A Apple Pie by Kate Greenaway (PDF ebook) – First up today is this charming ABC book by renowned British illustrator Kate Greenaway (1846-1910). Greenaway’s books were so popular in the late 1800s that many Edwardian parents dressed their children to match the illustrations in her books. If you aren’t familiar with her works, this is a sweet, simple introduction, and a fine alphabet book for little ones.
Baby’s Own Aesop (PDF ebook) – Next, we have this absolutely superb children’s book illustrated by Walter Crane, depicting dozens of the fables of Aesop in short little rhymes with beautiful full color illustrations. Great!
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Thank you again!
What cute books! I especially like the Aesop one. Thank you!
~Lynn
Thank you so much! I especially like the older ones.
I think this is a very nice book. However, I noticed that “I” was not included. Was it mistakenly left out?
Thank you again for all of the hard work,
Trudy
The Baby’s Aesop is so beautifully illustrated. I plan to print one of these every week and put it up on my children’s board. Lovely that they put the moral below. A definite must have.
I love the Aesop one~!!
I just found a reproduction of this book at a book closeout store! I did a search for the book, and found a digital copy at the University of Wisconsin digital library that appears to have been published in 1886. There is a publisher’s note on one of the title pages that says, “Kate Greenaway used an early version of the rhyme to illustrate A APPLE PIE which was first published in 1886 and it will be noticed that there is no rhyme for the letter I.”
“The rhyme of A APPLE PIE is very ancient and reference is made to it as early as 1671 in one of the writings of John Eachard. In these early versions the letters I and J were not differentiated. The letter J as we know it
to-day was the curved initial form of the letter I and was always used before a vowel.” http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/ccm&CISOPTR=365&CISOSHOW=309