Rhode Island Red on the cover of Aleph-Bet's latest catalogue.
Aleph-Bet Books has issued its Catalogue 96 of Children's Books and Illustrated Books. Once again, they have compiled a collection of 600 items, all illustrated in color, almost all of which fit the "children's" part of the title. A great many are classic books or classic children's authors, while others are obscure but old, often subtly or not so subtly promoting the values of their day. Indeed, you can often best understand the values of adults of an era by reading the stories and parables they read to their children. Here are some of the books for children Aleph-Bet has available this time.
Item 59 is a rare L. Frank Baum book that most clearly makes the connection between Lewis Carroll's earlier Alice absurdist fantasies and Baum's own world of Oz. The title is A New Wonderland, and it was the first children's book Baum wrote, though not the first published. Various publisher issues kept the book on the shelf until this first issue here offered was published in 1900. Rather than Wonderland, Baum's first adventures were set in "Phunnyland." He used to make up stories to tell his children. His family encouraged Baum to write them down and take them to a publisher, advice which turned out be very wise. The illustrator for this book was Frank Ver Beck, and while John Neill would illustrate most of Baum's Oz books to great acclaim, the author believed that Ver Beck had done the better job of depicting his characters the way Baum saw them. Priced at $7,500.
Item 330 is sort of a first of perhaps the greatest children's message book of all time, one you undoubtedly read to your children. It is the 1930 edition "retold by Watty Piper" (a pseudonym) and illustrated by Lois Lenski of The Little Engine That Could. We say sort of a first edition as this story in various forms had been bouncing around for years, and this edition described it as retold from M.C. Bragg's Pony Engine. This is, of course, the story of the little switch engine that hauled the big train over the mountain when more powerful engines either could not or would not. The little engine kept repeating the classic mantra, "I think I can," until it finally made it to the other side. We all hoped our children would learn its message of determination and perseverance, but they probably just took it as another entertaining tale. $1,500.
That illustration you see on the cover of this catalogue is the original artwork for William Joyce's dust jacket illustration for Stephen Manes' 1989 book Some of the Adventures of Rhode Island Red. Rhode Island Red, as the artwork implies, was implausibly born to a family of chickens. In this drawing, he has just hatched from his egg, to the great astonishment of the chickens. Item 315. $5,000.
Heritage, Dec. 15: Jerry Thomas. How to Mix Drinks, or the Bon-Vivant's Companion, Containing Clear and Reliable Directions for Mixing All the Beverages Used in the United States…
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Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("Martinus Luther") to His Friend the Theologian Gerhard Wiskamp ("Gerardo Xantho Lampadario"). $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: An Exceptionally Fine Copy of Austenís Emma: A Novel in Three Volumes. $40,000 - $60,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Presentation Copy of Ernest Hemmingwayís A Farewell to Arms for Edward Titus of the Black Mankin Press. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript Signed Integrally for "The Songs of Pooh," by Alan Alexander. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Manuscript of "Three Fragments from Gˆtterd‰mmerung" by Richard Wagner. $30,000 - $50,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Preliminary Artwork, for the First Edition of Snow Crash. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("T.R. Malthus") to Economist Nassau Senior on Wealth, Labor and Adam Smith. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides Finely Bound by Michael Wilcox. $20,000 - $30,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: First Edition of Lewis and Clark: Travels to the Source of the Missouri River and Across the American Continent to the Pacific Ocean. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Original Artwork for the First Edition of Neal Stephenson's Groundbreaking Novel Snow Crash. $100,000 - $150,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: A Complete Set Signed Deluxe Editions of King's The Dark Tower Series by Stephen King. $8,000 - $12,000.
Bonhams, Dec. 8-18: Autograph Letter Signed ("John Adams") to James Le Ray de Chaumont During the Crucial Years of the Revolutionary War. $8,000 - $12,000.
Sotheby’s Book Week December 9-17, 2025
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Hooke, Robert. Micrographia: or some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies made by Magnifying Glasses. London: James Allestry for the Royal Society, 1667. $12,000 to $15,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Chappuzeau, Samuel. The history of jewels, first edition in English. London: T.N. for Hobart Kemp, 1671. $12,000 to $18,000.
Sotheby’s, Dec. 12: Sowerby, James. Exotic Mineralogy, containing his most realistic mineral depictions, London: Benjamin Meredith, 1811, Arding and Merrett, 1817. $5,000 to $7,000.
![<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.](https://ae-files.s3.amazonaws.com/AdvertisementPhotos/8caddaea-4c1f-47a7-9455-62f53af36e3f.jpg "<b>Heritage, Dec. 15:</b> John Donne. <i>Poems, By J. D. With Elegies on the Author's Death.</i> London: M[iles]. F[lesher]. for John Marriot, 1633.")
