Here's another post while the lovely *miss* james welcomes her little bird into this world! So as you may have gathered from my last post, I loooooove my vintage! On Strawberry Lemonade I have a feature called "Storytime Tuesdays" where I show off some of my favorite vintage children's books. I started collecting these long before I had my own little kiddo because I was totally smitten with the amazing design and illustrations. I thought it would be fun to show you a little sampling of some of my favorites! I love to read these to my little guy, Wolfie (who is six) but I have to admit sometimes I like to just sit and look at the pictures!
This first one has it all. Groovy lettering. Excellent colors. And the rad, rad artwork of Art Seiden—one of my tippy top favorite illustrators! This book is from 1971. I think one of my favorite things is how cool their clothing is!
This next one is from a book called, “The Pocket Book” and it’s all about the pockets on your clothing. Such a cute idea for a story, but I mostly love how awesomely snooty each kid is about their pockets. "Oh yeah? Well i've got TWO pockets!" haha.
This fun book is part of an Encyclopedia Britannica series of school books that have names like “Learning About Shapes” and “The Magic of Everyday Things”. This one is “The Thinking Book” and its pretty darn cute.
I'm loving the cute and proper people in this book. They remind of a hipper version of Dick & Jane!
Speaking of hip, this last book is one of my all time favorites—not so much for the images, though those are pretty great, but for the writing. It is a decorating book written in 1960 for teen girls and is SOOOO chock full o' slangy goodness. This little treasure is all about decorating your room and making it the perfect lil hideaway. This is from the intro: "It's not written for squares. It's for you, in your language, giving you jivey pictures, plans and color combos. Dig this too, you'll get tons of tips for making your room totally YOU!" Hee. I keep thinking I want to introduce "jivey" into my vocabulary more. I found this baby on eBay and have been smitten ever since!
As I flipped through the book, I couldn't help but wonder what real teens thought of this. I mean, on the one hand it seems SOOOO over the top, like "Really? Did the kids reeeally call each other "Cha-Cha"?? At the same time I was thinking, maybe back then no one ever really took the time to write from a teens point of view. Who knows? Maybe kids thought "Wow! This is soooo cool! She's like totally part of the beat generation!
Well that’s our post for today, cha cha. Hope you found these illustrations inspiring! For more vintage kiddo goodness, please swing by Modern Kiddo and say hello!
Xoxo Alix