I really enjoyed reading the history of Little Golden Books and Western Publishing that begins this useful and fascinating guidebook.
This book covers the numbering system of the Little Golden Books, the changing prices, how to determine editions (more complicated than you'd think), and how to determine value and condition of a book. I shows pictures of each of the Little Golden Book covers and lists them by book number, the new numbering system, Disney titles, and activity titles. The other members of the Golden Book family like Big Little Golden Books, First Little Golden Books, Little Little Golden Books, as well as promotional titles and foreign titles are included. This guidebook also contains Ding Dong School Books, Eager Reader series, Giant Little Golden Books, and Little Golden records. It includes Elf Books, Wonder Books, Treasure Books and Tell-A-Tale books, too. It tells how to date a book by the spine design and shows back cover designs through the years.
Some people have found the indexing of this book to be awkward but I did not. I was easily able to find all of the books and information I was looking for. I collect Little Golden Books for my own private use and not for resale and I love this book because it has all the front covers pictured and tells the author and the illustrator. It rekindles the old memories of titles from my childhood that I then search out to share with my nieces and nephews. I especially love Eloise Wilkins' and Garth Williams'numerous Little Golden Book illustrations and this book helped me to discover so many that I wasn't aware of before. It comes with me to many, many garage sales and has been helpful in protecting me from highway robbery that some flea market sellers would have liked to commit! The information it contains about value and how to tell what edition a book is has brought many an inflated flea market price down to a reasonable level for me. I also use it to mark off the books and editions that I have in my collection and I make notes in the book about the quality of the copies I have, so I avoid duplication and I know when an upgrade is a good idea for a purchase. Steve Santi has done a super job of compiling the data on these national treasures and I recommend this book to one and all. This is splendid Americana and is filled with lots of happy memories. ( )