- Dad, will you read me a story?

- Sergio González: Oh, I would love to.

How about this one?

This is a story about the history of Little Golden Books.

- A history story?

Does it have magic?

- Oh, even better.

It has capitalism, industrialism, and war rationing.

- Not again!

- Oh, come on now, hey.

Once upon a time, in the city of Racine, Wisconsin, there was a company called Western Printing and Lithographing Company.

Rebecca, how you doing?

- Rebecca Leannah: Welcome.

- Thanks for having us here.

Where are we?

- We're here at the Racine Public Library in Racine, Wisconsin.

And we're currently in the children's department.

- You've got a good assortment of Little Golden Books here.

What is Racine's connection to Little Golden Books?

- Racine is actually where Little Golden Books started.

So, it was started by the Western Publishing Company.

And Little Golden Books got published first in 1942.

- Tell me a little bit about the popularity of these books.

I mean, we know them today as really popular books.

Were they a big deal in 1942?

- They were a huge deal in 1942, and especially in Racine.

Like, the Racine community fell in love with Golden Books.

And they are still fans of it to this day.

Because Western Publishing was here in Racine, a lot of the parents were actually workers at the factory.

And so, they would get fresh prints off the press.

- Kacie Lucchini Butcher: Our story begins in the 1920s and '30s.

In the early decades of the 1900s, children's picture books were generally luxury items.

Around 1940, a hardcover children's book might cost $1.50 or $2.

That would be about $35 to $45 today.

- $40?!

- This meant that many working-class families couldn't afford to buy picture books for their children, or could only do so very rarely.

- Cat Phan: Here's where Western Publishing of Racine, Wisconsin worked with the New York publisher Simon & Schuster to develop a new illustrated children's book.

They wanted to make a picture book that was way cheaper than the others being sold.

It was all possible thanks to the size and expertise of Western Publishing.

They could print huge quantities of books.

This meant the books could be sold for a much lower price than competitors.

- What about a Little Golden Book?

- How many dollars is it?

- Twenty-five cents.

- Okay.

- Nick Hoffman: When Little Golden Books were first introduced in October of 1942, they cost just 25 cents.

That would be about $5 in today's money.

What were the first run of books like?

What were some of the titles?

- So, there were 12 originally published in 1942.

The most famous, of course, is The Poky Little Puppy.

But we also had The Animals of Farmer Jones, The Little Red Hen, Prayers for Children, ABCs, quite a few more.

- Could you walk us through The Poky Little Puppy?

What's the inside of one of these books actually look like?

- Yeah, not a problem.

So, it starts out with, obviously, a title page.

A lot of times with our donated copies, when I open it up, there'll be somebody's name in here.

There might be some artwork that the kids drew on it.

- And again, that's a great move by the publishing company.

It gives you a sense of ownership over the books, right?

And you wanna keep getting more and adding to the collection.

- And then, it just, it starts the story and it immediately jumps in, and it always ends with a very nice bookplate on the end.

And then, the back, it'll have lists of titles, or it'll have actual covers of other books that you can check out and be like, "Hey, do you know about this one in the collection?"

- What I think is amazing is that these books have such a long history, but even for some of the books that they're publishing now, about, like, Minecraft the movie, it's still in the exact same format.

- Yep.

- The exact same style, so they have a very classic appearance that they're continuing now.

- Yeah.

- Little Golden Books may have cost only a quarter when they were introduced in October of 1942, but that didn't mean that they were low quality.

All of the original 12 books had a hard cover, four-color board binding with a dust jacket.

The books were each 42 pages long, with 14 pages in full color, and all had original artwork and text.

A big part of the appeal of Little Golden Books was their low price and good quality.

But there were other factors that helped them succeed.

One was their wide availability.

They were sold in department stores, convenience stores, and eventually supermarkets.

When the books were first published in the early 1940s, the United States was involved in World War II.

Because of the war, there were less materials available to make things like toys, so books became more popular as gifts and recreational items.

For many parents during the baby boom years of the 1940s and 1950s, these books were an affordable alternative to toys or more expensive books.

The colorful art appealed directly to children and adults.

And Little Golden Books became a runaway hit.

Since then, over 2 billion Little Golden Books have been sold.

- Can you tell us a bit about the big puppy?

- So, this is a marketing prop that the library ended up having donated to them a while ago.

It actually used to light up and move and bark.

It does not anymore, but he hangs out with me in the archives.

[dog barks] - Rebecca, you mentioned you have other archival material.

Any chance we get a peek?

- Yeah, we can definitely go check that stuff out.

So, we're in the local history room here at the Racine Public Library.

And this is where-- This is the Golden Book wall, or the Western wall.

So, all of this stuff is stuff that was produced by Western Publishing, or Whitman Publishing, which was one of its sister companies.

And everything here is a wide variety of stuff that comes from them.

Different styles of books, we've got VHS tapes.

I've got stamp books, like what Nick is looking at.

We've got Christmas ornaments.

We've got catalogs, puzzles, all sorts of stuff.

- How many Little Golden Books do you guys have total in your collection?

- I know for the archive collection downstairs, there's over 2,200.

In this collection here, I believe there's close to 1,000 titles.

And then, the circulating collection, that changes on a weekly basis depending on what's ordered or what's lost or removed from the collection.

So, quite a few thousand Golden Books in this library.

- Wait, how do people make books for kids?

- Yeah, that's a really good question.

Let's turn the page and see if we can find out.

- Kevin Henkes: Hi, I'm Kevin Henkes and I write and illustrate children's books.

- So, Kevin, how did you become an author/illustrator?

- I think I was born an artist.

I drew all the time.

And it wasn't until I was in high school when I had an English teacher who really praised my writing, and she went so far as to say, "I wouldn't be surprised if I saw a book with your name on it one day."

And that really did something to me.

It shows the power of a teacher.

And that's when I really decided that children's picture books would be a perfect job for me.

You know, I grew up in Racine, Wisconsin, but I felt like, through books, I could be anybody else.

You know, experience what it feels like to be other places.

- Walk us through the process of going from an idea all the way to a finished book you can hold in your hands.

- So, first, I think for a long time, and then I begin writing in a notebook, and I write, and I rewrite, and I write, and I rewrite.

I really want the words to be exactly right, the rhythm to be exactly right.

And then I type them on my old-fashioned typewriter.

- QWERTY typewriter.

[Kevin laughs] - And then, I break up the words into what's called the book dummy, which is just a facsimile of a real book, and I'll start making sketches.

So, here is the dummy for my book Kitten's First Full Moon.

And what I do is I break up the words and tape them down, or write them in, and start doing sketches.

And there are lots of decisions that are made at this point.

Size of a book, the shape of the book.

So, here you can, if you compare, you can see.

- So, if there is someone watching this who wants to be an author or an illustrator, what advice do you have for them?

- I think the very first bit of advice, which is the most important, is to read.

And draw and write.

I mean, you have to, yeah, you have to write.

[all chuckle] - So, you mentioned you grew up in Racine.

Do you have good memories of growing up where the Little Golden Books started and Little Golden Books themselves?

- I do.

Many adults on the block that I grew up on worked at Western Publishing Company.

So, there were lots of Little Golden Books around when I was growing up.

This is my all-time favorite, Seven Little Postmen, because my father was a mailman.

And this is my favorite picture, and I would-- I remember running my finger around.

I really, I wanted to live in that picture.

And one time, I don't remember how old I was.

I was in elementary school, but one of the neighbors arranged for some of the neighborhood kids to have a tour of the printing facility at Western Publishing.

And that was... - Blew your mind.

- Yeah, it really did.

That was amazing.

- Cat: Yeah.

- So, I've always felt a deep fondness for Little Golden Books, and it's nice to know that we came from the same place.

- Little Golden Books had an enormous impact on the world of children's literature.

They offered something new and special: a colorful picture book that was affordable for working-class families.

Today, over 80 years later, Little Golden Books are still being produced and read by children and parents all over the world.

Have you read Little Golden Books?

Do you remember any favorites?

See if you can find some in a library near you and take a trip down memory lane.

Or try writing and illustrating your own book.

You never know when you'll create the next bestseller.

- Producer: Do you remember your lines?

- No.

- No.

- Producer: That's okay.

[all laugh] - That'll be $40.

- $40?!

[all laugh] - Nick: Yeah, nailing that line!

- Producer: That was great.

- Good job, bud!

- Producer: You're a pro!