So much of what was published for children and young adults was meant to instruct and inform. As we begin to explore our new collection, we find moralistic literature, solemn and sage. There is careful education, from ABC books through early readers containing only words of one syllable (usually with frankly dull subject matter). There are sensational warnings of destruction and damnation. And then there are cheery effusions of erudition that delight as they instruct.

Desc: 00001554

‘Harris’s Cabinet of Amusement and Instruction’ was a series of books from the publisher John Harris, a pioneer in developing the educational book that was also fun to read. Among those books was Punctuation Personified or Pointing Made Easy, purportedly by Mr. Stops. (London: J. Harris & Son, c. 1824). This book tries to teach the use of punctuation marks, both in writing and in reading, with a combination of amusing and memorable images and a lilting poem. As an aid to meaningful expression, the poem suggests how many beats to pause in speaking for each type of punctuation.

Desc: 00001554

The semicolon gets two beats, the colon three.  Although the rules have changed for the use of these marks, the relationship between them is familiar.

Desc: 00001554

The exclamation point, like other symbols that mark the end of a sentence, gets four.

Desc: 00001555

The slippery apostrophe slides into the place of a letter,

Desc: 00001555

… and the quotation marks evoke greatness.

Desc: 00001557

Other books in the series included well-known poems and stories, nature, travel, astronomy, and history.

Desc: 00001557

Special Collections has digitized this book and you can read the entire thing on the Internet Archive at https://archive.org/details/PunctuationPersonified .

• Marianne Hansen, Curator for Rare Books and Manuscripts

Imagine you’re a young girl in England in the late 1970s. You’re an accomplished musician, you sew and bake, play chess, breed stick insects, and keep a garden. What else do you do with your time?

Well, if you’re Jayne Fisher, you write and illustrate your own series of children’s books!

Jayne Fisher wrote fourteen Garden Gang books between 1979 and 1983 (there was also an annual titled Meet the Garden Gang, and two Garden Gang coloring books). Each small book has two stories about anthropomorphized fruits and vegetables living in a community and going about their daily lives. The characters and plots in these stories are simple and charming.

Jayne was only nine years old when she began writing the Garden Gang stories, and while she was prolific for that short period of time, it does not seem like she pursued her writing career much further. There are countless blog and forum posts across the internet expressing fondness for the series and wondering “what ever happened to Jayne Fisher?”

In a way, I like that while the series was so popular and beloved, this child author then went on to pursue other interests and talents. I hold out hope that Jayne Fisher might resurface at some point, simply because there is a question that has been bugging me: all of the characters in the Garden Gang have alliterative names, save one. What’s the deal with Penelope Strawberry? Did she change her name to sound more glamorous (it seems like something she might do)? Is “Penelope” her middle name and her first name is actually “Sarah” or “Sally” or another name that begins with S? I don’t think I’ll ever find out, but I will always wonder.

– Rayna Andrews (BMC 2011), Project Coordinator

Some books are just for fun – and Kathleen Ainslie’s charming stories of the adventures of the Dutch peg dolls, Catharine Susan and Maria (“Me”), delighted readers in the first decade of the twentieth century. Peg dolls were jointed wooden figurines sold inexpensively – and “naked” for the new owners to make clothes for. Because they moved at the shoulders, elbows, hips, and knees, they could be arranged into somewhat lifelike positions, and this feature is essential in Ainslie’s lively sketches of dolls running, dancing, traveling, working in the garden, and collapsing in exhaustion.

The books are short – ten to twenty illustrations with brief captions, and they usually just pick out distinctive episodes, rather than exploring a narrative arc. Ainslie (1883-1935) wrote and illustrated more than 20 books published by Castell Brothers Ltd  –  the Catharine Susan books, a number of other books with peg dolls, a handful of works with real children as the main characters, and at least five calendars. Here are some selections from the Catherine Susan books:

In Me and Catharine Susan, we learn she and Maria are twins.

They get in trouble when they are young (Catharine Susan in Hot Water),

And travel when they are older (Catharine Susan and Me Goes Abroad). Sometimes they are courageous,

and sometimes not (Catharine Susan’s Little Holiday),

but they do get on well with others.

In Me and Catharine Susan Earns an Honest [Penny], the sisters try to make a living in various ways, including dressmaking and market gardening.

They enjoy an active social life (Catharine Susan and Me’s Coming Out).

Votes for Catharine Susan and Me is actually an anti-suffrage book. (We forgive them because we know their heads are wooden.)

A final image, from the 1906 Calendar: