Newbery, Caldecott Awards Announced Today!

American Library Association Announces Literary Award Winners BOSTON, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The American Library Association (ALA) today announced the top books, audiobooks and video for children and young adults – including the Caldecott, King, Newbery and Printz awards – at its Midwinter Meeting in Boston. A list of all the 2010 Newbery and Caldecott … Read more

Revisiting Twenty Caldecott Medal Books

Background Similar to a couple of years ago, we recently performed an internet search for the first editions of the first twenty Caldecott Medal books, wondering how many are currently being offered for sale. The searches were performed across multiple book sites, ABE, ABAA, and Bookfinder, and were filtered for first edition books with dust … Read more

Demon Horde of Children’s Books

By nature not an overreactor, but fearing for the lead-free life of my children, their children, and children in near and far locales, including Eastville in southwestern North Dakota, decided to part with my five thousand or so collectible children’s book collection. The value of the collection, the vast majority first editions, some rare, some … Read more

Dr. Seuss and the Beginner Books

Dr. Seuss and the Beginner Books Up until the mid-1950s, there was a degree of separation between illustrated educational books and illustrated picturebooks. That all changed, dramatically and with much national fanfare, with the 1957 publication of Dr. Seuss’s The Cat In The Hat (Random House). Here was an early reader, full of 220 madly … Read more

Collectible Childrens Books on eBay

We started a thread on the eBay Bookseller’s Forum to identify higher value children’s books sold on eBay, with $300 being the ‘bottom’ threshold. The thread can be found here: Valuable Children’s Books Sold on eBay. The thread covers a broad range of children’s books, from a $12,000 Hardy Boys first edition book to a … Read more

First Edition Wrinkle In Time – $10,800

A first edition copy of Madeleine L’Engle’s Newbery Medal winning book, A Wrinkle In Time, recently sold at a PBA Galleries’ auction for $10,800. Heading:                      Author:                         L’Engle, Madeleine Title:                            A Wrinkle In Time Place:                           [New York] Publisher:                     Ariel Books/Farrar, Straus and Cudahy Date:                            [1962] Item # :                        195185 … Read more

New Most Valuable Children’s Picturebook

A New ‘Most Valuable Children’s Picturebook’ Previous to the July 2007 PBA Galleries auction, we had listed Maurice Sendak’s Where The Wild Things Are, the 1964 Caldecott Medal winning book, as the most valuable picturebook in the The Children’s Picturebook Price Guide. At the PBA auction, a copy of Where The Wild Things Are sold … Read more

State of the Hobby: Part II

Where Have All The Books Gone? Based upon our experience, there are fewer key collectible picturebooks on the online market than a year ago, continuing a trend we have seen over the past couple of years. Try a search on any of the metasearch book finding websites, such as ABEBooks, Addall, Bookfinder, or the ABAA, … Read more

State Of The Hobby: Part I

Earlier we posted a column titled “What Books To Collect,” which provided several categories of books or illustrators for various economic levels of collecting. Today and over the next couple of posts, we would like to discuss the state of the children’s picturebook collecting hobby, and provide some background information on the current market place. … Read more