#Grolier Publishing

[uwmspeccoll]

French Fairy Treasures

Around the World Treasures: Famous French Fairy Tales by the father of the French fairy tale Charles Perrault (1628-1703) and collected and adapted from the original Perrault by David Stone, was published in New York by Frankin Watts Inc., a division of Grolier, in 1959. The book includes The Picture Story of Perrault's Famous French Fairy Tales, illustrated by British artist and teacher Charles Mozley (1914-1991), a book illustrator and designer of posters, book covers, and print. Along with these striking color drawings are black-and-white illustrations depicting key moments within each story. Noel Streatfeild (1895-1986), an English children's book author, provides an introduction to the book. In it, she details the essential moments in Perrault's life that led him to write these stories. According to Streatfeild, before Perrault's Contes, nobody had ever read a fairy tale! Before that, these stories were passed down and enjoyed through oral tradition.

Perrault played a significant role in the literary controversy called the "Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns." At 23, he became a lawyer, following in his father's footsteps, before embarking on a political career, which led him into the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France. Spending time in his court is where Perrault garnered inspiration to write his stories. His simple, unaffected style breathed new life into half-forgotten folk tales. Interestingly, some of his versions influenced the German tales collected by the Brothers Grimm more than a century later.

So, whether you find yourself wondering in the woods like Little Red Riding Hood or dreaming of glass slippers like Cinderella, Perrault's timeless tales remain a delightful part of our childhood imagination, capturing the magic and wonder of storytelling for generations to come!

-Melissa, Special Collections Graduate Intern

-View more posts from our Historical Curriculum Collection

[nileshpurpleturtle1]

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Best rhymes for kids with actions to follow are Purple Turtle rhymes on YouTube channel

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[shoppurpleturtle]

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The most famous kids' story books by Purple Turtle about his adventures with his friends are loved by most children.

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[gardenvarietygay]

A moment of context and hope for all my nervous conservation-minded friends.

I was looking through a Book of Knowledge, published in 1926, and found this passage which I thought was rather important:

"The present scarcity of all five of these most beautiful of water birds [American flamingo, roseate spoonbill, white egret, snowy egret, and glossy ibis] is owing to their having been killed, ruthlessly and incessantly until recent years, for the sake of their exquisite plumage. That any remain is to the credit of the National Association of Audubon Societies. This organization not only has obtained protective laws from state legislatures, but has paid for guarding the birds while rearing their young."

And another on the next page:

"The British colonists in New England imported [domestic turkeys originally from Mexico] with their chickens and cows; and in this roundabout way our barnyard turkeys got back to their native soil, very little changed from their wild brethren, which are now rare except in thinly settled parts of the United States and Mexico. Another bird that formerly was to be seen in the central part of the country in enormous numbers every summer was the Wild, or Passenger, Pigeon. It is now extinct. Its story is so well known that it need not be repeated here."

None of the five water birds in the first passage are considered at risk today. All have either breeding or non-breeding resident populations in the US* and are relatively common.

Less than 100 years ago these authors were grouping the fate of these water birds and wild turkeys with passenger pigeons. The last passenger pigeon died in captivity in 1914. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was passed in 1918, eight years prior to the writing of this book. The authors had no idea that it would be considered landmark conservation legislation that would save hundreds of species and be the cornerstone of conservation law in the US. For them, it seemed entirely appropriate to warn children that they might never see a wild turkey and that most game birds and shore birds were as good as gone. Today wild turkeys are common throughout the US and snowy egrets aren’t even ICUN listed.

Conservation work is slow but worthwhile. I sure as heck hope that in 100 years someone finds a piece I’ve written eulogizing rare plants and laughs at me for worrying about species they see everywhere.

Mee, A. (Ed.). (1926). The Birds of North America. In The Book of Knowledge (4th ed., Vol. XIV, pp. 5018–5020). London: The Grolier Society, Limited.

*The American flamingo is a slightly odd case. We know that it was always relatively rare in the present-day US, even prior to colonization, but that there was a breeding population in south Florida. Now it is relatively common along the East coast but there isn't a breeding population in Florida, at least not confirmed.

[mariacallous]

Partial list of the books that Helene Hanff ordered from Marks & Co. and mentioned in 84, Charing Cross Road (alphabetical order):

Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, (1813)

Arkwright, Francis trans. Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon

Belloc, Hillaire. Essays.

Catullus – Loeb Classics

Chaucer, Geoffrey The Canterbury Tales translated by Hill, published by Longmans 1934)

Delafield, E. M., Diary of a Provincial Lady

Dobson, Austen ed. The Sir Roger De Coverley Papers

Donne, John Sermons

Elizabethan Poetry

Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows

Greek New Testament

Grolier Bible

Hazlitt, William. Selected Essays Of William Hazlitt 1778 To 1830, Nonesuch Press edition.

Horace – Loeb Classics

Hunt, Leigh. Essays.

Johnson, Samuel, On Shakespeare, 1908, Intro by Walter Raleigh

Jonson, Ben. Timber

Lamb, Charles. Essays of Elia, (1823).

Landor, Walter Savage. Vol II of The Works and Life of Walter Savage Landor (1876) – Imaginary Conversations

Latin Anglican New Testament

Latin Vulgate Bible / Latin Vulgate New Testament

Latin Vulgate Dictionary

Leonard, R. M. ed. The Book-Lover's Anthology, (1911)

Newman, John Henry. Discourses on the Scope and Nature of University Education. Addressed to the Catholics of Dublin – "The Idea of a University" (1852 and 1858)

Pepys, Samuel. Pepys Diary – 4 Volume Braybrook ed. (1926, revised ed.)

Plato's Four Socratic Dialogues, 1903

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, The Oxford Book Of English Verse

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, The Pilgrim's Way

Quiller-Couch, Arthur, Oxford Book of English Prose

Sappho – Loeb Classics

St. John, Christopher Ed. Ellen Terry and Bernard Shaw : A Correspondence / The Shaw – Terry Letters : A Romantic Correspondence

Sterne, Laurence, The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, (1759)

Stevenson, Robert Louis. Virginibus Puerisque

de Tocqueville, Alexis Journey to America (1831–1832)

Wyatt, Thomas. Poems of Thomas Wyatt

Walton, Izaak and Charles Cotton. The Compleat Angler. (John Major's 2nd ed., 1824)

Walton, Izaak. The Lives of – John Donne – Sir Henry Wotton – Richard Hooker – George Herbert & Robert Sanderson

Woolf, Virginia, The Common Reader, 1932.

[sbooksbowm]

The Paper Legacy Collection at the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art has original marbled papers, archival material, and artists' tools (among many other objects) that document the history of decorated papers from 1960s to present. It's a rich collection developed by the Museum Librarian for Preservation Mindell Dubansky, who just published a book, Pattern and Flow, on the collection and is mounting an exhibition at the Grolier Club this Spring (which is free and open to the public!)

If you can't make it to NYC between January 18 - April 8, there's also an online show of all of the materials on view.

Dope

[librarytiem]

Evaluation of a Resource

Amazing Animals of the World is a set of encyclopedia with entries about a wide variety of animals. It was published in 1995. It comes in 24 slim volumes. Each volume has one-page entries for animals in alphabetical order, with photos, maps, basic facts, and writing about behaviours, lifestyles, and habitats. There are about 1000 entries total. The final volume also includes a glossary of terms and an index of all the animals listed. It’s in the reference section of my school’s library, so there isn’t circulation data on it.

My first impression of the series was that there is no way it could compete in breadth with the internet. But I considered the specific species of animals that students in my class have picked for their current genius hour projects, some of which are quite obscure (such as an axolotl or a proboscis monkey), and from that list there were only two animals I couldn’t find entries on: dogs, because the encyclopedia doesn’t include any domesticated animals; and narwhals. So maybe 1000 entries is enough for the purposes of most of this resource’s audience. The organization of the entries is also about as well done as a print collection could be. The entries themselves are in alphabetical order by the full name listed (so “plains zebra” is under P, not Z), but the index has double listings with and without adjectives, and also sorted by family. Any student who knows how to use an index should be able to find what they’re looking for, if indeed there is an entry for it. The age of the resource is also not a huge concern. Achieving Information Literacy recommends a shelf-life of ten years for the average book, and the CREW method (see: The Collection Program in Schools), which gets more granular by subject, also recommends a shelf-life of ten years for natural history books. For the level of depth the entries get into, though, not much can have changed for most of these species in the past 30 years. They are likely to still be factual, and this resource would have been a big investment when it was purchased. It deserves some leeway.

The main shortcoming of this resource that I can see, then, is the brevity of each entry. One page of information, even one page that is written at the right reading level, presented in a consistent, easy to understand format, with reasonably current information, is not enough to spin a whole research project out of. This resource cannot replace the internet, and would not serve intermediate students for much more than casual browsing. Perhaps its biggest asset would be for primary students. Despite being written at a more intermediate level, it is definitely easier to read for primary students than Wikipedia could ever be.

Let’s test it against some criteria. These are obviously based on Riedling and Houston.

Accuracy/Authority: Published by Grolier. Seems legit. Also it’s in the library so at some point it was vetted by a professional. Currency: 20 years behind CREW. Willing to give it leeway for the sake of merit. Format: Relatively easy to navigate. Indexing: As good as print will allow (entries are triple indexed by noun, adjective, and animal family). Objectivity: No biases evident on casual inspection, or rather, biases seem in line with the same biases students might have in terms of which animals interest them. Scope: Age appropriate, intermediate reading level, 1000 entires. Curricular fit: K (animal basic needs, adaptations), 1 (animal classifications), 2 (metamorphosis), 3 and 4 (biomes), All (inquiry— animals are a popular topic).

A New Resource

Even if it’s not time to weed out Amazing Animals of the World, the age of the series that I’m willing to give it leeway on will only grow with time, so a supplementary resource, at least, seems appropriate. Finding a resource that can replace (or supplement) this series is a challenge. Our library already has the online resources National Geographic Kids and Worldbook Kids. Online resources like these are best suited to the task of providing age-appropriate information on a wide range of searchable topics. Both resources seem to have a similar level of breadth and depth to Amazing Animals. So what we don’t have, then, is a resource that can fulfill Amazing Animals’ other assets, its browsability and its visual appeal to younger students.

Arcturus publishes a series of animal resources that might fit that bill.

Children’s Encyclopedia of Animals (by Dr. Michael Leach and Dr. Meriel Land) ISBN: 1788285069 Children’s Encyclopedia of Ocean Life (by Claudia Martin) ISBN: 1789506018 Children’s Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (by Clare Hibbert) ISBN: 1784284661 Children’s Encyclopedia of Birds (by Claudia Martin) ISBN: 178950600X

Focused Ed, CM Magazine, and Quill and Quire don’t have reviews on any of these books. Goodreads has little, and the reviews that Amazon has are positive, but written by parents rather than educators. Nevertheless, from what I can see of the books, they look appealing. Collected together these books won’t have as many entries as Amazing Animals. But what they lack in breadth they make up for in visual appeal and in currency. Amazing Animals does have some entries on extinct animals, and that is one area where the 20 years of additional research between its publication and Children’s Encyclopedia is likely to make a significant difference. According to the Arcturus catalogue, they have two additional encyclopedias to be released this year: Children’s Encyclopedia of Biology, and Children’s Encyclopedia of Prehistoric Life. They also have other books in the series that are not about animals. On Amazon each title is listed for $20, and in the Arcturus catalogue they’re each listed for 10 pounds (about $17 CDN).

To put this series up against the same criteria, then:

Accuracy/Authority: Published by Arcturus. The collection in their current catalogue looks professional. Currency: Publishing dates between 2017 and 2020. Well within CREW standards. Format/Indexing: Unknown. Well-designed interior pages, though. Objectivity: Unknown, but no obvious problems evident. Scope: Age appropriate, intermediate reading level, 128 pages per book, maybe 250 entries total in the set of 4. Curricular fit: K (animal basic needs, adaptations), 1 (animal classifications), 2 (metamorphosis), 3 and 4 (biomes), All (inquiry— animals are a popular topic).

So while I don’t recommend weeding Amazing Animals out of the collection yet, I do recommend adding a set of Children’s Encyclopedia to the reference section in anticipation of the former eventually needing to be removed.

Sources:

Amazon.com Inc. (2024) Amazon. http://www.amazon.ca

Arcturus Publishing. Arcturus Children’s Catalogue. (Spring 2024). https://arcturus.egnyte.com/dl/usGr7upzWQ

Asselin, M., Branch, J.L., Berg, D. (2006) Achieving Information Literacy: Standards for School Library Programs in Canada. Canadian Association for School Libraries.

Gale. Nat Geo Kids. https://go-gale-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/ps

Grolier Inc. (1995) Amazing Animals of the World. Grolier Educational Corporation.

Mardis, Marcia A. (2021) The Collection Program in Schools: Concepts and Practices (Seventh Edition). Libraries Unlimited.

Province of British Columbia. (2023). BC’s Curriculum. https://curriculum.gov.bc.ca/

Riedling, Ann Marlow; and Houston, Cynthia. (2019) Reference Skills for the School Librarian: Tools and Tips (Fourth Edition). Libraries Unlimited.

World Book Inc. (2024) World Book Kids. https://www-worldbookonline-com.bc.idm.oclc.org/kids/home

[karenlacorte]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: ❤️ Green Eggs And Ham.

[dejavusecondhandboutique]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Vintage Book: A Treasury of the Familiar 1st Ed 1942.

[sonowyouknow]

Day 25 of 25 days of Czech Christmas cards! Veselé Vánoce!

This panoramic story-telling nativity was designed and signed by Vojtěch Kubašta, a famous Czech architect who became known for his iconic pop-up illustrations and 3D nativity sets, his pop-up fairytale book illustrations became massively popular all around the world.

[uwmspeccoll]

Typography Tuesday

More De Vinne Initials

This week we present a few more initials from Types of the De Vinne Press, published in New York by the De Vinne Press in 1907. The press was founded in 1883 by Theodore Low De Vinne (1828-1914), a co-founder of the prestigious Grolier Club and one of the leading commercial printers of his day, whose enterprise had a profound influence on American printing and typography.

De Vinne defines the initial as:

A large or ornamented letter at the beginning of a chapter or paragraph, as high as many lines of the text type by its side, and lining neatly with its first and last lines . . . .

He further states that "A proper initial at the beginning of a first paragraph always gives attractiveness to the composition. It is the feature that first catches the eye." These initials certainly do.

View more posts from Types of the De Vinne Press.

View more posts with initials.

View more Typography Tuesday posts.

[nileshpurpleturtle1]

Best rhymes for kids with actions to follow are Purple Turtle rhymes on YouTube channel

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[shoppurpleturtle]

talking teachertalking books for kidsgrolier talking booksonline pre school in indiabest online preschool in india

The most famous kids' story books by Purple Turtle about his adventures with his friends are loved by most children.

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[the-paintrist]

Alfred Choubrac (30 December 1853 – 25 July 1902) was a French painter, illustrator, draughtsman, poster artist and costume designer. Together with Jules Chéret he is considered to be one of the pioneers of the modern coloured and illustrated poster of the Belle Époque in France, in particular in Paris.

The 1880s and 1890s were an intermediary period in the development of the poster in which its primary political function shifted to a primarily promotional one as advertising in the emerging consumer economy, often, if not primarily, through the commoditisation of female sexuality. In April 1891, under orders from the Minister of the Interior, the prefect of Paris, Henri-Auguste Lozé, seized and destroyed hundreds of posters considered to be a violation of public decency. Many artists and their printers were charged. Several of Choubrac's posters were prohibited and he was brought to court along with the printers.

One of the censored posters advertised the performance of the dancer Ilka de Mynn at the Folies Bergère, who was depicted in a maillot (body stocking), which, according to the court that charged Choubrac was a cause for concern because the model appeared to be nude. Another poster was an advertisement for the French magazine Fin de Siècle, which showed a scarcely dressed female dancer. In an interview with La Presse, Choubrac said he was astonished by the upheaval, claiming that "nudity is exposed everywhere and in much more provocative ways; and I frankly confess that I do not see where the evil was, I sought to make a work of art and nothing more."

In later life he became also known for his designs of stage costumes for the theatre. Choubrac illustrated several books of the novelist Emile Zola. He produced a number of posters for bookstores to promote popular works. He also produced commercial posters for brands such as the Muscovite Digestive, Humber Cycles, Beeston Tire, Naigeon Gold Water, Unbreakable Baleinine Corsets, Mokatine, Decauville cycles, Burgeatine Liqueur, and the Hippodrome of Saint-Ponchon, among others.

As an illustrator, he sometimes collaborated with his brother Léon in Gil Blas or the satirical weekly Le Courrier français, among others. The first poster exhibition in France occurred in 1884 in the Passage Vivienne in Paris and included American as well as French posters with specific representation of the work of Cheret and the two Choubrac brothers. The New York Grolier Club in November 1890 organised an exhibition of prints of the "masters in the newest art", that of bill posting, including Choubrac, Chéret, Willette and Eugène Grasset.

The poster collector Ernest Maindron, who wrote the first essay about the illustrated poster in the Gazette des Beaux-Arts in 1884, and later published the first book on the subject (Les Affiches Illustrees) in 1886, mentioned the Choubrac brothers and Chéret among the pioneers of the illustrated poster. Maindron praised Choubrac's bold line, sense of composition and highly decorative skills. According to Maindron, in his subsequent book Les Affiches Illustrees (1886–1895) published in 1896, Choubrac must have drawn more than four hundred posters for theatres, novels and industry products, before he switched his attention to the design of theatrical costumes, in which he was equally successful.

Alfred Choubrac died on 25 July 1902 from a cold gone bad.

CHOUBRAC, Alfred. Francine Decroza des Théâtres de Paris, c. 1894. by Halloween HJB

[retrocgads]

USA 1996