I had the tremendous pleasure on Friday to receive a review copy of Mindy Johnson's new book Tinker Bell - An Evolution and spent part of my weekend devouring it.

The short review: Run to get this book.  It is full of stunning concept art and contains a large amount of brand new information about Tinker Bell and Disney's version of Peter Pan.

The longer story: Tinker Bell - An Evolution is clearly one of the best Disney History books of 2013. I will have a really hard time this year chosing between the two Floyd Gottfredson books that David Gerstein edited, Sam Gennaway's The Disneyland Story and Mindy's book, to select the best Disney History book of 2013. What I can assure you is that Mindy's book is an extremely strong contender. As you know, I love pre-production art and half of the book is full of never-seen-before storyboard drawings and gorgeous concept art (some that we already knew but a lot that we did not). And the text provides many new facts, including information about abandoned plots and characters. Finally, Mindy has identified all of Tink's real life inspirations, including Ink and Paint artist Ginni Mack and has found, for the first time, a photo of concept artist David Hall.

The book is easy to read and a feast for the eyes. It does contain a few small typos, which I suspect are the responsibility of some over-eager editor, but overall it is perfect in every way.

One would have thought that a book with such a title released by Disney would have been a "puff piece". Not so! Mindy has achieved a rare feat: writing and producing a wonderful history book and art book which will satisfy both Disney historians and the general audience alike.

Hats off.