Thursday, January 27, 2011

Little Golden Books

Who remembers these books? The stories of sad little Puff who learns the hard way what it means to be a good friend and wise little Bobbie who chooses to spend his money not on things, but on a memorable experience!



These were a couple of unforgettables from my Pre-K Reading List.
Here's another one:



This innocent autumn scene by artist Eloise Wilkin (1904-1987) appears in her illustrated edition of Robert Louis Stevenson's Child's Garden of Verses (click on the picture to enlarge the text for reading Stevenson's, "Autumn Fires"). Known for her darling portrayals of chubby-cheeked children, Wilkin worked for Simon & Schuster, illustrating Little Golden Books from 1943 - 1961.

I had a few of her books as a child, and the dreamy child-centric life depicted on those pages contributed greatly to the vision of a perfect world that danced in my little head. As for visions of sugar plums, I looked no further than the gingerbread house with windows of spun sugar in Wilkin's illustrated Hansel and Gretel, one of my earliest Little Golden Books:


I've had these books for a long, long time.
Remember the old rhyme?

Make new friends but keep the old,
one is silver, the other gold.


These old friends are Golden!

I was also fond of the Child Horizons Series, especially the story of how "Mr. Apple Names the Children." The boys are called MacIntosh and Jonathan; the girls are called Delicious (Delia, for short) and -- my favorite -- Snow. Snow Apple. What a great name!

See, in the upper left hand corner of the orange book: that's Mr. Apple at the library (back before the internet), researching apple species, trying to find the perfect name for his baby girl (story by Jean McDevitt). I also liked the one about Tallulah, a bookish girl who spent her days hiding up in a chinaberry tree, reading her favorite books and spying on the passersby. What a great pasttime!




Earlier blog posts:
Fires of September & Childhood Autumn

And in 2022:
Baby Ellie!

5 comments:

  1. I am looking to by the two books The Story Hour and The Parade of Stories
    can anyone please tell me where I can find these two old children books...

    Thanks

    ReplyDelete
  2. Try amazon used:

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B000UD75EG/ref=tmm_other_meta_binding_used_olp_sr?ie=UTF8&condition=used&sr=8-1&qid=1406315803

    http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=child%20horizon%20parade%20of%20stories


    ReplyDelete
  3. What is the name of the book or story about a little bookish girl named Tallulah who sat in a Chinaberry tree trying to find that book

    ReplyDelete
  4. Heather, sorry I did not see your comment until just now! Please forgive the delay. I remember this story so clearly, but unfortunately, it does not appear in the copies of _Story Hour_ & _Parade of Stories_ that I ordered from amazon (slightly different editions than the ones I read at the library as a child). If I am ever successful in locating source, title, or author, I will surely let you know -- and please let me know if you have had any luck yourself finding it in the past year!

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://forums.abebooks.com/discussions/AbeBookscom_BookSleuthreg/_/_/abesleuthcom/1732.1?dbg=6

    ReplyDelete