Wednesday, January 20, 2016

Baby Animals by Garth Williams








Do you remember your very first book?  I do! It was "Baby Animals".  I looked the book up on a search engine a few years ago and the illustrator was Garth Williams. I knew his drawings also from "Charlotte's Web" and the Laura Ingalls Wilder books.   Imagine my surprise when I found out that although he was born in America, his parents were both English and he and his family moved to England when he was ten years old.  (I find his life story interesting, you may read more about him here.)


So, you see, I come by my English influence from a very early age! 




 Recently, I spent a good amount of time trying to help my Dad in choosing a present for a shower gift, he had been asked to buy a book for a baby shower, and then, to write a personal note in the book for the child.  After our discussion, he settled on "The Uncle Remus Stories".  That is the main book that he remembers from his childhood, although, he didn't have the book, he only knew the stories that were told to him. 

So, what was your very first book?  I hope you remember it with great fondness.











34 comments:

  1. How nice that your Dad discusses such things with you, and you can advise him so well!

    It is difficult to say which one was really my very first book, since there were always so many books around when I grew up. With my sister a year older than I, there were already plenty of books for toddlers in our household.
    One that I remember particularly well was this:
    http://www.amazon.de/B%C3%BCblein-%C3%BCberall-mitgenommen-sein-wollen/dp/3789161802
    The title means "Of the little boy who wanted to be taken everywhere". It's about a boy who's out on a walk but out of sheer laziness tries to get free rides all the time but is never satisfied and grateful with what he gets: the little stream is too cold and wet, the snail is too slow, the wind is too fast... and so on :-) Finally, the wind has had enough and blows him into an apple tree, where he now waits for someone to take him down.
    The text for this book was written in 1813 by a then 25-year-old man who gave the poem to his 3-year-old sister as a Christmas gift.
    It's been published in many different formats, but my version was the book you see if you follow the link, printed in 1966, 2 years before I was born.

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    1. I love the story of the little boy who wanted to be taken everywhere! And to think that it was written in 1813! If you look up the Uncle Remus stories, they are interesting too. They were tales that were told by a former slave in Georgia, and Joel Chandler Harris wrote them down. (The library close to my Dad's has a statue of Uncle Remus (the black man). I need to get a photo of it for my blog and do a post about it!
      It was a joy to discuss children's books with my Dad, he felt as if he couldn't think of any personally since he didn't really have books as a child, but after speaking with him a while, he chuckled at the memory of Brer Fox in the briar patch! Love talking to my Dad, as you know! :-)

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  2. Oh my. Books have been such a huge part of my life. They have simply been there. I do not remember a first book. I know that I dearly loved the Nancy Drew books when I was about 8 years old. My favorite was The Mystery at The Old Manse.

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    1. I don't talk about books much on my blog but I truly love them! I have very fond memories of the Nancy Drew books, most of those I checked out from the library or else read that at a friend's house. Loved books anyway I could get them!

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  3. It's too far back to remember the first book, I can hardly remember the last one...

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    1. I really studied those drawings in that book before I could read and I did the same to the Beatrix Potter books. When I finally saw England in my early 20's, I knew all the flowers from her books.

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  4. My first book? Who knows, i grew up surrounded by so many, and i still have them and read them to my children.

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    1. My parents read newspapers and that was about it. I really begged for books! You can bet that my son did not have that problem!!

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  5. I love Garth Williams illustrations and I also grew up with "Baby Animals". One of my childhood books was called "Bobby Had a Nickel". It was a rebus story with pictures in place of some of the words. I wrote about it way back here: http://ajournalofdays.blogspot.com/2010/08/bobby-had-nickel.html

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    1. Oh, I am so glad that you like Garth Williams AND that you know this book! I must admit I think of him when I see baby animals, he really did get them just right!
      Thanks for the link to your post! I read it and left a comment. I love books for children but I have very high standards, I don't love them all! I loved "Bobby Had A Nickel", you can be sure of that!

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  6. Not sure which book was my first. I took care of my first 3 grandchildren while my daughters worked and I always had books to read to them, they enjoyed it and still today love to read.

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    1. Let's see, as soon as I could read (1st grade) I read to my brothers, and then, my sister came along when I was 10. And THEN, I started my babysitting career at the age of 13! And by the time my son was born when I was in my early 30's, I was a polished, professional children's bookreader!! I love them!

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  7. I'm afraid I don't remember my first book. I do remember a few of my earlier books, but I have no idea which was definitely the first. You really were Englished up from an early age.

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    1. And very often, I don't find out about the English connection until much later but it never ceases to amuse me!

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  8. I remember Garth Williams' illustrations from Charlotte's Web and the Little House books! His drawings were charming and brought the characters to life. I don't remember what my first book was -- but it would have been one of those "Golden" books for kids that were big in the 1950s.

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    1. OH, I lOVED those little Golden books! I had a lot of them, but for some reason, when we moved house once, out mother must have thought we had them for so long that she left them behind. I can still feel the loss of those books! Oh dear, I am beginning to see the reason behind my book hoarding, very hard for me to get rid of books!

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  9. Always had books around, but the first one I remember that was mine was Heidi, my favorite aunt gave it to me for Christmas.

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    1. I LOVED Heidi! In fact, I just found it in paperback recently and just HAD to buy it! I really do love books. xx

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  10. I don't know what my first book was, but I do know the beautiful Little House books illustrations, they are wonderful aren't they and so evocative. xx

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    1. Oh good, now I have told you that those wonderful drawings are by Garth Williams and his connection to England!! I love the Little House books too but now I am reminded of another book and I need to do a post about it!

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  11. Might have been Tootles.....I have a favorite Garth Williams story. A friend who read and loved the Little House books and had been told that he followed the Ingalls family's travels to help with his illustration, always imagined that he actually was there, following them, camping every evening "at a respectful distance" and drawing them. She didn't question this for many years!

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    1. "A respectful distance", I love it, what a great story!!
      And I remember "Tootles" too!

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  12. Kay, We never had any children's books growing up....too poor I guess. I remember the Dick and Jane books from school. I remember our 6th grade teacher reading Moby Dick to us a little each day thru the year. I loved that. My first ever book that I owned was To Kill A Mockingbird. It was a gift from my guardian angel. I have given it to my oldest daughter. My girls remember a kids book, "Are You My Mother?" Blessings, xoxo,Susie

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    1. I remember Dick and Jane too, my little sister loved "Puff" the kitten! See my comment to Debra above about the Golden books being left behind, after we moved, we MUST have gotten some more books, but I don't remember too many! MY DAD didn't have any books either and that is why he couldn't think of anythng to give as a present. I love the book "To Kill A Mockingbird", one of my favorites. xx

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  13. Can't remember the titles of the first ones but The Green Bunyip by Judith Whitlock, An Aussie writer living in Kent made a big impression on me around 5 or 6 as it was exotic. They were popular in the UK in the 1960s and she completed a few with the same mythical creature as the star I think. Oor Willie and the Broons (Scottish black and white comic strips that formed annual books) and Winnie the Pooh were also early favourites. The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings made a big impression as a child but I still like good children's films like Charlotte's Web, The Spiderwick Chronicles and The Last Mimzy.

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    1. Our son liked the annuals too, The Dandy and The Beano, I think they were called He named our kitten, "Minnie the Minx"!
      And you know I love Winnie the Pooh! We have our own Christopher, you know!

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  14. I think my first book was a book of fairy tales. Nice photos of the animals.

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    1. I loved fairy tales too! Do you remember the fractured fairy tales from the Bullwinkle show? I loved those!!
      The animals posed for us very nicely! x

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  15. I don't remember my first book, but I was surrounded by books from a very early age. I loved them. The smell of a new book is something e-readers can never replace. (I have no intention of ever get an e-reader). Call me old-fashioned, I don't mind. :)

    Books played a huge role in my life from my early childhood on. And always for Christmases and birthdays my brother and I received at least two books amongst our presents. We loved our books.

    When my nephews two kiddies were born I bestowed them each with a box of books...one can never start too early, I believe. And every Christmas since they were born I gift them each with books.

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    1. Oh Lee, you have no idea how much we have in common!
      I am the one who has given books as gifts to children for many, many years. I used to read to the babies that I babysat for, and the mothers laughed at me!
      I craved books as a child and I got my reading from whatever source was available to me. I read women's magazines, the dictionary and the most wonderful present...our Uncle Jake gave us a set of Encyclopedia, the best gift ever for a booklover!

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  16. I don't remember my first book but I do remember I always got a book at Christmas. And another gift from my grandparents, usually a toy. Later on they were passed on to younger siblings. I wonder if that's why I don't remember them? There were always lots of books in the house, who they belonged to wasn't important. I still don't collect books although I love to read.

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    1. I do give books away or donate them to charity but I always find that I tend to mourn the loss of them.
      I always asked for books but rarely did I get them. When I could, I would buy books from a book fair at school, and happily, I was given the money for them!

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  17. I was read to so much by my parents and older sister, that I pretty much knew how to read when I started first grade, so I ended up in a reading group by myself and that first book was, "Are you my Mother?" Nice memory of the delight in reading that book.

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    1. You are like my little sister, my sister and I read all the time to her! I am pleased of your delight in your memory of "Are You My Mother"! I read that book to my son too, one of many! :-)

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