Chris Ware delves into the history and magic of Richard Scarry’s Busy Town world.
Scarry followed What Do People Do All Day? with a series of books all set within the same society, including (among others) Great Big Schoolhouse, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go, and Busiest People Ever! The Busytown books, as they came to be known—with their dictionary-like visual presentation paired with lightly slapstick situations and the presence of recurring, memorable characters like Huckle Cat, the Pig family, and my favorite, Lowly Worm—grew into a real-feeling big world that Scarry seemed to be letting little ones into. (Lowly was perhaps the first children’s book animal character with a real nod to the ADA and the myth of “dis”-ability, and cheerfully makes his linear form work in all sorts of inspiring and disarmingly moving ways.)
Those Busy Town books could occupy my entire afternoon as a kid. Pair those books with generic Lego blocks, and 5 year old me would attempt to recreate the scenes. There never was a mini-fig worm with a hat, though.