The Fire Engine Book

TIBOR GERGELY (1900-1978) brought to life two of the most popular Little Golden Book characters, beloved by generations: Scuffy the Tugboat and Tootle. Born in Budapest, Hungary, he received his formal art schooling in Vienna at age 20. Gergely designed stage sets and marionettes and worked as an illustrator and cartoonist for central European newspapers. In 1939, Gergely immigrated to the United States, settling in New York. His long association with Golden Books began in 1942—the year of its launch—and continued as long as he lived. In 1955, Gergely received a Caldecott Honor for Wheel on the Chimney, written by Margaret Wise Brown, author of Goodnight Moon. He illustrated more than seventy Golden Books, including The Great Big Fire Engine Book, The Taxi That Hurried, Daddies, The Merry Shipwreck, Seven Little Postmen, The Happy Man and His Dump Truck, Animal Orchestra, and Animal Gym.

In 1942, the launch of Little Golden Books revolutionized children’s book publishing by making high-quality picture books available at affordable prices. More than 60 years later, many of the original Golden Book titles are still wildly popular, with The Poky Little Puppy topping the list of ten bestselling children’s books of all time. Golden Books’ backlist is teeming with classics such as Dorothy Kunhardt’s Pat the Bunny, and features the stories and artwork of children’s book legends Mary Blair, Margaret Wise Brown, Richard Scarry, Eloise Wilkins, Garth Williams, and many more. Today, the Golden Books imprint includes an array of storybooks, novelty books, and coloring and activity books featuring all of the most popular licenses, including Disney, Nickelodeon, Barbie, Thomas & Friends, The Cat in the Hat, Sesame Street, Marvel Super Heroes, and DC Super Friends. Golden Books continues to reissue the best of its backlist in a variety of formats, including ebooks and apps, as well as bringing out brand-new books in these evolving new formats.