In the early 1800s, London publisher John Harris began producing small books for children that were designed not to instruct, but to entertain. One of these books, The Butterfly's Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast by William Roscoe, reprinted from The Gentleman's Magazine, was so successful that it was reissued in a second and much revised edition with illustrations by a young William Mulready. This was followed by sequels in a similar vein and a series called 'Harris's Cabinet of Amusement and Instruction'...