[HN Gopher] Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of c...
___________________________________________________________________
Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of children's
literature
Author : cainxinth
Score : 198 points
Date : 2024-10-29 13:24 UTC (9 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (yalereview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (yalereview.org)
| bell-cot wrote:
| A prior Richard Scarry item on HN, in Aug'23 -
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37044673 (47 comments)
| cafard wrote:
| I remember the books as a staple of pediatricians' waiting rooms,
| and we had some at home, too. Scarry also published a book on how
| to draw things--cars, I recall, I suppose people and animals.
| topherjaynes wrote:
| that and the toy with wires and blocks you could move around.
| andrewla wrote:
| I never experienced Richard Scarry as a child myself. I
| discovered it for my own children in a pile of books left on
| someone's stoop to give away. I was immediately blown away by the
| whimsy and astonishing care put into every detail. My kids
| obsessively hunted for the "goldbug" on each page of Cars and
| Trucks and Things That Go (although they never developed a taste
| for finding Waldo).
| iambateman wrote:
| Same. I think I've read C&T&TtG 200 times to my son.
|
| Making it to the beach scene always feels like an
| accomplishment :D
| ojl wrote:
| I got the Swedish translation as a kid more than 40 years ago
| and also spent plenty of time trying to find the goldbug. Still
| have the book and my kids loved it as well.
| longdustytrail wrote:
| I "read" cars and trucks and things that go for my 2 year old
| every night. He recently found out that goldbug is on every
| page and now he won't let me turn the page until we find him.
| It's genuinely a lovely book. We got ours from buy nothing,
| it's very old and taped up and it has a bunch of writing in it
| by a kid named Max.
| teachrdan wrote:
| When your son's interest in finding goldbug inevitably flags,
| what worked for my kiddo was theatrically sighing, "I wish
| goldbug was on _this_ page. Oh well... " and then acting like
| I was going to turn the page before I could be corrected.
| Then you can escalate to "accidentally" covering goldbug up
| with your thumb and pretending not to know he's under there.
| It's basically DLC for your board book!
| xxr wrote:
| I was obsessed with Richard Scarry's intricate drawings as a
| very small child (which led into devouring all the cutaway
| books of all sorts of machines as a slightly older child), but
| I didn't pick up on the goldbug thing until someone pointed it
| out a few weeks ago.
| topherjaynes wrote:
| Richard Scarry's books were such a cozy universe growing up, I'd
| still like to live in "What people do all day." I wonder what
| that book would look like if he made it today.
| mattkevan wrote:
| You might enjoy Business Town:
| https://welcometobusinesstown.tumblr.com
| orange_joe wrote:
| Seems like a totally different thing, very political and
| adult oriented.
| tivert wrote:
| Also something about the characters gives me the cold, dead
| feel AI generated art (even though they do not appear to be
| AI generated). Can't put my finger on exactly what it is,
| though.
| kridsdale3 wrote:
| I hate this. It seems like it was made by a Brooklyn hipster
| in a black and red plaid shirt with thick black framed
| glasses.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| You can (and it would't look _that_ different).
|
| I left the Old Country for my adopted country in part because
| it reminded me of "What do people do all day" - although I was
| not conscious of the resemblance until my father, having seen
| the not-a-pig dude from the city coming around with a little
| vehicle specially outfitted to water various geraniums, pointed
| it out.
| Multiplayer wrote:
| I read his books every day when really young. He created such a
| great world to imagine. The note about him moving to Switzerland
| makes sense - his world did feel really European now that I think
| about it.
|
| My kids, now grown, did not get to experience his books - are his
| books sold widely anymore?
| edmundsauto wrote:
| I have an infant and we have a number of his books. Some bought
| new.
| showerst wrote:
| His books are still kicking around, although not as big as they
| used to be. My toddler has a few.
|
| They're still lovely books, but I think they're less popular
| mostly because they're a bit dated now; lots of obsolete jobs
| and few female animals doing any of the cool jobs.
| vehemenz wrote:
| I have a 5yo daughter, and I appreciate that *What Do People
| Do All Day?* have female characters in homemaker roles, which
| is still common in most of the world. Many of her other books
| have female protagonists doing everything else.
|
| Part of an education should be learning how other people
| live, whether it's in the past or in another part of the
| world. And of course, there's nothing wrong with being a
| homemaker today.
| tivert wrote:
| > I have a 5yo daughter, and I appreciate that _What Do
| People Do All Day?_ have female characters in homemaker
| roles, which is still common in most of the world. Many of
| her other books have female protagonists doing everything
| else.
|
| Is that a new copy or an old one?
|
| The newer editions of Best Word Book Ever were updated to
| be less stereotypical (I think there's a gallery somewhere
| that shows the changes). Unfortunately the updated art is
| noticeably inferior (even to my untrained eye), and in some
| places kinda dumb (on one page I think they decided they
| needed more girls, so they phoned it in and slapped a big
| "LISA" on the shirt of some androgynous animal). Also they
| dropped A LOT of content, so the newer editions are
| something like half as long.
| vehemenz wrote:
| If it's updated, then I couldn't tell. Everything seemed
| like 50s/60s in it to me.
| bitwize wrote:
| Richard Scarry's books are problematic because of the reasons
| you stated, and I think there were issues with ethnic and
| gender stereotypes as well (similar to issues with Dr.
| Seuss). He updated some of them in the 90s to reflect
| changing mores, but I don't know if those efforts reached all
| of them.
| jansan wrote:
| Yes, you can buy them. When I was a child, my friend owned the
| "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go" book and I spent hours
| browsing the book by myself when visiting him. When I had
| children, it was one of the first books that I bought, and they
| loved it, too, although not quite as much as me. It is a great
| present for young children if you don't want to bring a
| Nintendo gift card.
| doright wrote:
| I was most familiar with the DOS games as a child. They even had
| Red Book soundtracks of the townsfolk singing about various
| professions. Building the house was my favorite activity back
| then.
|
| https://archive.org/details/BusytownDOS
|
| https://archive.org/details/busytown_dos
| syndeo wrote:
| I have fond memories of the Sega Pico Busytown game, played
| that plenty as a little kid:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bm55P3ziI84
| kridsdale3 wrote:
| There was a sound clip in one of these that became a long
| lasting meme in my family, invoked for years and years whenever
| someone got hurt.
|
| "PUT A BANDAGE ON IT"
| camtarn wrote:
| I had no idea that there were Busytown games! Very cool, thank
| you for linking.
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| I loved Richard Scarry when I was little, although I think it
| instilled in me a belief that the world was in a constant state
| of chaos. (maybe that's accurate.)
|
| My toddler is now obsessed with them and demands "CARS AND
| TRUCKS", "SITE" or "HOUSE" every night at bedtime.
| dingaling wrote:
| 'Chaos' is a great observation. I only had a couple of Scarry
| books as a child but there was something dynamic about them
| compared to most children's books and I think it was the
| frenetic and chaotic nature of them. There was always a pickle
| barrel spilling over, or oranges rolling across a road.
|
| I didn't even know what a pickle barrel was, but it obviously
| made a mess when someone crashed into it.
| euroderf wrote:
| The overwhelming & pervasive chaos in all the illustrations
| kinda bugs me. I wonder if it puts the wrong ideas in a kid's
| head. Or else I'm just lamous.
| aaronbrethorst wrote:
| Mr Frumble the apple man has dumped his load of apples on the
| road by mistake. Lowly thought he had the only apple (n.b.
| Lowly worm is driving his apple shaped car) on the road, but
| my isn't he mistaken!
| throw4847285 wrote:
| Oh hey, this is written by Chris Ware. It makes sense that he
| would be a huge fan of Scarry.
| tikhonj wrote:
| I loved Richard Scarry as a child--still do!--and I'm convinced
| his books really helped build up my vocabulary as I learned
| English in first grade.
|
| A detail I only mentally noted as an adult: the butchers in his
| books are always pigs themselves. A pig selling ham, sausages
| and, presumably, cuts of pork is a bit morbid (and also hilarious
| in a black humor sort of way), but it fits in with the world so
| much that I didn't even think twice about it as a kid. It just
| slid past me.
|
| I still remember one of the books I had as a child--can't recall
| the title exactly--that had a bunch of urban scenes with various
| objects labeled. What really stood out were the little details
| and funny little stories going on. The stories and the humor got
| me to pay attention and actually care about the objects (and
| their labels!) far more than any generic vocabulary book for
| kids.
|
| What I love about Richard Scarry is that he is never patronizing
| or condescending. Too many authors of children's books either try
| to write _down_ to kids, try to write what they _think_ kids
| ought to read, or both. But kids aren 't idiots and they can
| tell! Well, I can't speak for everyone, but at least as a kid
| myself I found a lot of children's works either patronizing or
| unpleasant--works that were trying too hard to be childlike or,
| especially, works that were transparent morality plays.
|
| Scarry's work is nothing like this at all. It's oriented for and
| accessible to kids, but it manages to be simple and silly in a
| _genuine_ way. The art and stories are actually cute and funny
| rather than caricatures of what an adult thinks a child would
| find cute and funny. You can tell Scarry was making something he
| would enjoy himself. That 's why I loved his books when I was
| five and why I still love his books now.
|
| It's hard to find other children's books like that. I collect
| illustrated books and the majority I see in stores are awful. The
| most successful exception I've seen are books by Joe Klassen (of
| _I Want My Hat_ fame) along with his common collaborator Mac
| Barnett. Their books are legitimately funny _and_ visually
| attractive to adults, they 're willing to write stories that
| aren't entirely saccharine, _and children absolutely love them_.
| I 've seen that first-hand.
| tivert wrote:
| > A detail I only mentally noted as an adult: the butchers in
| his books are always pigs themselves. A pig selling ham,
| sausages and, presumably, cuts of pork is a bit morbid (and
| also hilarious in a black humor sort of way), but it fits in
| with the world so much that I didn't even think twice about it
| as a kid. It just slid past me.
|
| Also: every scarecrow has a crow sitting on it.
| tikhonj wrote:
| I hadn't noticed that. It's an absolutely hilarious little
| touch.
| ninalanyon wrote:
| > I didn't even think twice about it as a kid. It just slid
| past me.
|
| I think that the best children's books always have something in
| them that will be appreciated later. They can be read and re-
| read as one grows older. Probably the greatest prose exponent
| was Lewis Carroll.
| queuebert wrote:
| I think also they put something in for the parents so reading
| the same book over and over and over to your kids isn't as
| boring.
| kridsdale3 wrote:
| > I still remember one of the books I had as a child--can't
| recall the title exactly--that had a bunch of urban scenes with
| various objects labeled.
|
| I have this in my son's room. It's called "Busy Busy Town".
| cduzz wrote:
| My wife was quite sad when I suggested to her that "this little
| piggie went to market" was in fact the farmer taking the pig to
| the market to be butchered, and that "this little piggie went
| wee wee wee all the way home" was probably a piglet taken from
| its family to replace the "now big enough to sell" pig....
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| If you wish to enjoy sausage, it's probably best not to
| enquire into how swine are raised and kept in our time.
| cduzz wrote:
| I think she'd always imagined a pig with a hat and overalls
| walking down the street to buy the sunday newspaper...
| lnsru wrote:
| My colleague was transported to mental health institution
| with an escort of police straight from the office. And was
| kept there for 2 weeks. People are treated like trash by
| other people. I don't want to think about industrial animal
| farming. It's probably the worst of the worst.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| See https://kieranhealy.org/files/misc/levimartin.pdf
|
| "What do animals do all day?": The division of labor, class
| bodies, and totemic thinking in the popular imagination (2000)
|
| > _Keywords: Animals; Totemism; Class body; Busytown; Symbolic
| domination; Division of labor_
|
| (36pp, not entirely serious, about which animals do what in
| Busytown; contrasted with _Babar_ , etc.)
| WhyCause wrote:
| > The most successful exception I've seen are books by Joe
| Klassen (of I Want My Hat fame)...
|
| If you haven't read it The Dark[1] (his collaboration with
| Lemony Snicket) is also great; my kids absolutely love the
| voices I do for the animals in _I Want My Hat Back_ and for the
| titular Dark.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Bccb-Ribbon-Picture-
| Awards/dp/03...
| neofrommatrix wrote:
| I absolutely adore Richard Scarry books. I discovered Richard
| Scarry a couple of months ago when I was looking for books to
| read for my 3 year old. Now, not a moment goes by in the evenings
| when we are reading the adventures of Lowly and his seek and find
| books. It's a ritual every night. Richard Scarry and the Grumpy
| Monkey series are a godsend.
| bityard wrote:
| I very HIGHLY recommend the Busytown Eye Found It board game.
| Kids of all ages have a blast with it, and it's even moderately
| challenging for adults. We played ours so much we basically
| wore it out.
| mikeocool wrote:
| Man I loved Richard Scary growing up.
|
| I initially thought my 1.5 year old didn't quite have the
| attention span for Cars and Trucks and Things that Go yet, but
| recently, after learning the word bus, he picked it up and
| dutifully started going through each page and finding all of the
| buses.
| smusamashah wrote:
| Looked at Richard Scarry's books on google images in hopes to
| find a book I read as a kid but don't remember its name or much
| of it. Richard's art is similarly colorful but Writing it here in
| hopes someone else may know?
|
| There were some blobby looking ice-cream/sundae in it. And a
| picture story where someone made very tall icecream. So tall that
| a helicopter was putting scoops on top (or may be it was placing
| the cherry on top, but i remember that helicopter touching that
| icecream). It was a colorful cartoony style art in the book.
|
| Having strong imagination as a kid, the pictures in this book
| always felt real (hard to explain). Then I remember looking at
| this book many years later as a grown up and not feeling them as
| real. It's been many many years since then and I want to have a
| glimpse again.
| influxed wrote:
| Looked through all my kids Richard Scarry books and couldn't
| find that. But might be in Helicopters and Other Fun Things.
| Internet Archive has it but no logins to borrow books:
| https://archive.org/details/helicoptersother00newy/mode/thum...
| skibz wrote:
| While I never read any of his books, I must have driven my
| parents _mad_ with how much I watched The Busy World of Richard
| Scarry on VHS.
| Tokkemon wrote:
| If you've never seen the animated TV series based on the books,
| you're totally missing out. It's incredible:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m76NQMJGtc&list=PL66vbXJhfF...
| bitwize wrote:
| Richard Scarry was a resident of my former hometown of
| Ridgefield, CT, as was fellow author-illustrator Maurice Sendak
| (Where the Wild Things Are). My school's librarian recommended
| his books with particular pride.
|
| Come to think of it, a lot of children's authors seem to have
| lived in that area, western CT or eastern upstate NY. Some,
| including Judy Hawes and Jean Van Leeuwen, came to visit my
| school to talk about their books, reading in general, etc.
|
| In college I referred to the textbooks used by Management
| Information Systems majors as "Richard Scarry books" because they
| were full of colorful, busy illustrations and light on technical
| detail.
| velcrovan wrote:
| I can still recall my impressions from reading these books at
| five years old, and the difference between them and the world I
| eventually entered does make me sad.
|
| I've been struck by how the world is depicted to my children in
| so many children's books. "As you grow, you'll be able to slot
| into a happy productive life, no matter what kind of work you
| like."
|
| No joke: every time I read my daughter a Richard Scarry book, I
| wonder when and how it will have to be broken to her that unless
| her interests happen to include something that pays a living
| wage, she's actually fucked for life.
|
| Think about what it would be like to grow up or to raise children
| in a world where the ramp to adulthood was incredibly wide and
| smooth and it was near-impossible to fall off a cliff into
| poverty, loneliness, or a life of work you hate.
|
| Busytown isn't a real place, but it was obviously designed to
| give children some sense of what the world is like or supposed to
| be like.
| 0xcafefood wrote:
| This is an overly dour take on children's books.
|
| I don't disagree that young people (at least in the US) are
| told a lie like "Do what you love and the money will follow." I
| fell for that and tried to become research scientist, getting a
| far as receiving a PhD only to find that the funnel from there
| to a tenured research job was _extremely_ narrow. That's a
| giant waste of many motivated people's time. And it does need
| to be fixed.
|
| But is the source of all this Richard Scarry books? I really
| doubt it. It's okay to give a rosy view of the world to
| children. Childhood is the longest and best vacation you'll
| ever take. But there does need to be an incrementally higher
| dose of "real talk" as children grow into young adults.
| velcrovan wrote:
| Maybe I should have been more clear: I see this as a problem
| with the real world, not with children's books. The books are
| good. What's busted is that so many adults don't see such a
| world as worth building and working towards.
| verisimi wrote:
| The story is right, but reality is wrong?
|
| Perhaps you have an issue with interpretation here. The
| pleasant story was the illusion here.
|
| PS - I too loved the Richard Scarry books as a child and
| bought them for my children - and I'm not even from the US.
| velcrovan wrote:
| All I'm saying is that we ought to make a conscious
| effort to build the world that is more aligned with the
| world we'd like to explain to our kids.
|
| I think stories that describe better possibilities than
| what we have are useful cognitive and social tools.
| verisimi wrote:
| Yes, but I'm not sure that the job is to 'change the
| world' - I don't want to fend off those who think they
| know what I need. I think it's more about changing
| oneself to align with what one finds here, whilst trying
| to remain true to oneself.
| pfdietz wrote:
| Adults correctly see there's nothing they can individually
| do that would have detectable effect toward such a goal.
| So, the cost/benefit ratio is a loser.
| velcrovan wrote:
| I used to think this way too. My outlook on life
| transformed when I found out about this amazing concept:
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_action
| pfdietz wrote:
| But you see, the marginal benefit of individual action is
| always low, even if there are others that are
| collectively acting. It pays to defect and let those
| other people do the job.
| wizzwizz4 wrote:
| That's easily resolved by being a kind of person who
| experiences empathy involuntarily, and finds it hard to
| _ignore_ injustice let alone participate in it. This
| makes defection more expensive than cooperation.
| jonas21 wrote:
| Do you think the animals in Busytown are all working their
| dream jobs and following their passions? Of course not -- as
| someone else pointed out, the butchers are all pigs!
|
| But they mostly seem to have found something that they like
| well enough and contributes to society. And perhaps that's an
| important lesson to take away. Part of living a happy,
| fulfilling life is finding joy in what's attainable.
| velcrovan wrote:
| > But they mostly seem to have found something that they like
| well enough and contributes to society. And perhaps that's an
| important lesson to take away. Part of living a happy,
| fulfilling life is finding the joy within what is attainable.
|
| I fully agree about all of this. The sad fact is that, in my
| country, a person with this humble and contented perspective
| is rolling the dice when it comes to housing, health, and
| autonomy, and many of them lead unnecessarily stressful and
| lives with no time/energy for community or creative
| development. That's the part I would like to see fixed.
| gffrd wrote:
| > they mostly seem to have found something that they like
| well enough and contributes to society.
|
| Exactly! It shows people being valuable to each other in
| small ways, having purpose, and being involved in each
| other's lives.
|
| And it emphasizes the joy and texture of everyday life. The
| little things.
| tikhonj wrote:
| I mean, the books definitely show lots of "real" jobs, and ones
| people wouldn't necessarily be naturally passionate about.
|
| What's missing is all the bullshit jobs and awful management.
| But, even if you wanted to, you probably couldn't really convey
| that in a children's book... Hell, even most adult books fail
| to capture just how bullshit the bullshit is!
| boplicity wrote:
| Similar thoughts:
|
| Almost every children's book that depicts a serious issue, such
| as racism, tells a complete story where the problem is solved
| _and is no longer a problem._ I believe this is a big part of
| why so many people think that racism (again, for example) isn
| 't a problem anymore.
|
| Because, they learned, from a very young age, and for many
| years, that such problems were _solved._
|
| There is a very strong and understandable impulse for
| children's books to be comforting, and to shy away from un-
| answered questions. This, as you point out, leads to a warped
| view of reality that parents then _should_ correct.
| naught0 wrote:
| I think it's less children's books and more decades of
| propaganda from right wing sources decrying things like
| affirmative action, DEI etc. If some are to be believed,
| white men are the most discriminated group in the US.
| wizzwizz4 wrote:
| Propaganda does not exist in a vacuum. Absent supportive
| power structures, it's really quite ineffectual. And what
| _is_ a supportive power structure? Well... us, ultimately.
|
| > Well certainly there are those more responsible than
| others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth
| be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only
| look into a mirror.
|
| > While I'll admit that anyone can make a mistake once, to
| go on making the same lethal errors century after century
| seems to me nothing short of deliberate. [...] All you had
| to say was "NO."
|
| -- V, _V for Vendetta_ ; monologues by Lilly and Lana
| Wachowski, and Alan Moore, respectively.
| dfxm12 wrote:
| This kinda happened with adults after they watched the West
| Wing. It's not just media aimed at children. Lots of prime
| time TV is like this.
| naet wrote:
| I have sort of the opposite feeling reading some children's
| books to my son, especially ones that I can remember from my
| own childhood. It's great for me to remember to look at the
| world in a more childlike way. Even though I have more
| responsibilities as an adult, like bills to pay, I also have
| the freedom to be silly, enjoy time with my family, do
| something creative, etc. Any given day I can decide I want to
| try something new in the kitchen, make a big mess concocting
| some crazy recipie, maybe decide it didn't work out and go grab
| a pizza for dinner instead. Or I can write some stories or
| poetry, or take a sketchbook to the lake, snap some photos at
| the train station, or whatever catches my fancy on that day. I
| think we sometimes forget we have certain freedoms as we settle
| in to typical patterns and go a little on autopilot, but all it
| takes is a gentle nudge to rediscover that type of fun.
|
| I switched careers later in life after finding that it was
| difficult to make money in my initially chosen field, but I
| don't feel "fucked for life" by it. I actually feel a lot
| better about doing things I like _outside_ of work. It 's much
| more rewarding to be creative if I'm not trying to maximize
| profits or otherwise commodify what I'm doing. Sure I wish I
| didn't have to work and could do whatever I wanted all the
| time, but I work generally acceptable hours at a stomach-able
| enough job and have time outside work for family and fun and
| I've made my peace with that.
| velcrovan wrote:
| All of this very much describes my situation in life too. I
| would just like for that same level of autonomy and freedom
| to be the default reality for my kids, and people in general,
| no matter what work they choose to do, even "uninteresting"
| work, so that they have this kind of ample leisure and
| autonomy to pursue their interests outside of their jobs. In
| my country that is very much not the case, not sure about
| where you live.
| rohfle wrote:
| - born 1919 - upper middle class life in boston -
| started illustrating 1949 - started writing original
| works 1955 - moved to switzerland 1972 - died 1994
|
| He wasnt alone in his world view at the time. Think about how
| much the world has changed since.
| havblue wrote:
| We aren't talking about children here exactly, but I think
| adults tended to do a disservice to teenagers as I was growing
| up by not citing the mean employment statistics of certain
| jobs, especially ones related to the arts. We can thank the
| generation who survived the great depression and the boomers
| for this eternal optimism. "Oh well, by the time things really
| go south I'll be long gone anyway, sorry!"
| switchbak wrote:
| When I was a teenager, my parents weren't particular involved
| in my educational choices nor my career plans. I was mostly
| left to my own devices. Despite this, I was very much aware
| of the tradeoffs in the educational path I was choosing.
|
| Perhaps it's because I didn't grow up wealthy, but the
| financial facet of both my education and eventual career was
| front and center for myself and my friends.
|
| It would have been nice for the adults in my life to have
| told me these things, but a competent 16-19 year old is also
| plenty able to ascertain these things themselves.
| jandrese wrote:
| I too was disappointed that in the real world it is pretty hard
| to find a pickle car to drive.
| switchbak wrote:
| Not to mention how often they get flattened by a steam
| roller!
| dfxm12 wrote:
| _I wonder when and how it will have to be broken to her that
| unless her interests happen to include something that pays a
| living wage, she's actually fucked for life._
|
| You have a hand in shaping the world she will grow up in. If
| this is important to you, keep it in mind at least next
| Tuesday.
| bityard wrote:
| I'm not sure you are not doing your daughter a lot of good with
| such a pessimistic outlook on life. You might consider doing
| some soul searching and try to work out what really matters in
| life (hint: it isn't money) and then figure out how to adapt.
| At least externally, if that's what it takes. When my kids were
| young, my wife and I made a pointed effort to teach our kids to
| see the wonder in everyday things and situations. Even if they
| didn't seem all that special to us. That's what most of us have
| to do.
|
| That aside, Busytown is set in a small town. The culture of
| towns vary of course, but _generally_, small town life is
| vastly different from urban or suburban life. There is far less
| social isolation. (Most) people help each other out without
| needing to be asked. You may disagree with your neighbor's
| political opinions but can still have a beer with them in the
| backyard. And so on.
| te_chris wrote:
| My (nearly) 2 year old reads Cars and Trucks etc. for ages on end
| like it's a sacred text.
| divbzero wrote:
| _Cars and Trucks and Things That Go_ is a child favorite and
| _What Do People Do All Day_ has great depictions of saw mills,
| flour mills, power plants, and more, but I like Richard Scarry's
| _I Am a Bunny_ the most: The pages are filled edge-to-edge with
| his vibrant illustrations (no whitespace as in his other books)
| and the story by Ole Risom describes the timeless passing of the
| seasons.
| T-will wrote:
| Seconded. I recently read _I Am a Bunny_ to my toddler. I was
| totally blown away by the artwork. Every night I found myself
| hoping that she request it.
| drummojg wrote:
| I still remember looking at these with my mother when I was
| small. We loved to hunt for Gold Bug. She told me later in life
| that her favorite was, "Lowly worm washes his face and foot." (He
| always wore a sock and shoe on the end of his tail.)
| balls187 wrote:
| Most likely know this, but in many books there is a gold bug to
| be found on each image set.
| andrewstuart wrote:
| For a very long time - maybe years - every night I would ask my
| little boy what he wanted me to read him at bedtime.
|
| ALWAYS he would say "Robber Book!" which was a Richard Scarry
| book that had a couple of robbers/burglars in it. In hindsight it
| was the cars he liked the most - cars are a major feature of
| Richard Scarry books and my little boy was car crazy from the
| moment he was born it seems.
| gwern wrote:
| > There were, of course, obstacles. One of the less appealing
| features of Golden's business practice was that, with rare
| exceptions, they offered no royalties. This arrangement nagged at
| Scarry, especially after his and Patricia's son Huck was born in
| 1953, so in 1955 he finally asked the imposing white-haired and
| lavender-blue-eyed Lucille Ogle for a revised contract that
| included royalties--and an advance. She readily agreed.
| Surprised, Scarry asked why she hadn't offered such a deal
| earlier. "Because you never asked," she replied.
| drillsteps5 wrote:
| Bought some of these when my kids were between 3-5 yo. Several
| years ago they re-published a series of them, including the cars
| and trucks, what do people do all day, the funny stories, and a
| few others (I think 6 books in total). I got the entire series at
| B&N, they were easily the favorite books of my youngest who was
| about 4 or 5 at the time. I had no idea they were so old!
| jfk13 wrote:
| For something that's more of a substantial story than things like
| _Cars & Trucks_ or _Busy Busy Town_ , let me put in a word for
| _Peasant Pig and the Terrible Dragon_. My kids had it pretty much
| memorized long before they could read it for themselves.
| GeekyBear wrote:
| It's interesting to see relatively new works that have been
| beloved by generations of my immediate family.
|
| Richard Scary's illustrstions were absolute favorites for myself,
| my siblings and all of our offspring when we were looking at
| books before we learned to read, and The Phantom Tollbooth by
| Norton Juster later became our favorite book as young readers.
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