You'd have to look long and hard to find one of these children's books in any better condition. The condition is very good plus to excellent. I'm not a book dealer, but I think they would consider this near fine since it's close to 50 years old. Let me describe. The glossy dust jacket appears to have a micro-thin mylar(?) film over it to make it glossy and protect it. Only on the inside flaps do you see this film starting to peel back a little. The jacket flaps have not been price clipped so you can see that in 1958 this lovely book sold for $1.00. How the times have changed!
The author of the book is Cole Fannin and the wonderful artist/illustrator is Michael Arens. The back jacket flaps says that he is "...an artist of unusual versatility. He is a museum and diorama artist as well as an illustrator of stories and books." It goes on to state that he worked in many other fields too like architectural drawing and jewelry design. I have shown just one of the many sepia-toned art illustrations (full page) that he did for this book.
The interior pages are all clean, flat and intact and without dogears. There is very slight notching along the bottom rim(edges) of some pages--but this does not detract from the overall wonderful edition. There is no writing inside, but the prior owner's name has been neatly stamped on the pictorial end papers in the front. The decorated dual-color green boards are in great condition, as is the spine. There is hardly any wear at all. This is quite rare for books that belonged to children and young adults. You would love to have this book if you are making a collection of these delightful books. The book was published by Golden Press. Book measures 8 x 5 3/4 inches. The paper still smells good (a big plus in retro paper collectibles).
~~ON HOLD~~ON HOLD~~ON HOLD~~
