Most people, when asked about their favorite book, will invariably include a book they read as a child. Hemingway famously proclaimed that "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn". Twain's book, like its predecessor, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, were books whose intended audience was young readers. Such books speak to us on multiple levels. As literature, they are well-crafted and clever with memorable characters and conflicts, but they matter to us for more than these reasons because we discovered them at a formative period of our lives. Their ideas helped to form our own, and so they are more personal ...
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NY: John H. Eggers, 1917. Eight volumes, 12pp. each (wrappers not included). Replete with illustrations using an orange and green color palette, the set consists of "The Chocolate Man," "Old Mother Hubbard," "The Gorgon's Head," "Child's Garden of Verse," "Ali Baba," "East of the Sun and West of the Moon,"... More
Buffalo, NY: Breed, Butler & Co., 1863. 61pp. From the second of six sets of miniature books for children published by Breed, Butler, and Co. in the 1860s. Each set, smaller than the last, comprises six volumes bound in colorful embossed and gilt-stamped cloth. The stories are all written by... More
Buffalo, NY: Breed, Butler & Co., 1863. 61pp. A grandmother tells her grandson the story of a vain little girl in order to comfort him after an accident. Bound in gilt-decorated purple cloth. Covers faded and slightly rubbed, else a fine copy. A.e.g. With the signature of a youthful owner... More
Paris: Michel Bertrand, (1946). Quarto. (10)ff. A collection of wise, wry poems for children, brightly illustrated in bold red, blue, green, and yellow by Boucard Moinet. The illustrations depict scenes of children at play: spinning around on a carousel, sailing boats on a pond in the park, and waving at... More
Rotterdam: D. Bolle, (1917). Small quarto. (10)pp. Four movable color plates, plus black & white illustrations throughout. The movable plates provide animated illustration to four different stories among the ten in the book, and depict Sambo facing a lion, a young Indian boy cradled in the trunk of an elephant... More
Amsterdam: (n.d.). Small octavo. (15)pp. With eight full-page illustrations, printed in orange and black. At the back of the volume are a head and two legs set to rotate on brass rivets; when unfolded, they align with the torso on the upper cover to create the illusion of a full... More
London: C. Arthur Pearson Limited, (c. 1900). Small quarto. (12)pp. Six full-page color illustrations, each of which is folded at the top; when unfolded, the scene changes to reveal a surprise. For example, a boy reaching for a nest is suddenly attacked by birds, hunters in a tree are hosed... More
(N.p. c. 1855). Small quarto. (6)ff. Six hand-colored plates, each with a tab by which the reader may operate the movable features. The plates depict men and women at work in fields such as blacksmithing, carpentry, and forestry. Pulling the projecting tabs causes the figures to appear to work; a.... More
Paris: A. Capendu, (c. 1900). Oblong octavo. (12)pp. Illustrated with six movable color images. These appear opposite poetic retellings of such familiar La Fontaine stories as "Le Corbeau et le Renard" ("The Dove and the Fox") and "La Cigale et la Fourmie" ("The Cicada and the Ant"). The illustrations move... More
London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, (1912). Quarto. (13)pp. Six full-page color plates, each of which depicts anthropomorphized animals, accompaned by lyricized fables printed on the opposing page. The fables included are "The Fox and the Stork," "The Wolf and the Lamb," "The City Rat and the Country Rat," "The... More
(N.p. n.d.). Small quarto. (11)pp. Five movable color illustrations, along with various black & white images throughout. The movable images function through pull-tabs at the bottom of each page. They depict the titular anthropomorphic wolf planning to trick a family of goats, clambering down the chimney of their home, and... More
Amsterdam: Cohen Zonen, (n.d.). Octavo. (10)pp. Four full color movable images, and black & white illustrations throughout. The movables illustrate humans and animals taking part in charming circus scenes: monkeys clamber about a ladder, an elephant balances a clown upon its trunk, another well-dressed elephant plays the tuba in front... More
London: Dean & Son, (1857). Small octavo. (9)ff. A very unusual and humorous children's book, with seven movable pages. On each page is a cut-out character, lithographed and hand-colored, standing against a wall. The figure may be moved aside by means of a tab, exposing the revealing shadow he has... More
Esslingen: J. F. Schreiber, (n.d.). Small quarto. (7)ff. Six full-color movable images. For each, the upper half may be flipped downward to reveal the second half of the scene. Each is titled at the top and captioned by a four-line poem at the bottom. Mischievous children adorn each image. Their... More
London: Dean & Son, (n.d.). Small quarto. 8ff., printed one side only. Eight pages with full hand-colored images—sometimes more than one to a page—all of which bear movable features. These are manipulated through paper tabs toward the bottom of the illustration. Pulling a tab back and forth causes Mother Hubbard's... More
London: Dean & Son, (1859). Small quarto. (8)ff. Eight hand-colored engravings, all with movable parts. These movable images are operated through paper tabs and show the titular old woman with a host of animals as she tries to tame her newly purchased pig. The text of the story lies below... More
London: Dean & Son, (c. 1892). Quarto. (10)ff. Color illustrations throughout, three of which pop up through the tension of strings that run crosswise through the text block. Flexing the pages at the proper points, as indicated by pictorial thumbs at the margins, elevates portions of the illustrations, creating an... More
London: Dean & Son, (1879). 12mo. 12pp. Six full-color movable plates. The corners of each plate may be flipped up or down in order to change that portion of the image. In one illustration, a strongman holds acrobats on his arms, but flipping the corners show him balancing them on... More
Paris: A. Capendu / Dean & Son, (n.d.). Small quarto. (8)pp. Contains four full-color movable illustrations, with other whimsical circus imagery throughout the accompanying text. The movable images show clowns balancing on their heads, performing tricks with dogs, and riding donkeys. Copyrighted by Dean & Son, the fascinating illustrations dovetail... More
(N.p. c. 1890). 24mo. (56)pp; (42)pp. With copious illustrations in both color and monochrome. Blow books are classic magic tricks, most popular through the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries. The magician presents the book and riffles through it, showing a set of like illustrations. Then with the book closed, he or... More
Leiden: P. J. Trap, (1864). Small quarto. (8)ff. Eight hand-colored lithographed illustrations, each with moving parts operated by tabs. The images show a variety of spectacles, from a monkey playing the violin, to children riding an elephant, to two different escapades of the French tightrope walker, Charles Blondin. Below each... More
Paris: A. Capendu, (n.d.). Quarto. (6)ff. Six color engravings, all with movable elements. The illustrations are each titled and, along with the accompanying text below each plate, show various aspects of life in Beijing as envisioned by the French publisher. These include scenes of music and dancing, family life, and... More
Berlin: (Carl Schauer, c. 1895). Small quarto. (8)pp. Four full-page color plates with volvelles. Each plate depicts a particular scene—"Das Theater," "Die Menagerie," "Der Bildermann," and "Das karussel"—which is described in lyric verse on the facing page. The turning mechanisms then change a certain portion of the image. For example... More
Kansas: 1898-1899. Oblong octavo. (19)ff. A double accordion-fold album of thirty-one woven paper designs in brown and coral. Included in this group are two weavings with movable elements, and one in the form of a frame with an image in the center. These examples of a popular kindergarten activity were... More
Amsterdam: G. Theod. Bom. (1874). 12mo. (20)pp. Six movable lithographs. Each illustration operates through a flap, which, when flipped up or down, changes the image. In one, a soldier in the midst of battle changes to a cavalryman on horseback, while in another a man goes from eating a meal... More
