Publishers Weekly - February 20, 2017

Department |CHILDREN’S BOOKS

The launch of LGB, originally published by Artists and Writers Guild, a joint interest of Simon & Schuster Publishing and Western Printing, was announced in a full-color, four-page advertisement in PW’s Sept. 19, 1942, issue. One of the titles on LGB’s inaugural list, The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring

Lowrey, illustrated by Gustaf Tenggren, is the line’s top-selling book of all time, and its beloved protagonist serves as the Little Golden Books mascot. Numerous characters followed whose stories also became, and still are, staples of home and library bookshelves, among them The Saggy Baggy

Elephant, Tawny Scrawny Lion,

Scuffy the Tugboat, and The Shy Little Kitten.

Children’s literature historian Leonard S. Marcus has chronicled the beginnings and evolution of LGB, and spotlighted its creators and characters, in Golden Legacy: The Story of Golden Books, originally released in 2007, which Golden Books reissued this month with new jacket art.

“Little Golden Books are a real
example of the democratization of publishing,” Marcus says of
the line’s impact on the children’s book industry. “For starters,
they were much more widely available than any other children’s
books when they ;rst came on the market in the 1940s,” he
observes. “Not only could people afford them, but they had easy
access to them. I grew up in a town that didn’t have a bookstore,
and my mother would buy me Little Golden Books at
Woolworth. And in 1947, a major new channel for sales opened
when the books became available at supermarkets.”
Another distinctive feature of LGB was the premium that its
publisher put on consumer familiarity. “The Poky Little Puppy
was the only original story among the 12 debut books,” Marcus
says. “The publisher focused on topics people would
Random House Children’s Books, whose parent company has
owned Golden Books since 2001, has extensive plans to cele-
brate the line’s milestone throughout 2017, including through
the release of a handful of books published in concert with the
anniversary, a Little Golden Books–themed bus tour, an author
tour, seasonal promotions, and a wide array of point-of-purchase
materials.

Commemorating 75 Years Of Little Golden Books

By Sally Lodge

Of the dozen titles on LGB’s debut list in

1942, only Janette Sebring Lowrey’s The Poky Little Puppy was an original story; the rest were classic tales and rhymes easily recognizable to parents.