Public art displays are a great way for cities to brighten their streets and encourage visitors to explore their city.
Shae and I have enjoyed going sculpture hunting on our 5 year, 50 state road trip so far. We’ve looked for lighthouses on the Magnificent Mile in Chicago IL, light bulbs in Spartanburg SC, mermaids in Norfolk VA, the solar system in Gainesville GA and more.
We recently visited Abilene, Texas which in 2018 became the official Storybook Capital of America. Downtown Abilene is home to a slightly different kind of public art display as it features sculptures of characters from popular children’s books that weren’t each decorated by a different local artist.
Several of the sculptures are based on characters created by William Joyce, a children’s author with links to Abilene. Joyce created The Guardians Of Childhood series which was subsequently adapted for a popular movie.
There were 24 storybook sculptures in Abilene when we visited, although it looked like they might add more in the future. We decided to search for all the sculptures – here’s how we got on.
Storybook Sculpture Map
We spotted a couple of statues shortly after parking downtown, but Shae stopped in to the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature on Cedar St. They had a leaflet containing a map displaying the locations of all the storybook sculptures which made our life much easier. I’ve therefore listed all the characters below in the same order as they’re shown on that map.
You can also find the leaflets at the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden and inside the Abilene Convention & Visitors Bureau.
The Visitors Bureau is actually a good place to start your hunt as the first seven sculptures are located to the left of the building in Everman Park. Six of them are Dr Seuss characters, while the seventh is from a book by William Joyce.
Just to give you a heads up, I’ve included links to each of the books on Amazon. If you click one of these links and buy something on Amazon, we get paid a small amount but it doesn’t cost you anything extra.
1) The Lorax
First up was The Lorax from Dr Seuss’ book The Lorax. One of the things we noticed as we went storybook sculpture hunting was how amazing all the sculptures were. All the sculptures of the Dr Seuss characters were created by Leo Rijn.
2) Yertle The Turtle
The second sculpture is a turtle tower from Yertle The Turtle by Dr Seuss.
3) The Grinch
Next up was a sculpture of The Grinch and Max from How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr Seuss.
4) Sam-I-Am
The fourth storybook sculpture you’ll see in Everman Park is Sam-I-Am from Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss.
5) Horton The Elephant
The next sculpture you’ll come across will be Horton the Elephant from Horton Hears A Who! by Dr Seuss.
6) Cat In The Hat
The final sculpture of a Dr Seuss character is Cat In The Hat from The Cat In The Hat by Dr Seuss.
7) Childhood’s Great Adventure
Also within Everman Park is one of the largest sculptures you’ll see in Abilene. It’s called Childhood’s Great Adventure and shows Art, Esther and Spaulding aboard the Yuletide Flyer, a flying machine that takes them to the North Pole where they’ve been summoned by Santa.
The scene is from William Joyce’s book Santa Calls and was sculpted by Rick Jackson.
8) Man In The Moon
Keep walking up North 1st St towards Cedar St and you’ll see the 8th sculpture up high – MiM AKA Man In The Moon.
This character is from the book Man In The Moon by William Joyce and is part of the Guardians of Childhood series. Man In The Moon was sculpted by Pedro Rivera.
9) E. Aster Bunnymund
The second Guardians of Childhood sculpture is of E. Aster Bunnymund, AKA the Easter Bunny.
This character is from E. Aster Bunnymund and the Warrior Eggs at the Earth’s Core! by William Joyce and was sculpted by Steve Neves who created several of the other Abilene storybook sculptures.
10) Duck On A Bike
There are several other Guardians of Childhood sculptures, but you’ll come across those later. In the meantime, the next storybook sculpture is Duck from Duck on a Bike by David Shannon.
The sculptor was Steve Neves with Geoff Broderick creating the bronze casting.
You’ll find Duck outside Candies by Vletas which is a great excuse to stop inside to grab some truffles. We were sculpture hunting with our dog who’s actually called Truffles and she was hopeful that we’d gotten her some treats but alas, no chocolate for dogs.
11) David And Fergus
If you cross over North 1st St, the long building on the other side is the National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature (NCCIL).
Outside the building is a sculpture of David (of No, David! fame) and his dog Fergus from David Gets In Trouble by David Shannon. The sculptor and bronze caster were once again Steve Neves and Geoff Broderick respectively.
Truffles and I decided to recreate the scene – it’s almost like we’re a mirror image 😉
12) Nicholas St. North
Continue walking along NCCIL towards Cedar St and you won’t be able to miss Nicholas St. North AKA Santa Claus outside the building.
This is another character from William Joyce’s Guardians of Childhood series who appears in Nicholas St. North And The Battle Of The Nightmare King and was sculpted by Steve Neves.
13) Dinosaur Bob
You’re now halfway there, or less than halfway there if Abilene adds further sculptures in the future! The 13th feature is Dinosaur Bob from Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo by William Joyce.
Due to his height, you won’t find him at street level. Instead, head up Cedar St alongside the NCCIL building and look up across the street…
14) Jack Frost
The 14th storybook sculpture is Jackson Overland Frost AKA Jack Frost, another character from the Guardians of Childhood series.
Jack appears in William Joyce’s book called Jack Frost. He was sculpted by Steve Neves, while the bronze casting was done by Geoff Broderick.
15) Seymour
The next sculpture to hunt for is Seymour and he’s not an easy one to find. The map suggested he was on the corner of Cypress St and North 2nd St, but we couldn’t see him anywhere.
In the end we had to ask inside the Texas Star Trading Co. store and they let us know that he was up on a balcony above the store. Heading back out to the street corner, we looked up and finally saw him.
Seymour is a character who appears in the Can You See What I See series of books by Walter Wick. He was sculpted by Randy Gillman, with Geoff Broderick casting the bronze.
16) Sanderson Masnoozie
The next storybook sculpture was much easier to find as it was outside Texas Star Trading Co. This one was Sanderson Masnoozie AKA The Sandman, another of the Guardians of Childhood.
He appears in the story The Sandman: The Story of Sanderson Masnoozie by William Joyce.
As with several of the sculptures, it was sculpted by Steve Neves and Geoff Broderick created the bronze casting.
17) Queen Toothiana
On the opposite corner is Vera Hall Minter Park. Located in the park is Queen Toothiana AKA the Tooth Fairy. Queen Toothiana is one of the characters from William Joyce’s Guardians of Childhood series who appears in Toothiana: Queen of the Tooth Fairy Armies.
Toothiana was sculpted by Steve Neves, with the bronze casting done by Geoff Broderick.
The final seven sculptures can be found in Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden which is outside the Abilene Convention Center, four blocks to the north up Cypress St.
18) Good Night Dinosaur
The first sculpture in the Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden is Good Night Dinosaur. This character appears in How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? The book was written by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Mark Teague, with Steve Neves creating the sculpture for Abilene.
19) The Three Little Kittens
The next sculpture was based on the classic children’s story The Three Little Kittens. The sculptures were created by Steve Neves, with the images of the characters being based on the illustrations by Garth Williams for the book Three Bedtime Stories.
20) Stuart Little
Paddling his way through the park was Stuart Little. Due to all the rain Texas had been inundated with in the weeks leading up to our visit to Abilene, Stuart’s canoe was filled up with water, so it’s probably good that he was on dry land as he’d likely have sunk otherwise.
Stuart Little is the title character from the book Stuart Little written by E.B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams. Geoff Broderick created the bronze casting, with Steve Neves creating the final sculpture.
21) The Three Little Pigs
The next sculpture was one of my favorites, I think because the Big Bad Wolf’s stance makes him look so menacing. It features the characters from the classic children’s tale The Three Little Pigs, with the sculptures being based on the illustrations by Garth Williams in the book Three Bedtime Stories.
These characters were sculpted by Steve Neves and Geoff Broderick did the bronze casting.
22) Charlotte And Wilbur
Next up were Charlotte and Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web, a story by E.B. White which was illustrated by Garth Williams.
Once again, these were sculpted by Steve Neves with the bronze casting done by Geoff Broderick.
23) Goldilocks & The Three Bears
We’d almost completed the storybook sculpture hunt by this point. The penultimate one featured the characters from the classic children’s story The Three Bears. As with The Three Little Pigs and The Three Little Kittens, the sculptures by Steve Neves were based on the illustrations by Garth Williams in Three Bedtime Stories.
24) Marcel And Wilfred
The final sculpture featured Marcel and Wilfred, characters from the book This Moose Belongs To Me by Oliver Jeffers. It was installed in 2018 a few months before we visited and was sculpted by Steve Neves.
And with that, our storybook sculpture hunt was complete – we’d found them all!
Having completed the hunt, we noticed a sign outside Adamson-Spalding Storybook Garden saying that if you used a special app to take photos as you searched for the sculptures, you could stop by the Abilene Visitor Bureau to get a reward.
We decided to swing by the visitor bureau to see how strict they’d be with that seeing as we hadn’t read about the app until completing the sculpture hunt. They were all lovely in there and didn’t have a problem with giving us tattoos and badges to remember our visit to Abilene, Texas – the storybook capital of the US.
Final Thoughts
We spent a couple of hours looking for all the excellent storybook sculptures in Abilene, Texas and really enjoyed ourselves. It’s a great way to explore downtown Abilene and it’s fun seeing so many familiar children’s book characters.
If you like this kind of thing, check out all the other places you can go sculpture hunting around the US.
Hi Stephen, this is Steve Neves, one of the sculptors involved in the creation of the bronzes. I am glad that you enjoyed the Abilene Storybook Sculptures and impressed with your description of the area. I really like your photos and would like permission to use them in slide shows for my students, etc. If you’re okay with this, please let me know. Thanks!
Hi Steve,
Sure, please feel free to use them – thanks for asking!
How long did it take to see them all? I’m planning on going this summer and trying to figure out how much walking I’ll need to do in the weather.
And are any closed off? Like if I went in the early morning or evening or weekend, would they still all be accessible? I’m assuming so.
All of them are out in public rather than inside buildings, so you should be able to see them all no matter what time of day you visit. None of them were in parks that get closed at night or anything like that from what I can remember.
In terms of how long it takes, we spent just under two hours searching for the sculptures. That includes the time spent in Candies by Vletas and National Center for Children’s Illustrated Literature – you could probably do it in 90 minutes or less if you were pressed for time.