Cyndy Szekeres, Western Publishing Co., 1983

Found this little gem at my friend Jenny's house. I had not idea who Cyndy Szekeres was but examination proves I'm quite familiar with her work and I love it. I have a soft spot for mice and the ones in this little counting book are as cute as it gets!

Love Those Little Golden Books

Ryan Novelline, designer, 2011

Apparently I'm not the only one. I just ran across this gem in the School Library Journal. Artist, Ryan Novelline used approximately 1500 pages from 300 Little Golden Books which he found at thrift stores and sewed together with golden thread. There are AMAZING pictures of this wild dress here on his site. Do check them out.

The Golden Egg Book

The Golden Egg Book by Margaret Wise Brown
Illustrated by Lilian Obligado, Western Publishing Company, 1947

I've managed to pull together a handful of bunny books in time for Easter and trust me, there are more. It turns out that bunnies and rabbits are a great subject for the children's book.

This Little Golden Book is a lovely story about a duck and a bunny. It begins with bunny finding a mysterious egg and wondering what is inside. In his impatience, he pushes it with his foot, rolls the egg down the hill, throws rocks at it and finally gets so worn out from wondering and waiting that he falls asleep.


Of course, a watched egg never hatches but when bunny sleeps, duck emerges. Duck is mystified by this furry thing beside his egg and he tries to rouse it by doing all the same things bunny did to the egg... nudges him with his foot, throws a rock, rolls him down the hill until finally the bunny wakes and the two embrace and no one was ever alone again!

R is for Remarkably Cute.

Richard Scarry's Chipmunk's ABC by Roberta Miller
Illustrated by Richard Scarry, Western Publishing Company, 1963

I love Lowly Worm and the rest of the Richard Scarry gang, but I think my heart will never be the same after looking through these darling pictures. His work is softer and more tender in this ABC book from 1963. I love the head bandage, the picture of cheese on the wall, the way the mouse's records are strewn about, and how his pal chipmunk is saying hello from the window, because "Mouse has Mumps!"


My cover is the white one, and the woodsy one seems to be an earlier copyright. I just couldn't scan all the pictures in, but I ADORE the one with Froggie playing the oboe and Donkey drinking from an orange up. Something about these animals in bibbed overalls, in life jackets on the lake, carrying tea kettles and getting phone calls just makes my heart pang.



Here is a comparison between the pages of a 1963 and a 1991 version of Richard Scarry's The Best Word Book Ever. Very interesting stuff. Scarry wrote and/or illustrated over 300 books.

Ode to Spring.

Pussy Willow by Margaret Wise Brown
Leonard Weisegard, illustrator, Western Publishing, 1951

Mud puddles, chirping birds, the crocus, buds on trees, and the pussy willow are all happy signs of spring. Oh, and the opening of Dairy Queen. :) I decided to post on this Little Golden Book in celebration of spring's arrival, though it seems to be in fits and starts.

Weisgard's illustrations in this book stand out to me in part because of the page layouts. I find it intriguing how the entire page is an illustration and then the text is written on solid colored squares that almost look like they were pasted on by some amateur scrapbooker. Yet, I like it. This little kitty seems too sweet for words, not like those mind-reading-spooky-little-buggers.

The Magic Friend Maker

The Magic Friend Maker by Gladys Baker Bond
Illustrated by Stina Nagel, Western Publishing, 1966

This is one of those Little Golden Books that I loved sort of inexplicably. Looking at the images now, they don't really catch my eye. In fact, I'm always impressed by the vintage fashion in the pics. The story is about a lonely little girl who wanted a best friend.

"Beth was a one-girl... She pretended she was her own friend, but it didn't work. Poor Beth. She played alone."

Okay, now I know why I liked this book. :) I could totally relate. I grew up on a farm with no neighborhood and many school friends were long distance to call on the telephone. I played alone a lot.

When Jean moves into her apartment building, she and Beth share a moment over a rock which Jean had in her hands.

"Oh, you don't really have a rock," Beth said. But she hoped Jean did have a rock. Here in the middle of the city, there weren't any rocks."

Incredible. Is that true? I was also a bit of a rock collector as a child. Only one from my collection remains in possession.

The rock becomes an talking point and an opportunity for instant bonding and Jean and Beth become best friends, until Jean has to move away. She leaves her rock with Beth, who uses it to greet the new neighbor. That must have been some rock!

Prayers for Children

Eloise Wilkin, illustrator, Western Publishing, 1952

This Little Golden Book was never that exciting of a book for us as kids because it was a collection of prayers rather than a story, but the artwork always drew me in. It reminds me of one of my favorites which I am determined to recover that focused on the seasons.

The doxology was something that we sang every week at church after the offering plate was collected and brought forward and I learned the Lord's Prayer with "temptations" rather than "debtors" though at the Presbyterian church they said debtors... my mom was determined to teach us the "right" way as she learned it in her Lutheran church.

I love that this book includes a prayer from Coleridge.

My version of the bedtime prayer ended with "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take." Pretty morbid stuff now that I think about it.

Mother Goose in the City

Dora Leder, illustrator, Western Publishing Company, 1974

It turns out that I have a ton of Mother Goose books. Here's one from my Little Golden Books collection I completely forgot about. The verses in the book are the traditional ones rather than an urban version suggested by the title. I guess the "in the city" aspect is portrayed in the illustrations. Here are some of my favorites.

Illustrated by Al White, Western Publishing Company, 1965

This is a Golden Super Shape Book with rather simplistic text, but pictures that are burned on my brain. I loved the mouse shaped swimming pool at Mickey's house, his cool blue convertible, and all his exciting "movie roles" as the book points out: cowboy, spaceman, swordsman. The book has a very limited plot. I think the story is... "meet Mickey, here's what his life is like." The book features some of the rest of the gang: Pluto, Minnie, Goofy, Donald Duck, and even his nephews, Mortie and Ferdie. The story ends with a big picnic on the beach.

Truly this book is nothing "special" but when I suddenly spotted this copy at the local thrift store, I didn't hesitate to shell out the 50 cents necessary to make it mine.

We Like Kindergarten.

by Clara Cassidy, Pictures by Eloise Wilkin
Western Publishing Company, 1965

Books about starting school and kindergarten are all over the place now, The Kissing Hand or Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten or Countdown to Kindergarten,
but when I was young, this was the book. I loved kindergarten and Carol's experience was a lot like mine or at least what I remember about it. I was so proud of my rug for naptime. It was a soft white furry carpet square with my name written on the back in black marker, and we hung them on a hook just outside the room. Other than naptime, I mostly remember games. I do know we had all day kindergarten, but we only met every other day.

Cassidy's book features all the best bits of school... classroom pets, finger painting, musical instruments, show and tell, recess on the playground, story time, and Farmer in the Dell -- a game I've not thought about in YEARS. I love how Carol comes home and "plays school" with her little sister Laurie and Rusty and Patches (pets) are her "boys and girls."

I Heart the Stegosaurus.

Dinosaurs by Jane Werner Watson
Pictures by William de J. Rutherfoord
Western Publishing Company, 1959

From Loganberry books,
I'm afraid that I don't know much about Jane Werner Watson (1915- ), but a great-niece wrote in that she is in her eighties and living in California. Werner wrote and edited many children's books from 1944-1978 (mostly in the '50s) and has published under at least three different variations of her name: Elsa Jane Werner, Jane Werner, and Jane Werner Watson. Many of these were for Golden Books, including at least 35 Little Golden Books, and many for Walt Disney Productions. Some are religious in theme, some silly or comic, and some truly magical.

I know that this book was probably my first exposure to the idea of dinosaurs -- that subject that captures most young children's imaginations and sparks a curiosity in what our world was once like. I remember really liking this image:

It has a very "old-school" feel to it.

Little Black Sambo -- Then and Now

Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman
illustrated by Bonnie and Bill Rutherford
Western Publishing Company, 1961

I loved this book when I was a kid. As an adult I learned that it's been banned in some places and is considered to be controversial because of racial slurs involving the names of the characters. Apparently the word "sambo" is considered a racial slur in some countries. Furthermore, some versions of the book were illustrated in a caricature fashion that brought racial slurs to African Americans in the US and from that the story fell out of favor. You can read more about the controversy surrounding this book here.

What I loved about the story was how smart the little boy was in convincing the tigers to accept his new clothing items rather than eating him. The very best part of the story, though, is when the tigers begin to fight over the clothing and chase each other around the tree "so fast that you couldn't see their legs at all."


"And they still ran faster and faster and faster, till they all just melted away, and there was nothing left but a great big pool of melted butter (or "ghee" as it is called in India) round the foot of the tree."

Black Mumbo, the little boy's mother, makes pancakes for supper and uses the tiger ghee which makes the pancakes tiger striped.

"And Black Mumbo ate twenty-seven pancakes, and Black Jumbo ate fifty-five, but Little Black Sambo ate a hundred and sixty-nine, because he was so hungry!"

You can read the entire book here.

A few years ago I picked up a new "modern" copy of Little Black Sambo which suggested a PC angle based on the title if nothing else.

By Helen Bannerman, Illustrated by Valeria Petrone
Random House, 2004

The title page offers this note:

Helen Bannerman, an Englishwoman who lived in India for thirty years, made up The Story of Little Black Sambo for her two daughters on a long train ride in 1899. For this edition of Bannerman's story, the little boy and his parents have been given new names.

The illustrations just seem rather simple in a boring way and lack the charm of the book I loved as a child. The one of the tigers is pretty similar though, and in this image you can see them turning into ghi (as it's spelled in this version). The characters' names are: Ramita (mother), Kapaali (father), and Little Rajani. I think the updated names are a nice touch.

The Three Bears

The Three Bears, F. Rojankovsky, illustrator
Western Publishing, 1948

Rojankovsky's pictures are rich in color and delicious in detail. They have a sort of rich European feel to them. I love the details in the bears' clothing and accessories and the style of everything within the house.

Feodor Rojankovsky was born in Russia and studied at the Academy of Art in Moscow. During the first World War he served as an officer in the Russian Army. After the war he settled in Poland where, for the next few years, he worked as Art Director-first of the Opera in Poznan, the of Poland's leading fashion magazine, and finally of the Wegner publishing house in Warsaw. Later, in Paris, he received several prizes for his work in advertising design. He has illustrated over forty books, published here and abroad. His artwork appears in many of the Little Golden Books.

No Desserts for You!

The Poky Little Puppy
By Janette Sebring Lowery, Illustrated by Gustaf Tenngren
Simon and Schuster, 1942

This book was one of the first 12 Little Golden Books published in the early 1940s. According to Publisher's Weekly as of 2001, it was the all-time, single best-selling children's book in the English language. (Selling nearly 15 million copies.) I can understand the appeal. After all, it's about puppies and dessert! Two of my favorite things.

In this story the poky little puppy is always lagging behind his disobedient siblings and is somewhat rewarded for his tardiness because he is able to gobble up the desserts that the others were forbidden after their hole digging naughtiness.

Here's a great quote:
"I hear something!" said the poky little puppy.

The four puppies listened, and they could hear it, too. "Chocolate custard!" they cried. "Someone is spooning it into our bowls!"

I love that the puppies are that excited to eat dessert. I didn't even know what rice pudding or chocolate custard were as a child but they seemed exotic and delicious and what puppy or child wouldn't want that? Still they seemed to have a remarkable disregard for following the rules!

Finally his poky behavior caught up with him.
This is one sad little puppy to have missed the strawberry shortcake!

I Heart Fairy Tales.

Hansel and Gretel by Brothers Grimm
Illustrated by Eloise Wilkin
Western Publishing Company, 1954

I love this dark, somewhat violent fairy tale. I mean, when one thinks about it, it's quite scary. It really plays on one's childhood fears--evil stepmother, child abandonment, getting lost, being hungry and alone, creepy old ladies who entice you with candy but really want to cook and eat you, murdering someone even if it's in self defense. And then divorce of some sort when the evil stepmother heads for the hills and the repentant father seeks out the kids he'd traded away for his new wife. Yikes.

Wilkin's innocent illustrations soften that story considerably. Some versions have a white duck at the end. This one does not. It's how I first learned Hansel and Gretel.