Books to Entertain
outdoor games and amusements. Books of puzzles, memory challenges, and fireside
contests were usually written for an undifferentiated audience of boys, girls, and
adults of both sexes. But as publishers began thinking in terms of distinct markets,
publications for a female readership appeared: games designed for girls, DIY paper dolls,
and books with patterns and instructions for domestic handicrafts.
The author of the Hieroglyphick Bible interspersed accounts of
creation and salvation and moral passages from the Bible with
rebuses — popular at the time in other children’s publications
— in an attempt to interest children both in reading and in
holy scriptures. The Gaping Wide-Mouthed Waddling Frog is
a memory game where players add a couplet on each repeat
(like the Twelve Days of Christmas) to build up to a 150-word
long nonsense rhyme. The Whim Wham exemplifies inexpensive
books of riddles, anagrams, and word puzzles for a lone reader
or a company; the “Enigmatical Bouquet” gives clues that
produce the name of a flower. The answer to II is foxglove —
see if you can figure out the rest!
Cousin Lively offers a variety of active games for inside play, as
well as instructions for jumping rope, tag, and lawn bowling.
Paper Dolls and How to Make Them is the first American book
on homemade versions of the toy; the anonymous author
explains how “out of an old card, and a few bits of colored
paper … a child can create for herself a world of enjoyment.”
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The Hieroglyphick Bible, or, Select Passages in the Old and New Testaments, Represented
with Emblematical Figures, for the Amusement of Youth. Boston: Published by I. Thomas, 1814.
The Gaping Wide-Mouthed Waddling Frog. A New Game of Questions & Commands.
London: Printed for E. Wallis and J. Wallis, 1817.
The Whim Wham, or, Evening Amusement for All Ages and Sizes. London: Printed by & for
W. & T. Darton, corner of St. Andrew’s Court, Holborn Hill, 1810.
Cousin Lively (pseudonym). Cousin Lively’s Picture Book of Nice Little Games for Nice Little
Girls. London: Dean & Son, 1859.
Paper Dolls, and How to Make Them: A Book for Little Girls. New York: Anson D.F.
Randolph, 683 Broadway, 1857.