Reading, First Book(s) and our Holiday Donation

As JoAnn posted Monday, we TeachingAuthors chose to celebrate the holidays by sharing something important to all of us: first books/First Book!

Like JoAnn, who shared her remembrances of The Color Kittens by Margaret Wise Brown, one of my very first owned-by-only-me books was a Little Golden Book too: Little Red Riding Hood, beautifully, indeed memorably, told and illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones.

     “Once upon a time there was a little girl
who was dearly loved by all – most of all by
her grandmother.
     Wherever she went she always wore a little
red cape with a hood which her grandmother made 
 for her. So people called her Little Red Riding Hood.”

I treasure my well-worn copy, a 50th Birthday gift from my sister. The Adopted Chicagoan in me can’t help but smile each time I read the introduction noting Miss Jones’ Highland Park, IL and University of Chicago and Chicago Art Institute connections.

I selected the book myself at our local West Philadelphia A and P, turning the Little Golden Books rack round and round ‘til I was satisfied with that week’s choice.
I knew it would be at home with my Three Little Bears, Hansel and Gretel, Puss and Boots and Saggy Baggy Elephant, just to name a few.
It turns out I was one of millions who, thanks to these twenty-five-cent books, grew up reading (!), keeping company with such ground-breaking and talented artists and writers as Margaret Wise Brown, Alice and Marin Provensen, Richard Scarry and Feodor Rojankovsky.

Leonard S. Marcus shares the history of Little Golden Books in his 2007 Random House book, Golden Legacy – How Golden Books Won Children’s Hearts, Changed Publishing Forever, and Became an American Icon Along the Way.

Baby Boomers especially will delight in the stories behind these shiny gold-foil-spined books, ooh-ing and ah-ing with each remembered cover.

The book’s front flap copy says it all:

“The year 1942 was marked by a bold experiment that, even in the thick of World War II, would galvanize consumer culture: the launch of the twenty-five-cent Little Golden Books. At a time when the literacy rate was not as high as it is now – and privation was felt by nearly all – high-quality books for children would be available at a price that nearly everyone could afford, and sold where ordinary people shopped every day.”

Today not every child is so lucky. The truth is: millions of children live in book-less homes.
But First Book is trying to change that by providing books to children in need.
How can you help us help these millions of children eager to own their very own books?
Easy!
Simply post one comment on our blog from now through December 31. Tell us about your first book, your child’s or grandchild’s first book, why books are important, why children should own their own books.
You can help us spread the word.
You can even make your own First Book Donation.

For every comment we receive (one per person, please, and spam doesn’t count), we’ll donate $1 to First Book.
We’ll keep track of comments from now until the end of the year; we’ll post periodic updates; and we’ll donate up to $225. Every $2.50 donated provides a brand-new book to a child in need. And through Dec. 31, Disney Publishing Worldwide will match every $1 donated with another new book.

Happy commenting!

And, thanks for your Support!

Esther Hershenhorn