Little Golden Books.

I wrote about online shopping a few days ago.  At last, everything came and I have wrapped it up in bubble wrap and Peter found a strong box and we finally got everything together to send off to Alex in China….some gifts for his new baby girl.

These pics are not very clear...but you will remember these books I'm sure.

I spent most of the time waiting for a parcel from Booktopia, containing some Little Golden Books. I guess most people in the western world know about these. Our children had many of them and I think they were amongst the best books to be had. They were long enough for the child to think they got a story but not so long the parent was exhausted at the end of it. The stories were easy enough so the children could learn the story, and once they started talking could explain the pictures, and then when they got a bit smarter, they soon picked up when we missed bits. Sometimes we would play…’find the wrong word’….and deliberately say the wrong words.

Another great thing about them was the size. Big enough to feel like a real book for the child, but not too big. They were easy to store, many of our friends had shelves full of them, and they looked really  nice when they were neatly set up in the book shelves.

But the thing I really liked the most was that there was generally some sort of moral to the story. ‘The Little Red Hen’ taught that if you weren’t prepared to work, then you didn’t get any food. ‘The Little Engine That Could’ taught that if you try hard enough you can do things that seem really difficult.  There were many life skills taught in these books.

Well it’s like finding hens teeth trying to find these books in shops these days, that’s why I resorted to buying them online. But reading them again before I packed them, reminded me of how good they were and how much children’s reading has changed.

Today it’s all ghosts and vampires, Superman and Spiderman, Barbie Doll books and Ninja stories. Where has the innocence gone in childhood? How come it has become completely acceptable to read stories to five year olds about the supernatural and the scary stuff? Sure we used to read stories about Cinderella and the fairy godmother, but the harmful connotations weren’t there. Losing easy access to the Little Golden Books, in my view, as a big step backwards for parents and children alike.

 This silliest part of the whole process of buying these books....and from an Aussie website....is that one came from an Aussie supplier and the others came from USA and England. And where were these little books printed? Yes of course....China...so they have been printed in China, sent to USA then to a middle man in Aussie then to me.....and what do you know....I send them back to China......