How the Rabbit Fooled the Whale and the Elephant; The Man Who Kept House; Why the Bear Has a Short Tail (Cover: How the Rabbit Fooled the Whale and the Elephant and Other Stories)

Abstract

Here is a new and curious experience. This book is the predecessor of another that I have already catalogued. That book's title begins Why the Bear Has a Short Tail and it is listed in 1946. Now I have found this version which retains the same number, but many things have changed. They include the name of the series, which has changed from Wonder Books--with the Washable Covers to just Wonder Books. This earlier book is larger--about 7½ x 9¾ rather than about 6½ x 8--and each of the illustrations is proportionally larger. This earlier book also has a different order of stories, and the title of the book is accordingly different. It uses a different color (salmon) and design for the cover. Here a hare reads a page about an elephant, whereas the smaller book pictures three bears against a yellow background. One of those bears reaches back to his short tail. As my comments there point out, one of the three stories is after the pattern of the wolf fishing. The title story has the clever rabbit pitting the whale and elephant against each other without their knowing it. Ludwig Bemelmans originally wrote this rabbit-story under the title Rosebud in 1942.