American writer-illustrator Richard Scarry was born in 1919 and died in 1994. After years of freelancing, he published his first children's picture book in 1963, an instant best-seller. He was 44 years old but, in truth, he was just a big kid. The titles are the first giveaway. No silly adult modesty in Funniest Storybook Ever or Best Counting Book Ever. Or a typical kid's question: What Do People Do All Day? Along with the ABC Word Book, Cars Trucks and Things That Go and Busiest People Ever, all these books have been newly resurrected and re-issued by Collins Children's Books, in large hardcover format at £5.99 UK each. How to describe the visual assault, the dizzying extravaganza of images that comprises Scarry's zany world? Like those old Hollywood movies, he draws a cast of thousands, engaged in innumerable lively activities. All his work uses the bright primary colours and realistic details essential to capture and captivate a pre-reader's attention. There is text, vague plot-lines along the way, but who needs a story when there's so much to look at?
Each book presents a frantic, bustling world of countless animal characters of every size and description: foxes, rabbits, rhinos, cats, mice, dogs, elephants, pigs, bugs, goats, bears, chickens, porcupines, owls, hippos, alligators and many, many more. Then there are the vehicles. One of my child readers, a notoriously lively little boy, cooed like a pigeon as he pored over these. An astounding array of tractors, buses, dump-trucks, cars both new and vintage, fire engines, cranes, barges, boats, milk trucks, bicycles, motorbikes, a giant green pickle lorry, delivery vans, a petrol tanker, go-cart, school bus and tour bus, a cheese car full of mice, a toothbrush car right behind a tube of toothpaste car, a double-page spread of a huge Swissair plane and that's barely half of them!
The deluge of images continues in a multitude of environments: scenes in town and country, on the street or in the fields, in restaurants, bakeries, at sea, on the road, in the supermarket, even a castle and a desert island (where Captain Willy is stranded by pirates). And here's another wonderful thing about Scarry. In contrast to the present-day obsession with celebrity, power and wealth, he celebrates ordinary folk - "everyone's a worker" - and his animal characters include janitors, sewage cleaners, chemists, pilots, bankers, dressmakers, doctors, dentists, teachers, police, firemen, builders. "What does Daddy do?" he asks. "What does Mummy do?"
There is one problem, however. A big kid he was indeed, and a real boy kid at that. He obviously had no interest in girls and no intention of letting them into his world. Given the times, this is hardly surprising. The 1950s and 1960s were the days of "see Dick run, see Jane sit". In some of Scarry's books female characters rarely appear and when they do, they wear aprons as they cook, clean, sew and shout for help. Mrs Huckle cannot save her son from drowning in a shallow fountain but must scream for Sergeant Murphy. Mother Cat sets fire to the house ironing Daddy's shirt and cannot get out nor free her child till the firemen arrive.
Captain Tillie, despite commanding her own boat, must be rescued from the water, by men of course. Anti-feminists can squawk all they want, but why would any parent want to give their little girl a book that tells her she belongs to a gender that is useless, powerless or even non-existent? If you are buying one of these for a girl, check the publishing date. By the mid 1970s, attitudes had changed and so too had our author. Onto the scene arrived Mistress Mouse Repairs and Officer Flossy on her push-bike. Girls finally got to play in the Scarry tree-house! It must be noted that the present-day worldwide television series based on Scarry's books has completely updated his work in this sense.
The reissue of these old books is part of a recent trend in the revival of children's classics. Is this baby boomer nostalgia for old-fashioned childhood, lost innocence, a simpler time when, for example, adults actually knew more about the current technology than their children? I was pondering this thought when my sophisticated 21stcentury 11-year-old arrived home from school: the one who loves Eminem, wears designer clothes and told me what a DVD was. She spots the Scarry books on my desk. A screech of delight. "I remember those cartoons! I loved them. Specially the little worm!" Next minute she's curled up on the sofa, leafing through the pages, eyes alight, laughing out loud, recalling the innocence of her childhood. I get the message. Classics, like diamonds, regardless of their flaws, shine forever.
G.V. Whelan is a novelist, screenwriter and critic. Her books for young adults are published under the name `Orla Melling'