Berta Hader, Elmer Hader

Inscribed second printing of the first edition of this Caldecott Award winner – with an original watercolor and inscribed to Marian Young, a prominent librarian and member of the Caldecott Award selection committee.

• Berta Hader and Elmer Hader (American).
• New York: Macmillan, 1948. 
• 48 pages.
• Illustrated by Berta Hader and Elmer Hader in color and black and white. 
• Inscribed by Berta Hader and Elmer Hader on the half title, along with an original watercolor spread across both pages and designed around the title, addressed "Greetings to Marian C. Young."
• Original blue cloth lettered in white, blue and white snowflake endpapers, in original unclipped ($2.50) color pictorial dust jacket. 

The Haders' original watercolor spans the half title and facing page and depicts a snow-capped cottage with trees, skillfullly and seamlessly connected to the printed bird illustration on the half title, effectively building upon their own book. The Big Snow, winner of the 1949 Caldecott Medal, shows the various preparations for winter made by woodland animals: a lovingly observed reflection of the artists' real-world concern for nature conservation and animal rights. A lovely association copy whose recipient, librarian Marian C. Young, was chief of the Children's Department at the Detroit Public Library and chair of the 1956 Newbery-Caldecott Award Committee; Young also served as the 1950-1951 president of the Michigan Library Association and 1967-1968 president of the Detroit chapter of the Women's National Book Association.