Richard Scarry demonstrated his inimitable imagination, artistic acumen, and fascination with myriad modes of transport in 1974’s Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go. On January 2, 2024, Random House Children’s Books will introduce veteran and fledgling Scarry fans to the 50th-anniversary edition of the volume. The new edition from Golden Books will feature original, never-before-published sketches of Scarry’s artwork (recently discovered by his son, Huck Scarry), a removable poster, a dust jacket, and a letter to readers penned by Huck about his father and the story behind the book. PW has the exclusive on the new volume.

The original edition grew out of the first children’s book Richard Scarry (1919–1994) both wrote and illustrated, The Great Big Car and Truck Book, a Giant Golden Book published in 1951. More than two decades later, Scarry’s humorous Cars and Trucks and Things That Go rolled out a wide variety of wild and wacky vehicles from his world of Busytown.

Multiple generations of young readers and adults have eagerly climbed aboard this and other Richard Scarry storybooks. The author-illustrator published more than 300 picture books, which together have sold 160 million-plus copies around the world in more than 20 languages. And to date Cars and Trucks has sold more than three million copies in North America.

RHCB senior editor Frank Berrios, a 20-year employee of the company, has overseen the Richard Scarry oeuvre for five years and is editing the 50th-anniversary edition of Cars and Trucks.

“It is an honor to introduce a new generation of readers to this book,” Berrios said. “Richard Scarry’s artwork is really amazing. He added so much detail and packed in so much information, and he had a real knack for explaining complex things in a simple way. And his characters are so humorous and engaging. I feel like a kid again when I reread Richard Scarry books—I have such fond memories of diving into them as a boy. And even today, I always find new things to make me laugh. There’s so much happening in Busytown, even in the corners of the pages.”

Creative Family Ties

Huck Scarry shared childhood memories that offer insight into his father’s personality and work ethos. He recalled his father working in his studio on the third floor of the family’s beachside house in Westport, Ct. “I always loved and admired his work,” Huck told PW. “Naturally, as a child, I had no idea what exactly he was doing, but it was certainly very lovely work. He worked long, long hours and he always met his deadlines. His publishers loved him for that.”

An only child, Huck described Richard as “an amazing father who loved to spend time with me,” and recalled that his father and his mother, Patricia Scarry, nurtured his talent for drawing. The Scarrys moved to Switzerland when Huck was a teenager, and, he said, “after a couple of less-than-satisfactory experiences with school there, my parents found a graphic arts school for me, where I flourished.”

In 1973, when Huck was 20 years old and on a break from school, he visited his parents in Switzerland to find an appealing assignment awaiting him. “I was thrilled when my father asked me to give him a hand coloring his latest book, Cars and Trucks and Things That Go,” Huck said. “What an honor!”

The two spent several weeks working side-by-side in Richard’s studio in Gstaad, completing the coloring of the illustrations while listening to Dolly Parton cassettes and “bantering and joking about the vehicles we were working on—we had a great time together,” Huck said, calling the experience “a unique opportunity, as I was at the age when I was moving out of the family nest. It was wonderful.”

Huck Scarry, who still lives in the same Switzerland family homestead, went on to become a graphic designer and the author and illustrator of children’s books, forging his own literary legacy. “Creating books of my own, I made a conscious point of keeping my readership to older children, and to do something with no relation to my father’s oeuvre,” he noted.

Bridging Genders and Generations

Richard Scarry was sufficiently savvy to draw and write for a broad swath of readers. When he initially tackled Cars and Trucks in the early 1970s, he knew that transportation was a theme of interest to girls as well as boys, mothers as well as fathers, and grandmothers as well as grandfathers.

“As someone intrigued by anything mechanical that moved, “my father was eager to try his hand at a new book dedicated to transportation, but he was fully aware that this was not going to be a ‘boys’ book,” Huck explained. “And so he made something that would capture everyone’s imagination and interest. He let his imagination go, creating pencilcars, a pumpkincar, a bananamobile, a hotdog car. Why not?”

Richard Scarry also gave a nod to the women’s movement by giving female characters important roles in the book: despite her size and that of her tiny pink truck, Mistress Mouse can repair any vehicle on the roadside; and Officer Flossy is a fox who sees to it that the traffic always moves safely.

And, well aware that his books were being read repeatedly to kids, Scarry was determined to keep parents entertained by interjecting amusing asides and funny visual details. “I think that is certainly one reason his books are equally loved by adults. My father had that rare quality of finding what readers connect with at any age,” Huck said.

Lauding his father’s “extraordinary talent,” Huck Scarry elaborated: “He knew how to organize content in a fun and simple way. He had an amazing sense of graphic design—simple and pure. He had a wonderful sense for color. His spreads were always balanced, light, vibrant, harmonic, and just right. They are just as fresh and as funny today as the day he made them. He was, and remains, absolutely timeless.”

Richard Scarry’s Cars and Trucks and Things That Go: 50th Anniversary Edition by Richard Scarry. Golden Books, $19.99 Jan. 2, 2024 ISBN 978-0-593-70630-5.