Writing in Pictures: Richard Scarry and the art of children's literature

I loved Richard Scarry as a child—still do!—and I'm convinced his books really helped build up my vocabulary as I learned English in first grade.

A detail I only mentally noted as an adult: the butchers in his books are always pigs themselves. A pig selling ham, sausages and, presumably, cuts of pork is a bit morbid (and also hilarious in a black humor sort of way), but it fits in with the world so much that I didn't even think twice about it as a kid. It just slid past me.

I still remember one of the books I had as a child—can't recall the title exactly—that had a bunch of urban scenes with various objects labeled. What really stood out were the little details and funny little stories going on. The stories and the humor got me to pay attention and actually care about the objects (and their labels!) far more than any generic vocabulary book for kids.

What I love about Richard Scarry is that he is never patronizing or condescending. Too many authors of children's books either try to write down to kids, try to write what they think kids ought to read, or both. But kids aren't idiots and they can tell! Well, I can't speak for everyone, but at least as a kid myself I found a lot of children's works either patronizing or unpleasant—works that were trying too hard to be childlike or, especially, works that were transparent morality plays.

Scarry's work is nothing like this at all. It's oriented for and accessible to kids, but it manages to be simple and silly in a genuine way. The art and stories are actually cute and funny rather than caricatures of what an adult thinks a child would find cute and funny. You can tell Scarry was making something he would enjoy himself. That's why I loved his books when I was five and why I still love his books now.

It's hard to find other children's books like that. I collect illustrated books and the majority I see in stores are awful. The most successful exception I've seen are books by Joe Klassen (of I Want My Hat fame) along with his common collaborator Mac Barnett. Their books are legitimately funny and visually attractive to adults, they're willing to write stories that aren't entirely saccharine, and children absolutely love them. I've seen that first-hand.

I can still recall my impressions from reading these books at five years old, and the difference between them and the world I eventually entered does make me sad.

I’ve been struck by how the world is depicted to my children in so many children’s books. “As you grow, you’ll be able to slot into a happy productive life, no matter what kind of work you like.”

No joke: every time I read my daughter a Richard Scarry book, I wonder when and how it will have to be broken to her that unless her interests happen to include something that pays a living wage, she’s actually fucked for life.

Think about what it would be like to grow up or to raise children in a world where the ramp to adulthood was incredibly wide and smooth and it was near-impossible to fall off a cliff into poverty, loneliness, or a life of work you hate.

Busytown isn’t a real place, but it was obviously designed to give children some sense of what the world is like or supposed to be like.

I absolutely adore Richard Scarry books. I discovered Richard Scarry a couple of months ago when I was looking for books to read for my 3 year old. Now, not a moment goes by in the evenings when we are reading the adventures of Lowly and his seek and find books. It’s a ritual every night. Richard Scarry and the Grumpy Monkey series are a godsend.

I never experienced Richard Scarry as a child myself. I discovered it for my own children in a pile of books left on someone's stoop to give away. I was immediately blown away by the whimsy and astonishing care put into every detail. My kids obsessively hunted for the "goldbug" on each page of Cars and Trucks and Things That Go (although they never developed a taste for finding Waldo).

Richard Scarry’s books were such a cozy universe growing up, I'd still like to live in "What people do all day." I wonder what that book would look like if he made it today.

Mundane childhood incident that somehow became a core memory: Trying to tell my 2nd grade teacher I wanted to bring a Richard Scarry book to show and tell and she was convinced I was talking about "witches scary" and therefore it would be great for Halloween. I then became incredibly frustrated while trying to enunciate "Richard" in a way that she would understand.

I read his books every day when really young. He created such a great world to imagine. The note about him moving to Switzerland makes sense - his world did feel really European now that I think about it.

My kids, now grown, did not get to experience his books - are his books sold widely anymore?

I was most familiar with the DOS games as a child. They even had Red Book soundtracks of the townsfolk singing about various professions. Building the house was my favorite activity back then.

https://archive.org/details/BusytownDOS

https://archive.org/details/busytown_dos

Richard Scarry was a resident of my former hometown of Ridgefield, CT, as was fellow author-illustrator Maurice Sendak (Where the Wild Things Are). My school's librarian recommended his books with particular pride.

Come to think of it, a lot of children's authors seem to have lived in that area, western CT or eastern upstate NY. Some, including Judy Hawes and Jean Van Leeuwen, came to visit my school to talk about their books, reading in general, etc.

In college I referred to the textbooks used by Management Information Systems majors as "Richard Scarry books" because they were full of colorful, busy illustrations and light on technical detail.

If you've never seen the animated TV series based on the books, you're totally missing out. It's incredible: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2m76NQMJGtc&list=PL66vbXJhfF...

I loved Richard Scarry when I was little, although I think it instilled in me a belief that the world was in a constant state of chaos. (maybe that’s accurate.)

My toddler is now obsessed with them and demands “CARS AND TRUCKS”, “SITE” or “HOUSE” every night at bedtime.

Man I loved Richard Scary growing up.

I initially thought my 1.5 year old didn’t quite have the attention span for Cars and Trucks and Things that Go yet, but recently, after learning the word bus, he picked it up and dutifully started going through each page and finding all of the buses.

Oh hey, this is written by Chris Ware. It makes sense that he would be a huge fan of Scarry.

Cars and Trucks and Things That Go is a child favorite and What Do People Do All Day has great depictions of saw mills, flour mills, power plants, and more, but I like Richard Scarry’s I Am a Bunny the most: The pages are filled edge-to-edge with his vibrant illustrations (no whitespace as in his other books) and the story by Ole Risom describes the timeless passing of the seasons.

Looked at Richard Scarry's books on google images in hopes to find a book I read as a kid but don't remember its name or much of it. Richard's art is similarly colorful but Writing it here in hopes someone else may know?

There were some blobby looking ice-cream/sundae in it. And a picture story where someone made very tall icecream. So tall that a helicopter was putting scoops on top (or may be it was placing the cherry on top, but i remember that helicopter touching that icecream). It was a colorful cartoony style art in the book.

Having strong imagination as a kid, the pictures in this book always felt real (hard to explain). Then I remember looking at this book many years later as a grown up and not feeling them as real. It's been many many years since then and I want to have a glimpse again.

I remember the books as a staple of pediatricians' waiting rooms, and we had some at home, too. Scarry also published a book on how to draw things--cars, I recall, I suppose people and animals.

A prior Richard Scarry item on HN, in Aug'23 -

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37044673 (47 comments)

I still remember looking at these with my mother when I was small. We loved to hunt for Gold Bug. She told me later in life that her favorite was, "Lowly worm washes his face and foot." (He always wore a sock and shoe on the end of his tail.)

Most likely know this, but in many books there is a gold bug to be found on each image set.

I loved the books as a child and as a father I love reading them for my children. And they love them too.

Some things have not aged well in them though. Thinking specifically around the gender roles. Not matching Sweden of today. Basically all men are working and having a good time and the women are taking care of children and their husbands. But I sometimes make a lesson of that and tell them that it used to be more like that and ask them whom of my wife and I do different chores and takes care of them. Then we can laugh about it a bit together instead of me grinding my teeth. “Mom’s work is never done”.

> There were, of course, obstacles. One of the less appealing features of Golden’s business practice was that, with rare exceptions, they offered no royalties. This arrangement nagged at Scarry, especially after his and Patricia’s son Huck was born in 1953, so in 1955 he finally asked the imposing white-haired and lavender-blue-eyed Lucille Ogle for a revised contract that included royalties—and an advance. She readily agreed. Surprised, Scarry asked why she hadn’t offered such a deal earlier. “Because you never asked,” she replied.

For a very long time - maybe years - every night I would ask my little boy what he wanted me to read him at bedtime.

ALWAYS he would say "Robber Book!" which was a Richard Scarry book that had a couple of robbers/burglars in it. In hindsight it was the cars he liked the most - cars are a major feature of Richard Scarry books and my little boy was car crazy from the moment he was born it seems.

Bought some of these when my kids were between 3-5 yo. Several years ago they re-published a series of them, including the cars and trucks, what do people do all day, the funny stories, and a few others (I think 6 books in total). I got the entire series at B&N, they were easily the favorite books of my youngest who was about 4 or 5 at the time. I had no idea they were so old!

It's interesting to see relatively new works that have been beloved by generations of my immediate family.

Richard Scary's illustrstions were absolute favorites for myself, my siblings and all of our offspring when we were looking at books before we learned to read, and The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster later became our favorite book as young readers.

For something that's more of a substantial story than things like Cars & Trucks or Busy Busy Town, let me put in a word for Peasant Pig and the Terrible Dragon. My kids had it pretty much memorized long before they could read it for themselves.

While I never read any of his books, I must have driven my parents mad with how much I watched The Busy World of Richard Scarry on VHS.

My daughter loved his Bedtime Stories book. We read it countless times. The characters are cute and the stories are hilarious.

My (nearly) 2 year old reads Cars and Trucks etc. for ages on end like it's a sacred text.