The Brownie Annual

It's rare for me to post much about "the other half" of the Scouting Movement for a host of reasons such as having very little to do with in any capacity but as you would expect their are parallels.

Rather like Wolf Cubs/Cubs, until more recent times there were annuals published that any Brownie would expect to get with the bindings being made easier to printed over time.

The start point of any annual is having an eye catching illustration for the front as this isn't an instruction manual and typically a Brownie annual would show brownies in uniform undertaking some task.

The back of this one features the faces of some, a number of which contributed to the contents.

This one is the 1962 edition and as was usual at the time has a formal introduction from the World Chief Guide addressed to the individual Brownie welcoming them to the publication which is official.

Here we have a contents page which is well indexed by makes, things of interest, about Brownie life such as pack holidays and the like.

Because rather like Cubs, you might of joined but not done everything yet, you'd have things about what you may get to do such as a pack holiday complete with pictures which are printed on glossy paper.

Very much with the whole Pixies and Elfs and so on, concept running in Brownies, there's a section with rhymes about them a brownie would no doubt love.

Something I don't think the Girl Guides Association then would of been unaware of is a copy about perhaps belonging to a friend or sister of another girl would act as a shop window to them to join up too, sharing the fun.

Annuals in general seem an endangered species, always out of date at the time of printing, lacking the interactivity some crave today and yet I know the Comic annual is still a popular thing as are tv and movie tie ins.

As children still love physical gifts they can treasure perhaps annuals connected with scouting can comeback.