51 Sycamore Lane (Weekly Reader Club Edition, 1973) - Marjorie W. Sharmat, Lisl Weil

Marjorie W. Sharmat

Published by Macmillan Company, 1971

About this Item

51 Sycamore Lane, or A Spy in the Neighborhood (Weekly Reader Children's Book Club Edition, 1973) is Marjorie Weinman Sharmat's lively middle-grade mystery about Quentin's misadventures in suburban sleuthing, humorously illustrated throughout by Lisl Weil. Issued in partnership with Macmillan, the Weekly Reader edition retains all text and illustrations of the trade first printing but presents them in reinforced pictorial boards designed for classroom and library durability. Weil's expressive line art - loose, witty, slightly mischievous - pairs perfectly with Sharmat's clipped, warm comic tone and makes this an appealing period example of early-1970s illustrated chapter fiction. This copy is in Very Good condition overall, showing gentle handling consistent with age. The pictorial boards remain bright, with light edgewear, soft corner rubbing, and mild scuffing to the rear panel. The binding is sound with no looseness or cracking. Interior pages are clean, legible, and unmarked aside from mild age toning and a few faint, isolated spots of foxing to the endpapers. No writing, library markings, or ownership names. All illustrations remain crisp. A solid and attractive example of this increasingly uncommon Weekly Reader variant. Bibliographically, this is the Weekly Reader Children's Book Club Edition (1973.) Copyright pages credit both Sharmat and the Macmillan Company (1971), with production and Club identifiers at the foot of the page rather than a number line. Collier-Macmillan Canada also listed. These Club issues often had smaller press runs than the trade editions and now circulate far less frequently. Marjorie Weinman Sharmat (1928-2019) was a prolific and beloved American children's author best known for creating the Nate the Great series, which has sold millions of copies and introduced generations of young readers to detective fiction. Over her long career she wrote more than 130 books distinguished by their humor, economy, and sharply observed child perspectives.

Seller Inventory # F.SHA.1971.1

Bibliographic Details

• Title: 51 Sycamore Lane (Weekly Reader Club Edition, 1973) - Marjorie W. Sharmat, Lisl Weil
• Publisher: Macmillan Company
• Publication Date: 1971
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Lisl Weil
• Edition: Book Club Edition
• Condition: Very Good
• Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
• Seller catalogs:
  • Children's
  • Fiction