Featured Books

Our favorite illustrations from childhood for this marvelous book. Curdie's courage and modesty, the sweet, curious princess, and the great-great-grandmother watching over all are never forgotten.

"My name is Beautiful Joe, and I am a brown dog of medium size. I am called Beautiful Joe, but not because I am a beauty..." One of the great dog stories, a plea for kindness to animals inspired by Black Beauty. An attractive copy of the 1907 revised edition with much perverse cruelty removed. 

A little child's library, much loved and all in absolutely terrible condition. Clearly Bad Boy Bob was Willie's favorite! And no wonder. Note the glasses Willie has added to all the boys in the center spread. Someone, perhaps Willie's sister, has attempted to repair the damage by covering all the book spines, and even a long tear, with strips of patterned material of the day, as well as taking large orange stitches in the tears. A charming glimpse into the world of children and books almost 150 years ago. Institutional discount.

A beautiful copy of stories first told to her grandchildren. These were intended to entertain children 4 to 8 years old, and sought by Louis Hachette to be part of his scheme of a line of books to be sold at railway kiosks for reading on the train. This and our Perrault Contes de Fées #22079, from the estate of children's playwright Maryfrank Gardener, for 110.00, make a lovely set.

Two friends, little girls about 3 and 5, play with their dogs and toys, cook and wash, have a little falling out over a broken doll, and make friends again. Very sweet little pictures. Gift inscription to Louise Volker van V. and Louise Volker van Waverveen's bookplate with portrait of a young woman and dog by N V. v. W, probably Nellie Volker van Waverveen (as seen in Jan Toorop's 1901 painting of young Marie, Lies and Nellie Volker van Wavereen.) Also laid in, a two sided 1867 German finely hand coloured prize certificate.

This copy was definitely a salesman's sample, as it comes from a collection of review copies which I acquired in 1998 from a retired educator's collection. As received, it had a Houghton Mifflin/Riverside Press educational sales representative's business card laid in. Sadly, the card has been lost since 2006 and I have given up hope of finding it, so I've decided to list the book! The rounded spine is not practical for school use: judging from other multiple signature HM copies available with identical boards, the style was probably changed. Based on Seuss' statements and other copies seen with identical boards and multiple signatures, this copy may be the January publication or simply an odd salesman's sample issue. Intense colour and beautiful condition in this copy.  Rare thus.

Seuss was encouraged to create a controlled vocabulary book by William Spaulding, Educational Director of Houghton Mifflin and an old army buddy. However, Seuss was under contract to Random House, so HM agreed to publish the educational edition, allowing Random to publish the trade edition available to the public. The HM edition was set to be published in January or February and the trade edition in March, according a letter written to Random House by Seuss. However, the educational edition of Cat in the Hat was not successful as a primer, being too dissimilar from Dick and Jane. Cat in the Hat was later included in the 20 or so "Read by Yourself" HM series, most published in the 60's. In addition to having the single signature and rounded spine, our copy has the plainer HM design on bottom board.

The crickets and the frogs battle to see who can sing the loudest, a noisy battle that is never won, but now all crickets sing together. A fable with Spanish and English on facing pages, written by the great Chilean educator, children's poet; a founder of UNICEF and a Nobel Prize winner. The translator was a long time friend of Mistral and a recipient of the Order of Merit from the Chilean government. With bold sparking pictures in blue and pale yellow with heavy black lines (woodcuts?).

Wolfgang, huge and clumsy despite his illustrious predecessor, caused a disaster whenever he tried to help. All the dogs in town had jobs. Wolfgang eagerly wished for one too. His mistress tried and tried to find a job for him that would fit his talents. Finally, a surprizing and funny solution! Cheerful, active pictures in the rounded style that the artist/author developed in her subsequent books. Kahl's first book, written while she was an Army librarian stationed in Salzburg. SIGNED while in Europe: Va. Kahl, with July, 1954 date and Salzburg, Austria.

A classic Bulgarian children's book in the original elegant edition. Animal cartoons, and traditional country scenes, as well as pictures of modern children, illustrate this collection of 19 little stories in verse by famous Bulgarian writers, the author himself, Elin Pelin and others. Bozhinov, who was also a master of political caricature, infused his work for children with warmth and cheer. A treasure. Thanks to the University of Oregon Special Collections for translation.

Based on a Dutch musical farce first enacted about 300 years ago and still popular. Here the wedding is charmingly illustrated by lifelike rounded international dolls and toy animals. Freddie Langeler designed books, created comics, participated in children's magazines, and illustrated more than a hundred children's books.

Parabaiks like these were produced as sample tattoo books. From the British museum, manuscript similar to ours: "The manuscript is a digest of tattoo designs for a potential client to choose from, and would have been used by the tattooer to advertise his range of work." The traditional tattoos had religious or magical powers and both protected the wearer and gave him strength.

This book has 27 different tattoos, black outlined coloured drawings surrounded by text, some on double spreads and some single pages: elephants brandishing swords, goddesses riding tigers, magical birds, and creatures bearing magic squares and circles, fish, chicken headed snakes, and circles of lizards and many animals with human or goddess heads.

Yes, this is a strange book for a children's site, but in fact it was sold to us as a "Victorian colouring book" (true!)

A little gem. "There he stood and smiled all day. He smiled at the birds. He smiled at the Rabbit. He smiled at the boys and girls who passed him on their way to school"... but he was lonely so he made friends with the sun. "Until all that was left of him was the smile in the puddle on the ground and it kept right on smiling And Smiling And Smiling..." Sweet, amusing pictures by the artist of "Let's See the ABC" Very hard to find.

One boy's three lives: as the Hungarian Prince Michael of Chestry, as Michael Prince a homeless WWII refugee, and as Mike Brown, adopted son of a kind American family. Through it all runs the proud stallion, Midnight.

Four orphans are summoned by the King to travel to his kingdom Beyond the Blue Mountains to rejoin their parents. One brother sister pair proceeds fairly quickly on the upward path, the other takes longer , succumbing to many temptations. An engaging fairytale/allegory "derived from Pilgrim's Progress but set in a flower-fairy children's world" (Bratton) and told in simple language. L. M. Meade, was a prolific Irish writer who essentially established the girls' school story.