from their various predicaments. His mother is worried because it is so heavy, but, as events prove, 'He can't do without any one of the things that he carries about.' Tobias has been been selling ever since publication, even after it went out of print. It has been translated into German, Danish, Swedish, and Africaans, somehow always staying in rhyme. The illustrations are black and white ink drawings with red for the all-important satchel.