Classic Children’s Tales: 150 Years of Frederick Warne; Frederick Warne, $25.00, 112 pages, all ages.

Since 1865 Frederick Warne & Company has championed the importance of providing children with their own literature, and introduced the world to Beatrix Potter, Kate Greenaway, Randolph Caldecott and Edward Lear, as well as more modern authors such as Eric Hill (creator of the Spot series) and Cicely Mary Barker (Flower Fairies). In 1983 Penguin Books acquired Frederick Warne, where it flourishes as an imprint. Now celebrating its sesquicentennial, Warne recently released a commemorative compilation of its most prestigious authors and illustrators. Classic Children’s Tales: 150 Years of Frederick Warne is a foil-stamped jewel destined to find pride of place on the bookshelves of many children’s book collectors. Devoted to Potter, Caldecott, Greenaway, and Lear, each of the four sections includes introductions supplied by modern legends Jan Pieńkowski, Paul O. Zelinsky, Lee Bennett Hopkins and Eleanor Taylor. Stories that have nurtured young spirits for generations are here, such as Caldecott’s “Sing a Song of Sixpence” and Greenaway’s “Mother Goose,” as well as a story by Beatrix Potter entitled “The Sly Old Cat” that wasn’t published until 1971, nearly thirty years after Potter’s death. These stories encourage young readers to imagine the impossible, that reading is an adventure, and that a picture is worth 1,000 words. Here’s to many more years of Frederick Warne and to the next golden age of children’s literature.