<p><P>Many of our most cherished childhood memories recall the pleasure of sitting in a big comfy chair while a doting parent reads from a lovingly illustrated picture book. <i>Jack and the Bean Stalk</i>, <i>Little Red Riding Hood</i>, <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> the colorful illustrations that decorated the pages of these stories remain forever captured in the mind s eye. <P><i>Once Upon a Time</i> reawakens the joys of childhood reading, of seeing a story come alive in words and pictures on the printed page and in our nascent imaginations. Drawing upon the extraordinary collection of Victorian-era illustrated books amassed by Arthur and Ellen Liman, it presents fairy tales and fables, nursery rhymes, instructional books, juvenile fiction, histories, and manners manuals. Created through a variety of illustration techniques and printing processes, most are beautifully colored. Many are also animated with moveable parts. These striking objects are accompanied by brief texts that place them within their era and illuminate the rise of children's literature in America as a cultural phenomenon related to the growth of literacy, an increase in leisure time, and an understanding of the 'infant mind.' The moral of this story: learning your ABCs can be a visual pleasure.</p><h3>Library Journal</h3><p>Weinstein (curator, 20th- and 21st-century collections, New York Historical Soc.) includes both covers of and illustrations from Victorian-era children's books in the private collection of Ellen and Arthur Liman, who focused on titles published by the McLoughlin Brothers. The texture and vibrant colors of the chromolithographs are vividly captured here, to the point where one almost has to pull back from some of the intense orange and red full-plate reproductions. Weinstein's introduction, To Amuse and Instruct, well addresses, among other topics, the influence of the 17th-century educator John Amos Comenius, the 18th-century philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the 18th-century London publisher John Newbery. The six chapters that follow are each prefaced with two-page informative introductions. Chapter topics include alphabets, Mother Goose, novels, history books, and cautionary tales. No footnotes are present, but the illustration captions contain additional information. This well-constructed book, with its A-to-Z pictorial cover, is recommended for both large and small public libraries.-Anne Marie Lane, American Heritage Ctr. Lib., Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.</p>
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