#Booky100Keepers Day 30: "A Day at the Airport" and "What Do People Do All Day?" by Richard Scarry (HarperCollins / Random House Children's Books)

When I was a kid, Richard Scarry books were my catnip. I couldn't get enough of them, and when I became a dad, I always wanted to introduce them to my daughter at some point.

So we bought two and "A Day at the Airport" by Richard Scarry became an oft-demanded favourite, and still a book that we've kept (and read) to this day.

This one's a bit more 'storified' than most of Scarry's books, rammed as you can imagine with the sort of delicious details that make these books absolutely essential to any youngster's book collection.

Rudolf Von Flugel is the eccentric owner of an Aeroplane Car and invites Huckle, Sally Cat and Lowly out for a drive to see the sights and sounds of the local airport.

Rudolf drives his car straight into the airport lobby (told you he was a bit eccentric) and soon the moggies and their wormy pal get to see behind the scenes of what a busy airport is like. In true Richard Scarry style, the whole place looks like it's teetering on the edge of absolute chaos and we spent so many hours looking at all the tiny little stories within the main story (and always giggled our heads off at the poor pig who seems to spend the entire book chasing his hat or being late for his plane).

Rudolf tops off the day with a ride in his giant Bratwurst Balloon (and if you know anything about Richard Scarry books, you'll know he has a knack for drawing the most amazing food-based vehicles.

The twins end up back at home via a rather unusual method of transport indeed!

We also picked up "What do People Do All Day?" - probably one of the most well-loved and famous of Scarry's books, introducing young readers to Busytown and all the crazy antics of the animals who live there. Imagine "Zootropolis" decades before that movie was even dreamed of, and you're on the right track here.

Everything from the way people live to the way they get around is covered in this book, hugely influential on so many non-fiction books for younger readers, but utterly timeless in the way it draws you in.

We were lucky enough to get to this one before the 'doctored' edition was launched a couple of years later, with some really weird changes and alterations to some of the characters and job descriptions therein (the intent was at least good natured, to try and redress some of the rather old-fashioned notions of what women and men's roles should be in a busy town but the end results were hideously badly done so if you spot the original cover (the one to the right) on an edition in a secondhand book store, snap it up!)

We had a few more Scarry books over the years but they've disappeared from our shelves, leaving us with just these two absolute corkers. Both utterly brilliant.

Original Richard Scarry Review Links: 

A Day at the Airport

What Do People Do All Day?

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