As libraries and archives have started re-opening in recent months, so Telephonic Youth has got to work. Over the last few weeks, we have been visiting the British Library and researching in their collections of young children’s storybooks about telephones.
Many of these books have alliterative or rhyming titles. A Telephone Called Tim tells the story of a blue wall-mounted telephone called Tim, and his relocation from a telephone warehouse to his first job, in the home of a doctor and his wife. Telephone Ted traces the story of a teddy who plucks up the courage to answer the phone when it rings when the family is out, but struggles to be understood. Ted moves from feeling sad, to angry to happiness when he finally ‘gets through’ to another teddy friend who lives across the street. Ting-a-ling follows a toddler playing on a telephone and her imagined conversations.
Other books aimed at very young children were designed to be played with. Peter Pig’s Telephone Book featured a plastic pretend dial of a rotary telephone, and young readers were encouraged to learn to dial the telephone numbers in the story. Who Shall We Call?, told the story of children phoning for help in everyday scenarios, and encouraged readers to press the miniature Fisher-Price ‘Chatter telephone’ on the front cover when the characters made a call to hear it squeak.
It is possible you remember being read these books, or reading them yourself, at home or school, or taking them out from a library. Perhaps you remember learning some new words about phones from the books, in the lists of vocabulary on the back pages?
As more archives open over the coming months, we’ll be travelling to collections around the UK researching materials connected to young people’s telephone use. We’ll be posting about what we find.
