# Is "Animalia" by Graeme Base a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Animalia by Graeme Base (Viking Kestrel, 1986) is identified by: First printing: Viking Kestrel (the Penguin Books Australia imprint), Ringwood, Victoria, 1986 — a large square quarto, unpaginated, bound in illustrated laminated hard boards and issued in the original pictorial dust jacket; for jacket state, look for a priced jacket with the price present at the flap rather than clipped. The Australian edition is the true first — the census claim is correct, subject to one refinement: the place of publication is properly Ringwood, Victoria (Penguin Australia's base, in greater Melbourne), which dealers variously render as 'Melbourne' or 'South Yarra, Melbourne'.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing: Viking Kestrel (the Penguin Books Australia imprint), Ringwood, Victoria, 1986 — a large square quarto, unpaginated, bound in illustrated laminated hard boards and issued in the original pictorial dust jacket; for jacket state, look for a priced jacket with the price present at the flap rather than clipped
- The ISBN of the Australian first is 0-670-81536-5
- Two independent Australian dealers catalogue the 1986 Viking Kestrel Melbourne issue as first edition, first printing, and agree on the unpaginated collation, the illustrated laminated boards, and the original dust jacket
- Independently, the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature's archival guide to the Graeme Base papers records the first entry for the title as 'Animalia / Graeme Base
- Ringwood, Vic: Viking Kestrel, 1986'
- No number line is used; identification rests on the Viking Kestrel imprint, the Ringwood/Melbourne place, and the 1986 date on the copyright page
- Publisher imprint reads Viking Kestrel

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Graeme Base |
| Publisher | Viking Kestrel |
| Year | 1986 |
| True first | Australian edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First printing: Viking Kestrel (the Penguin Books Australia imprint), Ringwood, Victoria, 1986 — a large square quarto, unpaginated, bound… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printing: Viking Kestrel (the Penguin Books Australia imprint), Ringwood, Victoria, 1986 — a large square quarto, unpaginated, bound in illustrated laminated hard boards and issued in the original pictorial dust jacket; for jacket state, look for a priced jacket with the price present at the flap rather than clipped. The ISBN of the Australian first is 0-670-81536-5. Two independent Australian dealers catalogue the 1986 Viking Kestrel Melbourne issue as first edition, first printing, and agree on the unpaginated collation, the illustrated laminated boards, and the original dust jacket. Independently, the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature's archival guide to the Graeme Base papers records the first entry for the title as 'Animalia / Graeme Base. Ringwood, Vic: Viking Kestrel, 1986'. No number line is used; identification rests on the Viking Kestrel imprint, the Ringwood/Melbourne place, and the 1986 date on the copyright page.

## Is this the true first?
The Australian edition is the true first — the census claim is correct, subject to one refinement: the place of publication is properly Ringwood, Victoria (Penguin Australia's base, in greater Melbourne), which dealers variously render as 'Melbourne' or 'South Yarra, Melbourne'. Viking Kestrel also issued the book in the UK in 1986. The US first is Harry N. Abrams, New York, 1987, and is separately collected as the first American edition; the NCACL guide notes the book 'was very quickly published overseas, including by Harry N Abrams, New York'. A Canadian Stoddart edition (1988) and a 1986 Puffin Australia softcover also exist and are 'first thus'. Cataloguing trap: the CBCA Picture Book of the Year Honour was awarded in 1987 for the 1986 book, and the award year is frequently mistaken for the publication year.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No book-club edition is documented for the 1986 Australian first. Later-issue tells: the 1986 Puffin Australia softcover, the Abrams 1987 US issue, the Stoddart (Toronto) 1988 issue, and the long run of Penguin Australia reprints (Ringwood 1995, 1996, 1997; Camberwell 2002, 2006; Melbourne 2012 onward) are all later printings. The 10th and 25th anniversary editions, 'My First Animalia' (Melbourne: Penguin, 2013), the Animalia wall frieze tie-in, and the Graeme Base collector's set (Camberwell: Viking, 2012) are 'first thus' traps, not firsts.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Animalia* by Graeme Base a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/animalia
CC BY 4.0. Part of the Canonical First-Edition Points of Issue dataset (https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/api/first-edition-titles.json). Last reviewed 2026-07-04.