Chicken Licken, Series 606d, 1969

Chicken Licken, 1969.  This book, illustrated by Robert Lumley, was the 13th book in the original series of 27 Well-Loved Tales books.   The text, as always in the books of this series, was written by Vera Southgate.

As usual, the tales with lots of magical animals in them were given to Robert Lumley to illustrate but in this book, and here he uses humour, energy and observation to create images that will create real drama for a young child at bedtime.  The problem is, will the child be able to sleep afterwards?  Unlike the foxes in The Sly Fox and the Little Red Hen, the fox in this re-telling are triumphant – which is not the best news for fans of the eponymous hero, Turkey Lurkey, Henny Penny and co.

This copy:

Chicken Licken, matt boards, Illustrated by Robert Lumely.  It’s pretty rare to find this book in such good condition as this copy – very little wear to the boards – just a slight tilt to the spine – and clean ‘nearly-new’ pages.  It would make a very nice gift for someone.  It’s quite and early copy, too, with a revised imperial/decimal price on the back dating it to around 1970.