Childcraft Encyclopedia

It's funny how someone can show me something or say something and it sparks a post on a topic that I can't let go until I write about it. Today it was CHILDCRAFT - the great set of kid encyclopedia that accompanied the World Book set when you ordered the deluxe package. I have told the story many times of spending the Christmas of 1973 without presents and how much these books meant to me and my family.

 

My favorite volume was Things To Make A Do. We spent a month one summer making puppets with a puppet theatre and putting on shows for the other kids based on the instruction in that book. I learned what a magical building material paper mache could be, especially when you wanted to make your own superhero masks - we ended up looking like a group of Elephant Men with capes - a story of failure for another time.

 

 

I also remember 'Places To Know' because it was there that I learn about the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World - that little bit of knowledge changed EVERYTHING for me.

 

 

Childcraft books were specifically designed for preschool and primary grade children. Throughout the Childcraft series, the easy-to-read text is combined with colorful, appealing illustrations that make the material not only fun to read but also fun to look at. Nearly every graphic technique known at the time appears somewhere in Childcraft.

The 1973 edition consisted of the following:

1. Poems and Rhymes

2. Stories and Fables

3. Children Everywhere

4. World and Space

5. About Animals

6. How Things Work

7. How We Get Things

8. What People Do

9. Holidays and Customs

10. Places to Know

11. Make and Do

12. Look and Learn

13. Look Again

14. About Me

15. Guide for Parents

The following "Childcraft Annual" volumes were released.

(Incomplete list).

1965. Places to Know

1966. Look and Learn

1967. Braving the Elements

1968. Look Again

1969. About Me

1970. Children Everywhere

1971. About Animals

1972. The Green Kingdom

1973. About Us

1974. Animals in Danger

1975. The Magic of Words

1976. Prehistoric Animals

1977. About Dogs

1978. Mathemagic

1979. Story of the Sea

1980. The Indian Book

1981. The Bug Book

1982. The Puzzle Book

1983. Feathered Friends

1984. Great Myths and Legends

1985. Conquest of the Sky

1986. Mysteries and Fantasies

1987. Dinosaurs

1988. Stories of Freedom

1989. World of Color/People to Know

I remember as a teacher how terrific these books were when you needed great labelled illustrations or projects for the kids to do because it was also geared to their level of understanding. With a set of these and World Book Encyclopedia I could teach any subject you can imagine. I know we have the Google now but it's hardly as reliable as a nice book set of combined human knowledge could be.