[Children's Classic- WWI, Exceedingly Scarce] En Guerre!

Paris: Berger-Levrault, 1914. First edition. First edition. Oblong quarto. Original superb color pictorial paper covered boards with picture of child riding a stylized horse on a sagging platform, with large voluminous white clouds and blue sky in background. This is the extremely rare children's book written and illustrated by Charlotte Schaller with gorgeous pochoir illustrations throughout. The first of two children's books on the war by Schaller (both written and illustrated by her, and both published during the war. The story depicts Boby, his two sisters, and the neighborhood children acting out the first few months of the WWI. On rocking horse, enlisting his toy soldiers, ally to Belgians. One illustration, anticipating Surrealism, enacts the battle of LiËge. The Belgian army, tiny black figures less than one inch high, wages a futile assault on a pair of Prussian boots that dominate the entire landscape and sky. Corners bumped, covers worn, finger-soiled, inner hinge week, on the whole a very good copy, with illustrations very bright. Very well-preserved (considering its rarity and importance as such an Impressive children's book published during WW I, beautifully executed. With the calling card of "Berthe Phillipe" attached to the front free fly by way of small thumbnail (contemporary).