When Books Were Mostly Pictures

This week all my colleagues seem to be getting new nieces and nephews and so this lead to conversation about childhood generally, and of course the perennial favourite - children's literature.

The Very Hungry Caterpillar seems to have been especially popular, although I have no particular memory of it - either it didn't leave much of an impression with me or I never had the pleasure. What did make a mark with me were:

Letterland ABC
Essentially a learning tool for the alphabet, this book created a memorable character for each individual letter. The character and letter were then merged into a visual representation (well illustrated by the front cover, left) and given a short accompanying tale to hammer the lesson home. As well as this a-z compendium there were spin off volumes for individual characters.




Tom and Pippo
Following the adventures of a small boy (Tom) and his toy Monkey (Pippo). I can't remember too much about the actual stories but I do remember my brother and I being faintly mesmerised by the quality of the name Pippo. I think it was one of the first words that my brother liked to say. Pippo, Pippo, Pippo...





Spot
A great little book, combining wonderful illustration and lots of flaps to lift and open. It's time for dinner and Spot's mum can't find him.