Two-in-one flip books, back-to-front books, double-sided books...these are all names for volumes that include two books, printed together, but upside down and back-to-back. So you read one, then flip the book over to start reading the other. The technical term for this is tête-bêche (French, head-to-tail) binding, and you can read a little more about its fascinating history on wikipedia's "dos-à-dos" (back-to-back, not *quite* the same thing) entry or here at an article from The Guardian.
This is not a common practice, and only periodically in fashion. It seems that the late 1960s and early 1970s was one of those periods. We know of two vintage series that used this approach. Companion Library is one of these, and Dandelion Library is the other. Unlike the Companion Library editions, which each combine two novels, these volumes are picture books, heavily featuring fairy tales, fables, folktales, and a decided interest in animal stories.
22 KNOWN VOLUMES (more titles below):
- Audubon's Birds / Audubon's Animals
- Pie and the Pattypan / Golden Goose and Other Favorites
- Puss in Boots and Other Stories / Queen of Hearts
- Old Rosie, The Horse Nobody Understood / Bambi's Children
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