The Gingerbread Boy, Series 606d, 1966 (later style cover)

The Gingerbread Boy, 1966.  This book, illustrated by Robert Lumley, was the 7th 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.  It’s difficult to warm to the ungrateful little Gingerbread Boy here, so keen to run away from the nice couple, but it’s still a bit of a shock when he gets eaten by the fox at the end.

This copy:

The Gingerbread Boy, glossy laminated boards, Illustrated by Robert Lumley.  This copy is the original version of the book – but the cover has the later style design – with a lime green spine and back board instead of matt, yellow coloured boards.  This is the only difference from the original version – inside, it’s the same book.  It’s in very good condition inside and out.   This book dates from the 1990s and has the original price of £1.20 on the back.