(Paris): Flammarion ( Albums du Père Castor), (1956). A highly creative colouring album from Père Castor illustrated by Gerda and destined for children up to 15 years of age. Gerda Muller was a Dutch artist, born in 1926 at Naarden in Holland and educated at the Amsterdam School of Fine Arts and Crafts, who came to Paris in search of more opportunities to work in children’s illustration. After studying at the École Éstienne, Paris, she eventually met Paul Faucher, the originator of Flammarion’s Albums de Père Castor who set her to work on a vibrant career in children’s book illustration. In the case of this particular title, Gerda and Faucher produced a colouring book with images to create against black backgrounds which would provide immediate interesting effects from the choice of colour. In themed frieze-like leporellos, children could colour in the subject matter according to the suggestions offered on the wrapper flaps. The images were offered for the child to paint or colour in order to exercise the eye, the hand and the taste. The leporello or fold-out albums albums are as follows: “j’aide papa” (work in the garden and orchard); “le luxembourg”; “ les Apprentis”; “le Jardin des Plantes”; “Amusons nous”; “en musique”; “à Paris dans ma rue”; “j’aide maman” (work in the home). Undoubtedly, arranging the images on a theme displayed as a leperollo would encourage the child to reflect on display and colour variation. Faucher or Père Castor published other frise à colorier on black backgrounds, several illustrated by Pierre Belvès. See the blog site Les Couleurs de Pierre Belvès for further detail about the development of Père Castor albums. The Albums de Père Castor were inscribed in the register “Memoire du Monde” of UNESCO for their contribution to children’s literature. Rare. So far we have located only a copy at BNFr and a copy at Princeton in the Cotsen Collection where the kind librarians, at our inquiry, have noted their cataloguing error in suggesting that there should be 10 volumes instead of 8. (Cotsen 7635) Thus, complete and rare. Unbound as issued 18 x 18 cm; within are 8 albums which each fold out to approximately 106 cm in length and contain 6 panels, printed on both sides (12 images) each panel section measuring approximately 18 x 18 cm; the dust jacket, 2 parts of which contain an 18 x 18 cm coloured image enclosing 4 albums on each side.