Forgotten Vintage Children's Lit We Want Republished! discussion

This might be one of those questions that very obviously flags me as being a non-Brit (like, "Who or what is Blue Peter?!"), but... Annuals? I know Rupert Annuals are highly collectible, and I also know my local antique shop has a full shelf devoted to 'annuals' of all sorts (incl. Blue Peter ones!).

It's where I picked up the Puffin Annual (I wrote a temporary review to list contents).

I bought it chiefly because it has a Joan Aiken story (The Lollybird) as its headliner, but it's got all sorts of authors of the era.

But still, I was curious - what are 'annuals', really?! A Blue Peter annual makes more inherent sense to me than a Puffin Annual, since, afaik, Blue Peter doesn't regularly publish books. So an annual publication seems logical. But Puffin only publishes kid's paperbacks, so... why a book?

I love it - don't get me wrong! I think it a very neat thing, and the cover is in glorious Technicolour and all, hailing from 1974. I'll try to find an image, or I'll photograph mine (which cost 4.50 GBP, for the sake of reference).

Are Annuals still being made? Were they hard to come by or ubiquitous? The cover price is 1.20 GBP in 1974 money, but I see that it was sold all over - AUS $3.65 (recommended), NZ $3.65, Canada $4.95, U.S.A. $4.95

EDIT: After reading the Wikipedia article (see next in thread), I realised that I did see the Bluey: The Official Bluey Annual 2024 on sale at The Works or WH Smith or somewhere. And in spite of having Bluey fans at home, I didn't get one - it seemed gimmicky. Now I'm wondering if I should have picked it up... but truly 'wondering' - I still don't totally understand the concept/application!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_...

This has not answered my questions. XD

Does anyone collect them? Are they worth reading?

I know less than you do. From the USA.

Capn wrote: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_...

This has not answered my questions. XD

Does anyone collect them? Are they worth reading?"

I don't collect them but I have a lot of them. I love them.

They're still being published although I don't bother with new ones except for Rupert. The current Ruperts are mostly reprints of old stories (which is fine because they were better). They're worth collecting if you can figure out which ones interest you.

Capn wrote: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annual_...

This has not answered my questions. XD

Does anyone collect them? Are they worth reading?"

I'd suggest the Collins annuals. Collins Children's Annual and Collins Little Folks Annuals are good.

In the children's market annuals were published for sale at Christmas. Most of them were the 52 weekly issues of a story paper or comic bound together from the previous year to make a large volume - sometimes close to 1000 pages in the early ones. I suppose their heyday was between the 1880s and 1939. After 1945 many of those which survived the wartime paper shortages turned to an anthology format. The best known in the UK were the Boy's Own Annual, the Girl's Own, Chums, Young England, The Scout. There were many others titles, almost all of them are now collectable in at least very good condition and the early editions seriously expensive.

I don't know if any annuals are still being published. I'm not certain if many comics are still being published other than things like the DC range of superheroes. I think the last popular titles were in the 1950s to 80s, especially the girls' annuals such as Judy, Bunty, Debbie and Mandy from D. C. Thomson, and Rupert which has always had a following among adults.

Annuals seem to be more of a British thing. My parents, both of whom were born in 1934, each had one that they got for Christmas in about 1943. They were are pulpy WWII paper, and fell apart in spectacular fashions. There were stories, puzzles, and all kinds of fun things to read.

The modern annuals I've come across seem to be pitched at different fandoms (like Rupert); there's always Dr. Who, and the author Jacqueline Wilson has put them out for years. I think they are a great idea and would love to see US versions, even though they would probably be largely things like Wimpy Kid and Captain Underpants!

Gosh, thanks everyone for your responses! I knew I'd get a better grasp on the subject by asking here, than wading through Google results.

@Sem - I am shocked that Rupert Annuals are still being made! But I like that. It seems like it's been such a tradition for so long, it would be sad to see it come to an end!
I will definitely look out for the Collins annuals - thanks very much for putting those on my radar.

@Len - thanks for that summary - the 52 weeks bound together as an 'annual' makes complete sense for serials! It (stupidly) didn't occur to me that the war would greatly affect books (any more than anything else - I suppose everything was disrupted), and I hadn't considered paper shortages. :( Wow.

@Ms. Yingling - oh of course Jacqueline Wilson (she's EVERYWHERE!) and Dr. Who! Why had I not thought of these? Thanks for the info re: 1940s paper, too - I also hadn't considered that the quality of paper would differ greatly in modern times (how sad that they disintegrated).

Capn wrote: "Gosh, thanks everyone for your responses! I knew I'd get a better grasp on the subject by asking here, than wading through Google results.

@Sem - I am shocked that Rupert Annuals are still being m..."

There's at least one annuals list here. It's not thorough but it might give you some pointers. They had fabulous illustrators. One of my brothers has a collection of Chums annuals. Very old school boys' annual. There should be annuals on OL.

Sem wrote: "Capn wrote: "Gosh, thanks everyone for your responses! I knew I'd get a better grasp on the subject by asking here, than wading through Google results.

@Sem - I am shocked that Rupert Annuals are ..."

I don't know why I didn't think to look at Listopia - there is a list:
https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1...

And it even answered some of my questions in the subtitle. :) Thanks, Sem!

I have some Black Beauty annuals - Black Beauty was a TV series during the 70s. I also have David Broome's showjumping annual. So they were not all confined to comics.

Mostly the comics ones I saw, were a way the comic sold more to parents - the price was above pocket money - and aunties at Christmas. They would be say 1971 annual sold at 1970 Christmas - with all new content. The danger was giving the second identical annual to a child, so there was a corner with the price marked on it, and if that was left intact the item could be returned.

The Brownie Guide and Cub Scout annuals were an absolute swizz. Each year there were duplicate stories with the gender of participants changed so Anne in Brownies became Mark in Cubs etc. Obviously done for cheapskating publishers and obviously, families with a girl in Brownies could well have a boy in Cubs. They were not even great stories, pretty general ones about a bake sale.

Ah, so publishers being cheap and greedy is not a new phenomenon, eh?! Wow, that's pretty low - way to disappoint a loyal fan base!

Thanks for this, Clare! Lending further Christmas context for me. :)

We did enjoy annuals, they got passed around the family.

The annuals I had as a child were mainly girls ones from the comics I read - June and Schoolfriend and Princess Tina. The contents mainly the same as in the comics themselves. I suppose they weren’t very good value compared to the cost of a comic - though nowadays the opposite is the case - 60s and 70s annuals are often cheaper than individual comics which can be very scarce. As a teenager I had some Jackie annuals - Jackie was a comic aimed at teeanged girls and mainly about pop music, fashion, and romance. Again, Jackie annuals nowadays often cheaper than the comics. Then later I had some Professionals annuals - based on a TV series I was keen on.