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From my dad's old Kodachromes comes this one of my mom, Dorothy Porter, in 1949, reading a bedtime story to my two sisters, June and Madge, at our home in Greenville, S.C.. She is reading from a collection of children's stories that were contained in twelve volumes, called "My Book House". These sets were sold by door to door salesmen in the 30's, 40's and 50's. I loved it when Mom read to me from this set of beautifully written and lavishly illustrated stories, but alas, they fell victim to our evolving culture. Some of the entertaining stories they contained, such as "Little Black Sambo", and Uncle Remus (Joel Chandler Harris) tales came to be regarded as politically insensitive and so were deleted from the American lexicon of acceptable children's literature. View full size.
Our family didn't have those books, but in 1961 my mom and dad got us a set of World Books with the 15-volume Childcraft set. They were wonderful and I read them over and over. Many of the Childcraft books had lovely color illustrations in a wide range of styles. Editorially brilliant.
I remember being puzzled at the time that the World Book entry on John F. Kennedy was that he was a current U.S. senator and that the entry was rather short. But the Yearbooks remedied that sort of thing, as best they could, with articles and updates. This was likely the best money my folks ever spent on their kids.
The 1961 World Books didn't survive my kids, but a later set is still in the house and the original Childcraft volumes are also still with us.
An excellent series of books complied by Olive Beaupré Miller. They were in print from 1919 thru 1971. My mom bought my set in 1960 or so. They originally came in a specially made bookshelf that was shaped like a house. Each book was geared for a specific level of reader and contained a specific subject.
Book One contained nursery rhymes, Book Three was fairy stories and rhymes, Book Eight was sailing and sea stories. Thee were stories from around the world. By the 70s they had removed the more unfortunate stories like Little Black Sambo and The Tar Baby and replaced them with modern stories. I still have most of mine. The smell of the pages takes me back 50+ years.
Your mother is reading Book Two, Story Time.
Your mom was one attractive lady.
What a lovely photo, and what a wonderful memory of your mother!
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