Little Pictures of Japan by Olive Beaupré Miller

We had one such set for sale while I was working at Books of Wonder and it was beautiful.Īround 1930 the six-volume set was expanded to twelve. Occasionally these sets can be found inside a custom wooden house that was created for promotional purposes in the mid-1930s. Later the black cloth was changed to green and three storybooks were added- Tales Told in Holland, Little Pictures of Japan, and Nursery Friends from France. The first set of My Book House books consisted of six black, cloth-covered books that were published between 19. While some stories are admittedly dated-at the very least, some characters of color should be included in the art-most of the material is still worthy of attention and much of the material is still important to current American and European culture. Third, - The stories and rhymes selected must be graded to the child’s understanding at different periods of his growth, graded as to vocabulary, as to subject matter and as to complexity of structure and plot.”Īnd these books still fulfill that mission today.

Second, - His stories and rhymes must be selected with care that he may absorb no distorted view of life and its actual values, but may grow up to be mentally clear about values and emotionally impelled to seek what is truly desirable and worthwhile in human living. “First, - To be well equipped for life, to have ideas and the ability to express them, the child needs a broad background of familiarity with the best in literature. Each entry had to meet the following three criteria (taken from Miller’s introduction): My Book House was the first collection of children’s literature specifically arranged to meet the developing needs and abilities of children at different ages. After publishing three books, she founded The Book House for Children publishing company with her husband in 1919 in 1920 the first volume of My Book House (titled In the Nursery) was published. A graduate of Smith College, she began writing rhymes and stories to entertain her young daughter (in addition to editing My Book House Miller also wrote many of the entries). Though there’s not a lot of material written about her, this biographical note contains some amazing highlights. Olive Beaupré Miller was a fascinating woman and ahead of her time.

However, my family did have a complete set of the My Book House books and I loved them. Loving to read didn’t really come until I was an adult. This may surprise readers, considering I obviously read and love books now, but there were not a lot of books in my home growing up, and I was not much of a reader.

In the “About Me” section of this blog I mention how much I loved this series growing up.

Little Pictures of Japan by Olive Beaupré Miller