Scarry Tales

It was a big meet-up day today down in the Fruit Market, Hull, Yorkshire with family whom we have not seen for some time. 

Reminiscences, put away temporarily in the back of the mind ,are revived. It was my youngest brother, now aged 42, who mentioned the books of Richard Scarry and gave me something to write about.

A prolific author and illustrator, Scarry was producing the last of his 300 publications right up until the year of his death in 1994 after having brought out the first under his own name in 1950 at the age of 31. 

1959 Edition

My two brothers were amongst the one hundred million and more readers of his wonderfully crafted picture and word books which put a fun and fascination element into what could have been potentially boring and tedious subjects of early years education. 

In the style of “Where’s Wally?”, with a lot going on across a single or double page spread Scarry introduced and developed a whole world of animal characters with very human traits.

You could spend hour upon hour engrossed in the detailed illustrations and even then find something completely new to you hidden in the multiple layers of storyline and images. 

The themes of the large hardbound books that could prop up the end of a whole bedroom bookshelf were many and varied. 

The 1963 "Best Word Book Ever" remains as one of the highest selling, even to the present day, with its enthralling introduction to vocabulary. 

Subsequent books took the principal characters, my own favourites being Farmer Alfalfa, Huckle Cat, Lowly Worm, Sprout Goat, Able Baker Charlie, Sergeant Murphy, Gold Bug and Rudolf von Flugel into real life situations. 

In the myriad of brightly coloured and expressive stylised action the educational and entertainment value of jobs and occupations, townscapes, different modes of transport, manufacturing processes, language and diction, nursery rhymes and good manners could be easily absorbed by the youngest of minds. 

Many a time our parents would have to prise an open Scarry book from the clutches of a dozing child having been exhausted, in a good way, by the sheer volume of visual and sensual stimulation. 

The main and hundreds of supporting characters could be seen carrying out their antics in wacky vehicles or in seemingly perilous situations but with no implied doom, horror or menace. It was just good old fashioned fun for all. 

Other titles produced in the 1970’s and 1980’s included "Cars, Trucks and things that go", "A day at the airport ", "The Great Pie Robbery and other mysteries", "The Adventures of lowly worm", "Mr Frumbles biggest hat ever" and "Good Night Little Bear". 

If you want a first introduction to the fantastic Scarry world (although you must have been on another planet not to be familiar with his books already), then just try out the immediately inviting “What do people do all day?”.

Of course, the content and vocabulary in the books dating from the 1960’s was very much of that era but new revised editions have kept them up with the times and political correctness of a much more sensitive world. Harmless images and text, or so they seemed to even the best informed readers some 50 years ago have been removed.  

This relates to material which could be perceived as offensive due to gender, racial, or religious misconceptions. Characters in "cowboy" or "Indian" costumes were either removed or given nondescript clothing. Moral and religious elements and depictions of gender roles were altered or removed .Characters engaged in activities reflecting traditional gender roles were altered so as to make the scenes more gender-neutral. Changes in family life were depicted by a male character active in a kitchen scene rather than being waited upon in a patriarchal role. A cowboy was replaced with a female gardener and a female scientist. 

As we are now well used to see the sexist term of airline stewardess was changed to flight attendant. 

Male characters engaged in traditionally masculine activities such as driving a steamroller were altered into female characters by the addition of hair ribbons or pink flowers although that could be seen, by some, as just a change to positive discrimination. 

In some cases these changes necessitated removing whole sections of the original books altogether, including the "Out West" section, the "buildings" section which had depicted a church, a cathedral, and a French Foreign Legion fortress, and sections on painting and music making.

However, such is the quality of message and context in pictures and words that I doubt that anyone has really noticed the subtle revisions nor had any substantive grounds to boycott the wonderful world of Richard Scarry. 

Me and my brothers firmly believe that we have become reasonably rounded and morally compassed individuals using Alfalfa, Able Baker Charlie, Gold Bug and their friends as our childhood role models, oh, and the Firemen.

Me and My Brothers (in no particular order)