Vacation fun for boys and girls : embracing stories from fairy land, stories from natural history, stories of wonderful things in the sea, on the land and in the air, stories from home life and stories of games indoor and out, which little folk Love.....

Almost every other page is a full page illustration. An interesting combination book. At first I thought I had a rare copy of "Merry Little Monarchs" of which there is only one copy in Worldcat. But the title page said, "Vacation Fun for Boys and Girls," of which there are only two copies in Worldcat. So, it looks like the bookbinder who restored this book made his favorite book out of the two, or made a mistake. I do not have the interior of "Merry Little Monarchs" so the buyer will receive the cover of that book bound with the interior of "Vacation Fun," which itself is a rare book. Here are more details: "Vacation fun for boys and girls: embracing stories from fairy land, stories from natural history, stories of wonderful things in the sea, on the land and in the air, stories from home life and stories of games indoor and out, which little folk love so well: enlivened by the choicest selections from the poetic world." W.W. Houston & Company. Philadelphia : W.W. Houston & Co., 1894. The author is unstated, and so are many of the texts and all of the illustrations. There look to be about one-hundred and twenty illustrations. There is one every other page except in a few cases where there is one every page. The book is unpaginated, but there is old fashion handwriting in pencil that numbered the pages up until page 162 and then stopped. The writing is not very large and in the same area on every page. There looks to be about 250 pages total. The book is clean and has very good integrity. There is some chipping and small tears but only on a few pages. These types of old Children's books are notoriously brittle, and this one survived well There are two original pieces of Children's art, one of "Benjamin Franblena" (it looks like a mocking drawing but perhaps it's by a child who couldn't yet spell?) and another one is a woman in Victorian dress. Both are on back endpapers, each one on a separate side. The bookbinder did an excellent job and the materials used are all high quality. There are two sheets of cellophane which I presume are to protect a delicate front endpaper. There are also new very hard and durable thin cardstock endpapers added by the bookbinder. The original spine is no longer present and instead is the bookbinder's cloth. Only the cover is present for "Merry Little Monarchs.".