In a comment on this post, Jodith of the Administrative Arts blog remarked that the Little Golden Book of Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer was her favorite children’s book. Being the reader-oriented good blog host that I am, I went to the card catalog and tried to order a copy, so as to include it in a Christmas post. The good news is that there is a brand new just this season new release of the Rudolph Little Golden Book (buy New only $4.50). The bad news is there are a bunch of requests ahead of mine and I may not get it in time for a post for this Christmas. But thanks to Jodith’s comment those treasured little books of my childhood were much on my mind when I happened upon Golden Legacy in Non-Fiction New Releases. Subtitled "how Golden Books won children’s hearts, changed publishing forever and became an American Icon along the way", Golden Legacy is the complete and richly illustrated history of Western Publishing of Racine, Wisconsin and it’s wholly owned Manhattan subsidiary the Artists and Writers Guild which together has been producing and continues to produce the wildly successful Little Golden Books.
As a book junkie, I was of course thrilled to read all of the publishing house backstory around the creation of this remarkable series. I was particularly struck by the fact that for many years the company and the progressive educators who supported it were locked in a decidedly bitter battle with the librarians, who thought the Little Golden Books "too insubstantial, too commercial, and Not literature" and steadfastly refused to order any. As I mentioned, I have a request in for Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer, and I did find one (and only one so far) other Little Golden Book in the collection at my branch and will include it in an upcoming Easy Picture Books Roundup. To teachers, librarians and any adults who have a warm spot in their hearts for the Little Golden Books, Golden Legacy is Highly Recommended. Buy now $25.00
And finally today, a plug for my new dotCOM page. I really enjoy reading other book and book review bloggers, but there are so many. And so many times you go to a site and they have a Huge blog roll, but then you strart clicking links and find pages that haven’t been updated in ages, and you click and you click and only now and then find a good books blog to read. Enough of that. At libdrone.com I am now publishing the breif summary feeds of all my favorite book and writing blogs. While I am trying to be fairly inclusive, I have been selective about choosing only sites with well-written and recently updated content. Currently I am showing I believe the 10 most recent posts in Books and the 5 most recent in Writing. Provided the widgets continue to work well, I am going to create two more for my Friends and Favorites blogroll and my Library blogroll and clear up my long sidebar a bit. I may also increase the nubmer of articles displayed as I add more blogs to each list. I am also pleased to revert today to my original two column implementation of the Mandingo theme, which I really feel works better for this site. Please do visit my new page and browse among the best of the books blogs.
I really like the Little Golden Books. They are very inexpensive and perfect in groups. I have never seen libraries buying Little Golden Books. The Little Red Hen is my favorite golden book.
I’m going to have to get Golden Legacy. I have so many fond memories of all the Little Golden Books from my childhood. I imagine they carried them in the PX on base, which is why we had so many of them (being from an enlisted military family). My mother was an avid reader and always made sure we had a lot of books around appropriate for our ages. While I was reading Little Golden Books, by brother who was 4 years older had The Bobsey Twins and The Hardy Boys series (again, the local PX on base carried them).
The Little Golden Books were great because they had big colorful pictures to capture the not-yet-reading kids attention, and short easy sentences that were easy to remember. By the time I started school, I was all primed to read, and could even recognize certain words from all the times these books were read to me. *laughs* My poor brother was my most frequent reader, and he would dispair because I never wanted him to read anything but “Rudolph”. I can remember, at the age of 4, crying because I wasn’t allowed to go to school with my sister and brother. I would tell my mother that if I wasn’t so stupid, I would be able to read and could go to school. Don’t ask me how I got in my head that I couldn’t go to school until I could read and that I couldn’t read because I was stupid.
My mother finally went to the headmistress of the British school my siblings were attending (we were stationed in Germany at the time) and she told my mother that any child who wanted to go to school that badly should be allowed to attend. So I started school at the age of 4. Of course, when we came back to the states the next year, I wasn’t allowed to go to school because I was too young *laughs*, but by then I could read so I didn’t mind staying home with my books. I was a geek even back then.
And this comment is way too long. But your post about the LIttle Golden Books just stirred so many old memories for me.
Jodith, I am so glad you like it. I really did think of you as soon as I saw the book. BC, you are right about libraries generally not ordering the Little Golden Books. I have found only two at PCLS and we have TONS of chilldren’s materials.
I still have my Rudolph! A family treasure, for sure. Comes out of safe keeping every year at this time.