Sunday, October 8, 2017
Monday, October 2, 2017
My Fantasy Book Collection
I've decided that if Sports Fans can have their Fantasy Sports Teams I can waste spend time building a Fantasy Juvenile Book Collection. Full disclosure, some of these titles are repeat shows from a post I did in 2007. I've updated the list to include titles that were published after my childhood, and I've also included short notes about each title. Adventure and mystery titles in this post, Science fiction and Fantasy to follow. For my dream collection, all books would have to be first editions, Fine in at least Very Good+ dust jackets of course!
Claire Hutchet Bishop TWENTY AND TEN. Published in 1952, the story of 20 French school children hiding 10 Jewish children from the Nazi's. I've had a first of this book in my inventory and it sold very quickly. Still in print.
Marie McSwigan SNOW TREASURE. Published in 1942, another story involving Nazis again. But this time Norse children helping to smuggle gold out of the country. I've never even seen a hard cover first of this title, as a child I read the Scholastic book club paperback, this is another title which is still in print.
Joan Phipson THE BOUNDARY RIDERS. Phipson is an Australian author. This book is the story of 3 children riding the fences in the outback and what happens when they get lost. Not high literature but I LOVED this book as a kid.
Scott O'Dell ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. This Newbery Medal Winner is the story of a Native American girl stranded on an island off the coast of California. A classic and one of the few adventure books I can remember from my childhood with a female protagonist.
Starting with Trixie Belden (the only series title in my list) I went through an extended phase where I'd only read it if it were a mystery. I've probably read every mystery title by Phyllis Whitney, Betty Cavanna, Elizabeth Honness, Sobal's Encyclopedia Brown...the list is extensive and I loved them all. It is a bit of a surprise that the only plots I actually remember are the following two books:
Raskin, Ellen THE WESTING GAME. Published in 1978, this title was a Newbery Award winner. Confession time--any Ellen Raskin title whether it was illustrated or written by her would go in my dream collection.
Platt, Kin SINBAD AND ME. Written in 1966 and the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe award for best juvenile mystery; what's not to love about a mystery that combines a boy, a bulldog and architecture. I've seen an early paperback copy of the book in barely Very Good condition go for $80. I've never seen a hardback first that was not a library discard.
This would be the core of the my dream collection, the more I write the more I could add....
Claire Hutchet Bishop TWENTY AND TEN. Published in 1952, the story of 20 French school children hiding 10 Jewish children from the Nazi's. I've had a first of this book in my inventory and it sold very quickly. Still in print.
Marie McSwigan SNOW TREASURE. Published in 1942, another story involving Nazis again. But this time Norse children helping to smuggle gold out of the country. I've never even seen a hard cover first of this title, as a child I read the Scholastic book club paperback, this is another title which is still in print.
Joan Phipson THE BOUNDARY RIDERS. Phipson is an Australian author. This book is the story of 3 children riding the fences in the outback and what happens when they get lost. Not high literature but I LOVED this book as a kid.
Scott O'Dell ISLAND OF THE BLUE DOLPHINS. This Newbery Medal Winner is the story of a Native American girl stranded on an island off the coast of California. A classic and one of the few adventure books I can remember from my childhood with a female protagonist.
George, Jean Craighead MY SIDE OF THE MOUNTAIN. This Newbery Honor book and a very romantic story of a boy who runs away from the city to live in nature. I've only had one copy of the first edition, fine in a fine dustjacket, which sold VERY quickly-and I still miss it.
Paulsen, Gary THE HATCHET. Published in 1987 this is another nature survival story, much more gritty and realistic than George's "My Side of the Mountain".
Paulsen, Gary THE HATCHET. Published in 1987 this is another nature survival story, much more gritty and realistic than George's "My Side of the Mountain".
Starting with Trixie Belden (the only series title in my list) I went through an extended phase where I'd only read it if it were a mystery. I've probably read every mystery title by Phyllis Whitney, Betty Cavanna, Elizabeth Honness, Sobal's Encyclopedia Brown...the list is extensive and I loved them all. It is a bit of a surprise that the only plots I actually remember are the following two books:
Raskin, Ellen THE WESTING GAME. Published in 1978, this title was a Newbery Award winner. Confession time--any Ellen Raskin title whether it was illustrated or written by her would go in my dream collection.
Platt, Kin SINBAD AND ME. Written in 1966 and the winner of the Edgar Allan Poe award for best juvenile mystery; what's not to love about a mystery that combines a boy, a bulldog and architecture. I've seen an early paperback copy of the book in barely Very Good condition go for $80. I've never seen a hardback first that was not a library discard.
This would be the core of the my dream collection, the more I write the more I could add....
Saturday, June 17, 2017
webstores: a bit ramble and a whole lot of rant
Once again I'm pondering whether I should have a stand alone website for my book inventory. I've had a website in the past and found that the headache of maintaining it, especially in regards to PCI (credit card) security compliance, resulted in it not being cost or time effective to keep.
I sell my inventory of out of print and collectible children's books on ABEBOOKS, Amazon and Bibliofind and in the past there were more than enough sales on these sites to keep me busy. However, Amazon's book database is a hot mess, and since Amazon bought ABEBOOKS, my sales on that site have dropped significantly. Granted, economic reasons have something to do with drops in sales, but the fundamental problem with listing inventory only on the large database sites is not competition with dealers selling like inventory, it is having your listing noticed at all among the Print on Demand, the poorly or partially described listings and the scrapers who copy everyone else's listings and offer books for sale that they don't own and ridiculously marked up prices.
Eh, while I ponder whether I'm going to set up another website or just complain, please visit us at:
Windy Hill Books & Ephemera
I sell my inventory of out of print and collectible children's books on ABEBOOKS, Amazon and Bibliofind and in the past there were more than enough sales on these sites to keep me busy. However, Amazon's book database is a hot mess, and since Amazon bought ABEBOOKS, my sales on that site have dropped significantly. Granted, economic reasons have something to do with drops in sales, but the fundamental problem with listing inventory only on the large database sites is not competition with dealers selling like inventory, it is having your listing noticed at all among the Print on Demand, the poorly or partially described listings and the scrapers who copy everyone else's listings and offer books for sale that they don't own and ridiculously marked up prices.
Eh, while I ponder whether I'm going to set up another website or just complain, please visit us at:
Out of Print and Collectible Children's Books
Bacova, Va
Hours by Appointment
dana@finebks.com
dana@finebks.com
browse or search our inventory at:
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
off topic
....for the friends who don't understand why we would move "way back and beyond" to Bath Co Virginia.
Photos taken by our daughter Milana on a hike along Back Creek in late April.
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Benet/Duvoisin Mother Goose
I just had to post a picture of the 1938 Heritage Press Mother Goose that I got at auction.
(It's a little bit sad that I am excited because I have a 79 year old children's book that has never been in the hands of a child.)
Heritage Press
I went to a country auction a couple weeks ago, hoping to be top bidder on some children's book classics published by the Heritage Press. And I was the winning bidder- on the complete lot of 214 titles.
So while I got books that I'm familiar with like; Grimm's Fairy Tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass, Munro Leaf's Aesop's Fables and the 1938 Duvoisin illustrated Mother Goose, I also ending up with a whole bunch of titles and illustrators that are only vaguely familiar to me.
I have 6 more boxes to research and add online, my link for the Heritage Press books, that I have listed so far:
So while I got books that I'm familiar with like; Grimm's Fairy Tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland AND Through the Looking Glass, Munro Leaf's Aesop's Fables and the 1938 Duvoisin illustrated Mother Goose, I also ending up with a whole bunch of titles and illustrators that are only vaguely familiar to me.
I have 6 more boxes to research and add online, my link for the Heritage Press books, that I have listed so far:
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