old school/new school

since my vintage – scratch that: childhood – books have made it into our daily rotation, i've had a couple laughs about the differences between the 1978 printing of richard scarry's best word book ever and the 1991 printing that i bought for bonzo a few months ago.

bonz is pretty roll with the punches, though.
as long as he's devouring one or the other, he's a happy guy. in fact, he's just stoked on the extra copy so he can count on having one bedside and one to tote around the house willy nilly.

no matter which way you slice it, richard scarry rules.
the powers that be must have just felt like they needed to dial up the gender equality and dial down the stereotypes to make it more... well... modern maybe?

my vote's totally for the old school version. obviously.
but life moves on. daddy bunnies help in the kitchen and girl bears pave roads. it's just how it goes.


old on the left, new on the right:






they nixed the notion of being a cowboy when one grows up. along with being a commuter or train conductor in favor of being a reporter or photographer:





this spread – one of my childhood faves – doesn't even exist in the new school edition:

.







now we've got ma out there earning her keep:

this page fell by the wayside, too:

last words of the day didn't make the cut? tough crowd.

happy reading!
xo