This book has such fun little pictures…and the story is pretty cute too. Both the tale and the drawings are by Adelaide Hall and the year was 1965 (which is why the Giant is sportin’ them thar mod pilgrim cuffs!).

These little strawberry drinkies in the picnic scene are pretty amazing! And the ice cream cones….

I just love the way the water is so geometric….all those little triangles!

So sweet! Tomorrow is Friday….hope you have a weekend of giant-sized fun!

Miss Jenny is one of my super tippy top favorite friends. We’ve known each other over ten years now (WOW!) and have been a big part of each other’s lives even though we both live across the country. She and I tend to share the same brain when it comes to most things, so it should come as no surprise that she is just as obsessed with vintage children’s books as I am!

Hello Modern Kiddo friends!

Jenny here, from Frecklewonder to share a little vintage book love while Miss Alix and family enjoy some sun + surf in beautiful Hawaii!

Like Alix, I am a huge fan and avid collector of vintage children’s books. The illustrations are tough to beat. My favorites come from the 1950s and 60s, and I never hit a thrift store without spending at least a few minutes digging through the book bin.

Today I am sharing one of my recent scores. A super sweet 1951 copy of Three Little Puppies. It’s a Rand McNally Elf Book, written by Ruth Dixon, with photographs by Dale and Sally Rooks. Let’s have a look, shall we?

What I love so much about this particular book—other than its obvious sweetness—is the use of REAL PUPPIES! Well known photographer of the time, Dale Rooks (with the help of Sally Rooks) achieved these fabulous images by using real life pups!

From the vivid colors, it almost looks as though an artist painted on top of the photographs but the book doesn’t mention anything about this process.

Wait til you see these photos….

A puppy in a boot!

Puppies on a tiny roller coaster!

Puppies holding tiny cameras!

The story is: the puppies set off on an adventure to find their Mama a nice, big juicy bone for her birthday. Along the way, they find themselves at the State Fair. They meet all sorts of dogs at the fair: hound dogs taking tickets, clown dogs beating drums, various dogs in line for a race, puppies eating ice cream cones, you name it. They compete in all sorts of races in the hopes of winning that bone for their Mama’s birthday, and in the end they do just that A big bone is loaded into the red wagon and brought home to their home on Echo Hill.

Thanks so much to Miss Alix for letting me pop in and share! And happy book thrifting + reading to all!
xo Jenny

Thank you so much Jenny! This book is outta control awesome. I love how the intro assures us that the shots were achieved with “unlimited patience and extreme gentle care”. Whew! The little black and white pup with his suspender pants is the funniest/cutest to me. Be sure to stop by Jenny’s terrific blog, Frecklewonder. And don’t forget to pop by her shops, Kid Wonder and Frecklewonder.

When I was a little girl I was pretty darn shy. Most people find that hard to believe because I’m a pretty outgoing girlie (ask my family and they’ll say I’m a loud mouth, haha). BUT back in my shy-er days my mother put me in ballet lessons to help me come out of my shell. I LOVED dance class and recitals were totally thrilling. Satin and sequins? Yes please!

I had quite a few ballet themed books when I was little and one of my all time favorites was this one, by Dorothy Grider.

“Little Ballerina” is the story of a young girl namd Carol who has “weak legs”  (I think due to Polio). She can’t run and play with her friends so to strengthen her legs, she takes up ballet.

This sassy ballet teacher in her tunic and headband is fab.

I also totally love that the ballet class has some cool little guys taking dance. Check him out in his capri’s and stripey shirt!

I remember I looooooved her hair in these little circle braids. I went through a phase where I wore my hair like that—except I was 30 and not 10!

Carol ends up loving ballet and gets a starring role in the performance.

As a little girl I remember thinking, “I would DIE if I had to be the bumble bee!! I want to be a flower!”

Now as a grown up I have to say these little dudes are so cute! The story tells how “Jack Frost” leaps into the woodland scene and tries to freeze the flora.

Lovely Carol appears and charms Jack Frost and they dance off happily ever after!

This is EXACTLY what I looked like as a little girl. Well, in my mind I looked like this….

It was such a charming book. I loved all the costumes so much. Dorothy Grider wrote several other awesome books. I remember my cousin (yes, the one I made buy the Donny Osmond doll) had A Little Majorette which was also fab. It too involved a little girl who had weak legs—apparently a common theme with ol Dorothy. She also wrote, Little Swimmers, Little Horseman and Little Skaters. I’m gonna go out on a limb here and say that I think each involved a little child who had “bad legs”.

I love this little kid’s book. Such a cute idea for a story, but I mostly love how fabulously smug each kid is: “You say you’ve got a pocket? Oh yeah?? Well I’ve got THREE pockets!” Take a look.

I’m sure there’s a bad joke to be made about the slightly creepy dad and his abundance of pockets (never mind the lollipops) but lets pretend to view this with innocent eyes, mmmkay??