Delacorte, New York, 1972, 1^st pr.  Hard cover, 117 pages.  Blue cloth with embossed illustration on front board; light shelf and spine end wear with a bit of sunning/soil along bottom edges.  Small splash mark on bottom page block with a bit of bleeding into bottom margins of a few rear pages; binding sound.  Dust jacket with price intact shows edge and cover wear, lower front corner clipped; some tape repairs on front and verso; old splash mark at lower rear panel.  Gift inscription on FEP; remainder of interior clean and unmarked.  Illustrated by author with black & white drawings.  ‘The time is the distant past, long before modern man appears on the earth.  Built in a forest of gigantic white trees, on a island surrounded by a clear blue lake, are the dwellings of the Ariels.  Of all the races living in the early world, only the Ariels have the power and freedom of flight.  But Flap, the youngest son of a proud family, cannot fly because his wings are not fully developed, and he has to make a life for himself very different from that of his airborne kin.  Out of necessity, he adopts a form of travel unknown to the Ariels, and his narrow existence is suddenly opened up to include the ground-dwellers traditionally shunned by his people.’ (from front flap)