SCOPPETTONE, Sandra. Suzuki Beane. Drawings by Louise Fitzhugh. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Company, 1961. 4to, 96pp. Color pictorial boards. Pictorial endpapers; b&w illustrations on every page. Spine ends lightly rubbed, else a fine copy in original color pictorial dust jacket (slight soiling, small dampstain to front, light edgewear). Scarce.

First edition. The charming story of a hip, young, New York City girl named Suzuki Bean, the child of Greenwich Village beatniks, told in the first person in Suzuki’s own beatnik vernacular. When Suzuki befriends a “real square” boy named Henry, they find that both his and her parents object to them being friends. So they decide to go “on the road” and start their own village “where a square and a swinging cat could swing in peace.” Illustrated by the author of Harriet the Spy. A gem of a picture book that perfectly – and hilariously – captures the voice of the beatnik scene.