Little Golden Book Monday #184

 Mickey's Walt Disney World Adventure has been repurposed 25 years later as Walt Disney World celebrates its 50th anniversary. 25 years ago in 1997, Little Golden Books released Mickey's Walt Disney World Adventure in conjunction with WDW's 25th Anniversary.  Although most of the book has remained the same, some things in the park have changed in the past 25 years, and those changes are reflected in updated artwork as you will see below.

Cover to the 1997 Little Golden Book release

Cover to the 2022 Little Golden Book release

Inside cover of the 1997 release

Inside cover of the 2022 release

1997 artwork showing the new entrance to Tomorrowland

2022 showing the Tomorrowland Transit Authority

1997 artwork showing an arial view of Fantasyland from the defunct Skyway

2022 artwork highlighting the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Original 1997 artwork 

2022 slightly altered artwork altering the Main Street Cinema marquee

Little Golden Book Monday #183

Here is the most recent Disney related Little Golden Book. It is It's a Small World! adapted by Lauren Clauss, illustrated by Steph Lew and designed by Winnie Ho, with a publication date of 2021. I love seeing Disneyland attractions being adapted into Little Golden Books, and am excited about the upcoming Jungle Cruise and Haunted Mansion books coming out later in the year. Shown here are the front and back covers, along with a few of the wonderful interior illustrations.

Little Golden Book Monday #182

Here is a Faux Little Golden Book cover that I saw years ago and came across again today while cleaning out my old iMac. I was surprised to see that I never shared this in the past, as I love the artwork and title so much that I really want to add this book to me collection! Here is Incredibly, Undeniably BORED by Stacy Curtis. You can find it over on the Three Men in a Tub blog.

Little Golden Book Monday #181

While at the thrift store the other day I found two copies of the Little Golden Book, Donald Duck's Toy Sailboat. Once I had both in hand, I realized the covers were actually slightly different. I prefer the Donald on the newer edition, but think the chipmunks on the older one are much better. What do you think?

Here are scans of the covers as well as the inside page from both versions.
The first one is the Fourteenth Printing from 1975. The second one is from 1990.

Little Golden Book Monday #180

Today's Little Golden Book is The Good Humor Man from 1992 (originally printed in 1964). It has been crazy hot the last few days and since yesterday was National Ice Cream Day, we celebrated by visiting our local Dairy Queen. As one would expect, the place was packed! But I can remember my childhood when the ice cream man was something you got excited about when he showed up in your neighbourhood. Now, as an adult, when I hear the "turkey in the straw" through that tiny speaker, being played way too loud, I wonder who is buying his over priced 'treats'. We have a DQ and a Macs (Canadian version of 7-11) within walking distance, and a freezer full of ice cream etc, so its hard to imagine how the ice cream man can make money today. And to make things worse, the truck I see driving around here the most, is all rusty and beaten up and the driver looks like an escaped convict. I would never send my kids to buy ice cream from this guy! But, I remember when the two trucks that would come by the apartments where I lived as a kid, there would always been a line up at the window of the truck to buy ice cream, and I would always be there waiting my turn.

"Mothers left their kitchens and daddies left their lawn mowers and dogs left their bones. Everyone was there to see the friendly Good Humor man in his little white truck."

Little Golden Book Monday #179

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney's Planes: Fire & Rescue. It took me a few minutes to realize that is actually the second Planes movie. I had to google it to realize this was the second movie based on the Disney Planes. I then tried really hard to remember anything about the first one, but could remember nothing. I'm not even 100% sure I saw it. There is a good chance I saw it, as I have a cheap theatre in my neighbourhood and usually see movies like this, once they have been out a while and end up at the cheap theatre, but no mater how much I try, I can't remember a thing about Planes #1. I play a game on the DVD Weekly Podcast Face Book page called Over, Under where they give the predicted numbers for a couple of films coming out and you have to say whether it will be over or under that number on opening weekend. I did say over for Planes: Fire & Rescue, only because I believe people will go see it because it has the Disney name on it, but I am not betting that it will be any good. I did like the artwork in the book, but didn't pay too much to the story as I will probably go to see this one when it shows up at the cheap theatre. I'll pay my $4 to see the film, and then promptly forget I saw it.

Little Golden Book Monday #178

Today's Little Golden Book is Fearless Firemoose! starring Rocky & Bullwinkle, with guest star Mr. Peabody. This is really a Rock & Bullwinkle story, with Mr. Peabody tossed in to play off of any synergy there may have been from the release of the Mr. Peabody and Sherman movie that came out back in March, 2014.
Along with the front cover, I've scanned the back cover which says "There are mroe than 200 timeless Little Golden Books to share. Here are just a few of them. How many have you read?"

Little Golden Books Monday #177

I received my copy of the Disney Editions book "The Art of the Disney Golden Books" by Charles Solomon today from Amazon, and I can happily say it was worth the $24.95 I spent for it (the cover price is $35). It is a large sized hard cover book with 160 pages full of amazing artwork and information and stories to go along with it. Here are a few photos of the book to give you an idea of what is inside. The last photo is of my son checking out all the photos throughout the book.  He especially liked the photo on page 14 that showed Walt in a promotional photo sharing the Dumbo book with a couple of dogs.
If, like me, you are a fan of Disney and Little Golden Books, then this book is a MUST have!

Little Golden Book Monday #176

Hello... I'm back after a long absence. For todays return to Little Golden Book Monday, I present Little Golden Books Board Game. This is something I saw two or three Christmases ago but didn't pick it up the day I saw it. Sadly I didn't see it again until just before Christmas this year. This time I picked it up as soon as I saw it in the shop window!

Although this is not actually a Little Golden Book, but does come with miniature Little Golden Books as part of the game. Here is the description of the game on the back of the box: Spin the spinner and travel around the game board featuring your favourite Little Golden Books characters. If you land on one of the special spaces you might have to 'bark' like the Poky Little Puppy, 'toot' like Tootle, 'meow' like The Shy Little Kitten, or 'splash' like Scuffy The Tugboat! Be the first player to collect all four of the Little Golden Books tokens to win!

We have already played the game a number of times, sadly, I have come in last every time.

Little Golden Book Monday #175

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney Planes based on the upcoming Disney animated movie of the same name. I saw some previews of this movie about a year ago and thought it looked very much like a direct to DVD film, but that didn't stop me from picking up the book, and I'll be there on August 9th for opening night of the film. At least this book has me a little more interested in seeing the film.

Little Golden Book Monday #174

Today's Little Golden Book is Disney Pixar Monsters University. I have started to see lots of Monsters university books showing up in many local stores. I have not seen this one on the shelves yet, but since seeing this image on another site, I have been on the look out for a copy to add to my collection!

Little Golden Book Monday #173

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Mickey and the Beanstalk from 1988. The story of Mickey and the Beanstalk was originally part of the Fun and Fancy Free animated feature produced by Walt Disney and released by RKO Radio Pictures on September 27, 1947. It was one of the "package films" (feature-length compilations of shorter segments) that the studio produced in the 1940s. It is the 9th animated feature in the Walt Disney Animated Classics series, and the fourth package film by Disney.
The "Mickey and the Beanstalk" portion of the film was the last time Walt Disney voiced Mickey Mouse, as he was too busy working on other projects to continue voicing the famous character. Disney replaced himself with sound effects artist Jimmy MacDonald.

Little Golden Book Monday #172

Happy Easter. Today I present The Golden Egg Book from 1947. My copy is a fifth printing from 1971 and is showing its age, as the cover is starting to peel. Is it just me or does the rabbit on the cover look something from a horror movie? It is amazing how different the cover drawing looks from all the artwork inside the book. Just check out this cute illustration of the little bunny finding the egg.

Little Golden Book Monday #171

Today I realized that I have posted a couple of Little Golden Books based on Toy Story and Toy Story 3, but had not done Toy Story 2. So, today, I present Toy Story 2 from 2006.
I love the Toy Story films and especially enjoyed Toy Story 2. I loved the way they turned Woody and Bullseye into retro stars of yesteryear on their show Woody's Roundup. I want all those collectibles they show in the film! A Woody's Roundup record player would look awesome in my collection.

Little Golden Book Monday #170

I received a call from the dentist this week to remind me that it was time for my bi yearly checkup. Thankfully this Little Golden Book from 1970 titled "Let's Visit the Dentist" had reassured me that I have nothing to be frightened of.
I also scanned in the back cover, as it was different from the ones I usually see over and over.

Little Golden Book Monday #169

Today's Little Golden Book is Walt Disney's Peter and the Wolf, a fairy tale adapted from Serge Prokofieff's musical theme. Pictures by Richard Kelsey for the Walt Disney Studio.  Based on the animated cartoon sequence in Walt Disney's "Make Mine Music".
This copy is a second printing from 1976. Original edition was 1946.
The cover of this book is scuffed up, but I liked the artwork inside too much to pass this up when I found it at a local thrift store. Check out this great double page spread.