Mikey's Muppet Memorabilia Museum: Sesame Street Books 1971

Last updated: Sept 24, 2024

A sample of Sesame Street storybooks.

It's an insane thing to attempt, but for this page of the blog my goal is to photograph and document every single Sesame Street book that I own, and there are a lot! It will take quite a while before this page is finished, so keep checking back to see what has been added. My collection of Sesame books is just a small sample of what has been published. Actually, I suspect that there are so many Sesame Street books in the world today that they could fill an entire library. Wouldn't THAT be a cool place to visit!

The Monster at the End of this Book, 1971-present

Of course, I have to start this page with a genuine Sesame Street classic! "The Monster at the End of this Book" has been reprinted in numerous formats and sizes for the last 50 years, so that today it's possible to gather a sizable collection based just on this one book. There's even an audio book version which unfortunately I don't have. This is by far the best Sesame book ever! Today it is one of the top ten Little Golden Books in regards to popularity and volume of books sold.

Above top left is a 1977 oversized edition of "The Monster at the End of this Book" by Western Publishing / Golden Books. I've had this book since I was three years old! Next to it at top right is a smaller "Little Golden Books" edition by Western Publishing/Golden Books with silver foil on the spine, it's the twelfth printing from 1978.

Bottom left is another Western Publishing/Golden Books edition which is slightly larger than the Little Golden Books edition and is a standard book without the silver foil. It has a copyright date of 1971 and no other publishing date info which makes me wonder if it's a first printing? At bottom center is a 1999 "Jellybean Books" edition by Random House. And lastly, bottom right is a much smaller board book edition, also published by Random House in 1999. It measures only 5 and 3/4 inches tall. Below is a side view to show how thick the book is. This book is actually a shortened version of the story and therefore it's missing some of the original illustrations. All five of these books are hardcovers. The Super Grover PVC figure is shown for size reference.

Here are all of the back covers.

Above is the Little Golden Books edition of "The Monster at the End of this Book" that was shown above with the other versions of the book, and next to it is the second sequel "Another Monster at the End of this Book" from 1996 featuring Grover and Elmo. According to Wikipedia The first sequel was titled "Would You Like to Play Hide and Seek with Loveable Furry Old Grover?" and published in 1976. Unlike most of the other Little Golden Books shown below, these two books are not numbered on the front cover.

My collection of Sesame Street Little Golden Books are on their own page of this blog.

Sesame Street Books by Signet

This softcover book is from one of the first series of Sesame Street books published in January 1971 by Signet, roughly a year after the debut of Sesame Street in Nov 1969. Several books were made in this format as part of this series.

TELL-A-TALE BOOKS, by Whitman /Golden, 1970's -80's

During the 1970's and early 1980's Whitman / Golden published a wide assortment of children's books based on Sesame Street. Shown above are smaller sized "Tell-A-Tale" books which measure roughly 5.5 inches wide by 6 1/4 inches high. I recall these small books were sold in grocery stores at the time, displayed in baskets that hung from the shelf in the aisles of the store. That's a smart way to sell a children's book, as it's something kids can grab from their perch in the shopping basket that parents would let them hold onto to keep quiet! A shrewd bit of marketing!

"Sherlock Hemlock and the Great Twiddlebug Mystery" was published in 1972.

"How to be a Grouch" was written and illustrated by Caroll Spinney himself (the original puppeteer who performed Oscar and Big Bird). It was published in 1976.

"Big Bird Follows the Signs" was published in 1980.

Books by Western Publishing / Golden Books:

This book is from 1980, published by Golden Books / Western Publishing Company. The cover and all of the pages of this "Sturdy Shape Book" are made from a thick cardboard that doesn't bend. I especially like this cover illustration of Big Bird.

"We're Counting On Your Grover", 1991 and "It's No Fun to be Sick", 1989. Both of these books have the same illustrations on the inside front and back covers showing classic Sesame characters such as Barkly the Dog, Herry Monster, Prairie Dawn and Betty Lou along with main characters Big Bird, Oscar, Cookie Monster, Grover, Ernie and Bert. Notably, Elmo is not included as he was not yet a main character.

Random House has published a series of large hardcover Sesame Street books. The above book is from 1973 (the same year that I was born!), so at the time of printing the show itself had only been on TV for four years! As such the book features classic characters such as Sherlock Hemlock, and even has a story with Sam the Robot, shown below.

"Where is the Puppy?" Sesame Street Books

These books all feature a small black puppy which is hidden throughout several pages of the book, similar to Where's Waldo. Reader's Digest did a series of PVC figures based on this line of books. The set included a figure of the black puppy.