I have been working in recent days on an in-depth essay about, Grace Huntington, the second woman to join Disney's Story Department. I am extremely proud of that essay which covers a lot of new ground and which will be released next year in the second volume of the Hyperion Historical Alliance Annual.

For those of you who have yet to pick up the first HHA Annual, it is still available on Amazon and contains some really in-depth essays exploring a large variety of fascinating Disney-history-related topics. From my standpoint (I am not the most objective observer, of course) this is Disney history at its best.

Speaking of which: you will notice that I try to review or promote all the relevant Disney history books that are released. You will also notice, from time to time, that I specifically avoid mentioning a few books. Usually when I ignore them it means that they do not meet bare minimum of quality standards when it comes to Disney history, This is especially the case for books that present themselves as "non-fiction" and end up being "historical fiction."

Thankfully there are not too many of those and there are enough well-researched, reliable new Disney history books that I still have my work cut-out for me for years to come.

This website contains some marvelous documents. Thanks to Michael Goldberg for the heads up!

I thought I had finally caught up on all the great Italian books about Disney comics that have been released in recent years, when I realized that three more have been published when I wasn't looking. Oh well...

This newly released book by Les Clark's daughter could be really interesting. I am especially looking forward to the illustrations and the personal insights about Les that only Miri can share.

As the holidays are getting closer, please remember that the great hard-cover, full-color, 148-page long, heavily-illustrated (more than 150 illustrations) monograph about The Making of Walt Disney's Fun and Fancy Free by J.B. Kaufman is now available for purchase at this link and on Amazon.

For those of you who live in Europe, it should become available soon via a French distributor in order to lower the shipping costs (more about this soon).

The new Vault of Walt volume has just been released.

The Disney Books Network has just been updated.

The fifth volume of They Drew as They Pleased is being sold at a very great 36% discount on Amazon at the moment. Time to pick it up if you are looking forward to get it now or for the holidays.

There have been so many good books released about Disney history in recent months that I started re-reading my recent reviews a few days ago to make sure than I did not short-change some of them by reviewing them too quickly.

While doing so, I realized that I had made at least one obvious mistake in one of those reviews. I have now been able to read in detail The Art of Disney Costuming and, while I do regret that it does not feature more costumes and historical info about Walt's era (which I suspect comes from the fact that those costumes did not survive), I really, really enjoyed the absolutely gorgeous photographs of the new costumes as well as the great stories and anecdotes that discuss their creation!

If you are a fan of the new live-action Disney features or if you have friends who are, this is definitely a "must-have" for you or a great gift for your friends.

And there is even a double-page about one of The Black Hole costumes, which truly made my day!

I have now removed my original review which does not reflect how I truly feel about this beautiful book.

Someone just found our full 2019 D23 Expo presentation on YouTube. Glad to share.

I just received a copy of this upcoming book.

If you love Disney musicals you will love it. It is beautifully illustrated and well-written. Not a lot is new in it. It is just a very enjoyable, very well produced book that makes for a great gift for the holidays.

Did anyone of you read this recently released Italian book? Is it worth picking up?

My friend David Bossert's upcoming book just showed up for pre-order on Amazon: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: The Visual Companion.

My good friend David Peake just spotted online those interesting book covers for three books to come. Interesting!

I can't wait to finally read this book which was released yesterday.

I just stumbled upon this book on Amazon. For those of you who are fans of Don Rosa's Disney comics and who wonder about Don Rosa, the man and the artist, this book may be for you. Apparently it is more about his house, hobbies and life than about his work, though. Be warned.

This just in.

Walt's People - Volume 23 should be released around the end of October. Here are the caricatures that will appear on the cover, courtesy of John Musker.

I am back from a quick European business trip and I have now received a copy of this new book for kids. I am really enjoying it. The author did his homework and I find the content to be almost 100% accurate (I have one minor doubt on one specific page, but it is a really small one).

Then again, who would not love a book for kids that features not just Walt but also Marty Sklar, Rolly Crump and Mary Blair among others.

A very nice gift for the holidays.

The publisher Penguin Random House contacted me a few days ago to make me aware of the new book for kids, I Am Walt Disney. The other books in the series are a pure delight so I have a feeling this one may be too.

I will post a review and a few interior pages as soon as I get it next week. In the meantime, here is the blurb I got from the publisher:

[We are pleased to announce "I am Walt Disney," the 18th picture book in the New York Times bestselling "Ordinary People Change the World" series of biographies about heroes. This book, by best-selling author Brad Meltzer and illustrator Christopher Eliopoulos, tells the story of Walt Disney, who made dreams come true. This friendly, fun biography series focuses on the traits that made our heroes great--the traits that kids can aspire to in order to live heroically themselves. Each book tells the story of one of America's icons in a lively, conversational way that works well for the youngest nonfiction readers and that always includes the hero's childhood influences. This volume features Walt Disney, who makes dreams come true for himself and countless kids around the world.]