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Grover's Own Alphabet - Little Golden Book
Condition: Fine condition; some cover damage, no name in name plate.
Edition: QRST
Illustrator: Sal Murdocca
Copyright: 1978
ISBN: 0-307-01086-4 / 0-307-60190-0
About Sesame Street
Sesame Street is an educational television program designed for preschoolers, and is recognized as a pioneer of the contemporary standard which combines education and entertainment in children's television shows. Sesame Street also provided the first daily, national television showcase for Jim Henson's Muppets more than 4100 episodes of the show have been produced in 38 seasons, making it one of the longest-running shows in television history.
Sesame Street is produced in the United States by Sesame Workshop, formerly known as the Children's Television Workshop (CTW). It premiered on November 10, 1969 on the National Educational Television network, and later that year it was moved to NET's successor, the Public Broadcasting Service.
Because of its widespread influence, Sesame Street has earned the distinction of being one of the the world's foremost and most highly regarded educators of young people. Few television series can match its level of recognition and success on the international stage. The original series has been televised in 120 countries, and more than 20 international versions have been produced. In its long history, Sesame Street has received more Emmy Awards than any other program, and has captured the allegiance, esteem, and affections of millions of viewers worldwide.
Overview
Sesame Street uses a combination of puppets, animation, and live actors to teach young children the fundamentals of reading (letter and word recognition) and arithmetic (numbers, addition and subtraction), as well as geometric forms, cognitive processes, and classification. Since the show's inception, other instructional goals have focused on basic life skills, such as how to cross the road safely and the importance of proper hygiene and healthy eating habits.
There is also a subtle sense of humor on the show that has appealed to older viewers since it first premiered, and was devised as a means to encourage parents and older siblings to watch the series with younger children, and thus become more involved in the learning process rather than letting Sesame Street act as a babysitter. A number of parodies of popular culture appear, especially ones aimed at the Public Broadcasting Service, the network that broadcasts the show. For example, the recurring segment Monsterpiece Theatre once ran a sketch called "Me Claudius". Children viewing the show might enjoy watching Cookie Monster and the Muppets, while adults watching the same sequence may enjoy the spoof of the Masterpiece Theatre production of I, Claudius on PBS.
Several of the character names used on the program are puns or cultural references aimed at a slightly older audience, including Flo Bear, (Flaubert), Sherlock Hemlock, (a Sherlock Holmes parodoy), and H. Ross Parrot (a parody of Reform Party founder H. Ross Perot) Over 200 notable personalities have made guest appearances on the show, beginning with James Earl Jones in a December 1969 broadcast, and ranging from performers like Stevie Wonder to political figures such as Kofi Annan. By making a show that not only educates and entertains kids, but also keeps parents entertained and involved in the educational process, the producers hope to inspire discussion about the concepts on the show.
About Little Golden Books
Little Golden Books is a popular series of children's books. The first 12 titles were published October 1, 1942:
1. Three Little Kittens
2. Bedtime Stories
3. Mother Goose
4. Prayers for Children
5. The Little Red Hen
6. Nursery Songs
7. The Alphabet from A to Z
8. The Poky Little Puppy
9. The Golden Book of Fairy Tales
10. Baby's Book of Objects
11. The Animals of Farmer Jones
12. This Little Piggy and Other Counting Rhymes
As of 2005, 15 million copies of The Poky Little Puppy have been sold, including copies in various languages.
The Little Golden Books, which initially sold for 25¢, were published by Simon and Schuster in cooperation with the Artist and Writers Guild, Inc. headed by Georges Duplaix. Duplaix had initially thought up the idea for the Little Golden Book series and fleshed it out in conversations with officials at Simon and Schuster. Dr. Mary Reed a professor at the Teachers College of Columbia University served as initial editor of the series.
Western Printing and Lithographing Company in Racine, Wisconsin, was Simon and Schuster's partner in the Little Golden Books venture. Western handled the actual printing. In 1958, Simon and Schuster sold its interest in Little Golden Books to Western.
Ownership and control of the series has changed several times since. In 2001, Random House acquired Golden Books for about 85 million dollars.
Although the Little Golden Books have remained the backbone of the product line, the enterprise that produced the Little Golden Books has created a variety of children's books in various formats including records, tapes, videos, and even toys and games (the fourth and fifth as "Golden & Design"). Some titles have appeared in several different formats (including but not limited to "A Golden Book").
Many popular authors and illustrators have worked on Little Golden Books and related products including:
* Mary Blair
* Margaret Wise Brown
* Tibor Gergely
* Corinne Malvern
* Jim McDermott
* Alice Provensen and Martin Provensen
* Bob Staake
* Feodor Stepanovich Rojankovsky
* Patricia Scarry and Richard Scarry
* Gustaf Tenggren
* Jane Werner Watson
* Eloise Wilkin
* Garth Williams
* Herbert Zim
Although the details have changed over the years, the Little Golden Books have maintained a distinctive appearance. A copy of The Poky Little Puppy bought today is essentially the same as one printed in 1942. Both are readily recognizable as Little Golden Books. At the time of the golden anniversary, Golden Books claimed that a billion and a half Little Golden Books had been sold.
Some Little Golden Books and related products have featured popular children's icons from other media, eg. Sesame Street, the Muppets, Disney, Barbie, Power Rangers, etc. Television and movie tie-ins have been particularly popular. Over the years Hopalong Cassidy, Cheyenne, Lassie, Rin Tin Tin, Captain Kangaroo, Mister Rogers, and even Donny and Marie have appeared in Little Golden Books.
Many have dealt with nature and science, Bible stories, nursery rhyme, and fairy tales. Christmas titles are popular every year. The fact that many old titles remain in print shows the strong nostalgia appeal of Little Golden Books.
The official Random House website contains an interesting timeline for Little Golden Books.
In the year 2000, Encore Software produced a series of "Little Golden Books" titles for CD Rom, including the Poky Little Puppy, Mother Goose, Jack and the Beanstalk, The Velveteen Rabbit, Tootle, and The Saggy Baggy Elephant. These 6 individual titles were some of the first major software releases to be produced entirely in Macromedia Flash. They appeared in Time Magazine as part of an article entitled How to Raise a Superkid.
Grover's Own Alphabet - Little Golden Book
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