Tie My Shoe

As someone responsible for a number of unlikely-sounding books, I’m attuned to other volumes with unlikely-sounding titles. For example, I particularly liked both the name and cover of Your Hair Is Dead. The designers had fun here; it seems like they’re almost daring the youthful reader to learn about the spine-chilling facts of… hair! (Also in the same “It’s True!” series: An Octopus Has Deadly Spit and We Came from Slime.)

Over at Publishers Weekly, blogger Alison Morris gathered a few of her favorite vintage kids’ covers. These include the perplexing Goody Naughty Book (The Naughty Side). While I understand what Your Hair Is Dead is probably about, is the Goody Naughty Book part of a two-volume series, with the companion volume named Goody Naughty Book: The Goody Side? And if so, are the same kids shown in better moods? Speaking of which, since when did anyone being naughty look so surly? Maybe what the book really should be named is Good Naughty Book: The Cold-Busted and Sent to Your Room Side.

Here’s another vintage cover dealing with a child's inability to dress himself. So cute! Still, including the puppy is just gratuitous.

As for the Little Cub Scout, I actually remember this book from my own childhood! Looking at the cover today, I admire the spirited rendition of the scout’s energy. (But if memory serves, readers of the book learn that in the scout’s other hand is a freshly-skinned marmot.)