# Is "The Lion & the Mouse" by Jerry Pinkney a First Edition?

> **Quick answer.** A first edition of The Lion & the Mouse by Jerry Pinkney (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009) is identified by: First printing: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, 2009, large format (roughly 9.5 x 11 inches) in pictorial boards with pictorial endpapers and the priced pictorial dust jacket, price present at the front flap and unclipped. US-only true first: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, September 2009 (ISBN 9780316013567) — the census claim is correct.

**Checklist — a true first has these:**
- First printing: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, 2009, large format (roughly 9.5 x 11 inches) in pictorial boards with pictorial endpapers and the priced pictorial dust jacket, price present at the front flap and unclipped
- The copyright page of the first printing carries a complete number line including the numeral 1
- The decisive jacket point is chronological: the book was published in September 2009 and the Caldecott Medal was not announced until January 2010, so the first-printing jacket carries NO Caldecott medal printed on the front panel — dealers describe first-printing copies specifically as having no award medal on the jacket
- Later printings have the gold medal printed into the jacket and board artwork and add 'Caldecott Medal Winner' to the title
- An applied foil award sticker can be stuck onto any copy at any time and is not evidence of printing either way
- Publisher imprint reads Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Not a book-club edition (see below)

| | |
|---|---|
| Author | Jerry Pinkney |
| Publisher | Little, Brown Books for Young Readers |
| Year | 2009 |
| True first | US edition |
| Format | Children's / illustrated |
| Key point | First printing: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, 2009, large format (roughly 9.5 x 11 inches) in pictorial boards with… |
| Book-club edition exists? | No |

## Points of issue
First printing: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, 2009, large format (roughly 9.5 x 11 inches) in pictorial boards with pictorial endpapers and the priced pictorial dust jacket, price present at the front flap and unclipped. The copyright page of the first printing carries a complete number line including the numeral 1. The decisive jacket point is chronological: the book was published in September 2009 and the Caldecott Medal was not announced until January 2010, so the first-printing jacket carries NO Caldecott medal printed on the front panel — dealers describe first-printing copies specifically as having no award medal on the jacket. Later printings have the gold medal printed into the jacket and board artwork and add 'Caldecott Medal Winner' to the title. An applied foil award sticker can be stuck onto any copy at any time and is not evidence of printing either way.

## Is this the true first?
US-only true first: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, New York, September 2009 (ISBN 9780316013567) — the census claim is correct. The first British edition followed from Walker Books, London, in 2010, retitled 'The Lion and the Mouse' (ISBN 9781406332049), and is a year later; it is not a precedence contender. Note the title styling: the US first uses an ampersand, the Walker issue spells out 'and'. Later Caldecott-badged US printings are the same edition, not a separate one.

## Telling it from reprints & book-club editions
No hardcover book-club issue is documented. The tells that matter are printing tells, not club tells: the printed Caldecott medal on the jacket front panel and the 'Caldecott Medal Winner' line added to the title both mark post-January-2010 printings. Scholastic book-club and Walker paperback issues are reprints.

## Source
New Mexico Literacy Project — Is *The Lion & the Mouse* by Jerry Pinkney a first edition? https://newmexicoliteracyproject.org/first-edition/the-lion-the-mouse
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.