A hard day’s night

A poignant notation by a teenage girl in the 1964 paperback, "The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night":

The day Grandpaw died from a heart attack 1.30 September 8, 1979 Saturday.

Her name is blurred out for privacy's sake.

And the picture story books

This lovely 1908 first printing copy of "The Good Wolf" by Frances Hodgson Burnett includes a charming Christmas gift inscription taken from the Robert Louis Stevenson poem, "Picture Books in Winter".

Summer fading, winter comes -
Frosty mornings, tingling thumbs.
Window robins, winter rooks,
And the picture story books.

Itchy Richard

Dear Barb

Itchy Richard made my head itch. I rilly liked it. It was relly funy. But I do not ander stand it. Why Richard has the nit in Richard head on the caver.


Dear Alli,

When I look closely at the picture, I see a white spot in Richard's hair, too. But he didn't have lice! Maybe it's a mistake from the illustrator. A nit is so small, it would be harder to see than the white dot on the cover.

It was a funny book, but I also learned a lot about lice! We know here at Island School that teasing people about having lice is not such a good idea. The lice could be on your head next.

Love, Barb


[Unfortunately, I'm not sure which Itchy Richard cover design Alli refers to, as there are several. I didn't see a white spot in Richard's hair on either of them, at least visible online.]

Hello! My name is Gentle Ben...

1973 Alcoholics Anonymous “Big Book”

The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

Sandrah's book.

Once upon a time...

A 1920s printing of Little Black Sambo with a 1945 gift inscription from the Auxiliary to Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War.

Conserve alechrisudy

Drawn in the back of a 1971 children's book on environmental issues.

Emilienne’s 1916 catechism

My first day in school

UNDISCO

All the way with LBJ

I recently sold this 1964 Democratic National Convention book signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson on eBay.

The Story of Paper 1929

Ruth Boyer, a student at Seattle's Seward School, made this charming book as a class assignment in 1929. Typewritten poems about books make up the first half. The second half is the history of paper including little square samples. Miss Boyer deserved better than a C+!

How to talk to a boy... to a girl

A 1967 Scholastic Book Services paperback.

It’s beginning to look a lot like...

Borrower’s name

From an ex-library copy of More All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor.

Morse alphabet

Signed in Morse code at the bottom of the page: Leslie Starr 1904.

Between scenes

A stage actor's amazing redesign of The Diary of Anne Frank and The Shadow Box script book covers.

Someone special’s bookmark

Temperance education bookmark found in Star-Spangled Summer by Janet Lambert.

You as Harry Potter

Alexander’s daydreams

Almost 200 years ago, Alexander Donaldson doodled on this endpaper in a textbook at his Crawford County, Pennsylvania school.