Roselle Ross Books

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We took our first step towards the start of summer today.  My middle child had his last day of preschool, complete with a little graduation ceremony.It’s really hard to believe that he will soon be starting kindergarten.  It seems like just yesterday he was a shy little 2 year old in his first preschool class.

Well, in an effort to help combat the dreaded mild child syndrome, we tried to make sure he felt special by having the whole family attend, which meant taking my 1st grader out of his school, my 2 year old skipping his nap, and a family trip to Braum’s for ice cream afterwards. We were home by 1:30 and it hardly took 10 minutes before older two started asking, “What are we going to do today?” Ahh, summertime.

Speaking of kids and summer, I was digging around in my garage inventory this morning before the big preschool event and saw these books.They were another find from last weekend’s Trade Days Flea Market, but I forgot to tell you about them in my last post.  I found them at the market stuffed inside a dirty ziploc bag marked $2 a piece.  I love, love, love old children’s books, and I thought these were the cutest I have ever seen. For $2 a book, they were impossible to pass up.

There are five books total, and each one is cut out in the shape of it’s main animal character and includes a small, stand-up baby animal also.  There’s Dreamy the Horse,Gambie the Gorrila,Kitty-Cat (I guess she didn’t get a special name),Bruiny the Bear (he’s missing his little baby bear), and my personal favorite Willy Billy Goat.I did a little internet research on them, and looks like they are all first editions, printed in the late 1940’s, and written by the author Roselle Ross.From what I understand of book value, condition is everything, and these guys aren’t in the greatest shape.  But the mint condition copies I found online were selling for up to $100 a book!  I highly doubt these are worth anywhere near that amount, but it’s always fun to dream a little, isn’t it?

They are really sweetly written stories with cute, simple illustrations. Whatever their value, I think they are so cute and would be a wonderful gift for a children’s book collector or beautiful display pieces for a child’s room, not to mention their value as just a great read.  They have obviously been well-loved and read many, many times.  It’s fun to think about all of the children that sat snuggled up with their mom or dad before bedtime while reading these books.  Those children all have grandchildren now! Maybe one of those grandparents will see them in my space and decide to purchase them to read to their own grandchildren.

Speaking of children, it’s dinnertime and mine are hungry.  Better to get some food on the table or there may be a revolt soon.  Hope you enjoyed the books!