Explore Interactive Children’s Books of the Past

This post was written by Ruth Park, a Spring 2025 Teaching with Primary Sources intern.

What comes to your mind when you think about children’s books?

A few years ago, I took a Children’s Literature class in which my classmates and I visited our local public library to see how children’s books have changed over time. We took turns looking at and analyzing patterns in contemporary children’s books. We mostly examined picture books, around 30-50 pages long, that either introduced the alphabet to younger readers or highlighted topics and themes such as family, friendship, community, and nature for slightly older children. I had a great time looking at locally published books, the most popular picture books across decades, books I read as a child, and books that were completely new to me.

Earlier this year, as I learned how to use the Library of Congress’ website during my Teaching with Primary Sources internship, I found the Children’s Book Selections Collection. Remembering my Children’s Literature class, I was excited to explore examples of children’s literature from the past. At first, I was drawn in by the classical texts like the New England Primer. As I continued exploring the collection, I began to encounter books that challenged my idea of what a “children’s book” could be.

The first book that caught my attention was The Rocket Book by Peter Newell. In it, a young boy living on the first floor of an apartment building accidentally sets off his toy rocket. The rocket creates a hole through each floor of the building. What is interesting about this book is that each of its pages has a hole in the middle, which acts as a physical representation of the rocket’s ascent and also grounds the rest of the illustrations of surprised individuals. I was amazed at this interpretation of a story beyond illustrations, one that travels into the book’s construction, and I decided to look for other books in the collection with similar effects.

The next example I found was The Slant Book, also written by Peter Newell. This book is shaped like a parallelogram and printed to look as if its pages are slanted. The shape of these pages physically reflect the story of a boy who wreaks havoc on his small town. The town is on a steep hill, and the boy’s uncontrollable go-cart can’t stop rolling down the hill’s slope. While reading this book, I felt that its complex design encouraged readers to interact through multiple senses. Using touch and sight to understand the text’s full context was something I hadn’t experienced when reading children’s books before The Slant Book.

Realizing that children’s books could be interactive led me to find other examples from the collection including Mother Goose Finger Plays by Irene M. Cullison and The Twelve Magic Changelings by M.A. Glen. Mother Goose Finger Plays begins like a traditional nursery rhyme collection, but next to each line of verse is a photograph of hand motions related to the rhyme. Individuals can make these hand motions to accompany their reading. The Twelve Magic Changelings has an interactive component to go alongside nursery rhymes. It is composed solely of paper doll templates that individuals can cut out, fold, and paste to create figures of popular characters like Humpty Dumpty and Mary and her little lamb.

The last interactive book I found was Gobolinks, or Shadow Pictures for Young and Old by Ruth M. Stuart and Albert B. Paine. In this book abstract inkblots fill the pages and are complemented by poems that imagine what types of creatures the inkblots might represent. These three books felt even more unique to me because they invite the readers to create and engage while reading. With movement, crafting figures, or drawing their own artwork, these books are designed to inspire the reader with each page of the books themselves.

These books’ focus on the physical nature of reading helped me realize how active reading can be. They invite young readers to engage with the pages in addition to reading the text. That helps immerse their minds in the literary experience in a unique way and lets a wide range of learners grow their own love of reading.

Inspired by these five experiential books, but especially Gobolinks, or Shadow Pictures for Young and Old, I invite you and the children in your life to create your own character using the materials and steps listed below.

Materials:

• Paper
• Paint
• Brush
• Writing Utensil (pen, pencil, or marker)

Instructions:

1. Take a piece of paper and fold it in half vertically (hotdog style).
2. Unfold the paper and place small blobs of paint onto one side of the paper.
3. Fold the paper back in half vertically and press so the paint distributes evenly.
4. Open the paper and let the paint dry.
5. Create a character using this paint blot. Imagine what the character looks like. Try drawing on top of the paint blot to bring your character to life.
6. Create a story for your new character. What is their name? What do they do for fun?

If you try the activity at home, let us know how it turned out in the comments!