Little Golden Books is a popular series of children's books. The first 12 titles were published on October 1, 1942:
- Three Little Kittens
- Bedtime Stories
- Mother Goose
- Prayers for Children
- The Little Red Hen
- Nursery Songs
- The Alphabet from A to Z
- The Poky Little Puppy
- The Golden Book of Fairy Tales
- Baby's Book of Objects
- The Animals of Farmer Jones
- This Little Piggy and Other Counting Rhymes
As of 2005, 15 million copies of The Poky Little Puppy have been sold, including copies in various languages.
The Little Golden Books, which initially sold for 25¢, were published by Simon and Schuster in cooperation with the Artist and Writers Guild, Inc. headed by Georges Duplaix. Duplaix had initially thought up the idea for the Little Golden Book series and fleshed it out in conversations with officials at Simon and Schuster. Dr. Mary Reed, a professor at the Teachers College of Columbia University, served as initial editor of the series.
Western Printing and Lithographing Company in Racine, Wisconsin, was Simon and Schuster's partner in the Little Golden Books venture. Western handled the actual printing. In 1958, Simon and Schuster sold its interest in Little Golden Books to Western.
Ownership and control of the series has changed several times since. In 2001, Random House acquired Golden Books for about 85 million dollars.
Although the Little Golden Books have remained the backbone of the product line, the enterprise that produced the Little Golden Books has created a variety of children's books in various formats including records, tapes, videos, and even toys and games (the fourth and fifth as "Golden & Design"). Some titles have appeared in several different formats (including but not limited to "A Golden Book").
Many popular authors and illustrators have worked on Little Golden Books and related products including:
- Mary Blair
- Margaret Wise Brown
- Tibor Gergely
- Corinne Malvern
- Jim McDermott
- Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen
- Seymour Reit
- Patricia Scarry and Richard Scarry
- Bob Staake
- Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky
- Gustaf Tenggren
- Jane Werner Watson
- Eloise Wilkin
- Garth Williams
- Herbert Zim
Although the details have changed over the years, the Little Golden Books have maintained a distinctive appearance. A copy of The Poky Little Puppy bought today is essentially the same as one printed in 1942. Both are readily recognizable as Little Golden Books. At the time of the golden anniversary, Golden Books claimed that a billion and a half Little Golden Books had been sold.
Some Little Golden Books and related products have featured popular children's icons from other media, eg. Sesame Street, the Muppets, Disney, Barbie, Power Rangers, etc. Television and movie tie-ins have been particularly popular. Over the years Hopalong Cassidy, Cheyenne, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers, and even Donny and Marie have appeared in Little Golden Books.
Many have dealt with nature and science, Bible stories, nursery rhyme, and fairy tales. Christmas titles are popular every year. The fact that many old titles remain in print shows the strong nostalgia appeal of Little Golden Books.
The official Random House website contains an interesting timeline for Little Golden Books.
In the year 2000, Encore Software produced a series of "Little Golden Books" titles for CD Rom, including the Poky Little Puppy, Mother Goose, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Velveteen Rabbit, Tootle, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant. These 6 individual titles were some of the first major software releases to be produced entirely in Macromedia Flash. They appeared in Time Magazine as part of an article entitled How to Raise a Superkid.
Contents |
Numbered Books in the Original Series
At the end of each book in the original series, there was an incomplete checklist:
How many of these Little Golden Books have you read?
- 21. Tootle
- 25. Taxi That Hurried
- 42. Little Red Riding Hood
- 45. Words
- 47. The Three Bears
- 67. Jolly Barnyard
- 81. Duck and His Fiends
- 83. How Big?
- 101. Little Golden ABC
- 105. Never Pat a Bear
- 106. The Magic Next Door
- 115. My Home
- 127. Bugs Bunny's Carrot Machine
- 138. Tawny Scrawny Lion
- 166. Wiggles
- 169. Rabbit and his Friends
- 174. Bible Stories
- 181. Tom and Jerry Meet Little Quack
- 185. Let's Go, Trucks!
- 186. Petey and I
- 204. Three Bears
- 205. Prayers for Children
- 235. Tom and Jerry's Party
- 261. Captain Kangaroo
- 262. Raggedy Ann and the Cookie Snatcher
- 268. My Little Golden Book About God
- 282. Animals of Farmer Jones
- 285. How to Tell Time
- 301. Five Little Firemen
- 305. White Bunny and His Magic Nose
- 309. Three Bedtime Stories
- 315. Sesame Street Together Book
- 316. Monster at the End of This Book
- 319. Little Red Caboose
- 322. Four Little Kittens
- 327. Good-bye, Tonsils
- 332. Wild Animal Babies
- 334. Animal Orchestra
- 336. Mother Goose in the City
- 337. Numbers
- 350. Forest Hotel
- 352. We Help Mommy
- 355. Dinosaurs
- 359. Puss in Boots
- 361. Counting Rhymes
- 362. Pussycat Tiger
- 363. Scuffy the Tugboat
- 366. Cars and Trucks
- 367. The Lion's Paw
- 369. Picture Dictionary
- 370. The New Puppy
- 374. Blue Fairy Tales
- 381. Three Little Kittens
- 382. Fire Engine
- 383. Baby Listens
- 384. Happy Birthday
- 385. Saggy Baggy Elephant
- 388. Our Flag
- 393. Happy Little Whale
- 400. Old MacDonald's Farm
- 404. Baby Looks
- 405. Four Puppies
- 407. A Day on the Farm
- 408. Rock and his Friends
- 414. Little Cottontail
- 415. Lassie Shows the Way
- 419. Rupert the Rhinoceros
- 422. Baby's Mother Goose
- 423. Smokey Bear and the Campers
- 426. Country Mouse, City Mouse
- 427. Captain Kangaroo and the Beaver
- 428. Home for a Bunny
- 434. My First Counting Book
- 436. Color Kittens
- 437. Gingerbread Man
- 438. The Little Red Hen
- 439. Make Way for the Thruway
- 445. Woody Woodpecker Takes a Trip
- 446. Bozo the Clown
- 447. Good Night, Little Bear
- 451. Ten Little Animals
- 455. Machines
- 456. The Golden Egg Book
- 459. Horses
- 460. Manners
- 462. Bullwinkle
- 463. Wait-for-Me Kitten
- 464. Baby Farm Animals
- 468. We Help Daddy
- 469. My Puppy
- 471. Tommy's Camping Adventure
- 472. Little Golden Mother Goose
- 473. Nurse Nancy
- 480. Tommy Visits the Doctor
- 481. Smokey the Bear
- 487. Golden Goose
- 490. Riddles, Riddles A to Z
- 491. Hansel and Gretel
- 493. A Child's Garden of Verses
- 494. Shy Little Kitty
- 496. Colors Are Nice
- 498. Rumpelstiltskin
- 499. Wild Animals
- 504. Seven Little Postmen
- 505. Peter Rabbit
- 506. Poky Little Puppy
- 511. A Visit to the Children's Zoo
- 512. Chipmunk's ABC
- 514. Thumbelina
- 515. The Neatos and the Litterbugs
- 517. Baby Animals
- 518. Lassie and Her Day in the Sun
- 519. The Little Red Hen
- 520. Happy Man and His Dump Truck
- 521. Fun for Hunky Dory
- 523. Bow Wow, Meow (Sounds)
- 528. My Kitten
- 532. Dogs
- 533. Animal Dictionary
- 534. First Golden Geography
- 538. Bedtime Stories
- 543. ABC Rhymes
- 548. The Little Engine That Could
- 550. Good Humor Man
- 551. Lively Little Rabbit
- 552. We Like Kindergarten
- 558. Hop Little Kangaroo
- 559. Betsy McCall
- 560. Animal Friends
- 561. Tom and Jerry
- 562. Good Little, Bad Little Girl
- 567. Play With me
- 568. Where Is the Bear?
- 569. Little Mommy
- 570. Things In My House
- 571. My Little Dinosaur
- 572. Lassie and the Big Clean-Up Day
- 573. Animals On the Farm
- 574. So Big
- 575. Who Comes to Your House?
- 576. Animal Daddies and My Daddy
- 577. It's Sleepy time
- 578. When I Grow Up
- 580. Sam the Firehouse Cat
- 583. The Little Book
- 584. Animal Counting Book
- 585. Raggedy Ann and Fido
- 586. Rags
- 588. The Boy With a Drum
- 589. Mother Goose
- 590. The Tiny, Tawny Kitten
- 591. Old Mother Hubbard
- 594. 1-2-3 Juggle With Me
- 597. Fly High
- 598. Bozo Hide 'n' Seek
- 599. A Visit to the Dentist
- 600. Susan in the Driver's Seat
- D3. Dumbo
- D15. Mickey Mouse's Picnic
- D18. Donald Duck's Toy Train
- D40. Donald Duck's Sailboat
- D63. Scamp
- D66. Snow White
- D67. Seven Dwarfs Find a House
- D76. Mickey Mouse and Pluto Pup
- D78. Three Little Pigs
- D79. Mother Goose
- D85. Uncle Remus
- D89. Lucky Puppy
- D90. Bambi
- D100. Pinocchio
- D110. Peter Pan and Wendy
- D114. Cinderella
- D115. Cinderella's Friends
- D116. Winnie-the-Pooh, The Honey Tree
- D117. Winnie-the-Pooh Meets Gopher
- D121. Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger
- D123. Disneyland on Parade
- D126. Robin Hood
See also
References
- "Announcing Little Golden Books." Publishers' Weekly. September 19, 1942. Pages 991-994.
- "A Birthday Celebration for Golden Books..." Publishers' Weekly. 221(15):24. April 9, 1982.
- "Fifty Years of Books 'For the Masses.'" Publishers' Weekly. 239(28: 28-31. June 22, 1992.
- "Random House Lands Golden Book Assets." Publishers' Weekly. 248(33):13& 23. August 20, 2001.
- "Simon & Schuster Inc." International Directory of Company Histories. 4:671-672. 1991.
- Greason, Rebecca. Tomart's Price Guide to Golden Book Collectibles. Radnor, PA: Wallace-Homestead Book Company, 1991.
- Santi, Steve. Collecting Little Golden Books: a Collector's Identification and Price Guide, 3rd Edition. Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 1998.
- Marcus, Leonard S. Golden Legacy: How Golden Books Won Children's Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became An American Icon Along the Way. New York: Golden Books, 2007.
External links
- The Official "Little Golden Books" Page
- About a dozen Little Golden Books online These are free to read full text versions provided by Golden Books Family Entertainment from their library, for free reading on the web, before that company sold to Random House.
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