Mike Westby was kind enough to send me a copy of his newly self-published book Disney History -- Rare & Unknown.

The books is divided into three sections: Early life of Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks, Disney merchandise and Disneyland.

The section of the book that I found the most exciting is the one about the early life of Walt and of Ub Iwerks. There is a lot of new material about Ub's father and about Ub's early business venture, complete with illustrations. And Mike digs quite deep into the environment in which Walt grew up, which is also very interesting. You will not find any really new info about Walt himself but you will about his surroundings (complete with illustrations).

The section about Disneyana did not include anything new to me.

I am not a Disneyland specialist so I cannot give you an educated opinion about the third section of the book, save to say that I really enjoyed the story about the 10 millionth visitor of the park and the 10,000 pennies he was awarded by Walt.

Overall, this book is a good read, but particularly valuable if you are into Disney history minutiae and if you are especially interested in the childhood and teenage years of Ub and Walt.