Kate Seredy — The Good Master; the Singing Tree

London, George G. Harrap & Company, 1937-1940. First edition. Cloth. Early UK editions of a critically acclaimed children's series by Newbery medal winner Kate Seredy, set on a girl growing up in rural Hungary before the First World War. Early UK editions of The Good Master and The Signing Tree, two children's novels centered around a young girl in early twentith century Hungary, written and illustrated by American children's author Kate Seredy. In the publisher's original cloth. Good Master contains two hand-coloured frontispiece portraits, and all nineteen other full-page illustrations, and Singing Tree contains all thirty-one full-page illustrations. Collated complete.  Encouraged by children's book editor May Massee to write about her childhood in Hungary, Seredy wrote the Good Master set on a peevish young girl from Budapest who moves to the rural Hungarian countryside and learns the gift of gratitude. The Good Master's critical acclaim led to its sequel The Singing Tree, set years later in the First World War. The moving tale would become a Newbery Honour book the same year this Harrap edition was published. In the publisher's original cloth. Externally, mostly smart, with the odd small browning mark to boards. Slight rubbing to joints, and bumping to the heads and tails of the spines, and to the extremities. Fading to spines, with spotting to Tree spine. Offsetting to Tree free end papers, with minimal browning to Good Master pictorial end papers. Internally, firmly bound. Pages are bright and clean. Very Good . Ill.: Kate Seredy. Very Good .