Best in Children's Books series by Doubleday

I'd really like to tidy up this series Best in Children's Books, but without an editor (no name is listed inside any of the books I have) I don't know where to begin. There are hundreds of books from this series on LT: authors are listed according to most famous, various, different authors, or left blank. I have about 15 of them in my library. Each edition is numbered; I'm guessing they go up to the 30s or 40s.

For example, there are about 10 copies of #16, but how to combine them when none of the authors are the same.

Thanks for any input!

I'm not sure what you're asking since that book isn't currently in a series and I can't find a series with that name. If the individual books in the series are common children's books, then they should *not* be put into a series because each book will have been printed by many different publishers, one edition will be in the series but all the other editions won't be.

However, you also seem to be asking about combining the individual books, but that question would be better answered on the Combiners group.

Best in Children's Books was, I believe, published as a sort of hardcover periodical in the 1950s. They are hardcover and have dustjackets, so I consider them Books. Each volume is numbered, has a unique cover, contents, and dustjacket and is published in consecutive years by the same publisher (Nelson Doubleday); therefore I consider them a Series, not a set.

Since each unique volume is an anthology of various children's literature, and NO editor is stated for any of these volumes (beyond the nebulous "staff of experts"), each LTer has interpreted their listing in unique ways. Some add some of the story's titles within the book to the title, i.e. Best in Children's Books # 10 Lassie Come-Home, The Story of William Tell Some list a jumble of authors, and most do both: a hodge-podge of a title AND a jumble of authors.

And now, I'll take your suggestion to ask the Combiners if they can help me with this.

Best In Children's Books was a series that you subscribed to and then recieved a new book every month or so. My grandmother subscribed for me and I could hardly wait for my new book to come.
I still have some of the books and I am wondering if they are "collectable" or not. I loved the books growing up and wonder if anyone else did?

#5
As a matter of fact, I cleaned those (again) today.

Why on earth did you remove the linked work http://www.librarything.com/work/10065886 from the series? With over 120 copies, it's easily the work with the largest number of copies. This way, anyone whose work ends up there will probably never realise that there is a full series page.

Well, according to the CK history, you're the one who blanked the series field on that work. All water under the bridge at this point, anyway.

I've put it back in the series as 'undifferentiated'. There are some copies in there with dates that could be separated and added to the correct year, and for the unclassifiable copies, if the owners see the detail in the rest of the series, they might be inspired to add enough information to cut out their copies and add them to the correct work.

I have no idea what you all are fussing about. But if you want to put your dispute into words us simple ole' bookreaders can understand...I guess I will try to figure out if anything you wrote about pertains to the book series I am trying to get information about.

Yeah, I'm having a hard time reading between the lines, too. But I think that's because I'm not fluent in Petty Grudge.

;)

There are at least 42 volumes in the Doubleday Best in Children's Book series. These were issued book club style. The books contain reprints of stories and parts of stories from other books.

Some volumes have two variants, a regular number and a later "A" version. The volume numbers can be found on the table of contents page in the lower corner.

Although seldom seen with them, dust jackets were issued for these volumes.

This is obviously a publisher series.

James Keeline

Collectorator, I was looking up these books to buy for my mom as a gift and this sight popped up. would you mind telling me what you are asking for a set of these Best in Children's books? My mother had this set as a kid and lost them in a flood. She could only save two books out of the whole set. Let me know when you have a minute. Thank you.

I love this thread :)

Collectorator I wonder if you sent the books off to a loving home?

:)

Well good! And good luck in the finding :)

collectorator do you still have your set? I am looking for one for my homeschool library!