never judge a book by its cover

It's true!  Otherwise you might miss out on this....

or this

and the cover that I saw at the op shop minus the 50 cent price tag...

I ♥ vintage books

The illustrator is Barbara Cooney and with a bit of internet research I was able to find out that she won the Caldecott Medal twice and in her acceptance speech in 1959 she said...

I believe that children in this country need a more robust literary diet than they are getting. … It does not hurt them to read about good and evil, love and hate, life and death. Nor do I think they should read only about things that they understand. “…a man’s reach should exceed his grasp.” So should a child’s. For myself, I will never talk down to—or draw down to—children.”