A Child's First Book

Originally published in 1945, this beautiful book is really three titles in one - a counting book, an alphabet book, and an object book. It is rendered in a naive style and primary colors, and the illustrator's Scandinavian heritage shines through in the deceptively simple and charming illustrations. Inside the front cover is a little house under a rising sun, and inside the back cover the same house sits under a crescent moon. Within we find an enchanting world of a red-haired little boy in blue overalls named Peter, princesses with pigs ( for P of course) and a very fine tiger, among many other delights. The reader is taken through Peter's day, and the frequent appearance of old-fashioned clocks will puzzle but delight the modern child.

Swedish illustrator Einar Nerman (1888 – 1983) had long career in both Europe and the United States. In the 1920's and 1930's he worked for fashionable magazines in London such as The Tatler and Eve. World War II brought him to New York and The Journal-American, as well as book illustration.

Edward Ernest was active from the 1940's through the 1960's as both an author and editor of children's literature. His titles aside from A Child's First Book include Peter's Birthday Party, Among the Daisies, The Animated Circus Book, Hector the Old Clothes Collector, and The Kate Greenaway Treasury.