A Garth Williams Treasury of Best-Loved Golden Books

My preschooler loves the Little Golden Books and we have amassed quite a collection over the years. One of my favorite illustrators is Garth Williams and when I came across this book in our local library, it was love at first sight. I knew I had to purchase a copy for our home library - the book is large, about 12" by 12", but what is good about this [though it is heavy and a bit unwieldy] is that the illustrations are large! The beauty of the illustrations really enhances the text and little ones will surely enjoy the pictures. The stories themselves are precious and consist of: A Tale of Tails, Baby Farm Animals, Three Bedtime Stories [The Three Little Kittens, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears], Animal Friends, The Golden Sleepy Book [The Whispering Rabbit, Close Your Eyes, Going to Sleep], The Friendly Book, Home for a Bunny, The Sailor Dog, The Kitten Who Thought He was a Mouse, and Mister Dog. All in all, a treasury of stories and poems that are sure to be cherished by young children!

Garth Williams is a genius illustrator of the very best in children's books. You simply can't do better. ...But you can do worse. If you only know the GB editions of GW's books from the *1970's*, you'll be in for a wonderful shock from this book. The image quality is 3X as good! So bright, sharp, distinctive and subtle in coloring. These are basically fine art plates. Lucky us! Part of it is probably due to the very high quality paper, but most of it has to be due to the LOVE OF THE ART on behalf of those who published this tribute Treasury.But there's more. (And this is where it gets a bit nasty.) For some reason, in the *1970's* GB editions of these books, the publisher often DELETED PAGES! Several of the books featured in their ENTIRETY here have many pages that never appeared in the 1970's editions. And many of these pages feature the VERY BEST ART! It was so wonderful to finally find them here. ...Dismaying as well. What a crime! I can only imagine that the publisher was trying to save paper costs: they always killed pages in groups of 4. Can you imagine the low, venal insult to art and children in doing such a thing? Here's a real example of an artist pouring his heart out, but being thwarted by chiselers. Well, maybe there's another explanation: I hope so for the sakes of GB. Thank heavens, wrongs are gloriously righted in this gorgeous new volume.I daresay you will cherish it as one of your most favorite story books, if not your #1. Thanks!

"A Garth Williams Treasury of Best-Loved Books" is a must have, right up there with "The Golden Books Treasury of Elves and Fairies". Williams is one of the best children's illustrators. His drawings have such magic that anyone who sees them can remember them well after childhood is long gone, and leaves them with a hunger to see them again. This book is pleasingly large, appx. 12" x 10.5" and the drawings are nice and big. The stories featured in the collection are: A Tale of Tails; Baby Farm Animals; Three Bedtime Stories: The Three Little Kittens, The Three Little Pigs, The Three Bears; Animal Friends; The Golden Sleepy Book featuring: The Whispering Rabbit, Close Your Eyes, Going to Sleep; The Friendly Book; Home for a Bunny; The Sailor Dog; The Kitten Who Thought He Was a Mouse; and Mister Dog. The book is 149 pages long.