A Vintage Discovery

Oh, if only this discovery were mine!  A friend of mine found a complete set of red-bound books for children in the trash.  Yes, the trash.  They didn't even bother to recycle!


But lucky for her that they didn't, as what she has is a set of books called The Bookshelf for Boys and Girls.  Some quick Internet research turned up a site called Big Red Toy Box: The Vintage Toy Encyclopedia which has a nice entry on these books.  They contain stories, history, excerpts from classic novels (I am not a fan of excerpts but still...), folk tales, fairy tales, "stories form other lands," books on nature and science, art and music, instructions for making things and all sorts of ephemera.  Apparently the sets were reissued every decade or so starting in 1920.  They are utterly fascinating.  I didn't get nearly enough time to take a look at them but we borrowed Volume 5: Things to Make and Things to Do for my crafty almost-7-year-old.  I would especially love to get a look at Volume 10: The Manual for Child Development and see how thinking on that front has changed. 

I may have to purchase one or two for myself, since it is unlikely that someone else will be discarding a complete set right where I can find it!

I didn't read these books as a child, though.  Did you?

Library Loot #17

As you can see, these days we're reading lots of poetry and old favorites, catching up on classics we (I) missed, reading a few new books and reading lots of series.

For the kids: Now that my first grader's reading has really taken off, I had to subdivide these into categories. 

To read to both kids:

 

 

 

The one you can't see second from the top is The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch.  Notice three editions of the same book?  Expect to see a post on that sometime soon.

Not pictured: More by I.C. Springman, Days to Celebrate: A Full Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating Facts and More by Lee Bennett Hopkin.

For the first-grader to read to herself:

The one on top that you can't see is Put Your Eyes Up Here: And Other School Poems by Kalli Dakos.

 And one that didn't make it into the photo since it was in use at the time:

Not pictured: More Junie B. Jones books than you can shake a stick at, Ruby Lu, Star of the Show by Lenore Look.

To read to the first grader (possibly):

For the first grader's research project (more on that soon):

For me:

Not pictured: Wonder by R.J. Palaccio and A Patent Lie by Paul Goldstein (a legal thriller involving patent law originally checked out by my patent lawyer husband and read by both of us.  I think I enjoyed it more!) and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field.

What do you have checked out from the library?

Library Way

I am always discovering new (to me, at least) things in this city and today, while walking from the far east 30s to Times Square, I made a wonderful book-related discovery.  My zig-zag path serendipitously took me to Library Way.  Embedded into the sidewalk on 41st Street from Park Avenue to 5th Avenue, leading to (or from) the "main" library are sculpted bronze plaques illustrating accompanying quotes about literature, knowledge, information and reading.  I forgot to bring my camera, but the link above will take you to images of the plaques.  There are so many wonderful quotes and images it is hard to choose a favorite, but the poem by Bohumil Hrabal, a poet I had never heard of, might be mine.  Which is yours?

What serendipitous discoveries (book-related or otherwise) have you made in New York?