# Is "Olivia" by Ian Falconer a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of Olivia by Ian Falconer (Atheneum Books for Young Readers / An Anne Schwartz Book, 2000) is identified by: The first printing is identified by the copyright-page number line running complete to 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). US Atheneum, New York, 2000 is the edition collected as the true first, and is the one the Caldecott Honor attaches to.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- The first printing is identified by the copyright-page number line running complete to 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1)
- The first-state jacket carries NO Caldecott Honor sticker and no printed Caldecott medallion: the Honor was announced in January 2001, several months after the September 2000 publication, so award identification on the jacket or an applied award sticker marks a later printing or a later jacket state
- Imprint should read Atheneum Books for Young Readers / An Anne Schwartz Book, New York
- Signed copies (Falconer signed on the title page) are frequently offered and the signature is not itself an edition point
- Correct publisher/imprint: Atheneum Books for Young Readers / An Anne Schwartz Book

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Ian Falconer |
| Publisher | Atheneum Books for Young Readers / An Anne Schwartz Book |
| Year | 2000 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Comic / graphic novel |
| Key point | The first printing is identified by the copyright-page number line running complete to 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1) |
| Book-club edition exists? | Yes |

## Points of issue
The first printing is identified by the copyright-page number line running complete to 1 (10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1). The first-state jacket carries NO Caldecott Honor sticker and no printed Caldecott medallion: the Honor was announced in January 2001, several months after the September 2000 publication, so award identification on the jacket or an applied award sticker marks a later printing or a later jacket state. Imprint should read Atheneum Books for Young Readers / An Anne Schwartz Book, New York. Signed copies (Falconer signed on the title page) are frequently offered and the signature is not itself an edition point.

## Is this the true first?
US Atheneum, New York, 2000 is the edition collected as the true first, and is the one the Caldecott Honor attaches to. Precedence over the British issue is NOT firmly documented: a Simon & Schuster UK issue exists and at least one British dealer catalogues it as a 'UK first edition, first impression' dated 2000, while other records date the UK issue 2001. Both are collected — the US Atheneum issue as the first edition, the Simon & Schuster UK issue as the first British edition — and the UK impression is identified the same way, by a complete number string including the 1.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
First-thus trap rather than a book-club trap: Atheneum's 2004 board-book Olivia is catalogued by dealers as 'First Edition Thus; First Printing' and is routinely mistaken for the 2000 first. Later Atheneum printings are distinguished by a truncated number line and by Caldecott Honor identification on the jacket.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *Olivia* by Ian Falconer a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/olivia
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.