Richard Scarry

No thread yet it seems! And since he's got a Google doodle in his honor on the homepage today, about time we had one for him.

Looks like UK viewers don't get to see the Scarry doodle, which is too bad, because I for one definitely grew up with the books. I have particularly fond memories of spending many hours over a jigsaw puzzle featuring Huckle Cat's family driving past a pick-your-own farm.

I probably got this link from ILX in the first place, but this comparison of the 1963 and 1991 editions of one of his books is pretty interesting:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kokogiak/66087367/in/set-1425737/

It's political correctness gone mad! I remember when you could kick a ball an anthropomorphised elephant in the street!

I have mentioned this before ––– but What Do People Do All Day? was a favorite. I still think it has one of the best titles of any book ( and I still think it's a good question!).

http://bp0.blogger.com/_YiCD3sWkTpE/SIGgclwD0EI/AAAAAAAACmk/lWX1vpT4WJ8/s1600/What+do+people+do+all+day.jpg

iirc this one had pictures of various big machines, one of which was a cherry picker. "Cherry picker." I thought it was the funniest idea! The first time I saw one I was astonished it was real and not the product of the same funny imagination as Lowly the lederhosen worm.

what the hell is this??

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/94/RichardScarrysBusytown.PNG

I loved his books as a kid, and now, they're even more fun to read to my little girl at bedtime. Half of the stories are questions asked to the reader like, "Oh, no! Why would Mr. Busy Fox do that?" or "THAT'S not what a saxophone is for!" or "Look at that gorilla, what the fuck is HE doing?"

(okay, made that last one up.)

It still gets me that Lowley Worm drives a car shaped like an apple. That's some commitment right there.

My favorite story though was about the absent-minded rabbit who while walking and reading his newspaper at the same time, became immersed in HOT ASPHALT. The dried pavement cracking off his rabbit feet really stuck with me for some reason.

http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj242/donaldparsley/scarry11-hp.png

grew up w and LOVED richard scarry (which my parents always pronounced "scary", though most americans, it seems, say "scar-y"). it's been so long, though, that the details have faded. i forgot lowly's apple car! therefore, it's a shock to read abt something like the absent-minded rabbit ― who i seem to remember as walking through wet cement (?), the little gray icicles of it hanging off the bottoms of his feet ― and suddenly have all these strong images come flooding back. favorite, of course, was always bananas gorilla, so confused by all his watches.

http://www.thingamababy.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/carz.jpg

I can't begin to think how many kids I have bought Scarry for.

I have always said it like "scary" though pronouncing it with an ah sound does make more sense.

I remember thinking it was 'Lowy' Worm because 'Lowly' seemed strange to my very young self.

http://www.spun.com/scover/full/002/928/002928599.jpgWe bought this on DVD over Christmas b/c we needed a video for the drive & it cost like $6 for 12 hours of video (!!!). My kids have watched no other videos since, just these again & again & again. Huckle has a goofy Ontario accent that makes me smile.

The dried pavement cracking off his rabbit feet really stuck with me for some reason.

completely me too.

it was cement tho yeah.

http://i39.tinypic.com/6t06eb.jpg

His socialite granddaughters

what do people do all day holds up really well, it is a fantastic kids' book. Bit of economics thrown in. The farmer sells his crops to the grocer and takes the money he makes to the tailor for a new suit etc, grocer sells the food to Huckle Cat's family. Huckle Cat is lonely in his house with no kids to play in until the workers come and build a house and the rabbit tailor moves in with his thousands of rabbit kids.

There are no SEO specialists.

Only discovered the awesome Richard Scarry last year while looking through the missus's childhood library - and I think she only knew him via a year spent in Canada as a kid. Find the midadventures of Mr Frumble particularly poignant.

I really really hated Richard Scarry as a child. That's obv in no way a serious appraisal - I didn't like mushrooms ffs, or beer - but trying to tap the reasons of why at this long remove, I think I found something slightly sinister about his work, I don't know. Maybe I found the detail oppressive. Hearing his name still gives me the heebie-jeebies, almost a feeling of nausea.

God alone knows why that is, quite worrying really.

he's best known for his busytown books (i.e., huckle & lowly, et al), but he produced some wonderful illustrations for little golden books, esp in roberta miller's chipmunk's ABC and ole risom's i am a bunny:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4030/4229691768_38afd4f8d9.jpg

http://chawedrosin.files.wordpress.com/2008/04/i-am-a-bunny-7104.jpg

^ MUSHROOMS, gamaliel, MUSHROOMS

also, an interesting, if self-consiously "irreverent" RS bio can be found here (on the rotten.com site, for god knows what reason). includes tons of awesome illustrations:

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/jeep2.jpg
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/bonk.jpg
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/fire.jpg
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/touch.jpg
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/banana.jpg
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/cafes.jpg

The dog freaking out at the banana!!

i know! and the goat's askance-looking. i think i mostly love his characters cuz they look so freaking dumb.

http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/druggist.jpg

bug: AAGH!
pig: oops
cat: AAGH!

Worm: Hmmm

cannibal pigs to thread

http://gawow.com/scarrySausage.jpg
http://www.thehungryreader.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/horrormeat.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v346/adamsjct/blogpics/scarry.jpg?t=1274541232

Richard Scarry's books were important to me - or, I was very fond of them - as a little boy. This was probably because I lived for a year in the USA.

I recently rediscovered them just a little while clearing out childhood books.

I like the pictures above, Huckle, Bananas Gorilla, Miss Honey the Bear, What Do People Do All Day?, and all the rest.

I remember a RAINY DAY BOOK of activities.

I wish I lived in Busytown.

fuckin loved this guy when i was a kid.

got cars and things that go the other week, and waiting for what do people do all day. got them for my godson who i hope will love and appreciate them as much as i did

i had forgot how much I liked his books as a kid and how often i must have read them, feel like I've seen all of these before. the gorilla in the banana car is so great.

it was cement tho yeah.

Not gonna call you out too bad, but the street was "hot and sticky and gooey."

That's asphalt, dude.

From the Inside Flap

Mr. Rabbit's feet are stuck in cement and all of his friends are trying to get him out. Follow their hilarious hijinks in this delightful tale of what happens when you don't pay attention to where you are going. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

it's possible of course that richard scarry did not think this through.

I see where his characters get it from.

This was my childhood. Fuck that 1963/1991 updated book is a bit depressing!

This is a shoe-in for the awesome people unexpectedly hanging out thread:
http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/authors/richard-scarry/ali.jpg

I had a pile of these in the UK, dunno where they came from But in Cars and things that go, there was a little gold bug on every page and I would spend hours seeking him out. It was a easy version of Where's Wally (That may be Waldo in other places).
One that sticks in mind was a pig on a boat that got attacked by rats who stole his pie. The pig got his revenge by disguising himself as a crocodile and scarring them off. He called them a bunch of Pie-rats which struck me as hillarious at the time.

At least it was all animals who lived in Scarry's towns, things like Rupert (or wind in the willows for that matter) would confuse me as they had real humans living alongside them. If you lived in a village, wouldn't you get freaked out when you noticed families of bears, goats and pug dogs walking round in clothes and having adventures. People would grab torches and hold a lynching against these creations of a mad scientist.
In Rupert I alway? thought the Chinese girl Tigerlilly had the prettiest name. This was ruined when every fuckwit pop star began using it to name their brattish kids.

Richard Scarry's books were important to me - or, I was very fond of them - as a little boy. This was probably because I lived for a year in the USA.

Funny, because the books always seemed oddly British to me.

can't believe google.co.uk has dissed the great man. wankers.

yeah thats nuts

i asked on the childrens book thread, does anyone know which Scarry book featured a small scene of a guy (cat or pig, can't remember) going fishing on a pier, and he hooks something really big and it pulls him in.

I remember the book had a lot of gazelles in it.

For better or for worse, this taught me how a boat works.

Also,

http://www.kilala.nl/Images/Blog/RichardScarry.jpg

^^ Actually a better picture than the one I was trying to steal post.

http://img860.imageshack.us/img860/4696/richardscarry.jpg

this guy is great! he's like the childrens book equivalent of one of those wild outsider folk art dudes. everything is so manic and intricate. my kid loves these books.

"funniest story book ever" was a longtime favorite in my house

I still have my copy of What People Do All Day Animal Nursery Tales and Cars and Trucks and Things That Go from my childhood, though they have seen better days, spines are splitting and I colored on a lot of pages. But we found a nice copy of Scarry's Best Storybook Ever at a flae market, and August loves it. The Teeny Tiny Woman use to scary me as a kid, "Give Me My Bone"!!!!!!

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go

Goldbug was stumping us the other night on the ferry page until we spotted him way down in the corner.

cars and trucks and things that go is funny. my kid love Goldbug. line that resonates with me for some reason phrasing wise is on the page with the car pileup: "That is what I would call SOME ACCIDENT."

"Dump it right there!" is a big hit in my house.

Love the marginalia in this stuff.

Lowly Worm is the R2D2 of Busytown. I'm just throwing that out there.

http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0203/1662/products/119_large.jpg?v=1362344949

"i am a bunny" is my default gift for babies old enough to be read to.

i can't count the number of scarry's books i've bought for kids. he is awesome.

http://i.imgur.com/nkCi2BC.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/XLtYnmC.jpghttps://i.imgur.com/M11DYEU.jpg?1https://imgur.com/a/AMfG463

https://i.imgur.com/w2JXY2g.jpg?1

metaphor for late-stage capitalism innit

in this paper i will argue that

In my childhood I harboured thoughts of smoking baccy with one of those Gen MacArthur style corn-cob pipes and opening up a cannibal butchery store. Ban this filth!