Nana's Book Library

Age: 0+

Particulars (Out of 5):  

• Sweet, sweet toddlers and animals: *****
• Pictures of a good and happy life *****
• Love for God and his creation *****
• Positive role models *****
• Inappropriate language: None.
• Sexual references: None.

Reminder:  Nana’s Books are rated G.  Anyone could read them, or listen to them being read aloud.

The most important two words to consider here are “Eloise Wilkin.”  She was not an author, although her sister, Esther, was.  She was a creator of beautiful worlds – an illustrator of gentle children’s books who is aptly described in a remembrance by one of her collaborators at the end of this book, as “the soul of Little Golden Books.”  

If you were a children’s book writer lucky enough to have Eloise Wilkin do your illustrations, you were guaranteed a book that would be beloved, reprinted, and would become a classic.  She was a wife and mother of four children, and she drew and painted what she knew and loved: flowers in the field, chubby little hands picking up a seashell, sweet animals in nature, safe, happy homes, and the majesty of God’s world.  In fact, one of her bestsellers, My Little Golden Book About God, by Jane Werner Watson, is in this collection, along with another one by the same author, Wonders of Nature.  We have Busy Timmy, a toddler on the go!  Guess Who Lives Here, which is just wonderful.  Some classic selections from A Child’s Garden of Verses, by Robert Louis Stevenson, and from Baby’s Mother Goose, and then three great ones by her sister, Esther Wilkin:  Baby Listens, Baby Dear, and Baby Looks.  And of course, We Help Mommy, a lovely book by Jean Cushman. All of these books are crowd-pleasers on their own. Put them together, and you have a storytime favorite.

So my hope for you with this book is twofold: One, to give you a library of Eloise Wilkin books in one volume, and two, to start you looking for Eloise Wilkin on your own.  This is one of my favorites: Three Best-Loved Tales, a Little Golden Book Classics selection.  The stories are “Play with Me, “So Big,” and “The Boy with a Drum.”  My three kids and older two grandchildren (ages five and three) loved this book so much, I got it used on Amazon it for my daughter-in-law and our new baby granddaughter.  It is slightly harder to come by, which is why I went with Eloise Wilkin Stories.  I highly recommend them both. And any vintage Little Golden Books you can find at yard sales or online, especially those illustrated by Eloise Wilkin.  

This book is available on Amazon, at Barnes and Noble, and new and used on eBay.  Because it’s a recent collection, I think you will be able to find it without any trouble. 

©Janet Farrar Worthington

Note:  I am an Amazon affiliate, so if you do click a link and buy a book, I will theoretically make a small amount of money, but I’m just starting this thing, so I don’t even know how that works.   Still, full disclosure, etc.