Children’s Books from the 1920s to Today
Children’s author Kathleen W. Deady has posted her wonderful collection of kids’ books spanning the past century on her website. Lots of great stuff to look at here.
This post was written by John Martz on November 3rd, 2005.
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great link. Those from the 1960s especially kill me. Incredible.
A coincidence that a friend should send me this link from an actual children’s book:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v708/fstrpussycat/nodogs2.jpg
on the day of this post? I think mot.
ohhhh! Xmas is approchiiiiingggggg…..:+))))
That is a great resource. I’m gaining such a greater appreciation for the illustrations in books I grew up with. I just wish the interior pages were larger so we could see more of the art.
Great page!
Speaking of storybooks, the one I found very inspirational to me visually (and is unbelievably ultra-rare today) was the 1970 book, GLADYS THE GLINT, one of the books in “The Adventures of Starbeem and Re-Koil” book series (which dates back to 1967). The artwork was very surreal and trippy! GLADYS is the only book I have of the series and will pretty much treasure forever. They were about these bizarre-looking space critters that lived together on a planet, the leader was a sleek female black cat named Starbeem, and her friend was a red, 3-eyed mechanical dog named Re-Koil. Published by House of Ideas, the books were written by D.J. Donovan and illustrated by Edward A. Skrocki.
As for recent storybooks, my biggest favorite is SCARY GODMOTHER by Jill Thompson. :)
And one storybook I am hankering to see in print again is the *original* Golden Books RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER.
Totally regenerated me for the day. I love the 1950s illustration work of Margaret Bloy Graham. Niceness.
Love your site! I have been searching for a book I used to read to my son (in the late 1960’s or early 70’s). It’s called ‘Peter Perfect’. About a boy who was perfect, in every way, except he couldn’t sleep without a night light. Have you ever heard of it? Do you have any suggestions where I should look?
Thanks, for your help!
I recall that Peter Perfect story as a Scholastic book. If memory serves, the story ended with the phrase, “Nobody’s perfect,” or “Poor Peter Perfect,” and showed him bent over with a wind-up key in his back. There are lots of resources for out-of-print books, none of which I know off-hand, but I would just google for “out-of-print books” or “book search” and see what comes up.
Thanks, Johnny, for posting about the book collection. I could not view it today, as Ms. Deady’s server complained about bandwidth being exceeded (I still wonder what a bunch of fat musicians have to do with accessing a web-site).
Great link! Brings back some wonderful memories. How I loved ‘Harry The Dirty Dog’!
Hi! I just want to say thank you so much for your nice comments about my site and my children’s book collection. And I also have to apologize . . . I have discovered that my site is down . . . bandwidths exceeded. This has never happened so I was wondering what would have caused it. I had gotten two emails on Thursday about my collection, and both mentioned that they had linked to my site through Drawn! I didn’t think anything of it, and hadn’t even had a chance to respond to them yet. Then when I discover my “bandwidths exceeded” . . . apparently on Thursday . . . I started wondering. So I came here and discovered this nice post about my site. I don’t know for sure what caused the sudden spike in traffic, but if this has helped generate interest and sent people my way, I thank you!
Also I just wanted to let you know I am dealing with the problem . . . I was going to increase my hosting plan with my current server, but instead I have decided to switch servers to one that offers a much larger plan for the same money. I takes a little longer to switch servers, so hopefully I’ll be back up tomorrow.
I hope you will check back and continue enjoying my collection. Actually, I have only scratched the surface. I have many, many more books I hope to get up. . . eventually. It is time consuming, so I’ve been adding more as I can. I started displaying them just for fun because I figured people, especially illustrators, would enjoy seeing how illustration styles have evolved over the decades. I’m delighted to know someone is enjoying seeing them.
And Dennis . . . you said you wished the interior images were larger so you could see the art better. I’ll see what I can do about making them bigger.
Thanks!
Kathy
Barnbokssamling
Barnboksförfattarinnan Kathleen W. Deadys har lagt upp sin samling med barnböcker från 1920-talet och framåt. Att boken på bilden ovan är från 60-talet känns ju nästan för bra för att vara sant.
Via Drawn.
[...] books, … you so much for your nice comments about my site and my children??s book collection. …http://drawn.ca/2005/11/03/childrens-books-from-the-1920s-to-today/Vintage Children&aposs Illustrations, Children&aposs Vintage Books …For vintage children&aposs [...]