Book cover: "Grandad and the Magic Barrel" by Ruth Manning-Sanders

• Title: Grandad and the Magic Barrel
• Format: Hardcover. All pages full color
• Size: 6.5 inches by 8.5 inches
• Pages: 24
• Author: Ruth Manning-Sanders
• Illustrator: Robin Jacques
• Publisher: Metheun Children's Books Ltd., London
• Printer: William Clowes & Sons Ltd.
• Color reproduction: Lawrence-Allen Ltd.
• Year: 1974
• ISBN: 0 416 78890 4
• Notes: This 41-year-old children's book is a wonderful rarity. It's a single tale by Ruth Manning-Sanders published as a hardcover book, with full-color illustrations on every page by her longtime "A Book of..." collaborator, Robin Jacques. ... This is one of three Manning-Sanders stories that were published as single-tale volumes in 1974, but the only one illustrated by Jacques. The other two — Stumpy: A Russian Tale and Old Dog Sirko: A Ukrainian Tale — were illustrated by Leon Shtainmets. ... Grandad and the Magic Barrel is a comic cautionary tale about the dangers of greed and cloning. And Jacques' stippling-technique illustrations greatly enhance the tale's enjoyment. He and Manning-Sanders were truly well-paired storytellers. ... This book, by the way, originally sold for 95 pence, per a sticker on the back cover.
• Excerpt:
  

  "We can keep fish in it," said Grandad.
  
  And he picked up the fish and dropped it into the barrel.
  
  Oh, oh, see there! See there! No sooner had that little fish fallen into the barrel than the barrel was full of fish to the brim. Tom began taking out the fish, but as many as he took out, just that number of new fish appeared in the barrel.