Last week I was lucky to be given a copy of one of my favorite Golden Books, The Monster at the End of This Book: Starring Lovable, Furry Old Grover, by Katie and Rowan.

As a child I loved watching Sesame Street, my favorite character was always Grover, and especially his alter ego, Super Grover! The cute little blue monster is excitable, caring and compulsive, perhaps bordering on neurotic (as an adult I can see why I relate to him so well).

Author Jon Stone cleverly makes Grover speak directly to the reader of this little book, capturing the curiosity, suspense and humor of waiting and wanting to see what actually is at the end of the book. Stone was Sesame Street’s first head writer, as well as one of the show’s primary directors and producers for over 24 years.

First published by Golden Books in 1971, The Monster at the End of this Book is illustrated perfectly by Mike Smollin who translates Grover seamlessly into print. His illustrations are simple and distinctly 70s which still makes this book so adorably cool.

This book is a lot of fun to read aloud and perfect for toddlers. As I write this Ned’s dad has just read him the book causing much hilarity, now Ned is reading(!?) the book to himself and trying to emulate the way dad read it with squeals in all the right places.

Grover speaks out of the book to his audience, so they can become involved, each page turned by the reader brings them and Grover closer to the looming Monster at the end.

‘Shhh. Listen, I have an idea. If you do not turn any pages, we will never get to the end of this book. And that is good, because there is a Monster at the end of this book. So please do not turn the page’

There is no real fear in this book of actually finding a Monster. Spoiler Alert – the Monster is actually Grover! The book is more about humor and giving reassurance that the feeling of being a little scared is normal and that mostly what you were afraid of in the first place doesn’t actually eventuate.

It is currently season 37 of Sesame Street and Grover now has a new role as ‘Global Grover’ who introduces children to the world around them, and teaches them to be sensitive and respectful of our differences. The Sesame Workshop website is an amazing resource about everything to do with what, I think, is one of the most important television productions ever made for children.

Reviewed by Carmel Bird in The Age this weekend was a fascinating book called Golden Legacy by Leonard S. Marcus. The book chronicles the publishing phenomenon of Golden Books from the first release in 1942, detailing their criticism and praise as well as including wonderful archival photographs and original artwork. The New York Times review is here, there is also a great review here and the book can be found on Amazon. The customer reviews on Amazon show overwhelmingly just how much people love the Golden series of books.

Hard to believe that in the four months Lou and I have been doing our weekly ‘When We Were Little’ posts, we haven’t yet canvassed a Golden Book. We have some catching up to do!

One of my favourite Golden Books, and the one that probably has the strongest memories for me, is The Colour Kittens. It must have been given to me very early in my life, as the inscription on the front page reads ‘This book belongs to Katherine’, so it was written before my name was always shortened – which is for as long as I can remember…

The Colour Kittens is written by Margaret Wise Brown – author of Goodnight Moon. It’s interesting that one of the kittens is named ‘Hush’, which is a word that is also present and distinctive for me in Goodnight Moon (And a quiet old lady whispering ‘hush’!). Also similarly, the text has a lovely lilting rhythm.

Drifting in and out of rhyming verse, the words are very soothing:

Green as cats’ eyes,
Green as grass
By streams of water
Green as glass

The story follows Hush and Brush, who love to mix colours of paints, but don’t know how to make green. It is a lovely introduction to the idea of mixing colours – as we discover how the kittens make pink and orange and purple and – finally – green.

The illustrations by Alice and Martin Provensen do every justice to the underlying theme. Their style is very distinctive, stylised, and the use of colour is particularly stunning. Crisp shapes and unusual contrasts help to give the illustrations an amazing vibrancy. I find it amazing that the reproduction of the colours can be so vibrant, on the lightweight pages of a production that was made to be affordable to everyone.

The artwork of this book has, I’ve learnt, been inspiring for designers and artists. I read recently somewhere, I can’t find the link at the moment, about one particular designer’s continuing association of a hue of purple as ‘Color Kitten Purple’. A fitting tribute to the influence of a humble little Golden Book.

||The Colour Kittens available from Amazon||