BoingBoing points to a Flickr set by "kokojiak" that compares scans of the 1963 and 1991 editions of Best Word Book Ever. Feather headdresses are out; yellow ribbons slapped on boys' heads add some instant girls to the scene. Then there are the weird ones: a boat named Gretel in 1963 was rechristened The White Swan in '91...anyway, neat to glance at. I loved that book when I was a kid. And I feel the keen loss of the word "promptly."
4 comments:
Now that is positively Scarry. [giggle.]
How've you been, ducky?
Thanks for posting this. It is fascinating!
Awwww...I loved Richard Scarry when I was a kid. The books are still at my parents' house. Lowly Worm was my favorite. I didn't know Scarry had died back in the 90s.
Hi, Amy! Pretty good--you? I miss you guys. Now I'll have to go write a sonnet to fill the void...
Collin--I loved all the little food illustrations when the bear went promptly to breakfast. I realized a few years back that many of my favorite books from childhood had great food descriptions--the giant dinner spread in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy (sadly, I can still QUOTE the food description in that one), the fact that Claudia and Jamie could order whatever they wanted when they were on the lam in From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (Jamie--for breakfast! I love him!: coffee and macaroni and cheese; Claudia--cereal and pineapple juice), the baked potatoes at Beanbender's Beer Garden in Pinkwater's The Snark-Out Boys and the Avocado of Death...even Paddington jumping up on the table with all the tea cakes in Paddington Bear. I'm not particularly obsessed with food (well, at least not food writing) (nah, not food either--left to my own devices, I'd exist on Zone bars) as an adult, but to look at my childhood lit preferences, anyone might guess otherwise.
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