Beaky the Greedy Duck, 1950, (DJ)

Beaky the Greedy Duck is the sixth in the ‘Animal Stories’ series, 497.   As with the other books in this series, it was written by Noel Barr and illustrated by Percy Hickling.

This is a storybook intended to be read to young children.  Most of the stories deal with ‘naughty’ animals and the lessons they learn by the end of the book.  ‘Beaky’ is no exception – although Beaky’s humiliation feels more than a little harsh.  (There’s a happy ending!).  Originally this book was published with a dustwrapper.

This copy still has its original, unprice-clipped dustwrapper, which is in excellent condition.  There’s very little wear to the DJ (now protected by a removeable DJ sleeve) and the book too is in excellent shape.  There are unmarked blue, open-wing endpapers.  The only sign of use is the remains of an erased pencil name on the title page and small bookseller label on the back endpapers.  It isn’t the earliest copy you can find – but would make a nice gift for someone with fond memories of this story.