Lois Lenski's Rare Handwritten Manuscripts and Scrapbooks

Cover of Corn Farm Boy (1954)

In our last blog about Lois Lenski, we come to learn about the author. Now, we are going to talk about one of her most popular books. The name of the book is Corn Farm Boy. This book is from her American Regional Series.

In the Milner Library, you will find the Handwritten Manuscript as well as Scrapbook of this book. This is a rare collection that is preserved in the Milner Library Special Collections. You will also find the first edition of the book there. Today you may buy later editions of this book either online or in store. However, you cannot find the first edition easily.

Turning over to scary: Struwwelpeter

If you have read our last post about Lois Lenski, you hopefully enjoyed the introduction of her Houseboat Girl and her Strawberry Girl. Wonderful literature like this is one part of our blog. The other part is also wonderful, but to a greater extent the stories and illustrations are very scary. Both the wonderful and the scary children books can be found in the Special Collections of the Milner Library (Illinois State University, Normal, IL). This post will show you the beauty of the original edition of Heinrich Hoffmann's Struwwelpeter (The Slovenly Peter) and its cruelness. Be aware, some of the illustrations will be terrifying, at least if you are part of Hoffmann's target audience "children aged 3 to 6".

Lois Lenski: The Legend Herself

Lois Lenski (1893- 1974)

The Legend Herself

Whenever anyone talks about the children’s picture books, the name Lois Lenski comes at the first. She was the J. K. Rowling of her age.