Childcraft Number 3

It came up in a conversation with my brother this week: Childcraft Volume 3.

My brother has it.

In recent years, my brother has been accused(rightly or not) of having in his possession several items that are important to the entire family. His reputation has developed as something of the "Bermuda-Triangle " of our family. R and I once transferred a bunch of old 8MM movies of our family onto video tape and displayed it one Christmas - we think my brother took it home for continued viewing and it has not been seen since. We've had lots of fun with an illusive pitch fork (called a "seed fork") that's been missing for years; Dad remains eternally convinced was last in my brother's possession.

But he can account for Childcraft Volume 3.

I spent a few moments today dwelling on the significance of this set of books that graced our home. They were red-orange in color and they held worlds of adventure. Volume 3 -"Folk and Fairy Tales" was the best. Oh "Poems of Early Childhood" was okay for a time; but once one graduated to the hardy stories of Volume 3, he seldom looked back.

Open a the number 3 volume of Childcraft and you open a magical world! Inside were the classics, "Hansel and Gretel" (I think my favorite), "Jack and the Beanstalk" (which I don't care for-you know, Jack really didn't present any redeeming qualities), "Rapunzel", "Aesop's Fables" and many more!

"Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp" was in there - though I was intrigued by the pictures, I don't think I ever made it through the entire story. Oh there were great pictures in Volume 3!

I think the book is from the 1954 edition. Incidentally, I know all this because I just Googled it and found Volume 3 on sale on E-Bay for $24.99. When I had the idea of writing about "Folk and Fairy Tales", I went to the shelf in AA's room where these books usually reside to retrieve our copy and found it missing. A thorough search did not turn it up so I had to research on-line and write from memory (I wonder if that's the one my brother has?)

Meanwhile, WorldBook (publishers of Childcraft) has a new set of these books for $349.99. Although I see very little in the titles or the appearance that resemble the glorious tomes we knew.

Okay back to my brother. It became a tradition (I think) in our family, to pass on the first three volumes of Childcraft to the siblings with the youngest children. I think they stayed at my sister's house the longest since for a time she kept my brother's kids as well as her own during the day.

Anyway, being the "late-baby" and further compounding my tardiness by waiting a little longer than most to start a family - we were the last keepers of the books. I still have volumes one and two but my brother somehow ended up with #3 when his grandchildren came along. I found my own copy of volume three some time back at a library book sale for MUCH, MUCH less than $24.99.

Oh, 'sorry - I didn't realize that tracing the abodes of the Childcraft volumes would be so convoluted. If you are still reading, thanks.

Needless to say, these books are special. Though Ab, at nine, has moved on somewhat from listening to stories - AA will still listen (sometimes with rapt attention) to those tales in Volume 3. Especially if he can see the pictures.

These books and the accompanying set of WorldBook Encyclopedias were staples in our family in those days before the internet. Many a boring afternoon could suddenly erupt into inspiration after spending a little while just paging through one of those Encyclopedia volumes. Not to mention the fact that probably 97% of the reports I submitted from elementary through high school owed some of their existence to that blue set of books.

How we came to have those books is something of a story in itself. Dad retired from the home-service Life Insurance business (I capitalize "Life Insurance" because it fed me all those years). But before really getting started there, he sold lot's of things - among them, encyclopedias.

I'm not sure how the story goes exactly, but he somehow happened upon a family that was moving and everything was packed. Perhaps he was delivering the encyclopedias - anyway the people had no room for them. Dad took them with the understanding that he would hold onto them until they came for them or requested them. They never did.

So if you are reading this blog and you purchased a set of WorldBook Encyclopedias along with the Childcraft set back in the mid 50's, and are wondering what happened to them after that move.... well, Dad still has them...

...well, all except Volume 3 - my brother has it....