Literature Is Not All That Glitters

In 1987, Western Publishing celebrated the printing of the billionth Little Golden Book by reissuing the imprint's best-seller, The Poky Little Puppy, by Janette Sebring Lowrey, which was among the first twelve titles that inaugurated this series in September 1942. The marketing success of Little Golden Books stands in stark contrast, however, to its failure to be accepted as serious children's literature. Little Golden Books are regularly ignored by reviewers, librarians, and teachers. As Selma Lanes points out in "All That's Golden is Not Glitter," one of the very few essays to have been written about the books, they are dismissed as not being books at all but, rather, mere "products" or "merchandise," and, even worse, artistic "treachery" or literary "junk food." Though more than eight hundred different titles in over a dozen languages have been published in the series, making them, arguably, among the most accessible children's books in the world, only one has received any special recognition from the children's book community. I Can Fly by Ruth Krauss (illustrated by Mary Blair), which was designated an "Honor Book" in the New York Herald Tribune's 1951 Spring Book Festival. It is perhaps not surprising, then, that the first bibliography of the Little Golden Books, an indispensable tool for research on this series, did not appear in print until 1987.

Perhaps the major difficulty of the bibliographer's task arises from the sheer popularity of the series and the many editions that a number of the books have gone through in their publication histories. But Jones's Bibliography provides a comprehensive list of all Little Golden Book titles from the beginning of the series in 1942 through 1985. Included are the titles issued in the Little Golden Book format itself as well as those issued in the various subseries that have appeared over the years, such as Giant Little Golden Books, Little Golden Activity Books, and Walt Disney Books. The bibliography contains exhaustive information, along with numerous indexes that help the researcher to negotiate the often complex and extensive publication histories of many of the Little Golden Books and their relatives. These multiple listings make it possible to locate a group of works by the same author or illustrator quickly and also to determine the order of publication of a sequence of books.

One of the factors that has sustained the commercial success of the Little Golden Books has always been their inexpensiveness; they sold for a quarter in 1942, and the highest priced volume in 1988 was still only $1.29. In spite of their low price, however, the production quality of the books has remained relatively high, since basic costs weigh less on each copy than on those of smaller editions. With their sturdy covers and bright illustrations, Little Golden Books are designed for younger children; but, as Selma Lanes has noted, they have an immediate appeal to all ages—in part because, over the years, some of our better illustrators and authors (among them, Margaret Wise Brown, Trina Schart Hyman, Ruth Krauss, P. L. Travers, Leonard Weisgard, and Garth Williams) have contributed works in the series.

By examining Little Golden Books as cultural artifacts, we can identify and explore those ideas which have been passed along to a large proportion of the population—children—at stages in their development when they are most malleable and sensitive. Because these books are largely commercial undertakings (unlike folk and fairy tales) they appeal to what their publishers believe is a relatively simple, conventionally accepted and therefore salable moral standard. Compare, for instance, the anarchic lack of rewards for virtue in "Little Red Riding Hood" with the 1945 Little Golden Book Tootle the Engine (text by Gertrude Crampton and pictures by Tibor Gergely). In The Lonely Crowd, David Riesman analyzed Tootle the Engine in order to demonstrate how many important attitudes and values can be transmitted through such seemingly unimportant literature for children. As countless...