I looked at a guidebook for Wonder books and did not see any with a diagonal white triangle on the cover. Are you confusing them with the elf books? The Wonder books began in 1947. They were changed in size about 1948.
Winnie
http://cgi.ebay.com/1952-Raggedy-Anns-Merriest-Christmas-Wonder-Book_W0QQitemZ280168837293QQihZ018QQcategoryZ279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting
This is an example of the rectangle at the bottom of the wonder book. I think it says "new long- life binding."
That's usually how I know the wonderbook isn't a first edition.
Thanks for the help.
Winnie
Ok, I misread and was looking for a triangle...This little ribbon is telling you about a new binding. It is visible in the guidebook on books 1950 and later. I know nothing about the shorter book. I am not an expert on wonder but know of them because of my golden collection. The stapled books were not looked on favorably by librarians so a lot of changes happened to make the books more durable in childrens hands.
I am hesitant to purchase a book with that notation. It means as much as 24 pages could be deleted in the printing. But I am having trouble finding first editions.
Thanks for your help
Winnie
How do you tell first editions??? I was under the belief that Wonder books were not marked.
Wonder books are not generally marked. Some editions have a red fancy near-parallel line on the left corner. Usually these are not as recent as editions with the white rectangle. But usually red-marked ones are not first editions either. The best first edition I have has 44 pages and has neither of the aforementioned markings. Basically the only way I can pick out a first edition is by the number of pages.
Winnie
Since the above posts seem to be about first editions for the 50's back I would recommend using the last title listed on the back cover as a guide for telling first editions. In most cases the title and the back number should be within one to fives numbers of each other.
This would not hold true for the first 12 or so titles that were originally printed as larger books. When these were changed to the smaller more familiar size the titles listed on the back showed all of them. -Steve Santi
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Wonder books were printed during the same years as Golden Books. In the later years Wonder Books had a diagonal white rectangle on the lower right bottom of the front cover. Usually books with this mark on the cover have less pages than the first edition. Do you know what year these rectangles were added to the book covers? Thanks.