Best in Children's Books, Volume 2 by Mary Macnab

Other reprints have the same contents and images, but a different coloured spine which often correlates to the colour of the duotone images inside the volumes.

The number of each volume is not indicated on the external binding, but can be found only via a very small number on the bottom right of the title page or on the back flap of the dust jacket if you have one (you can see in the image to the right that the title page of this volume is marked with a tiny ’15’.) A couple of volumes were reprinted with slightly different contents, and these are typically designated by the addition of a lower case “a” following the volume number (i.e. In total, there were 42 volumes published. It includes a complete listing of all books in the series with their contents.The ‘Best in Children’s Books’ series was released through the Doubleday Book Clubs from 1957 to the late 1960s. This description is taken from 'Best in Children's Books Index' by Dee Jones, a webpage created for the de Grummond Children's Literature Collection at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Mythology was introduced with stories about Pandora, Ulysses, Pegasus, Damocles, and Jason. A love of history was fostered through stories about Abraham Lincoln, Napoleon, Benjamin Franklin, Daniel Boone, Robert Fulton, Clara Barton, Marco Polo, and the Wright Brothers. Every volume had an informational piece on a different country, complete with photographs, introducing children to new and exotic lands like Japan, Israel, and Thailand. Included were numerous folk and fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm Mother Goose rhymes retellings of Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood and The Ugly Duckling and adaptations of Robinson Crusoe, A Christmas Carol, and Gulliver's Travels. Reprints of volumes were designated by the addition of a lower case 'a' following the volume number.Įach volume contained a mix of classics, new stories, and non fiction. The volume designation is difficult to determine at first glance, since it is marked only by a number on the bottom right corner of the title page and on the back flap of the dust jacket. In all, there were 42 volumes published, each issued with a full color dust jacket. From 1957 to 1961, the Doubleday Book Clubs, under the Nelson Doubleday imprint, published a multi-volume work entitled Best in Children's Books.

Best in Children's Books, Volume 2 by Mary Macnab