Search Results golden books

New eBay loot

9 June 2011 by Katie · 1 Comment

I just received some lovely new-to-me Golden Books of eBay. ABC Rhymes I’ve seen before, but I’d never come across Play Street or The Little Golden Book of Mother Goose.

When I saw the cover of Play Street, I was immediately reminded of the illustrations of Eloise Wilkin – author and illustrator of many Little Golden Books, including A Child’s Garden of Verses, We Like Kindergarten and Prayers for Children. Jane Werner Watson, who edited and wrote hundreds of Golden Books, called Eloise Wilkin “the soul of Little Golden Books”.

But Play Street was written by Esther Wilkin and illustrated by Joan Esley. A little research into these two revealed some interesting collaboration. Esther Wilkin was the sister of Eloise, who were born Eloise and Esther Burns, and they married two brothers Wilkins. Eloise was friends with Joan Esley and they opened a studio together and later moved to New York city together. I love the thought of the shared careers of these three, working together, helping each other in an era when few women were working, let along making names for themselves as leaders in their careers.

This is a gorgeous story, if you don’t already know it – how’s this for a classic 50s opener?

It was all very quiet on on Butternut Lane. The mothers were busy with their housework and the babies were taking their mid-morning naps. Bobby was riding his tricycle.

Against a backdrop of a classic US streetscape, is a tale of make believe – each of the littlies of Butternut Lane rides his or her trike imaging they are driving a vehicle. Until the roving policeman stops them as they are starting to make so much noise!

The Little Golden Mother Goose collects 75 Mother Goose rhymes – I’m amazed that I’ve heard of most of them but lovely to read a few new ones too.

I’m a very happy e-Bayer…

Filed Under: Age 2+, Classics, Vintage

To Market…..

16 August 2010 by Lou · 1 Comment

We had such a wonderful reaction to our photos of Magnolia Square I thought you might like to see a couple more…

The Golden Book Bedspread…

The Little Jack Horner Lamp…

Our Moomin Cookie Cutters in Katie’s beautiful vintage hat boxes …

The FAMOUS Womble, boy did he ever attract some attention!

The Womble overseeing some pretty stock…

Our sign, lit by a gorgeous borrowed ‘industrial’ lamp…

Come and see our set up at the next Magnolia Square.

In the meantime we are going to Mathilda’s Market this Sunday at the Hawthorn Town Hall, 9am – 1pm. We have more new titles to take as well as some old favs so come and visit and maybe start some Christmas shopping!

Filed Under: We Heart Books Store

Our Mag Square stand goes vintage

9 August 2010 by Katie · 4 Comments

Magnolia Square was so much fun as always – could it have been the BEST EVER?! Nic and her team created such a gorgeous display – the stage was like a scene from Narnia, complete with silver birch trees, and the most breathtaking props. So many amazing retailers – having a stand next to Michel’s Fine Biscuits was way too tempting and opposite our stand was the gorgeous Ohme Ohmi – we LOVED their new vintage toy T-shirts.

We also went a bit vintage with a new look for our stand…

How stunning is this bedspread with Golden Book characters – can you spot the Saggy Baggy Elephant and the Tawny Scrawny Lion? It’s an original and belongs to a lovely friend of mine – how lucky is she?! Underneath is the most gorgeous Little Jack Horner lamp found by Lou – which also got lots of comments from our customers.

The Womble night light was from my childhood…

Lou makes some gorgeous vintage book bunting, which you can see up top, and I framed some of the Charley Harper Memory Game cards for the wall. The furniture and some vintage hat boxes were thrifted and found in storage, a gorgeous handmade quilt, vintage suitcase, another lamp and toys were borrowed from another very lovely friend – once we got started it all came together…

Another Magnolia Square has been and gone – the good news is there’s just 11 weeks until the next one – we’re starting our countdown already!

Filed Under: magnolia square, We Heart Books Store

Borrowed and Thrifted

8 June 2010 by Lou · 3 Comments

In Justine Larbalestier’s book How to Ditch Your Fairy almost everyone who lives in the fictional city of New Avalon has their own personal fairy. Charlie the main character has a parking fairy that she is trying to ditch, hence the title. Meanwhile Charlie’s best friend Rochelle has a clothes shopping fairy who miraculously makes Rochelle always find clothes that fit, look great on her and are marked down – of course.

Justine’s fantastic young adult novel rings true to me. I have an aunt who most certainly has a parking fairy because wherever the destination she can always find a spot to park right outside or pretty close. She has had that knack for as long as I can remember. I also know friends who I know must have shopping fairies and more accurately thrifting fairies. Some of my friends can go to an op shop and find the most amazing things – designer clothes, jewellery and the cutest and coolest of things. I don’t generally have that fairy, actually really rarely do I have that fairy, except for one lucky day recently at an op shop in Newport….

I found, in pristine condition, four gorgeous little Tell-a-Tale books. Here are some photos of Little Red Hen, Jim Jump, Chicken Little and Little Bear and the Beautiful Kite…

The colours in the illustrations are not done justice by these photos.

Jim Jump is my favourite as it’s about a silly foal who jumps over all the animals in the farmyard, annoying them no end. One day the other animals dare him to jump a stream and he falls in. Not deterred he just decides to try it again.

I can’t tell you much about Tell-a Tale books. I did a google search and there are lots of secondhand copies especially in the US. It seems that the series was published by Whitman at the same time that Golden Books were born. The Tell-a-Tale books look to be a better produced and more durable series than the Golden Books with their hard covers and dust jackets.

Have a look at this site for more pictures of this beautiful series.

Whoever owned these four little books must have looked after them meticulously for they are perfect and I guarantee that I will look after them that way too.

Filed Under: Borrowed and thrifted