Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 — Reading Notes

Patriotic Inventory as Entertainment

The first excerpt presents a relentless catalogue of Australia's merits: 'potatoes, onions, cabbages, carrots, peas, beans and scores of other vegetables in abundance.' Cole's prose accumulates evidence like a courtroom summation, listing fruits, grains, dairy, wool, and cotton. He even projects a population capacity of 400 million, a figure he defends against charges of exaggeration. This section reads less like a children's story and more like a promotional pamphlet for immigration. The tone is confident, almost defiant, as if Cole anticipates skepticism. The repetition of 'abundance' and 'best in the world' creates a rhythmic insistence that borders on incantation. For a book marketed as a 'Family Amuser and Instructor,' this opening serves as a geography and civics lesson wrapped in national pride.

Children's Voices and Adult Sentiments

Following the patriotic overture, the text shifts to poems written from a child's perspective. 'Nell's Letter' adopts a simple, earnest voice: 'My little rabbit is alive, / And likes his milk and clover.' The spelling is conventional, the concerns domestic. In contrast, 'Baby's Letter to Uncle' mimics infant speech with deliberate misspellings: 'I dot oor letter' and 'nassy palagolic.' The baby complains of colic and 'tatnip,' ending with a cheeky 'Bully old uncle wiz a glass eye!' These poems reveal an adult author ventriloquizing childhood, mixing sentimentality with humor. The tension between the child's limited understanding and the adult's knowing wink creates a layered reading experience. The poems also reinforce family bonds across distance—letters as emotional lifelines—echoing the book's subtitle: 'To Delight The Children And Make Home Happier.'

Riddles, Games, and the Book Arcade Brand

Interspersed with verse and patriotic prose are riddles, games, and promotional verses for Cole's Book Arcade. One poem uses the rainbow as a mnemonic: 'Long ago the Rainbow was a Sign it is said, / Now 'tis the Sign of Cole's Book Arcade.' This blending of commerce and entertainment is characteristic. The book itself is a product, and its contents repeatedly remind the reader of its origin. The riddles and games are not reproduced in the excerpts, but their presence signals a deliberate variety—what Cole calls 'choice Riddles, Games and pieces of reading for Adults.' The compendium format, jumping from topic to topic, mirrors the arcade's promise of endless discovery. The tension here is between instruction and amusement: the book teaches patriotism, literacy, and family values, but it also sells itself.

Readers approaching Cole's Funny Picture Book No. 1 should expect a patchwork rather than a narrative. The book rewards browsing over linear reading. Pay attention to the shifts in register—from boosterish prose to sentimental verse to playful baby talk—as they reveal Cole's assumptions about what delights and instructs a family. The recurring motif of letters, both literal and metaphorical, ties the collection together: letters from children, letters from the author to his audience, and the book itself as a letter from a bygone era.

This book’s odd mix of public boasting and quiet bedtime rhymes made me think of my grandfather, who kept a stack of old annuals by his armchair. He’d read the jingoistic bits aloud with a wink, then fall silent over the sad verses. Humour of the North — Reading Companion gave me that same strange comfort—laughter sitting next to a soft ache, like weather passing through a kitchen window.