If you like those ever so cute illustrations by Mabel Lucy Attwell then you may well like the children’s book illustrations by Mollie Clarke. She used to write ‘learning to read’ books for school children in the 1950’s and she illustrated them herself.

She did a set of books about Sally and her day at school, and another set about Andrew. The great thing about young children’s books is that they show you so much about what life was really like in those days. For young children everything is new so their books usually show what was familiar to them, and this is what makes the illustrations so charming.  These were the days when girls were brought up as girls, staying at home and being domestic, whereas the boys in the books were a lot more active and interested in cars and planes and making things on their work bench. Here is a selection of some of those pictures.

This is Sally, dressed up as the Fairy Queen.

Andrew is dressed up as a cowboy.

Domestic duties! Never too young to learn.

Sally needed to learn these words.

Sally has her lunch.

Andrew’s school-bag. A dentist’s nightmare.

Look at those navy knickers.

Andrew with his teddy.

Sally takes dolly for a walk.

Scarecrow

Mollie Clarke does cute animals too.

On a scooter