Every year at it's mid-Winter Conference the American Library Association presents the Caldecott Award "to the artist of the most distinguished American picturebook for children." In addition to the Medal award, several Honor awards are presented to the runner-ups in the category. The awards were announced this past Monday, Feb. 2, 2015. The day of […]
First Edition Identification Points – Very Hungry Caterpillar The Very Hungry Caterpillar, A Seriously Rare Edition A first edition of Eric Carle’s 1969 The Very Hungry Caterpillar is a very difficult book to find. Prior to 2013, in twenty years of collecting children’s picturebooks, I had never seen a first edition copy for sale. Sadly, […]
Identifying First Edition Beginner Books A couple of years ago I posted a series of blog articles which provided identification points for the first fifty Beginner Books, and later collected them into one permanant webpage (see Identifying First Edition Beginner Books). The articles included identification points for each book, and provided the publication sequence along […]
Searching For The Second Twenty Caldecott Medal Books A couple of months ago we performed an internet search for the first editions of the first twenty Caldecott Medal books to determine the number of books currently being offered for sale, and similar to past searches, calculate the average selling price. This past week we performed […]
A first edition The Little House is a scarce bird, rarely sighted in public. First edition copies of Virginia Lee Burton’s 1943 Caldecott Medal winning book are one of the scarcest contemporary children’s picturebook to find. One is currently being offered for sale on ABEBooks. It can be yours for $12,500. [Caveat emptor: I have […]
A first edition Curious George sold at Heritage Auctions for $26,290. This surpasses the $21,850 paid for the first edition Curious George sold at PBA Galleries in 2007. The Heritage sale took place in the September 2011 Beverly Hills Signature Rare Books Auction. The link to the Curious George lot #37070 at Heritage (you will […]
Top 100 Collectible Picturebooks – Overview A series of articles to select the Top 100 Collectible Children’s Picturebooks, providing the rationale for each book’s inclusion, with an objective of providing readers with the context for valuing first editions within the genre. Within the hobby value is a combination of scarcity and collectibility: very scarce and […]
First edition copies of Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel in dust jacket don’t surface too often, so it is surprising two copies are currently on the market for sale. Both books are being offered for over $5,000. The Virginia Lee Burton children’s classic was initially published in 1939 by Houghton Mifflin. The first editions […]
This past Monday at the American Library Association’s mid-winter conference, Jerry Pinkney earned his first Caldecott Medal awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children. Well deserved, I might add. Pinkney had previously won five Caldecott Honor awards over his forty year career. Winning the Caldecott Medal enhances the […]
A first edition Make Way For Ducklings, Robert McCloskey’s 1942 Caldecott Medal winning book, has recently surfaced for sale. We haven’t seen a copy for years, so it will be interesting to see how long this book stays on the market. From the item description: MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS Robert McCloskey Book Price: US$ […]
