A Little Pretty Pocket-book, frontispiece (1787)

A mother seated before a sitting room hearth holds a book in her lap, her other arm raised to welcome a boy and girl standing around her, ready for their reading lesson. Below them is Newbery's motto, “Delectando monemus / Instruction with Delight.” Isiah Thomas imitates this image in his 1787 edition printed in Worcester, Massachusetts, but with the mother seeming to point out the window during the reading lesson. Following Newbery’s early example, many reading books and literacy aids for young children include a similar illustration on the cover, lid, frontispiece, or envelop, with an adult instructor accompanied by a child or group of children. This early example provides a comparison for the interlocutor gestures that position parents and children together, not to read a book, but to play or experiment with objects.