A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the…

A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, intended for the Amusement of Little Master Tommy and Pretty Miss Polly with Two Letters from Jack the Giant Killer is the title of a 1744 children's book by British publisher John Newbery.

It is generally considered the first children's book, and consists of simple rhymes for each of the letters of the alphabet.

To market the book to the children of the day, the book comes with either a ball or a pincushion, depending on which gender the child is.

The book is very popular in England, and earns Newbery much fame; eventually the Newbery Medal will be named after him.

The book will be re-published in 1762 in Colonial America.

The book includes a woodcut of stool-ball among other period games, and includes a rhyme entitled "Base-Ball."

This is the first known reference to "base-ball" or "baseball" in print, though it actually meant the game rounders, an ancestor of modern baseball.

A striking and fielding team game, it involves hitting a small hard leather cased ball with a round wooden or metal bat and then running around four bases in order to score.