REDISCOVERED TREASURE — LAZY LIZA LIZARD’S TRICKS

Here is a very scarce children’s book that just turned up in a storage box, having been misplaced for years. It was published by The John C. Winston Company in 1953, and may have seemed old-fashioned even then. Marie Curtis Rains, who lived in Cincinnati, OH, wrote the story, and Vera Neville did the charming and hilarious black and white drawings on full page plates as well as chapter-headings and in-text illustrations. The 8vo hardback book has green cloth covers with drawing of Liza on the cover, 119 pages, and formerly lived in a high school library that put a white letter on the spine and a discrete black identifying stamp on the title page and half-title. It is in less than very good condition because of worn cover edges and some soiling, but it is tightly bound, all intact, complete and unmarred by underlining or tears on the pages. And the stories of Mr. Frog, Mr. Snake, Old Lady Fieldmouse, Dr. Doodle-Bug, One-Foot-Dooless-Drake and especially Liza Lizard herself are droll, funny and wise in the manner of Thornton Burgess and other writers of stories about anthropomorphic animals. There are six chapters, and although books for elementary school children were not called “chapter books” in 1953, that’s what this is. Some people must remember Lazy Liza with great fondness, because there are only a few copies of this book to be found for sale on the internet, and they are quite pricey. This one is too, but less than any others I could find.

LAZY LIZA LIZARD’S TRICKS, by Marie Curtis Rains, Pictures by Vera Neville The Junior Literary Guild and The John C. Winston Company, 1953, presumed 1st Edition, HB, 119 pages, ex-lib
$220