Old books like A Beginning Book of Poems (1967) are fascinating because they help me understand a generation. This book is a compilation recommended for grades 3 and 4. There was a teacher's manual to accompany it. There are eight sections, all educational, and only one that hints at unpleasantness ("A Mortifying Mistake" by Anna M. Pratt). Most of the illustrations feature a single hue alongside shades of gray, and there are many persons of color . This was the simple life of childhood. Books like this also tickled the ears with valuable lessons about the linguistics of English.
"Galoshes by Rhoda W. Bacmeister Susie's galoshes Make splishes and sploshes And slooshes and sloshes, As Susie steps slowly Along in the slush. They stamp and they tramp On the ice and concrete, They get stuck in the muck and the mud: But Susie likes much best to hear The slippery Slush As it slooshes and sloshes, And splishes and sploshes, All round her galoshes!"
