Best Word Book Ever

Best Word Book Ever

Cover of the 1963 edition of the book.
Author Richard Scarry
Illustrator Richard Scarry
Cover artist Richard Scarry
Country United States
Language English
Publisher Golden Press
Publication date
 1963
Media type Print (Hardcover)
Pages 91 (1st edition)

Best Word Book Ever by Richard Scarry was published in 1963 and became a best-selling children's book. Scarry had been illustrating children's books since 1950, but this was his first as both author and illustrator. The book also marked the beginning of the author's work on the "Best Ever" series. The book contains over 1,400 labelled pictures and sold over seven million copies in 12 years.[1][2] The word book is designed to entertain children while teaching them words and numbers. It is divided into subjects on each pair of pages. Subjects range from sports to houses, with examples from all over the world. The pages have a small amount of text, which often challenge the reader to find something on the page. The characters are all anthropomorphic animals, often cats, bears, rabbits and mice, but many other animals are also used. The art for Best Word Book Ever was first drawn in, then painted in, which was by that time Scarry's normal method.[1]

Publication

The book was first published in the United States in 1963, followed by a British edition published in 1964 by Paul Hamlyn and reprinted in 1965. The Best Word Book Ever has been reprinted and revised many times since. The book has been translated into a number of other languages, including a bilingual edition in English and Spanish[3] and one in Ukrainian.[4]

Editing the Best Word Book Ever

The British edition was slightly altered for the British market. For example, the front cover shows a thatched cottage instead of an American style barn, the "When you grow up" pages feature a British soldier instead of an American one and a sprinkling of British Union Jack flags and text were inserted.

By 1980 the book had been edited to remove some of what became perceived as stereotypical roles for females and to update terminology.[5] At least 14 changes were made, including changing a male "policeman" to a female "police officer" on the front cover, and changing "handsome pilot" to "pilot" and "pretty stewardess" into "flight attendant."[5]

The book was reduced in pages from 92 to 72 pages, removing such things as "In the Flower Garden."

Following his great success with Best Word Book Ever, Richard Scarry went on to create a large number of other children's books in the same style with similar animals, a similar dominance of the art over the text and even similar names, including Best First Book Ever, Best Little Word Book Ever and his last book Richard Scarry's Biggest Word Book Ever. Various Best Ever books were adapted to video and a television series, "The Busy World of Richard Scarry," ran on Showtime from 1993 to 1996.

English editions

References

  1. 1 2 Liukkonen, Petri. "Richard Scarry (1919-1994)". Books and Writers (kirjasto.sci.fi). Finland: Kuusankoski Public Library. Archived from the original on 2 January 2008.
  2. ↑ M. A.Jackson (May–June 2002). "Richard Scarry's Busytown". Carnegie Museums of Pittsburg (Carnegie Magazine). Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  3. ↑ "Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever / El mejor libro de palabras de Richard Scarry". Barnes and Noble. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  4. ↑ "Ukrainian Adaptation of Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever - Ukrainian-English-French, 2nd interactive Internet edition". InfoUkes-Ukrainian Publications. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
  5. 1 2 Kokogiak. "The Best Word Book Ever, 1963 and 1991". Flickr. Retrieved 2008-01-03.
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