75 Years of Little Golden Books

It is the 75 anniversary of Little Golden Books. The first book was Pokey Little Puppy published in September, 1942.

My first books were Little Golden Books. Mom brought them home from the grocery store.  They cost 25 cents at the time. We did not have much money, and sometimes Mom had trouble coming up with money for the paper boy and robbed Dad's coin collection! It is a testament that Mom would buy me books when she really shouldn't have spent the money. I grew up a book lover.

I collected a long shelf full before they were passed down to my little brother. Years later I only had a few left of my original books so I recollected them to share with my son.

The books had engaging stories and amazing illustrations that captivated me. I loved J. P. Miller's art. Lucky Mrs Ticklefeather was one of my favorite Golden Books. I felt so bad for Little Galoshes when the farm animals would not recognize him without his galoshes.

 Pantaloon was another favorite story. I adored the art work in I Can Fly, created by Mary Blair who became famous for her art work for Disney. The Blue Book of Fairy Tales had beautiful illustrations.

I thought the children in Frosty The Snowman were me and my cousins Linda, Elaine, and Stevie. Dogs, The Sky, and The Moon are some of my original books. I always had an interest in science. Donald Duck's Adventure included his being bit by a turtle! I liked the Autumn trees in the illustrations.

This is a later edition of A Child's Garden of Verses illustrated by Eloise Wilkins. I am sure my copy led to my lifelong love of Stevenson's poems. I have a collection of different illustrated editions now.

There are over 400 Little Golden Book titles available now and over 1000 titles have been punished, amounting to billions of books.

My love of story and of art are rooted in these books.

What were your favorites?