Last updated: Sept 25, 2024
Little Golden Books by Western Publishing Company/Random House
Sesame Street Little Golden Books have been published more or less continuously since at least 1971, as such there is an extensively long list of books to collect. This list is not at all near being complete. In fact there are so many titles that it's actually quite a daunting task to attempt to document the collection.
Little Golden Books are very distinct because the spine of the books are wrapped with silver foil...
Above left is the Little Golden Books edition of "The Monster at the End of this Book", the twelfth printing from 1978. 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. Below are the back covers.
Back Covers
Oddly enough, the easiest way to identify the age of a Little Golden Book is not by the front cover, but instead by the back cover! I've noticed that at least 11 different back covers have been used over the years for these Sesame Street books. There are even more variations that were used before Sesame Street titles were added to the the Little Golden Books series.
To my knowledge books with a green back cover are the oldest. There are also bright yellow, dark yellow and blue back covers, and the assortment of characters shown on the back cover changes as well. Some of the titles from this Sesame Street book series became quite popular and ended up being republished many times, as such the same title can be found with various back covers.
"Grover's Own Alphabet Book" back covers
"Big Bird's Red Book" was originally published in 1977 and has two very different front covers and back covers. The book on the left is numbered in the top corner 108-32 and is a twelfth printing from 1981, while the other book is numbered 108-71 and has a 1990 copyright date.
"Big Bird's Red Book" back covers.
"Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street" is from 1985 and has two different back covers, shown below. The previous owner of the book on the right put a heart sticker on the front that is not originally part of the book. Both are numbered 108-63.
"Big Bird Brings Spring to Sesame Street" back covers. The yellow book has a barcode sticker, while the blue one has the barcode printed on as part of the graphic.
Here are two different covers for "Grover's Guide to Good Manners" from 1992. As you can see the text used for the title on each book is quite different. In addition the book on the left is numbered 109-66 in the top right corner while the book on the right does not have a number and it has a larger "Golden Books" logo at the top left.
Back covers for "Grover's Guide to Good Manners". The yellow book has a barcode sticker overtop of the printed barcode.
"The Together Book" was originally published in 1971. The book on the left is a twentieth printing and is numbered 108-33 at the top right corner. It does not have a Golden Books logo on the cover. The book on the right does not have a number on the cover, however it does have a Golden Books logo at the center next to the text "A Little Golden Book". This book is only dated 1971 and does not have any additional publishing info which makes me wonder if it is a first printing.
Here are the back covers for the books. The one on the left has a barcode as part of the graphic which covers Raggedy Anne's dress and legs. The other book does not have a barcode.
Here are two different versions of "Oscar's Book". The one on the left with the blue cover is from 1975 while the one on the right with the green cover is from 2018. I've included more info about these books further below. They each have very different back covers, shown directly below.
The rest of the collection...
Green back covers, no barcode
The two books shown below both have this green back cover.
"The Four Seasons", 1979, numbered 108-[last two numbers are unknown, cover is worn out in that spot]
"Bert's Hall of Great Inventions, 1979, seventh printing, originally published in 1972, numbered 109-3
Green back covers, printed barcode
"The Amazing Mumford Forgets the Magic Words!", 1979, numbered 108-35
"Ernie's Work of Art", third printing 1981, originally published in 1979, [unknown number, original price tag is covering the number]
Yellow Back Covers with Pink Panther
In 1975, Little Golden Books had a yellow back cover with a barcode printed on as part of the graphic. These back covers featured the Pink Panther, a kitten in overalls with a bucket, and Raggedy Anne along the left side.
This copy of "Oscar's Book" has the above yellow back cover. The book was originally printed in 1975. I'm not certain if this is a first edition or not. It's numbered 108-41 on the cover.
Yellow Back Covers with Bugs Bunny
In the 1980's Little Golden Books used a yellow back cover with no barcode. These covers featured Bugs Bunny, a kitten with yarn, two bears and a clock along the left side. The following books all have the same back cover:
"The Day Snuffy Had the Sniffles", 1988, numbered 108-65, possibly a first edition
"I Think That is Wonderful", 1984, numbered 109-9, possibly a first edition
"Cookie Monster and the Cookie Tree", 1977 copyright, likely republished in the 80's, originally published in 1971, numbered 109-52
"Big Bird's Day on the Farm", 1985, numbered 109-65, first edition
"Count Al the Way to Sesame Street", 1985, numbered 203-56, first edition
The above two books were based on the box office movie "Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird" which was released in 1985.
"I Can't Wait Until Christmas", 1989, numbered 456-10, possibly a first edition
Blue Back Covers with Bugs Bunny, large barcode
By 1992 the back covers changed to blue and kept all the same graphics of the characters. The barcode was a large rectangle printed as part of the graphic.
"Happy and Sad, Grouchy and Glad", 1992, numbered 108-67, possibly a first edition
"Me Cookie!", 1994, numbered 109-69, possibly a first edition
"Ready, Set, Go!: A Counting Book", 1995, possibly a first edition
Blue Back Covers with Bugs Bunny, small barcode
The barcode on this back cover is smaller with rounded corners.
"Puppy Love", 1983 copyright date, numbered 109-63
Yellow Back Covers with Wacky Witch
By 1993 the yellow back cover was revised again, this time replacing Bugs Bunny with Golden Books' own character Wacky Witch. The barcode was once again printed as part of the graphics.
"From Trash to Treasure", 1993, no number on cover, possibly a first edition
"Which Witch is Which?", 1996, no number on the cover, possibly a first edition
"Growing Up Grouchy", 1997, no number on cover, publishing info states "first edition"
Was there a 17 year gap in publishing Sesame Street Little Golden Books?
It seems that there was a publication gap in which there were no Sesame Street Little Golden Books being published for about 17 years, between 1997 and 2014, as I have no books from this series that are dated in that time period. Several titles were published in 1997, and then it seems that was the end of publishing any Sesame Street titles until 2014.
Of course, it's possible that I'm just missing certain books from my collection and the gap wasn't that long. However, it would make sense if there was at least some small gap in publishing around 2000 as this was when the original company that produced Sesame Street, the Children's Television Workshop (CTW), was sold and became Sesame Workshop.
In any case, when Sesame Street Little Golden Books began to be published again in or around 2014, they did not have any numbering on the covers and they had a completely new back cover design....
Back covers with images of Little Golden Book covers
By 2014 Little Golden Books had changed their back covers to a completely new layout. Instead of a group of characters standing in a circle, eight classic book covers are shown. Four of the covers shown are Sesame Street books, and four are original Little Golden Books titles. The above back cover is from 2014, I have yet to find a book with this type of back cover that has an earlier publication date.
Both of these books have the same back cover as shown above. "Elmo Loves You", 2014, original copyright date 1997. "Time for Bed, Elmo!", 2014, original copyright date 1997.
This back cover is from 2017 with a different assortment of covers from the previous books.
"Elmo's Mother Goose Rhymes", 2017, originally titled "Sesame Street's Mother Goose Rhymes" published in 1993.
This back cover is from 2018 and shows a different assortment of cover images.
"Oscar's Book" from 2018, originally published in 1975.
Smaller sized Little Golden Books
These are roughly 5.5 inch square sized books.
"I Can Dress Myself" was published in 1983, "Count to Ten" was published in 1986.
Both of the books have a different back cover.
Many more books coming soon!
Text and photos copyright Mikey Artelle, 2024
