Let's go to the library and read the children's books of 1962! Some well-known and some obscure.

1. 1962 Children's Books
By Donald Dale Milne
https://www.roadtrip62.com/1962-childrens-books.htm
No travel this week, instead Roadtrip-‘62 ™ will be staying indoors. Imagine you’re a kid and it’s a cold, rainy day, so let’s play with our toys! I’ve
already talked about toy guns at https://www.roadtrip62.com/bang-5-toy-guns-from-1962.htm , card games at https://www.roadtrip62.com/ed-u-cards.htm , and
candy that we might have had in 1962 at https://www.roadtrip62.com/how-sweet-it-was.htm . Today I’ll review some children’s books published that year that
we might have read. I was only 9 years old that year, so I’m sure I read some of these!
Cover of “Baby Elephant and the Secret Wishes” (photo from online sale)

2. The World Book Encyclopedia lists the following categories of children’s books. Mostly, I remember and think of books that fit the Folk Tales and
Fantasies category. While the categories covering science and history are important, I doubt that most of us looking back at our time as kids would think much
about those books. And the categories “Abridgements of Adult Books“, “Mostly for Older Boys”, and “Mostly for Older Girls” are what we call Young Adult
books. Here’s a few representative books from each category: which ones do you remember?
For Reading Aloud and Sharing
 “Baby Elephant and the Secret Wishes” by Sesyle Joslin, illustrated by Leonard Weisgard – a story of Christmas gifts, one of several in the Baby
Elephant series. A lot of text per picture, this is good for reading to children. It is easy to find used copies online.
 “The Snowy Day” written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats – Told with simple pictures evoking innocence, it follows an African American boy
exploring his neighborhood after winter’s first snowfall. It was awarded the 1963 Caldecott Medal for Keat’s collage artwork, making it the first
picture book with an African American protagonist to win a major children’s book award. It is still in print and available on Amazon.
(include ad)
Cover of “The Snowy Day”

3. For Beginning Readers and Picture-Book Audiences
 “How Do You Get from Here to There?” – by Nicholas J. Charles, illustrated by Karla Kuskin – The pictures answer the question in fun ways. It is
hard to find used copies, or even library copies to borrow.
 “Policeman Small” – Lois Lenski – This was the final book in one of Lenski’s best-known bodies of work. The "Mr. Small" began in 1934 with
“The Little Auto”. Each book showed the life of a friendly person in a simple world. Most have been reissued and are still available.
 “The Big Honey Hunt” – by Stan and Jan Berenstain – This was the first in the Berenstain Bears series by the couple. It introduces Papa Bear,
Mama Bear, and Brother Bear, but Sister Bear was not yet born. It was edited by Dr. Seuss. Their cartoons had been appearing in magazines like
The Saturday Evening Post and Good Housekeeping throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
Cover of “Policeman Small” (photo from online sale)

4. Abridgements of Adult Books
 “Ten Great Plays” – by William Shakespeare with commentaries by Sir Tyrone Guthrie. This is exactly why I don’t think this entire category
should be part of children’s books.
Folk Tales and Fantasies
 “Dr. Seuss's Sleep Book” – by Dr. Seuss – This takes a look at the sleep habits of some fantastical animals, all set in motion by a yawn from one
small bug. It also reports the latest news in the sports of sleeptalking and sleepwalking, all in typical Dr. Seuss rhyme. As with most of Dr. Seuss’s
books, it is still in print and available on Amazon.
 “The Genie and Joe Maloney” – by Anita Feagles, illustrated by Don Sibley – In a somewhat typical tale of a genie, Joe meets a jovial one who
offers him three wishes. Of course the first two are granted in ways not quite as Joe expected, so he is uncertain if the genie will correctly grant his
most important wish. You can read it at The Internet Archive, at https://archive.org/details/geniejoemaloneyw00feag .
Cover of “Fury and the White Mare” (photo from online sale)

5. Nature Science and Animal Stories
 “Fury and the White Mare” - by Albert G. Miller – At the time, Fury was America's most famous horse. The adventures of this black stallion and
his young master, Joey were broadcast on television from 1955-1960. As always, the story is a heartwarming tale about a boy, his horse, and life in
contemporary western ranch country.
 “Owls in the Family” – by Farley Mowat, illustrated by Robert Frankenburg. A short humorous story about a boy who brings home animals, and
especially about his adventures with an injured owl. Many libraries still have this available.
Mostly for Older Boys and Mostly for Older Girls
 “The Clue of the Dancing Puppet” – by Caroline Keene – This is the 39th
book in the Nancy Drew Mystery Stories series and the actual ghost writer
was Harriet Stratemeyer Adams, who wrote many of these books. Nancy searches a mansion's dark, musty attic for clues and runs into jewel
thieves. My wife used to enjoy reading these mysteries when she was young.
 “The Clue of the Screeching Owl” – by Franklin W. Dixon – Of course, if the girls had a mystery series, the boys needed one too! This is the 41st
book in the Hardy Boys Mystery Stories and the actual ghost writer was James Buechler. Frank and Joe Hardy help their father's friend, a retired
police captain, solve a mystery in the Pocono Mountains. We had several of these books when I was kid and I don’t believe I ever read one.
 “A Wrinkle in Time” – by Madeleine L'Engle has to be my favorite book from 1962, though I didn’t read it until about 3 years later. I read it early
in my entry into reading science fiction, and it showed me the wide possibilities of the genre which held my attention for the next 20 years or so. It
is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg Wallace and her brother and friend, in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared
while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem. The book was the winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963.
Covers of “The Clue of the Dancing Puppet” and “The Clue of the Screeching Owl” (Photos from Wikipedia, used for identification only under fair use rules.)

6. The other categories of children’s books all strike me as close to school text books. I used to read some of this type, mostly about the solar system or
chemistry, as my elementary school had a great library. But I’ve listed one representative title in each category to give an overview of what was published in
1962 anyway.
 Books About Other Lands – “Playtime in Africa” – by Efua Sutherland – This uses photographs to explore how children of Ghana played,
showing popular games like hopscotch and marbles.
 Books About the United States – “On the Way Home” – by Laura Ingalls Wilder – The author of the popular Little House book series tells of her
married life with parts of her diary, detailing a trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894.
 Important People in Books – “Grover Cleveland” – by Edwin Hoyt – One of many biographies of presidents and other important historical figures
published in 1962 and designed for younger readers.
 Psychology, Mathematics, and Science – “Oceans” – by Irving and Ruth Adler – This book explains ocean plants, animals, currents, tides, and
more with many illustrations.
 Using Science Today – “The Fabulous Isotopes” – by Robin McKown, illustrated by Isadore Steinberg – A history and examples of the use of
radioactive isotopes in medicine, agriculture, and industry. This sounds just like the kind of books I read back then! This book is also available to
read at the Internet Archive, at https://archive.org/details/fabulousisotopes00mcko .
 Music and Art Books – “Sand Sculpturing” – by Mickey Klar Marks, photos by Sidney G. Bernard – Directions on creating sand sculptures
suitable for all ages. Besides authoring other books, Mr. Marks was a frequent writer of humor comic books targeted towards children during the
1940s and 1950s.

7. Cover of “The Fabulous Isotopes” (photo from online sale)
I always enjoyed the Mary Poppins books by P. L. Travers when I was young and over the past several years I have reread them. They’re still a lot of
fun. They were very popular in the early 1960s, so Walt Disney brought out its “Mary Poppins” movie in 1963. I have one more left to read in the series, “Mary
Poppins From A to Z”. It just so happens to have been published in 1962, so I guess it’s time to reread it! I’m off to my local library to find it now. And after I
read it, I’ll be off on the next Roadtrip-‘62 ™ journey!

8. Visit ROADTRIP-'62 ™ ( https://www.roadtrip62.com/index.htm )for more articles.
Or visit us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pages/Roadtrip62/119235794845685 ,
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.com/roadtrip62/ ,
or Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/67972937@N07/page1 .
Author of Roadtrip-'62TM ( https://www.roadtrip62.com/ ), Donald Dale Milne
If you haven’t heard of nor Roadtrip-'62 ™ , my name is Don Milne and I'll be your travel guide on this virtual tour of the U. S. of A. First, I suppose
you're wondering why nor Roadtrip-'62 ™ is different from other travel sites? There's a very simple answer: everybody else travels only in space, but we also
travel in time! That's right, we don't just go somewhere, we also go somewhen. And the when is 1962. We'll try to see what's left today from 1962, by driving as
if it were 1962. We will drive on highways as they were in 1962, try to eat only at restaurants that existed in 1962, try to stay only at motels that existed in 1962,
try to buy gas and sundries, play the music, see only the sites across America, and just generally live in America as it was in 1962!
What we will do is enjoy the FUN of cross-country driving. And the fun of cross-country travel is all the differences from our everyday life! We'll talk
about politics, food, great inventions, how people lived, television, and more. We'll get to see some of the people that made our history; that made this country
great. We'll stumble across unexpected pleasures, like one trip I made through Cherokee, North Carolina where I just happened to be in town as the 1996
Olympic Torch procession came through on it's way to Atlanta, Georgia. You really never know what you'll find when you travel!

9. 1962-style US-23 signs
Now, let's see where we'll be going! We're going to drive the US-numbered routes of 1962. Because we'll be using the roads of 1962, that means we
won't be on freeways very much. There weren't many freeways in 1962, as the country had just begun building the Interstate system,, so we'll travel mostly the
two-lanes through every little town on the way. Sometimes even where there was a freeway, I'll go back on the old road just to see what was there. Anyway, even
if there was a freeway in 1962, it was only there for a couple of years and things had not changed much. Sometimes a "business route" ran through a town on the
old route, because there were no services at the freeway interchanges yet.
Just in case you're asking why 1962, it's because I remember 1962. I traveled on my first freeway as a boy with my dad about that time, and fell in love
with both travel and freeways. But, besides my own memories and the fact that it was a time largely before interstate freeways, 1962 is just cool...wait and see!
And I'm writing this virtual tour just because I like to drive. I like to go places, see things, and just drive for the joy of driving! I decided I want to talk about it, to
share the fun with others. I'll be doing the driving on our Roadtrip-'62 ™, but if you see anything you like, I encourage you to get out on the road and enjoy it in
person. This virtual roadtrip may be fun, but there's nothing like the real thing!