Children of the World Alphabet Book (1985, Child & Henry Australia, written and illus. Yvonne Perrin)
This beautiful vintage picture book was written and illustrated by Yvonne Perrin and published by Child & Henry Australia in 1985.
The author and illustrator: Yvonne Perrin
Yvonne Perrin was born in New York in 1912.¹ She was the daughter of Ferdinand Pinney Earle, an early 20th century poet, artist, publisher, screenwriter, and director. Ferdinand Earle and his many marriages is a subject of some historical interest (worthy of the scandal columns of any era).² He had a number of children, but Yvonne is most often mentioned in relation to the child of his fourth marriage, her half-brother Eyvind Earle, an American artist known for his work with Walt Disney.³
Yvonne was raised in the UK by her mother, Helen Theodora Earle (nee Sidford). She studied at the Hammersmith School of Art and was a member of the Society of Scribes & Illustrators, UK. During the 1950s and 1960s she illustrated a range of children's picture books. She emigrated to Australia in 1969, where she became a member of the Royal Art Society of New South Wales (RAS). She exhibited works at Prouds Gallery in Sydney and worked as a background artist for animated films, including Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon (1972).⁴ She won awards (of which kind, I haven't been able to determine) in 1979, 1980, and 1982 in Currabubula NSW and 1980 in Ku-ring-gai.⁵
Her illustrations in Australian children's books were published between 1981 and 1996 (excluding two omnibuses of previous works published posthumously in 2004) and include works of her own (e.g. Children of the World Alphabet Book) and illustrations for the Possum Creek series written by Dan Vallely. She passed away in New South Wales in 2000, aged 88.⁶ The Yvonne Perrin Memorial Award for Best Traditional Work is offered as one of the Australian Society of Miniature Art (ASMA) Awards.
Cover, front and back matter
The cover of this hardcover book is a deep blue, and decorated with illustrations of children from around the world. The front cover shows children clambering over a globe of the world, and playing on a sandy brown space in front of it. The back cover shows several children walking towards a small patch of that sandy space, in a diagonal line. The children are in varying forms of cultural dress and all have bright, happy expressions, many of them looking directly at the reader, as though captured by a photograph. It is a fun, lively cover.
The front and back endpapers present a hand-drawn map of the world, with labelled countries, and little icons throughout, including native animals, boats, and small human figures. At the front, this map includes a book plate on a scroll. That same scroll on the back loose endpaper provides the publication information.
The other side of the front loose endpaper is part of a double-page title page spread, the title appearing on the following page. It presents a snowy tableau, fading into grass and sand, and shows a variety of children at work and play. Note there is no contents page.
Contents
The contents, presented over 24 pages, features info bites about different countries around the world, from A to Z, with one page to each letter, except for the last two pages, which parcel together W and X, and Y and Z respectively.Each letter of the alphabet and the country or countries chosen for that page appear in red type, the rest of the text in a rich black. The black typeface adds to the artistic lushness of the contents, mimicking hand-drawn calligraphy.
For each letter of the alphabet, children representative of the selected countries are described and illustrated, alongside landmarks and animals. The text is informative and teaches a little about each country. The letter B is a case in point:
Several times when children are illustrated at work the text describes them as working for their fathers – i.e. "[he] helps to pick the coffee beans on his father's plantation", "[he] carefully tends his father's beautiful angora goats", "he watches his father's cattle", "he tends his father's sheep". Despite this repetition, on the whole the text is presented in fresh and interesting ways.
The illustrations, showing children at work and play in different locations around the world, are beautifully rendered. I don't know that the depictions of diverse cultures would pass modern sensitivity tests, but they seem well-intentioned, with an educational ethos. The children are all busy in their own ways and the book conveys a lively and happy atmosphere.
Summary and availability
Every inch of this book is a beautiful work of art, well supported by interesting text. It doesn't appear to have been republished in any form, but there do appear to be a number of secondhand copies available online.Footnotes
¹ Perrin's birth year is often listed online as 1922, which may stem from what appears to be an erroneous listing in Max Germaine's A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia (Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991, p. 359). Perrin's birth year appears to be 1912, as historical records indicate her parents were separated by 1913. Also see Yvonne Sidford Earle Perrin (Find a Grave).² There is an excellent summary of Ferdinand Earle's marriages by D. K. Fennell – see "Mr Earle and His Affinities" on Hidden Cause, Visible Effects.
³ See From Mickey to Moana – Disney treasures at ACMI tell the story of animation's evolution over almost a century (The Conversation, May 17 2021) and Eyvind Earle (Wikipedia).
⁴ Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon was Australia's first full feature animated film, produced by the Eric Porter Animation Studio in Sydney. The film had a working title of "The Golden Medallion". See Marco Polo Junior Versus the Red Dragon (Wikipedia).
⁵ The information in this paragraph is mostly drawn from Max Germaine's A Dictionary of Women Artists of Australia (Craftsman House, Sydney, 1991, p. 359-360).