Creighton University

A few lines of prose come below a large picture on each of these 7½" x 10" pages with wavy die cuts outlining the pages and matching the contours of the cover illustration.  The pamphlet is one of a series of 52, listed on the inside of the back cover.  Here there are three fraudsters who conspire to cheat the short-legged emperor.  A bit strangely, the fraudsters describe the cloth they spin as "invisible; only the intelligent can see it."  Does not mention of invisibility already give away something of the plot.  The cloth is not invisible!  On the day of festival, he is in his underclothes.  After the child's revelation, "the emperor never tired of walking to the music."  Perhaps the best illustration is that showing only the three smiling fraudsters.  Like the others in this series, the pamphlet is 16 pages long.

A few lines of prose come below a large picture on each of these 7½" x 10" pages with wavy die cuts outlining the pages and matching the contours of the cover illustration.  The pamphlet is last of a series of 52, listed on the inside of the back cover.  In this version, the honest lumberjack is sweating profusely when his axe gets away from him.   Dangerous currents keep him from jumping in to retrieve his lost axe.  The retrieving "spirit of the waters" is pictured as an old male with a long beard and flowing long hair.  After the third "retrieval," we learn that the lumberjack's axe was an old, steel axe.  The "colleague" appears on the honest lumberjack's way home and goes immediately to the water, throws his axe in, and begins to shout.  When he claims the golden axe, the spirit says "Your axe is at the bottom.  If you want it, go get it!"  Perhaps the best image is of the spirit plunging back into the water, with only hair, eyes, and hands above the surface.

A few lines of prose come below a large picture on each of these 7½" x 10" pages with wavy die cuts outlining the pages and matching the contours of the cover illustration.  The pamphlet is one of a series of 52, listed on the inside of the back cover.  Pere's favorite activity is watching the townsfolk in their various working.  The booklet's best image is of Pere laughing at the response to his first trick.  He has so much fun that he does it a second time, and there is another strong image of him lying back and laughing as the worried townsfolk arrive with their weapons.  There is a final good image of two townsfolk going about their lives as Pere screams from a distant hill.  The back cover is a pleasant look at the front cover -- Pere calling out -- from 180 degrees away.  Well done!

A few lines of prose come below a large picture on each of these 7½" x 10" pages with wavy die cuts outlining the pages and matching the contours of the cover illustration.  The pamphlet is one of a series of 52, listed on the inside of the back cover.  In this version of Hans Christian Anderson's story, the beautiful song of the nightingale charms many and then the emperor.  His guests are charmed most of all by this nightingale.  A little girl helps him find this beloved bird.  The nightingale is happy to sing for the emperor but only in the open air; the emperor lets him out of cage with a leash every day to sing.  But one day he receives a mechanical bird.  Pull this bird's string and he will sing -- always the same song -- with exceptional quality.  In the meantime, the nightingale escapes, but his escape is hardly noticed.  One day the mechanical bird breaks down.  Fast forward to the emperor's death.  He dreams of the nightingale's songs.  The emperor dies, but the nightingale sings him back to life.  Maybe the most telling illustration shows through a window the nightingale flying off unnoticed by the engaged courtiers.

As in the Catalan series, a few lines of prose come below a large picture on each of these 7½" x 10" pages with wavy die cuts outlining the pages and matching the contours of the cover illustration.  As with all of those pamphlets, this is 16 pages long.  The pamphlet is one of a series of 52, listed on the inside of the back cover.  The 52 in this series seem to match exactly the 52 in the Catalan series.  And here the artist is the same as in the Catalan pamphlets that I have.  This version introduces us to the "airosa y gentil niña campesina" as she puts on her long stockings early in the morning.  As she carries her pitcher of milk, she admires flowers, birds, frogs.  She pauses to enjoy fantasies.  "Seré una niña importante!"  Her downfall comes as she walks along: she fantasizes the leaping of a young calf around her mother cow, and she begins to do some leaping herself: "daba un saltito de alegria."  Soon enough "pataplaf"!  But she is a spirited young woman.  She raises her head, dries her tears.  "I will retrace my steps singing."