Ceilick, those were wonderful stories, and I especially remember reading Go, Dog, Go all the time at my grandparents' house, where they had all my dad's and uncle's old childhood stories, such as this one also:
and this:
And while I'm at it, this is one I was never read as a kid, but belonged to my great-grandmother...
How do you people remember these things...? I have a major blankness in memory between childhood and teenage years. I recall the covers of some books, but the names of none.
"All those thousands upon thousands of junk foods made for me on the various planets I explored make me wonder how I'm still alive."
The book I'm thinking of resembles Goodnight Moon, but was about a pair of socks given to one person who they were too large for. The socks ended up getting unwoven and made into a sweater and eventually back into socks gifted to the first person again.
Some really lovely books there, none of which I have ever seen before. The covers of the Gernam and Czech ones are particularly nice.
I personally was big into Rupert annuals, obviously via parental influence. The 1969 one was particularly beautiful, with fanciful illustrations by Alfred Bestall:
(it's the one on the left).
Also I was really absorbed in the world of Goosebumps for a while:
Some of our Irish schoolbooks carry much nostalgia too, though it would seem most have faded into obscurity, never to be found on Google.
I find it amusing how 'those funny people' have become actual, real people over time. Once upon a time everyone who wasn't white was basically 'white people in funny costumes\colors' but slowly over the years certain groups have been pulled out of it.
So blackface is frowned upon, but pirate costumes are ok. (Mostly because all the pirates are gone and not demanding accurate representation.) Cowboys are prime target, indians not so much. It's strange to look back on things and see how people that may live on your street (at least here, where the country is too small to properly segregate.) were once considered the same sort of thing as fairies or bunny rabbits in jackets.
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.
I had the misfortune of being near some Enid Blyton books for an extended period of time once. There were two editions of one of the book, one rather old, the other quite new. I compared the two and noticed the blackface kids in the newer edition had been replaced by more "normal" non-Caucasian kids.
I remember mouthing off about the racism in Blyton's books in grade prep or one. Never was a fan.
Keening_Product was defeated before the game.
"Wise words. One day I may even understand what they mean." - Levellass
Another beautiful book that I remember. Sadly, over 40 years after his death, the author was accused of racism due to a controversial story element that involved Mikeš (Purrkin) almost being kidnapped by black people.
Well he probably was racist, people back then had a higher background racism level. I doubt it was anything with ill-intent though. This is why we have the idea of 'fair for its time'
What you really need, not what you think you ought to want.