Anyone else remember Childcraft books

Childcraft was created as a sort of encyclopedia for young children. With simple texts and illustrations, the volumes were designed to make learning fun. Each volume addressed different subjects, including literature — such as short stories and poetry, including fairy tales and nursery rhymes — as well as mathematics and the sciences.

This is the exact set that I had and a few of the annuals as well. My favorites were the ones about Dinosaurs because what child isn't fascinated by ancient beasts, Mysteries and Legends such as bigfoot, nessie, ufo's, ancient babylonians and merovingians and all sorts of weird affairs crammed in one fun and easy to read book with pictures and Historical Battles most of which were tales about underdog armies that somehow beat the odds and won the day.

The mysteries and legends and historical battles are the ones that really stuck with me and if you can find the mysteries and legends one that would be an awesome way for any self respecting conspiracy theorist to pass the curiosity down to the little ones and make it fun for them to learn about. That book really is where I first learned about some topics that I have only ever seen discussed here in adulthood.

I really feel like these books were instrumental in planting the seed of thirst for literature as a child, sadly I don't read as many books these days but am constantly scouring the inter webs for interesting reads. I also believe they gave me a bit of an intellectual head start and really do remember them being fun and easy to read.

So yeah I would definitely recommend these to anyone who has a kid that likes to read and learn especially the ones I listed as my favorites.

We had the 1988 or '86 set. Loved them.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

i prefer lovecraft and no i am not being vulgar [for oncethe link is `work safe`]

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

Around 1975, my parents bought a set of World Book Encyclopedias from a door-to-door salesman. The set came with a free (or highly discounted) set of Childcraft, which ended up being mine as I was the only younger child left in the household. I don't remember much, but I remember an amazing section on the seven wonders of the ancient world, which sparked a sense of wonder and curiosity about ancient civilizations which survives to this day. I have no idea what happened to this set of books but I truly regret not keeping them for my son.

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix
I was hooked on an older version of the same kind of thing; Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopedia.
Our primary school had a set (ten volumes) which I devoured over and over again. The articles were grouped into different topics, spread through the volumes- The Earth, Countries, Animal Life, Plant Life, Literature, Poetry...
My favourite memory is an illustrated map of France, with an annotation on the south coast- "Nice Italian spoken here." Knowing nothing about France or French history in those days, I took "Nice" to be an adjective.

In the early seventies my parents bought me a set of Childcraft encyclopedias.

I have fond memories of the many hours I spent reading them.

A few years ago I passed them on to the children of a girl I know.

Thanks for sharing.

I don't remember them. From what I've read in the comments here I think they would have been good to have. Are they still in print?

When I saw the word "Childcraft", for some odd reason this came to mind:

a reply to: Skid Mark

LOLZ

i was expecting books on how to make usefull things from pieces of unwanted children

well - " woodcraft " books tell you how to make things from bits of old wood

so ..........................

My sister and I have fond memories of the Childcraft Encyclopedias. Our favorite was the one entitled 'Make And Do', a whole bunch of neat crafts, games, and activities in that one- making and flying different kinds of paper airplanes, building things with sticks, hours of fun on rainy days!

A year or two ago, she came across a complete set at a yard sale and purchased them for her own kids, and the tradition continues!

a reply to: ignorant_ape
"..and here we'll show you how to make a shelving unit out of rib cages. Don't they look terrific?" Something along those lines?

a reply to: RainbowPhoenix

My mom sold World Book Encyclopedias for a while during the mid 1970's. We had a set, along with Child craft and yearbooks. The yearbooks were put out to update encyclopedia set.