On the front cover it reads, "CTW Sesame Street. CTW Volume 1. The Sesame Street Treasury Featuring Jim Henson's Sesame Street Muppets. Starring the Number 1 and the Letter A. Children's Television Workshop/Funk & Wagnalls, Inc." The book is yellow and on the front cover has a live action photo of Big Bird and Little Bird in front of a chalk board with the alphabet written in chalk and Big Bird is holding a pointer stick towards the letter Q.
On the back it reads, "This book was created in cooperation with the Children's Television Workshop, producers of "Sesame Street." Children do not have to watch the television show to benefit from this book. Workshop revenues from this book will be used to help support CTW educational projects. Copyright 1983 Children's Television Workshop MUPPET Characters 1983 Muppets Inc.
The picture on the first page and second are squares with letters and drawn characters in them. The squares run across both pages 6X10. The illustrated characters are The Count, the detective Sherlocke Holmes guy, Oscar, Prairie Dawn, The the blue guy that Grover waits on, Barkley, Betty Lou, a blue monster with red shaggy Ernie-like hair and a orange nose, Big Bird, Grover, a metal robot witha wide football like mouth and a red and white spotted bow tie and a beanie with an arrow instead of a propeller, Snuffelupagus, Telly, Cookie Monster (with cookie in hand), Ernie, The Amazing Mumford, Same pic of Oscar in can with can lid on head, a cowgirl with a big mouth, prominant teeth, orange pigtails a white cowboy hat and purpleish skin, the same pic of the blue monster with red hair and an orange nose, Harry Monster, same pic of the guy that Grover waits on, Bert, and a pink tweedle bug with a yellow stripe on its belly.
Written By: Linda Bove with the National Theatre of the Deaf, Michael Frith, Emily Perl Kingsley, Sharon Lerner, Jeffrey Moss, Norman Stiles, Ellen Weiss, Daniel Wilcox
Illustrated By: Tom Cooke, A. Delaney, Mary Grace Eubank, Michael Frith, Randy Jones, Joe Mathieu, Maggie Swanson.
Copyright 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1983
The stories are One For Big Bird. It is Big Bird's birthday and the count has an idea of counting objects that there are only one of. "One Moon...only one pigeon as great as Bernice..."
When Is It Spring? A poem with a great very 70s drawing of butterflies and flowers and Bert, Prairie Dawn and Harry.
A recipe for Cookie Monster's Famous Cookie Dough
"Cookies Gratia Cookies" (Which is a play on Ars Gratis Artia which means art for art's sake or don't ask why we have art, we just have it because its art. You can see it on MGM's logo with the roaring lion.)
"Dear Reader, Hello there! Me COOKIE MONSTER and my favorite thing is EATING COOKIES. In this wonderful set of books me going to show you how to make ALL KINDS OF COOKIES! But first...me tell you secret recipe for COOKIE DOUGH (It been in my family for years.)"
If anyone wants me to write the recipe I will.
Big Bird, Home: The Nest, Sesame Street. Favorite Foods: Birdseed Soup, peanut butter and birdseed sandwiches, birdseed ice cream. Favorite Drink: Birdseed Float. Best Friend: Mr. Snuffle-upagus. Pet: Barkley. Favorite Activities: Roller Skating, hopscotch, and hide-and-seek. Height: 8 feet 2 inches. Favorite Color: Yellow. Favorite Wish: To Introduce Mr. Snuffle-upagus to Sesame Street friends. Favorite Saying: "Everyone makes mistakes, so why can't I?"
There is then a little red riding hood maze to Granny's Cottage, followed by a story about Queen Agatha with Big Bird as a noble Knight. Say it in Spanish barnyard animals.
A drawing of the Count on a bucking bronco, "howdy! It is I, the Count. I am riding a wild bucking bronco horsey. But not only can I ride him... I can COUNT him, too! 1! One horsey! Ha, ha, ha."
The next page is the same picture as the front cover, and it reads...
"Do you know what this is, Little Bird?"
"Sure, Big Bird. It's a stick!"
"Not what I'm pointing with, Little Bird. What am I pointing at?"
"Oh...hmm...let's see..."
"It's the alphabet, Little Bird. Just think- every word you can think of is made from these letters!"
"Even 'stick'?"
"Yes, Little Bird. Even 'stick.'"
The next 2 pages are of Linda say it in sign language in the morning. And the next page has a picture of Bert and Ernie getting ready for the day and it says, "How many things in this picture can you "sign"? The clock btw says 7:30 when Bert is stretching in bed.
Then there's a story called, "Grover's Bedtime Story" Where Praire Dawn sleeps over and she asks him to tell her a story and he is shocked because he hasn't ever told one before. Praire Dawn tells him he needs a beginning middle and end. "Once upon a time there was a king named Roundtree and he had a very smart and beautiful daughter named Victoria Joyce..."
Then Big Bird's Colors a rhyme about colors. And on the next page Find the Things That Begin with the Letter A. Ernie is seen painting a picture of an alligator. Next page we see count counting his lunch items and cookie steals his cookie, "Shh!" The next few pages tell the story of Ernie looking for his Rubber Duckie at night while Bert is trying to sleep and at the end Ernie of course acts like Bert is keeping him awake and that he just wants to go to sleep. The next pic is of Bert holding a candle on the floor between a chair with a busted spring and a pillow and Ernie jumping over him. "Jack be nimble..."
The last two pages show Big Bird and Oscar. Big Bird says to Oscar, "If you think Cookie's Cookies were delicious, wait until you taste my banana bread. The recipe is in volume 2." Oscar replies, "Banana bread! Blecch! That's three B words."
We've had this book forever. And, I love picking it up every once in awhile and going off to a quiet room in my house and just spending some time looking at the different pictures and enveloping myself in the goodness of Sesame Street. Its neat to see how different Sesame Street is today. They would never attempt to teach kids sign language now.
--Edit--
I found an Ebay auction for that doesnt end? well here's the url for it if anyone's interested, http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=7918849128&category=279. (I'm not selling it, btw.) The auction also had a picture which I added to the top.