First Memories of Print
We all read — otherwise, communications here would be only images. But when we all started out, images were a big part of what we read. Even before we even understood what writing was, we had the images in picture books.
Pick a picture book that matters and talk about it, and what the connection is, either to your childhood or kids you know.
The Cat in the Hat, Where the Wild Things Are, Goodnight Moon — those are only a few, of course. I’m going to start with Emily’s First 100 Days of School by Rosemary Wells. It follows little bunny Emily’s beginning in the Kindergarten class of the guinea pig Miss Cribbage, counting as it goes day by day to 100. It wasn’t published when I was kid, but by the time my kids came around it was a regular. The illustrations are gorgeous, and as full of detail as the best Richard Scarry books. It goes on and on, so you aren’t trapped re-reading some shallow throwaway Disney story, but since each day is its own unit, you can easily stop or start anywhere.
When my kids started Kindergarten themselves, their teachers began reading it to them too. And they planned a party for day 100, where each student would bring in 100 of something and there would be little treats handed out in batches of 100. I remember my son bringing in 100 rocks.
Unfortunately, when time rolled around for my daughter’s party right before Christmas, a huge snowstorm hit and school was cancelled early for the year. So there was no party that year for her, with lesson plans scrambled and things that had to be made up. Although the time off for sledding made up for it.
So, Deadsplintereaders, what’s a picture book loved as a kid, or one you read as a library volunteer, or something you gifted once which became a big hit? Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, Frog and Toad Together, or even commercialized stuff like Star Wars: Chewbacca Makes a Friend — every picture book read to a kid is good.
There was a really charming set of children’s books released in the 1950s that became very popular with adults, the “This is [City]” series. The originals are collector’s items. They were reprinted and, I see, “updated” (no doubt it was time for a refresh.)
Somehow I’d never heard of Miroslav Sasek until now, but holy cow are those beautiful. Thanks!
The mid century Eastern European kids book illustrator I knew best was Tibor Gergely, who did a lot of work for Little Golden Books. Sasek seems just as good. His illustrations have a similar level of idiosyncratic color, perspective and composition. It’s interesting how kids just don’t have the same hangups about realism as certain uptight adults.
i was gonna go with fast frog
thing is..i dunno if thats right at all…i just remember a frog crashing everything
also..it reminded me of this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xE8Nr-mDa-Q
thats a 2 stroke dirt bike if i ever heard one
also a tiny blue peen if your 12
anyways…as weve got tiny peens and 2 strokes…ima go with my favourite chainsaw solo ever here and call it a night
yes it stupid……. its a fucking fun stupid tho
There’s a book I remember reading to my son about cats driving cars, with the memorable line going something like “Cats going fast, cats going faster, lookout cats, crash diasaster!”
The language and images of these books can hit you like a sledge hammer.
the wording reminded me of a game of yesteryear
Reminds me of the Sheep on a Ship/Sheep in a Jeep books. They were ones my husband loved and got for our son. He loves them too. Those sheep are terrible drivers.
Both these shaped my early brain.
ETA: mentioned in the intro.
Cars and Trucks and Things That Go was freaking brilliant. There must have been 20 different threads and subplots woven through that. Officer Flossie and Dingo! The watermelons. Dad’s sunburn. The mystery plot with the delivery. The banana car! Kids love that kind of detail.
I started reading very young and I can’t remember a single picture book my parents ever read me. I remember reading library books, but there must have been something before that. There must be something wrong with me.
Same here, Luigi.
One of the things I encountered going to the library with my kids when they were little was the way they’d pull a book off the shelf at random and then memories would flood back that I hadn’t thought about for decades.
YES. It’s so weird when I encounter a book with Lil and suddenly remember adoring that book, when I doubt I could have told you it existed minutes beforehand.
Drove my newly parent friends nuts with this because their kids loved hearing these at bedtime. My friends hated it (after reading it 5000 times) and me for giving it to their first born as an Xmas gift.
The Oobleck book — I remember the wise men who lived up on the mountain and the idiot king! But I seem to recall Dr. Seuss based his meter on the sound of a ship’s engine he heard all night on a trip across the ocean, and I can see how it might drive someone crazy.
He had one called “Happy Birthday to You” which I flat out refused to read after a while. The singsong drove me nuts.
I simultaneously love and hate the Sleep Book. It was Lil’s favorite when he was maybe 2, and it’s so long for a bedtime story… I feel like it’s intended that the kid is supposed to fall asleep while reading, but my kid has never once fallen asleep while being read to.
Do early comics count?
When did you encounter them?
The best of them really existed in a sphere outside or maybe parallel to language. You could understand them even without really reading them, and the panels had their own meaning.
When I was 4-5. I didn’t get the stories till I was 7-8 when I started reading adult level books.
I don’t remember having any picture books. We had lots of Beginner Books – Seuss, Go Dog Go, Hurry Up Slowpoke, You Will Go To the Moon, and Ann Can Fly. A big collection of Little Golden Books too, Poky Little Puppy of course. But the books I liked best were the Little Bear series.
In my mind things like Pokey Little Puppy and Little Golden Books are picture books. I think there was a price point they were aiming at which was lower than some of the more elaborate books, but the illustrations by people like Garth Williams and Tibor Gergely were still drop dead wonderful.
Little golden books still definitely count as picture books. There’s a picture on every page. I had a huge collection as a kid and we have a growing one now, but some of the ones I loved have not stood up on a re-read (like in terms of being upsettingly racist and/or sexist). I can’t recall which one I had to quietly remove from our shelves… The Little Engine That Could maybe? Definitely something about a train, and it had some pretty offensive stuff about Native Americans.
Lil’s favorites are Scuffy the Tugboat, and Scuppers the Sailor Dog (by Margaret Wise Brown).
I read my son Pat the Bunny and Goodnight Moon as an infant. He was fond of Richard Scarry as a toddler to maybe 5 or 6 years of age.
This article on Margaret Wise Brown is pretty interesting (may be paywalled). In retrospect, you can come to understand why being a kids book author at the time might position someone in the margins.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/02/07/the-radical-woman-behind-goodnight-moon
That was a great read. What an interesting woman she was.
There was a book about a red steam shovel which comes to mind but I can’t remember the name. I know the ending was supposed to be happy but it always made me sad.
I bet it was Mike Mulligan And His Steam Shovel.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Mulligan_and_His_Steam_Shovel
That’s the one.
Because of economic and time pressure the steam shovel digs herself into a hole and is forced to become the furnace of the building! It is sad but my kids love those books. Especially Katy the snowplow.
That’s horrible… There are a few from my childhood that I remember finding terribly sad that have therefore never graced Lil’s bookshelves. The Giving Tree and I’ll Love You Forever are the main ones.
I totally forgot about Katy the Snowplow.
Greatest kids book of all time!
That book was always checked out of my school library.
My second most favorite book as a kid…
Reminds me of one of my old favorites, Spooky Stories to Tell in the Dark. It had the one about the girl with the green ribbon, that I still think about to this day.
It is a great book of stories our Kupuns told us growing up. Lots of scary legends & folklore. It should be required reading for anyone that wants to live in Hawaii.
Late to the children’s book party but I grew up with a cute little book that had been my mother’s – it was at my grandmother’s house – that had a black poodle sitting either in or near a an old ice cream parlor chair at a cafe in Paris. I’ve googled it but haven’t found it yet.
Also, this trippy dreamy book was my mom’s favorite to read to us.