Busy, Busy Town

Today has been designated International Goof-Off Day—a day to relax, be yourself, and avoid what you are supposed to do. If you are in the position to celebrate International Goof-Off Day, you first might want to read Tony Fucile’s Let’s Do Nothing for tips.

But I myself am happiest when working at something I like to do, and so is our hero of the day, Richard Scarry. Even his biography by Walter Retan and Ole Risom is entitled The Busy, Busy World of Richard Scarry. No one ever showed people working, doing things, or going places with such spirit and joie de vivre as Scarry. Born in Boston on June 5, 1919, Scarry thought like an artist even as a child. When his mother sent him to the store, he never wrote out a list—he drew pictures of the items she wanted. Like Harriet the Spy, he carried a pad and pencil with him and drew feverishly. Although Scarry’s father did not want his son to become an artist, Richard failed at everything else. Eventually, he headed to Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts art school for the training he so desperately wanted.

After his service in World War II, he came to New York and established himself as a freelance artist. Scarry got his first big break a couple of years later when he attracted the attention of Lucille Ogle at the Artists and Writers Guild. A publishing legend known for her hats, Ogle served as the creative force behind Golden Books. Printed in huge numbers, distributed in grocery stores, and priced at a quarter, the Golden Books franchise had already sold thirty-nine million copies by the time Ogle looked at Scarry’s portfolio. Ogle signed Scarry up for a one-year exclusive contract that paid him $400 a month. Although he quickly became one of Golden’s best-selling authors, he never received royalties on his books until 1956. He got them because he finally asked for them!

From the 1950s on, Scarry’s books became a staple of preschool and picture book collections. In books like Richard Scarry’s Busy, Busy Town, he celebrates the work and activities of animals who like to do things. Certainly the book contains some great lines: “The best writers write children’s books….The best librarians are children’s book librarians.” With a vibrant and strong black line, Scarry filled every inch of his double-page spreads with activity, action, and humor; children can pour over the drawings for hours and then go back the next day and see different details. Scarry always used animal characters because he wanted all children, no matter what they looked like, to be able to identify with the figures in his books—children have by the millions.

If you pick up Busy, Busy Town—or Cars and Trucks and Things That Go or What Do People Do All Day?—today, you will feel like you are working, even if you aren’t. I’m just grateful that Richard Scarry makes work and action seem so tantalizing to children and to adults. In his books it looks like a lot more fun to do something you enjoy — than to goof-off.

Here’s a page from Busy, Busy Town: