Encyclopedia of Collectible Children's Books.

 

Encyclopedia of Collectible Children's Books by Diane McClure Jones and Rosemary Jones. Paducah, Kentucky: Schroeder Publishing, Collector Books; a family company providing local jobs, almost 800 coloured photos, 11.3 x 8.8, 344 pp.  Not exactly a bibliography, but a comprehensive listing of all types of collectible children's books to be found in the market today, with lavish numbers of clear photos of the book covers. A great resource! Useful for a collector starting out, just to see possibilities, and useful for a specialist collector to gain a working knowledge of other genres of children's books.

The Jones' book is well organized, with roughly the first half being a Book List by Author and the second half a Booklist by Series. Each of the series authors is listed in the Author section, providing an index to all authors. The "series" booklist includes children's literature not usually classified under that term: the Goop Series, the Karlsson Series, the Green Knowe Series but the system works very well in several ways. First, it breaks up the long lists that would otherwise be found under prolific authors like Eleanor Cameron and Rudyard Kipling, second it groups together those mass market series that were written by several authors, third, it allows for books to be grouped under publisher, the Raphael Tuck Gift Books.

Many of the listings are introduced by short essays, all in all quite a bargain!

Features in addition to the two main listings:

• An introduction that gives some criteria for determining collectible books.
• An explanation of pricing.
• A short explanation of first editions.
• A 10 page section on Publisher's Histories, with information that is hard to find outside of specialist publications.
• A list of Newbery and Caldecott Winners through 2008
• Glossary and Abbreviations, very complete.
• A Bibliography of about 60 publications.