Bookshelf Tour [Partial] - 19th & Early 20th Century Children's Classics
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- Опубліковано 21 вер 2022
- At the request of many viewers, this is the first installment in what could be a lengthy series of bookshelf tour videos. This one covers my favorite bookcase that contains more than 200 rare and vintage children's books, many of which are more than 100 years old. I've been collecting them for more than 40 years.
Each shelf in the video is linked below at the indicated time stamp.
0:19 Why I started the tour with these shelves
2:21 Bookcase overview
2:35 Shelf #1 - Andrew Lang's fairy tales
6:47 Shelf #2 - Illustrated fairy tales
10:32 Shelf #3 - Illustrated children's stories
14:14 Shelf #4 - Illustrated gift books
17:47 Shelf #5 - Lucy Maud Montgomery
20:19 Shelf #6 - Vintage children's novels (Alcott, Burnett, Nesbit, Barrie)
23:41 Shelf #7 - More vintage children's novels (Lewis, Milne, Grahame, Carroll, Baum, etc.)
28:14 Shelf #8 - Thomas Knox's Boy Travellers series
30:06 Shelf #9 - Still more vintage children's novels (Adams, White, Wilder, etc.)
34:50 Shelf #10 - More fairy tales, picture books & Swallows and Amazons
38:52 Future plans
I have more videos about illustrated books and children's books:
How to Start Reading Classic Books - • ...and How to Start Re...
Scribner Illustrated Classics series - • Scribner Illustrated C...
The Golden Age of Book Illustration - • The Golden Age of Book...
150 Years of Classic Children's Books - • 150 Years of Classic C...
#bookshelftour #childrensbooks #illustrator #booktube #anneofgreengables #winniethepooh #narnia #peterpan #vintagebooks #rarebooks #bookcollection
The Railway Children, Little House, & Anne of Green Gables will always be family favorites here. Not sure how many times we have read them as a family. We are by no means collectors of first editions, but someone gave us a first hand of Freckles by Gene Stratton Porter. The Boy Traveller's has me intrigued and William Du Bois! Love seeing all these originals!
I introduced my kids to Nesbit, Wilder and Montgomery when they were very young, and I think it significantly shaped their love of reading. Nesbit's The Story of the Treasure Seekers was a particular favorite of theirs.
Du Bois was a favorite of mine as a kid, and I've collected nearly all of the books he wrote and illustrated (most of which are in a different bookshelf than the one featured here).
My desire to renew reader interest in these older classics was the reason why I started my channel a couple of years ago. I've expanded beyond children's books in my videos, but I continue to focus exclusively on books and authors that are largely overlooked on UA-cam.
I'm amazed by the quality of such old books. Can't wait to see more of your collection
Book design and bookbinding were an incredible artform from the mid-1800s through the 1930s. Material shortages and loss of customers caused by World War I, the Great Depression and World War II eventually made it cost-prohibitive for publishers to produce books with such extensive artwork and ornate designs. I've long been motivated to preserve these books, and now I hope to build awareness of them so others might recognize and save what copies still remain.
Thanks for sharing these old books! I grew up with Shel Silverstein and Edward Gorey. I've always loved Gorey's illustrations, and can appreciate them much more now as I've gotten older.
Thanks! I'm a big fan of both Silverstein and Gorey. I memorized the poem Sarah Cynthia Sylvia Stout Would Not Take the Garbage Out when I about ten years old, and I can still remember the first several lines of it.
Bridger,
I’m a Dark Fantasy (Grimdark) and Horror reader. I got back into reading in 2019. Thanks to Jordan and Abercrombie, after not reading any fiction for many years. As much as I love the booktube and booktok spaces. I feel the focus is a little too modern or dare I say in some ways the tastes in these spaces sometimes feel trendy. I feel that earlier works should be given more attention and appreciated. That and I have been hungry to find some “undercover gems”.
I have been floored by your content. This channel is criminally underrated.
I have been curious about older Dark Fantasy books from the ‘80s 70's and 60's that curiosity has brought me to authors like Gene Wolfe, Glen Cook, Stephen R. Donaldson, David Gemmell, and Karl Edward Wagner.
I have had the writers Neal Stephenson and Michael Moorcock on my list but after watching your videos. I'm going to make them a priority. You are doing a phenomenal job. And even though I’m a fan of Grimdark, I truly enjoyed your bookshelf tour of Children’s books. (I recently bought a copy of Brothers Grimm.) Without a doubt every time I watch your videos, I learn something.
I just wanted to let you know that you are desperately needed. Please don’t stop doing what you are doing.
Thank you for your very kind and supportive comment! That's exactly what I'm hoping to accomplish with my channel -- shining a spotlight on older or underappreciated classics.
I enjoy a lot of new and popular fiction, but many of those books get so much coverage on BookTube that it creates a kind of echo chamber, with channels trying to maximize their views and watchtime by talking about books that are already well-known and popular. I'd rather talk about overlooked books that deserve more attention -- and my hope is that I might help those books become more popular (or at least stay in print).
For example, I think highly of Joe Abercrombie, but I'm unlikely to make a video about him anytime in the foreseeable future. His books already get a ton of attention. On the other hand, I anticipate making videos at some point about Wolfe, Cook, Gemmell and Steven Brust, to name a few authors who aren't as widely read or talked about.
Given your interest in dark fantasy, you might find interesting my next video, coming later this week. It's a retrospective on legendary publisher Arkham House. The company focused primarily on promoting the early development of the horror genre, but it also played a significant role in cultivating interest in dark fantasy. Many of the classic authors Arkham House published are well worth reading today.
@@thelibraryladder
Thank you, for the response. I’m subscribed to your channel and I have watched your videos… multiple times. I remember hearing about Arkham House as a boy. When I was reading as a child, all I would read was Alvin Schwartz and R.L. Stine (much to my mother’s dislike). But I remember seeing that name in passing. I will definitely be waiting for that video when it releases.
Yes! I agree with you on that stance one hundred percent. BookTube in a lot of ways has become very much an echo chamber. It feels like I have mostly watched content talking about the same fifteen to twenty authors, more or less. I know for a lot of the bigger channels UA-cam is a business. So you go with what’s trendy to get views and try to “sneak in” your personal tastes. Usually, those videos get the least amount of views but most of the time they’re the most interesting.
Thank you for mentioning Steven Brust! (You actually indirectly just helped with a small problem I was having.) I remember seeing his Vlad Talos books some time ago. I was looking for older fantasy books and I remember seeing his. All I remembered was the artwork on the books, I could not remember the author’s name. (Again, me learning something.)
Can I make a humble request? Or possibly a recommendation? There is an author you might have heard of who writes in a similar vein to Joe Abercombie in my opinion. A British humor novelist by the name of Tom Holt. Holt writes fantasy novels under the pseudonym, K.J. Parker. An alias that he kept secret for 17 years. He writes fantasy with a very Machiavellian tone and his wit is just as sharp as Joe’s. Two works of his are “The Folding Knife” a novel and “Purple and Black” a novella. You might have already heard of these books (if you have my apologies.) But if you haven’t, I implore you to give him a try. I think you will enjoy them.
Lastly, I see that you are a fellow lover of hardcovers. Over the last two years, I have been buying trade paperback. (I’m not a fan of mass market paperbacks at all) I have been on the fence about going after hardcovers for some of my favorites. But after following your channel for some time, I think hardcovers are the way to go. Your collection is absolutely beautiful. Almost like pieces of art from the era, it was written in.
Again, Bridger thank you for your time. I can honestly say in a very short time, you have become one of my favorite BookTubers. I will definitely keep watching.
This entire channel is ASMR
Thanks! (I think?) :)
@@thelibraryladder it is a compliment
Amazing books, wonderful.
I agree. Collecting them has been a labor of love for me for more than 40 years.
You have a gorgeous library. We are homeschooling our five children and have a small library. We are proud of our little collection. My favorites are the picturesque america volumes and our ga henty collection.
Thank you! I love the Picturesque America and G.A. Henty books, too. They have special places in my library.
Gosh this is such an amazing collection. I’ve collected a few older books for my daughters. I’d love for future videos to cover suggested readings. I understand this is just a library tour, but I’d appreciate more guidance.
Thanks! One of my regrets over the past year is that I haven't done more videos recommending children's books, which was my original motivation for creating the channel. I plan to remedy that in the coming year.
As a preview, many of the works of some of the authors I highlight in this bookshelf tour (e.g., Edith Nesbit, William Pene du Bois, Arthur Ransome, Lucy Maud Montgomery) aren't as well known today, but are well worth reading.
A breathtaking collection! Thanks for this video and I look forward to the next ones.
Thank you, Albert!
What a pleasant surprise, your video is the cherry on top to cap off a perfect day.
Thanks! You know, if you rewatch it every day for a week, it makes your week that much better. :D
@@thelibraryladder Well I'm sure I'll eventually watch it 7 times as there's so many great books shown in this video. Today when I went to the bookstore I looked a lot more carefully through their oldest books. Eventually I'll find some gems and have you to thank.
This is fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing.
I've been collecting old British children's annuals and story papers for a while now, and there's just something about the illustrations and breadth of information inside each of them that always inspires me to create.
Thanks! I've long wondered why children's annuals and other similar anthology gift books were primarily a British publishing custom. With a few exceptions, they never really caught on in the US. I think they're wonderful.
The quality of your videos continues to be fantastic. I find them soothing and they go great with a cup of warm tea! (-:
Thanks! With milk or without?
@@thelibraryladder oh maybe just a splash!
Perfect! :)
Just : Whaou !
I'm so impatient to discover the rest of this bookshelf tour !
Thanks! It likely will take a while. I have more than 250 shelves of books in my collection, and this was only the first ten. It's going to take more than a few installments to complete the tour.
@@thelibraryladder 😯
Wow thank you for the info our of your shelves. Bookshelves can be deeply personal and I thank you for sharing a piece of you and your family with us.
You are so welcome! I'm glad you enjoyed it. Thanks for watching and commenting!
I collect golden age illustrative works. You may want to grab Morte d'Arthur illustrated by Beardsley. Almost every single page is illustrated. My favorite looking book, the aesthetic makes you feel transported back in time.
Great recommendation! Aubrey Beardsley is an illustrator I really like, but I have almost nothing of his. His Morte d'Arthur would make a terrific addition.
Yo~ splendid , the-
Beautiful! I now what you mean by "golden age of illustrations". The illustrations are gorgeous!
I agree! Many of those illustrators were well-known household names a hundred years ago, and their names were often given more prominence on a book's cover than the actual author of the book (e.g., Jessie Willcox Smith and Arthur Rackham). My hope is to rebuild awareness of them among readers today.
Beautiful as usual. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! Cheers!
E. Nesbit - one of the funniest childrens authors, neglected today
I completely agree. Nesbit's one of my favorite children's book authors. I think she's still widely read in the UK, but in the US she's practically unknown to younger generations. She's also one of the primary reasons I decided to start this channel.
@@thelibraryladder When I was a child in the 1960s the only way to read E. Nesbit's books was to live in a city poor enough that the local library had not thrown them away. The copies I read were from the early 20th century and had been many times repaired. Almost no one my age knows her books, although I think the situation is better now. Peter Glassman of Books of Wonder brought some of her books back into print and since then there have been more.
I got started book collecting in the 1980s when I wanted to find copies of E. Nesbit's books for my own collection and found almost nothing was available. I tracked down her works over the years one by one, and began picking up others as well. Diana Wynne Jones, John Masefield, Alan Garner, Andrew Lang, George MacDonald. There is more to children's fantasy than Harry Potter. Your channel and bookstores like Books of Wonder which is still in business are important in keeping this legacy alive.
Thank you for your wonderful comment! I'm a big fan of all of the classic authors you mentioned. I introduced those books to my kids when they were between the ages of eight and ten, and they quickly became some of their favorites, especially the ones by Nesbit. Alas, no one they knew had even heard of the books or authors (in some cases, not even their schoolteachers).
@@thelibraryladder Thank you for your reply! It is wonderful to find content creators shining a light on these books. It may be that the children I knew were lucky exceptions as Books of Wonder was located near several local schools, was well loved, and also held community events. That teachers are now unaware of the legacy of the "golden age" of children's fantasy writing is truly sad. The librarians in my town in the 60s must have been eccentrics or anglophiles or both, as I also found Lucy Boston's Green Knowe books there.
I have collected less in the past few years as we are running a bit short on space, but I applaud your efforts to spread the word. Lending my copy of one of Diana Wynne Jones's books to my cousins and having it returned taped and rubber banded back together after being passed around their entire middle school one year was a lesson in just how much these books are needed and loved when they are discovered.
I picked up a copy of Blue Fairy Book based on this video and have been reading it with my daughter. It’a a bit of a tough read, but we are enjoying it. Funny though we are reading “Yellow Dwarf” and they say something about “lions, tigers, and bears…” and based on my cursory research that phrase seems to predate Wizard of Oz. Not sure if it’s an odd coincidence or what but I thought it was interesting.
Thanks for sharing! I've never noticed that "lions, tigers and bears" reference. When my kids were younger (starting when they were around four years old), we read many children's classics written in late 1800s and early 1900s, despite the sometimes stilted or old-fashioned writing styles. They're in high school now, and they credit that early exposure to older writing styles for the ease with which they now read and appreciate the classic books assigned in their English literature classes.
YES!!!! I'd love to see more of your book shelf tours, please do it!!!
14:54 sounds really amazing that they came up with an idea like that, even back in the day :)
My parents were kids in the 50s and theyve been able to keep a few of their beloved books such as Winnie the pooh, Peter Pan and the wind in the willows and its nice to see what books were like to them as kids.
Theres a shop in Manchester called 'Paramount Books' and they sell all kinds of books like yours. Apart from waterstones, thats my main place i go to get get something unusal and enlightening :)
thanks again man, I'm going to share your channel with my Parents as they would love this kinda of stuff to watch. On top of gardening videos :)
I plan to do more bookshelf tours, with the next one probably sometime in June.
I've never been to Manchester, but if ever get there, I'll make an effort to visit Paramount Books. It sounds like my kind of bookstore.
I hope your parents enjoy my channel. Thanks!
Amazing collection. Thank you for sharing it with the world!
Thank you! I'm so glad you enjoyed it! There's more to come in the future.
Lovely video! I especially enjoyed seeing the illustrations very beautiful.
Thank you very much! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
This is such a lovely vid of your collection. Thank you so much for sharing it with us! I dreamed as a young girl to collect old books myself, but alas my life did not allow me to follow that dream, so I admit a bit of jealousy! :D
Thank you! Part of my motivation for creating this channel was to make it easier for everyone to enjoy older, out-of-print books. My hope is to rebuild interest in them so that publishers will bring them back into print, even if it's only in ebook format.
This was great! So many I remember from my school days. Thank you so much for doing these video’s they are like treasure troves. 😊😊😊
You are so very welcome! I hope to help give these books new life by encouraging viewers to read them for the first time or to rediscover them after a long absence.
I continue to be in awe of your passion for books. Children's Classics were a perfect pick for the first video and I'll be gladly waiting for next ones.
Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed the tour of some of my children's books.
Beautiful books and an awe-inspiring collection! I appreciate the effort to walk us through this treasure trove. Can't wait for the next installments of your book tour.
Thank you so much! I've had a lot of fun collecting them over several decades.
For the next installment of the tour, I'm having difficulty deciding which bookshelf to feature. Any suggestions? (genre? time period?)
@@thelibraryladder fantasy, of course!
How can I read more books
That's a question I ask myself all the time. I haven't found a perfect answer for it yet. :D
Thanks for the beautiful library tour - I loved seeing the internals of all your beautiful and thoughtfully curated volumes (and I know how long it takes to make a shelf tour like this!) ❤
Thank you! It's been a labor of love collecting the books and making videos highlighting them. As I know you're well aware, outside of the Folio Society and a few other small specialty presses, it's hard to find books published today with this level of craftsmanship.
Those first edition Alcott!
I have a huge lack of knowledge about old books. I'm excited to see what will you recommend!
Great! Older or overlooked books and authors are my primary focus on the channel. I have many more videos planned to highlight them. Thanks for watching and commenting!
Oh my stars that was amazing!!!
What an amazing collection! I love these kinds of books. I only have a few. I wish I could still find these without spending a mint.
Thanks! Collecting them has been a labor of love for more than 40 years. It's still possible to find some of these at bargain prices, but it tends to require sustained searching and a lot of patience.
Jonique'a Smith:They're ALL beautiful!😃📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📕📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📚📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖📖
I agree! Thanks!
@@thelibraryladder you're welcome.😁
No Tom Swift, Rover Boys, Don Sturdy, The Hardy Boys, Radio Boy.... etc? Or are they on another book shelf? Still lots of cool books. I read the Nesbit books to my kids.
Thanks! I have all of those vintage Stratemeyer Syndicates series and many more in a completely different room and bookcase (visible briefly in the short overview video I created a year ago at ua-cam.com/video/G2vc15mSpHM/v-deo.html). I intend to make future videos about all of them.
Edith Nesbit is one of my favorites, and my kids loved her books as well when we listened to audiobook versions of them when they were young.
@@thelibraryladder Great! Looking forward to that video someday. I have fond memories of discovering the old Tom Swift books when "Tom Swifties" were a thing. Upstate NY of the teens, & twenties was an exotic locale and the stories were so different from the Tom Swift Jr books I had been reading at the time.
This is wonderful and makes me want to search these books out
I finally was able to watch this video in its entirety today - thanks for sharing this! Your (partial) collection is quite remarkable! Have you just always scoured used book stores and thrift shops to grow your collection? I'm looking forward to the future videos!
Thanks, Josh! I've always been a bargain hunter. My first 20 years of collecting relied primarily on used book stores, thrift shops, and Friends of the Public Library fundraiser sales. Starting around 2000, online sites such as eBay (primarily) and Abebooks (occasionally) gradually became prominent sources.
I used to find tremendous bargains on eBay in informal estate sales, when people would clean out an old house or downsize their book collections when they retired. They'd list the books themselves in auctions on eBay (often in bulk lots with very low starting bid prices because the effort required to price the books individually was too daunting).
With the rise of eBay reseller middlemen in recent years, I don't see those kinds of bargains nearly as often now, but they still appear now and then.
Throughout, the key to my collecting has been patience. Waiting to find the right book, in the right condition, and at the right price, rather than snapping up the first copy I run across.
Beautiful!
I agree. The books _are_ beautiful. Thanks for watching!
I grew up in a house in which every room had at least one floor to ceiling bookshelf.
That sounds wonderful!
I was actually surprised to find Lang's volumes straight away! I have just taken a pause in collecting them due to the high prices, I got only seven so far ... They are irresistable! Modern reprints of these editions look incredibly lame in comparison. The more l delve into your videos, the more l like them. Great find!
Thanks! I agree that the Lang first editions are gorgeous. Like you, I couldn't resist trying to track down collectible copies (although I did so when prices were significantly lower, around $15-25 per volume). I have a 1950s US reprint of the colored fairy books for use as reading copies, and there's no comparison between them in production design.
I just stumbled across your extraordinary channel, and I'm so happy I did. You must have the most impressive collection of books I've ever seen on UA-cam
Thanks! Collecting them has been a labor of love for more than 40 years.
Tremendous and thoughtful presentation as always. I would sincerely appreciate a more informal video regarding how you have gone about procuring your collection. As a burgeoning book collector myself, any practical insights you could provide would be exceedingly welcome.
Edit: having read through the comment thread to this video alone, I can tell I am not the only collector interested in your personal insights. Feel no need to respond individually to this comment, I can surmise your response from similar exchanges. Alas I think your practical insights would make for an exceptionally educational video and allow time and space for you to elaborate more fully. The time frame you set and perspective you have on collecting is welcome and encouraging. Keep up the great work sir.
Thanks for your kind words and for your suggestion for a future video. Many others have made similar requests over the past several months, and I'm open to possibly making such a video. I'm still considering what information would be most useful, as well as how best to present it. I might have a how-to ready in a few months.
I'm SO EXCITED!?!?!?!
Wonderful! Why the question marks? :)
So many beautiful books! Looking forward to upcoming installments in the bookshelf tour now. Would love to know if you know of or have much experience with progressive-era girls' school/college novels? I recently fell in love with Margaret Warde/Edith K. Dunton's Betty Wales series and I'm really enjoying learning more about that period in and subgenre of children's literature
Thanks! I have quite a few vintage series from that era. If you enjoy the Betty Wales books, you might also like the Marjorie Dean series (by Pauline Lester), the Ruth Fielding series (by Alice Emerson), the Grace Harlowe series (by Josephine Chase), and the Beverly Gray series (by Clair Blank), all of which follow their protagonists through school and into careers.
Another series from a little later period (1940s) is Enid Blyton's Malory Towers series. It's set at an English boarding school.
I hope those are helpful suggestions.
@@thelibraryladder oh wow thank you for the recommendations! I'm excited to look into these!
I’d love to own all these original prints of these great stories.
Fun fact: Arthur Rackham’s illustrations served as inspirations for the character designs and backgrounds for the Rankin/Bass version of The Hobbit
Thanks for sharing that tidbit. I hadn't heard it before. The visual style of that animated version of The Hobbit is very reminiscent of Rackham now that I think about it.
Lovely collection ! Can you let me know sources that help identify first editions of Gruelle's books ? It's been reprinted so many times, keeping the same copyright page that I've no idea how to identify them. Thanks for the informative video !
Love your library. I recognize many. Have you ever come across the Ralph on the Railroad series?
Thanks! I'm familiar with the Ralph series, but it's not one of the Stratemeyer Syndicate series I've collected. I have books from only about 20 of the 100 or so series the syndicate produced.
@@thelibraryladder my first exposure to crime, and hoboes. Big impression at 10, in ‘58. Seeing your kids books really plunged me back into all the illustration, so well imprinted into my brain.
You have all the original Lang volumes!? 🤣 your collection is just too insane
All but one: the final book, The Strange Story Book, which was published the year after Lang's death. In the video, I mistakenly said I'm missing two of the 25 volumes. I forgot that I have one of the two (The Book of Saints and Heroes). It's in a completely different bookshelf, though, because its cover design is very different and doesn't match the gilt designs of the others in the series.
I love the Lang first editions. They're absolutely gorgeous and had a significant impact on children's publishing as well as on the early development of the fantasy genre.
Do you use this tone of voice for everyday talking as well?
I could easily hyper focus on your voice & learn. Extrapolate every bit of knowledge I need to know.
Or I could listen to you and fall asleep in about 26 seconds.
It’s my normal speaking voice, which I’ve discovered can be handy when taming wild animals, negotiating with hostage-takers, and interviewing British soccer fans. Thus, it seemed like a good fit for BookTube. :)
If muting my voice helps, I always upload accurate closed caption subtitles for my videos. Thanks for the feedback.
Uhhhh that green book might contain a lot of lead mate ... watch out with that one lol. During that time the color green was very in and the way they made green was with toxic materials.
Thanks for the warning! That sounds like a good reason to stop nibbling on the book's front edge when I get hungry. :)
Please, can you post a vídeo about
the works by Marjorie Torrey? She
wrote 'Artie and the Princess'; one
of the best dragons's tale that i
have read. Of course, i read it in
spanish. 53 years ago.
Hi. I plan to include her in a video next year about classic illustrated books for kids. Thanks for the suggestion!
@@thelibraryladderAahh! 👌Here i wrote firstly you about Torrey. Thank for remember it.
The condition of your collection is astounding! What sources do you use to find your collection?
Thanks! I've been piecing it together for more than 40 years, so I've relied on a range of sources, including used book stores, charitable book sales, eBay and auction houses (for a few estate sales). I've found that the key is to have patience in order to find the right book in the right condition and at the right price. I'm a bargain hunter, and It's hard to satisfy all three conditions. I've learned from experience that patience usually brings the best results.
Make children (especially boys) read again! 😀
I'll settle for encouraging or inspiring them to read. :)
It would seem to me that the children's books of this era that you are presenting have much more maturity than what is published today. These books really give me a Horatio Alger vibe which begs the question, would Alger books be considered early 20th century children's or YA?
Great question, and here's a somewhat longwinded response. Having read a lot of newer children's books in recent years, both with my kids and with their school's book club that I helped lead, I'd say there's a wide range of maturity represented in them.
There are still many books being published that are very similar in content and maturity to the children's books published between the 1930s and 1970s (a golden age for storytelling without the overt sensationalism that began gaining prominence from 1980s onward).
There are also children's books being published today, particularly in the realistic fiction and historical fiction subgenres, that are surprisingly mature in the themes they explore and in their realistic depiction of events. I've read some truly outstanding books written recently for middle grade students (ages 9-12) that nevertheless gave me pause to wonder whether the graphic descriptions of wartime violence, the deprivations of the poor, the inhumane treatment of animals (and people), and other serious topics described in the books were suitable for kids that age. I certainly didn't ever encounter anything that graphic in a children's book when I was growing up, and I was a voracious reader.
Unfortunately, though, the trend over the past several decades toward books aimed at low-attention-span readers is also much more pronounced today. Many children's books are now written with simple prose and extremely fast-paced and often nonsensical plots. Likewise, the protagonists in these books often aren't great role models -- they tend to display attitudes and behaviors one might expect in a rude and jaded 40 year old who never grew up emotionally, or they're extreme caricatures of what the author thinks today's kids might consider "cool."
It's been explained to me by librarians that much of the sensationalism trend has been driven by marked disparities in reading trends among boys and girls. Specifically, boys today tend to read far less than girls do, and the books boys do read have to compete with action-packed video games and Marvel movies to keep their attention.
Shorter attention spans is also a large part of the reason why classic children's books from the late 19th and early 20th centuries have lost relevance. Teachers are reluctant to assign them or even to encourage reading them because they're perceived as being too long and having writing styles that aren't simple or fast-paced enough for today's readers.
Regarding Horatio Alger's stories, I'd characterize them today as children's books, even though they were originally written for slightly older kids (ages 12-15). It's similar to how chapter book series such as the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew started out being marketed to 12-15 year olds, but by the 1960s were targeting younger readers (ages 8-10) as the competition for older readers grew too fierce. The books didn't really change much; rather, reader expectations did.
The less said about the YA genre the better. In my opinion, YA has to a large extent become a meaningless label that bears very little resemblance to its original purpose. [That's a rant for another day. :) ]
@@thelibraryladder I've heard podcasts mention "middle grade" as the terminology being used to explain those readers who are too old for children's books and not old enough for young adult. Nevertheless, it's very apparent that the trends are making obvious changes as would be the case with how people would perceive the reading habits of those generations before us.
Even the term "middle grade" is evolving as children's reading behaviors change. Twenty years ago, there would have been almost no disagreement that middle grade books are simply children's books for grades 4-6 that are longer and more complex than early reader books for grades K-3. That's the definition that I (and many others) still use.
However, many middle grade students have started reading books not intended for their age group. They're reading books marketed as YA, such as the Hunger Games series and other violent, sexualized and nihilistic dystopian stories such as the Scythe, Caraval, Divergent, Red Rising, and School of Good & Evil series. It was eye-opening to discover how many of my kids' classmates in fifth grade were reading those books and others intended for high school-age readers.
Once kids start reading books with that kind of content, they lose interest in traditional middle grade books, leading to a divided and confused middle grade market. Unfortunately, many parents are buying those YA books for their ten-year-olds without realizing what the books might inadvertently be teaching them.
I am trying to find/remember the name of a Children's vintage book publisher that I used to have an account with when my daughter was growing up. It leaned toward the wholesome, Christian word view, but had many rare books. Any thoughts?
Depending on how long ago it was, could it have been Bookroo, Sonlight or the Weekly Reader Book Club? Those are three subscription services that come to my mind.
Going farther back (1950s/60s), Doubleday Books published a couple of series for children that it sold by subscription: The Best in Children's Books series (which anthologized short fiction and excerpts from longer classic works) and the Junior Deluxe Editions of classic children's literature. Doubleday pioneered the subscription book club concept that other publishers later copied. Grosset & Dunlap had a similar series of children's classics, The Illustrated Junior Library, although I don't know if they were ever sold by mail.
I hope that's helpful.
Have you encountered a book from 1929, THE CHILDREN'S COUNTRY by Kay Burdekin?
That's a wonderful book! It's very scarce, and I've been on the lookout for a first edition (in nice condition and reasonably priced) for years. There's a beautiful copy of it listed on eBay for $1,000, and another copy in very good condition (although without the dust jacket) is listed on Abebooks for a little under $400, which is more than I'm willing to spend on it. In a couple of years, though, the book and illustrations will enter the public domain (under US copyright laws), and there's a good chance a facsimile reprint edition will become available.
Your collection is ridiculously impressive.
Thanks! I've been slowly piecing it together for more than 40 years.