Best Word Book Ever - Fire!

Beautiful Screaming Lady. Love it.

Brave Hero. Absolutely.

Jumping Gentleman. He is a polite jumper, dignified in his fall.

Fire Fighter - get it right.

Best Word Book Ever - Fire! by kokogiak.

(1963 on left, 1991 on right)

Will the Brave Hero rescue the Beautiful Screaming Lady? Not in 1991, he won't.

Richard Scarry's Best Word Book Ever, 1963 vs 1991 editions (with revisions). The 1963 edition is my own, bought for me in the late 60's when I was a toddler, and read to tatters. The 1991 edition belongs to my kids today. I was so familar with the older one that I immediately started noticing a few differences, and so have catalogued 10 of the more interesting differences here in this collection.

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Comments

platypi says:

i think the use of "gentleman" needs to be encouraged among children, not eliminated.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Acid Zebra says:

We also need more beautiful screaming ladies.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

5500 says:

what's weird is that the species of the figure in danger is noted here, when the type of animal seems altogether irrelevant everywhere else.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

DannoHung says:

What's wrong with brave hero?

I mean... did firemen... whoops, sorry, firefighters stop being brave and/or heros?
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Martäng says:

This series was great.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

mr.thorn says:

Yes, great series. I was at a friend's house recently and looking at her newer copy of a Richard Scarry book I had when I was a kid, and I kept spotting little things that didn't seem quite right too.

Thanks for clarifying the historical record!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Kyle Jones says:

without the gentleman label, It almost appears that he is a 'fire hydrant'.... Thanks for these pics! Luckily I grew up on the original :)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

vanoakenfold says:

I guess they wanted to keep the hero gender-neutral (as opposed to heroine?)
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Arif Ansari says:

"cat in danger" seems very, very out of place. I don't think Scarry usually identifies his characters as animals - he tends to give them human attributes (hence the charm of the books).
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

eeksypeeksy says:

I guess they (inappropriately) settled on "cat in danger" because that character has no job but cannot be a "lady" (woman, whatever) anymore because that would be sexist (males saving female). Similarly, the formerly "jumping gentleman" (notice how he can jump to save himself, while the lady cat has to wait for help) had to lose the "gentleman" label. They could have written "screamer" and "jumper" but those are no good, especially for a children's book. Maybe "resident" or "occupant" or simple "person" would have been closer to accurate but also no damned good.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

washburn says:

It is interesting how the "screaming lady" was beautiful not because of her actual appearance, but b/c of her position in danger. (See also: "handsome pilot").
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

souzacampus says:

Subtle differences. Fantastic! Great!Congratulations Kokogiak!!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

hungrydog says:

I see they didn't correct the net. Don't nets have holes in them?

That was the best displacement activity today: cheers!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

mariacininha says:

This series was great.
Very nice!!!!!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

El Mariachi says:

They probably changed the (Beautiful Screaming) Lady to "cat in danger" because someone thought the notion of a lady in danger of burning to death ("A lady... like Mommy?" CHILD bursts into tears.) was too potentially traumatic. That and the Lady being passive while the Gentleman takes an active role in his own rescue. They could have gone with Beautiful Paraplegic Woman but that opens up a whole nother can of worms.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

eeksypeeksy says:

I guess "Beautiful pyromaniac/nymphomaniac catwoman who is seriously turned on by the flames and is overeager to leap into the trotters of a handsome pig dressed as firefighter" was too long.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

repose says:

Why is the fire hydrant jumping into the net?

The Brave Hero has been demoted to sexless Firefighter because rescuing a cat is much less glamorous!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

k55_91411 says:

Vintage art changed to reflect changing moraes and/or to correct perceived gender-biased occupations! This, not for art or morality sake, but for market-place greed. I find these revisions distateful and cuturally bankrupt. How about we edit Dr Suess' "The Grinch who stole Christmas" or any "Calvin and Hobbes" strip that protrays misogny towards 'Susy Derkins'?

This is like 1984 but only Corporations arerunning the show. Thank you for posting.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Bichu says:

They've already done that PC "update" revision to classics like Enid Blyton's Famous Five or The Seven series
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Kenkun says:

I think the revisions are fine. People buying the books for their kids probably think they are pretty close to, or the same, as the ones they had. I don't the updates are marketing ploys.

Thanks for posting. This is one of the only sets I've actually looked through completely.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Kim Scarborough says:

The revisions are crap. Look at how much less interesting this page is now. All the adjectives and verbs that made this a cute little story are gone now, blandified in our unceasing quest to ensure that nobody, anywhere, is ever even slightly bothered by anything.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Dennis Hayes IV says:

I would have bought a used version of this book anyhow but now i have to make sure that its the old one for my Pretty Girl not Girl.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

illskematiks says:

I guess the editors realized the the firehats on the cover would be too easily confused with bob the builder hard hats. I think that these are much more realistic! Is there any correlation between animal types and jobs or roles. It seems the racoons are more blue collar than the bears, pigs, and kitty cats. The rabbits represent family...so thats where we get that phrase...
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

illskematiks says:

Where the heck is that top stream of water coming from? Is there a fireplane in the area. It looks very loony tunish with water coming in from all angles. "Douse that fire Quickly mates!"
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

ckilgore says:

At least they kept the odd facial exressions where the people who nearly perished in the fire still look pretty happy. Like, "Whee! We get to jump into a net!"
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

johnfdonohoe says:

Thank you for posting this. I really enjoyed it.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

itim316 says:

Thanks for the series. Interesting changes. Got here from WorldMagBlog.
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

missmookus says:

I knew I've seen the 'beautiful screaming lady' and 'brave hero'recently -- if you want them, you must go to Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever. She's in my 1995 copy under The Firemen to the Rescue (p.232).
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

globaljen says:

fantastic set! i remember making a cut-out&colour Richard Scarry town back in - ooh, 1980 - whilst in bed with chicken pox. this has certainly brought back memories!
Posted 49 months ago. ( permalink )

Mgmax says:

Hey, at least this one's still in print-- Scarry's Busy Busy World has been dropped, probably because it seemed politically incorrect to somebody (a Japanese character named Suki Yaki, that sort of thing). But I remember it as one of the first books that helped me get a sense of different cultures around the world. Far from instilling prejudice, it made me curious and open minded. Foolish.
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

Swirl [deleted] says:

They correct all those PC "errors" but leave the most glaring one--the firefighters are still pigs. I mean they changed the Rhino dentist to a bear--at least they could have made the pigs into dogs. Good thing they're not policemen ;)
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

deardeedle says:

I definitly liked Brave Hero better. That one should have stayed. And why didn't they lable the jumping racoon at all?
Posted 48 months ago. ( permalink )

boxinfamily says:

for the pc version they should have labled "cat in danger" to "victim---future litigant in skyscraper construction defects case."

and the "hero" to "good samaritan--future defendant in skyscraper rescue debacle".
Posted 47 months ago. ( permalink )

badkittym says:

I have this book (the original Golden Books 1963 edition), safely packed away at my parents house; I am now 43. Oddly, I was not remotely traumatized as a child by the original (and clever) copy, nor did I grow up with notions of what men and women HAD to follow as far as gender roles. When I was 15, I tried out for and passed the volunteer firefighter's physical test - I was too young to become a firefighter, but the battalion chief allowed me to run the course...and no asides about my being female, either.

Kids only grow up assuming what their parents and peers actively hammer into their heads. A terrific book with humorous little descriptive sentences does not = future Stepford husbands and wives.
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

DangerWaffle says:

What's really sad here is the fact that they decided to go with making everything neutral when they could have given a nod to gender equality just by changing some of the gender designations. After all, it's not like the animals have very obvious sexes. "Brave hero" could just as easily be "brave heroine." Or we could contrast "jumping gentleman" with "handsome screaming gentleman."

Not promoting stereotypes is a noble goal, and some of the changes here are fine. I'm glad they went from "fireman" to "fire fighter." But that's no reason at all to make everything lifeless.
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

kevinbarre says:

I have a copy Richard Scary's Best Storybook Ever from the 70s. My favorite story in it was about a family of bears wherein the father bear takes the baby bear out hunting seals to make fur coats.

So I bought a copy of the same book for my kids in 1998. You guessed it, the entire story about the bear family is missing.

Political correctness sucks.
Posted 27 months ago. ( permalink )

sbfisher says:

The "brave hero" copy feels nicer, more idealistic or something instead of blandly showing someone's occupation. What's bad about presenting it in a positive light? We're going to have an over abundance of firefighters if they do that?

The whole thing about "hero" being male while "heroine" is female is also something that shows the age of most people commenting on this and the paranoia of the 1995 editors. As far as I'm aware, most people of my generation aren't aware of "hero" being a male-specific term and I've heard females called heroes much more than I've ever heard the word "heroine" used. The word "heroine" seems so 1950s to me. "Hero" has largely begun being the gender-neutral form as far as what I've encountered (unless you're talking about some 1920s movie starlet or something, then you might pull that wacky word, "heroine" out of the closet). After all, there was/is a TV show called "Heroes" and it isn't only about men. Even dictionary.com lists a definition as "a person who, in the opinion of others, has heroic qualities or has performed a heroic act and is regarded as a model or ideal" (along with the old gender-specific one).

Anyway, odd change.
Posted 21 months ago. ( permalink )

Rudolf_von_Flugel says:

Alas, Richard Scarry's books are not available in German book stores any more (there is no German publisher for the German versions right now) - but you can still get them second hand at ebay. I used to read them a lot when I was a kid and I can remember many scenes from the books I had. I still remember Rudolf von Flugel who usually crashed with his World War I aeroplane though I was too young to understand the historical background at that time. I hope he is still there in the newer versions - it would be a shame if he would have vanished, too, for the sake of political correctness. Maybe German actor Gerd Fröbe ("Goldfinger") who portrayed the German pilot Oberst Manfred von Holstein in the 1965 flic "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines or How I Flew from London to Paris in 25 Hours 11 Minutes" was Scarry's inspiration for Rudolf.
Posted 18 months ago. ( permalink )

corn1971 says:

Without the jumping gentleman title, a child no longer knows if a hydrant is the little red thing or a descriptive word for someone jumping away from 'beautiful cat in screaming danger'.
Posted 3 months ago. ( permalink )

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Best Word Book Ever - Fire!

Comments

platypi says:

Acid Zebra says:

5500 says:

DannoHung says:

Martäng says:

mr.thorn says:

Kyle Jones says:

vanoakenfold says:

Arif Ansari says:

eeksypeeksy says:

washburn says:

souzacampus says:

hungrydog says:

mariacininha says:

El Mariachi says:

eeksypeeksy says:

repose says:

k55_91411 says:

Bichu says:

Kenkun says:

Kim Scarborough says:

Dennis Hayes IV says:

illskematiks says:

illskematiks says:

ckilgore says:

johnfdonohoe says:

itim316 says:

missmookus says:

globaljen says:

Mgmax says:

Swirl [deleted] says:

deardeedle says:

boxinfamily says:

badkittym says:

DangerWaffle says:

kevinbarre says:

sbfisher says:

Rudolf_von_Flugel says:

corn1971 says:

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The Best Word Book Ever,1963 and 1991. (Set)

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