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amyable
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Angie's thread about "Is Your Favorite Picture Book..." made me think of something...
I'm wondering if those of you who adore picture books and use them often in your schooling have a certain type of memory of being read to in your childhood - or perhaps of adoring them on your own? Did you have a ton of great books growing up? Or one or two special ones? A loving mom who read to you every night? Or no books at all and you want different for your child? I'm curious.
So tell me about your childhood memories of picture book - what makes them so special?
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hylabrook1
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Our family didn't own many books at all. Eventually my parents bought a WorldBook Encyclopedia, and we had a great dictionary with all sorts of specialized supplements. I devoured both of these from 4th grade on (which is when we got the Encyc.) Before that, my mother would take us to the library every couple of weeks and I would read the books on my own. When I was 5 I got my own library card, which made it so that I could get out more books than when my mother had to get both her and my books on her card. The librarian didn't believe I could read, and insisted that I fill out my own application for the card to prove I could. I absolutely loved (and still do) Blueberries for Sal, Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel, Hundreds of Cats(or is it Thousands?). Now we own these titles, and at least a million more books on all levels - probably this is the case for most of us. 
Peace,
Nancy
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JennGM
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We had a few picture books, which were treasured dearly, but they were mostly Little Golden Books, I Can Read and the Dr. Suess collections.
My mother didn't read out loud much, but as we got older, my sisters read to our younger brothers and sisters, and added more picture books to our home library.
But we had many, many books. We were big readers, just not so much with picture books.
I took a Children's Literature course in college which really opened my eyes to many treasures, and I started collecting for my family before I met my husband.
Over time I've seen a shift of thinking, even in myself. Picture books are for all ages, not just beginning reading books that we must graduate to chapter books in order to advance in reading skills. That idea has really made our own learning much more colorful. How wonderful to have a stories painted in pictures and in words!
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seeker
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I honestly don't ever remember my parents reading to me when I was little, or having very many books at all. I remember having a couple of Cabbage Patch Kid books when I was about seven. That was also around the time my parents got the World Book Encyclopedias and the Childcraft Books. I loved those and devoured them.
I had a wonderful school librarian when I was in primary school and still remember her reading Amelia Bedelia (which we now have and my six year old loves reading) and Miss Nelson is Missing.
Reading Rainbow was one of my favorite television programs as a child (I must have had a crush on LeVar Burton!). I can still sing the intro to that show! I loved all the different people who read books on it... I now own Mama Don't Allow, and whenever I read it the author's voice is the one running through my head. "Swamp bands play in the swamp!"
I also had a wonderful fourth grade teacher who had such a gift for storytelling. She read us many chapter books that year. I believe that was the year I got the Little House series and started collecting the Saddle Club books.
Jenn, I loved my Children's Lit class in college, and now I feel that it was one of the most valuable classes I could have taken!
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JennGM
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We also had the Worldbook and Childcraft books, and used them daily. My husband's family also have them, and my MIL passed on the Childcraft to my sons. They are used daily, too.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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organiclilac
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JennGM wrote:
| We had a few picture books, which were treasured dearly, but they were mostly Little Golden Books, I Can Read and the Dr. Suess collections. |
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This was my experience exactly! I think my mom subscribed to that Dr. Seuss book-of-the-month club or something, and had the whole collection. She also had a collection of Disney picture books. I don't really remember being read to very much. Since I learned to read at the age of 4, and my little sister was born then, I think I was on my own. The picture book I have the most memories of is
One Fish
Two Fish
Red Fish
Blue Fish
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Tracy, wife to Shawn, mama to Samuel (4/01) and Joseph (11/11), and Thomas (2/15)
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LucyP
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My memory is that we didn't have many picture books. Lots of read aloud type books, reference books, and easy readers, but not in my memory the shelf full of picture books our children have. I would ask my mum but she is fully occupied with other things right now. I did love fairy stories and I do have strong visual memories of the illustrations in favourite fairy tale books, but picture books I do not remember.
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Erin
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We mostly had Bible picture books and Golden Books. Not Dr Suess though ladies as my mum couldn't stand Dr S books. I 'discovered' him with my son years later.
They just didn't publish as many 'back then' That makes me sound old
Our home abounded in chapter books though.
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Mimip
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My mother was wonderful about books when we were young. My brother and I were talking a while back, okay a few years back and found that both of us remember the library we went to even more than our own home:)
Both my brother and I were early readers but my mom read to us A LOT! Mostly picture books. I fondly remember sitting in the library in bean bag chairs reading Beatrix Potter over and over again. So much so that when my little sister was born, when I was 13, her first gift from me was a giant picture book collection of Beatrix potter tales and a stuffed animal Peter Rabbit.
WE loved picture books in our house.
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Mimi
Wife of 16 years to Tom, Mom of DD'00, DD'02, '04(in heaven) DS'05, DS'08 and DS '12
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MaryM
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Loving everyone's recollections .
JennGM wrote:
| We had a few picture books, which were treasured dearly, but they were mostly Little Golden Books, I Can Read and the Dr. Suess collections. |
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Jenn, have you read The Golden Legacy yet? Don't want to seem pushy, but...
I LOVE talking about picture book and memories. Getting all damp-eyed here. I don't know who remembers this thread from a couple years ago. But the current discussions/threads reminded me of it. When you were a kid... what was your favorite and most well-loved picture book?
In regards to your specific question, Amy...my parents did read aloud some picture books but only until we could read ourselves - Suess and Golden books would be the most common. We didn't have a lot of books - but those were the times - 60s and early 70's. I think some us who are a little older here will share that experience. You younger moms growing up in the late 70s, 80s and early 90s experienced a different volume of books available I think.
There just wasn't so much of everything and you didn't buy as much when I was younger. We utilized the library much more than my parents bought children's books. A few weeks ago I was going through books in my parent's house. Since my dad's death, my mom has decided to move into town and is needing to clear out the house before moving into a smaller place. I found these old books - I would say that these are some of the earliest I remember having and reading over and over.
Notice the terrible shape the bindings are in. I hadn't remembered that the farm one was a gift from my aunt and uncle on my 2nd birthday, but it is signed that way. That is the aunt that died last October. So I just have to say it was an emotional experience going through those books.
I especially loved the Three Little Kittens one - it has fuzzy mittens on each page that you can rub. Those pages got a lot of touching...
I shared in my memories in the above thread that even though they didn't buy tons of picture books, my mom did sign up for the Parent’s Magazine Press and Weekly Reader Children's Book Clubs for a couple years. Here is the collection of books I still have from those club days
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Mackfam
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MaryM wrote:
JennGM wrote:
| We had a few picture books, which were treasured dearly, but they were mostly Little Golden Books, I Can Read and the Dr. Suess collections. |
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... Suess and Golden books would be the most common. We didn't have a lot of books - but those were the times - 60s and early 70's. I think some us who are a little older here will share that experience.
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This was my experience as well. My mom didn't care for Suess that much, so we had A LOT of Golden Books, and there were several little books with cardboard hardcovers...a lot of them look like the books pictured in your post, Mary!! (I instantly recognize that tell-a-tale book) We read some chapter books too, like Joel Chandler Harris' Complete Tales of Uncle Remus. And we had a copy of A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson and Mother Goose. This was the only child's poetry we had and I devoured it over and over! A Child's Garden of Verses had a significant impact on me and really nurtured my imagination!
I have most of my treasured books tucked away, or up high. I do read them to the kids, but they aren't out on the every-day shelves. Only my two poetry books are out, they're in my 1st grader's basket this year.  Here are the rest:
The denim book is a homemade treasure my Granny made for me when I was little - it has shapes and names and numbers and letters in there. She sent it to me for Christmas while we were living in Germany. I still remember how it smelled like my Granny's house. Good memories.
Two of my favorites were those cardboard covered books:
My sister embellished Nubbins with her name as you can see! And you can see they're all quite loved and not in the greatest of shape. I still can't decide if I want to use my bookbinding tape on these or not. I'm feeling schmaltzy. I'll probably leave these exactly as they are. I did use the tape to fix up Good Little Bad Little Girl - I had to! It was losing its cover and my youngest and I were reading it every day!
I have very fond memories of books being read to while growing up. We didn't have much at all, and moved a lot at first, so the few picture books we had were treasured and always made me feel at home! I can remember that distinctly!! They were the first things unpacked and set up neatly on a small shelf near Mom's rocking chair. Mom and Dad read to us every.single.evening without fail. Mom would read to us before quiet times in the afternoon as well - we'd curl up next to her in the rocking chair (there was ALWAYS a rocking chair in our house!) and bring a book to her and she'd sit and slowly read. My memories of it are always slow and soft; Mom never hurried through a picture book.
I can remember her saying when I was pregnant with my first about 14 years ago that she was so excited and astounded at the number of picture books available as compared to when we were growing up - she intended to see to it that her grandchildren had a large library of beautiful picture books! And she did!!!! Every event, and sometimes just because, she gives picture books!
This makes me very wistful and homesick remembering our reading together!
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Jen Mackintosh
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Wildflowers and Marbles
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MaryM
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Oh Jen, those memories and pictures melt my heart. Weren't those "Tell a Tale" books sweet? ...and cheap - 19 cents! Oh, I see yours were 25 and 29 cents - you are definitely younger than I am .
Looking at your stash, Jen, I recognize the Santa Tell a Tale and the two on the far right ( Robin and Farm books) as ones we owned. We also had the Squirrel one of those, but half the pages were torn out of it so I didn't take it. What is the name of that series, Jen?
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Mackfam
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MaryM wrote:
| Weren't those "Tell a Tale" books sweet? ...and cheap - 19 cents! Oh, I see yours were 25 and 29 cents - you are definitely younger than I am . |
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They are wonderful, aren't they!!!! I have more at home, but Mom divided up our small stash between the three of us, giving certain books to each of us. There are a couple of series that are present in all of our books:
** Rand McNally Junior Elf Books
** Tell-a-Tale Books
These two series must have been common, easy to find (I see a lot of K-Mart stickers on mine)...and cheap as you point out , because these and the Little Golden Books are what made up our shelves growing up!
MaryM wrote:
| Looking at your stash, Jen, I recognize the Santa Tell a Tale and the two on the far right ( Robin and Farm books) as ones we owned. We also had the Squirrel one of those, but half the pages were torn out of it so I didn't take it. What is the name of that series, Jen? |
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It's the A Golden Shape Book series, Western Publishing Company, Inc., which is a part of the Golden Press series...same publishers as The Little Golden Books!
I'm dying to read that book you talked about above - Golden Legacy! Golden Press was a prolific publisher of childrens books around the 60's/70's!!
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Jen Mackintosh
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MaryM
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Mackfam wrote:
It's the A Golden Shape Book series, Western Publishing Company, Inc., which is a part of the Golden Press series...same publishers as The Little Golden Books!
I'm dying to read that book you talked about above - Golden Legacy! Golden Press was a prolific publisher of childrens books around the 60's/70's!! |
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Yes, Golden Shape Books! Thanks. Those were really fun. Isn't it amazing how changing the shape was so attractive. That was really novel for the time.
Jen, you have to read The Golden Legacy - you WILL really enjoy it. It touches on some of those other series and how they were influenced by the success of Golden. It is an amazing and intriguing story - those publishers had quite a vision, that went away from the prevailing children's picture book practice of the times. Sent me on several rabbit trials. I learned so much about the authors and illustrators. As a child I had no idea who the authors or illustrators were, nor did I make a connection among their individual books, And it didn't matter. It was just enjoyment of the individual book. It's one of the reasons I really wasn't "aware" of various famous authors/illustrators until the last 10 years, even though yes, I had read some of their books as a child. 
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Mary M. in Denver
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Erin
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Mackfam wrote:
There are a couple of series that are present in all of our books:
** Rand McNally Junior Elf Books
** Tell-a-Tale Books
These two series must have been common, |
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I have a number of the Rand McNally books, I have one still in use that I love; Johnny's Secret, all about Johnny Appleseed traveling and planting apple trees throughout America (is this even true?)
Mary, I have the Three Little Kittens too, but my copy doesn't have 'touchy' mittens.
I think I have more than I realise, it's just in comparison to today we didn't have many.
I just found this Rand McNally Children's Books Site
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Karen T
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The only books I can remember owning as a child are two that were given to me as birthday presents from outside the family. One was Dr. Seuss's Birthday book and the other was not a picture book, but it was Five Little Peppers and How they Grew. I think I got the first for my 6th birthday, and the other for my 7th birthday, so you can see how my reading took off in first grade
I also don't have a single memory of my parents ever reading to us. I guess they must have but my younger sister was almost 6 yrs younger and I don't remember them reading to her either. Both my parents were avid readers and my mom did take us to the library about every 2 weeks, but the checkout limit back then was something like 3-4 books! I can't imagine that now! We normally have about 25 books out now, and when the kids were preschoolers we often had up to 75, which was the limit at my old library.
btw, I still have that Dr. Suess birthday book and my kids loved it too. I always wanted to go swimming in the "mustard-off" pools!
I do remember various Little Golden books too but they didn't get saved - I think they might have been around for my little sister.
karen
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JennGM
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No, I haven't read "Golden Legacy" yet, Mary. I have to ILL it, which I've done, but it hasn't arrived.
I just picked up that Bird shaped book that Jen has pictured. There was a flea market at Dave's old parish in PA, and I found some fun 60s and 70s picture books. That blog "Vintage Books My Kid Loves" features a few of these, and it was neat to find them in real life.
I remembered another set of picture books we did have, and that was those Puppet Story Books, illustrated by Izawa. Remember those? We had a few, and I still have the 3 Little Kittens. Most of those lose their front 3-D cover over time.
And my grandmother had Richard Scarry books which we would pore over.
Two others I enjoyed growing up:
The Magic Fish: The Fisherman and His Wife by Frey A Littledale, illustrated by Ed Arno
The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Huchet Bishop, illustrated Kurt Wiese
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MaryM
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Another book I found at my parent's house, which unfortunately is not in great shape (title page torn - so I could not see an author and had to do some digging - and back cover torn off) is A Child's Home. This is such a sweet little book which I had totally forgotten but which brought back very sweet memories. It is like the small "Tell-a-Tale" books several of us have mentioned or the Golden books. The thing about this book it is clearly Catholic - so it wouldn't exactly be a part of those series. It shows a family going through everyday activities but includes Catholic imagery and traditions (like sign of cross at meal time, crucifix on wall) - all just a natural part of life.
It turns out it is written by Esther Wilkins (sister of Eloise Wilkin) and illustrated by Irma Wilde. It was published by a Simon & Schuster publishing arm - the Catechetical Guild Educational Society. It was like Golden books specifically for Catholics. Golden Books had Christian themed books but not specifically Catholic. This is where they published the Catholic ones.
I need to find my camera cord so I can upload a picture of the book. 
I started a separate thread on "A First Book for Little Catholics" in Domestic Church. I'm looking for more information on this publisher - the Catechetical Guild Educational Society.
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Mary M. in Denver
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JennGM
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MaryM wrote:
| It turns out it is written by Esther Wilkins (sister of Eloise Wilkin) and illustrated by Irma Wilde. It was published by a Simon & Schuster publishing arm - the Catechetical Guild Educational Society. It was like Golden books specifically for Catholics. Golden Books had Christian themed books but not specifically Catholic. This is where they published the Catholic ones. |
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I'll have to look at the book my mother has. It's "The Our Father" by Esther and Eloise Wilkin, but it's a Catholic version, but seems to be an oversized Golden Book, published by Guild Press.
I think there are few books that Esther did that was a "Catholic version" for Golden Books. All very hard to find.
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Jennifer G. Miller
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Mackfam wrote:
| I'm dying to read that book you talked about above - Golden Legacy! Golden Press was a prolific publisher of childrens books around the 60's/70's!! |
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Hey Mary, that book is finally here from ILL! I'm picking it up today! I can't wait!
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Jennifer G. Miller
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4Real Forums : Picture Book Discoveries
Topic: Your childhood memories of pict. books?
