Customer Reviews

The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury: Picture Books and Stories to Read Aloud

5 star:		(110)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the best single-volume collection of children's picture book stories I have seen. My children had many of the stories in softcover editions and most of these translate well in the format of this collection. Others were entirely new to us. Many truly classic children's stories are in this book and most of the best children's picture book authors are represented. The book is versatile: you can take this one volume on a trip and not need any other story book for your preschooler. The only drawback is that in some instances, not all of the illustrations for a particular story are included or the illustrations are much smaller than in the original book. However, the quality of the printing and paper is excellent, so this is not a distraction. My 4-year-old pulls this book off of the shelf every night.

With forty-four beloved children's tales in this book, it is a welcome resource for parents of small children.

It would be easy to spend thousands of dollars on children's books. Fortunately, this collection can help. A parent can substitute this volume for individual books, or can evaluate stories and decide whether or not to purchase a separate copy. I was disappointed to learn from one reviewer that illustrations were missing from books; I wouldn't have known since I was reading many of these stories for the first time, and can understand the editorial difficulties leading to such a decision, but it is too bad. The stories range from classic (Madeline, Goodnight Moon, Curious George, Where the Wild Things Are, Stellaluna, Amelia Bedelia, The Story of Ferdinand) to more obscure, and contain works by Marc Brown (an Arthur/D.W. story) and Dr. Seuss.

A color key both in the Table of Contents and at the bottom of each page lets you know for what age level each story is most likely appropriate: toddler, preschool, or 5+. At 10 by 11 inches, I would suggest getting the hardover edition, since kids and parents will drop this larger book more often (in addition to normal wear and tear).

An introductory Note to Parents is helpful, and the book concludes with Biographical Notes, a Guide to Reading Ages, and an index.

This is a remarkable book and our child loves it -- and so do we. You and your child may very well love it, too!

This is a good book for reference but if you intend to buy it INSTEAD OF the children's classics it includes, you will be missing out on a lot. Please read the School Library Journal review and Booklist review in entirety before making a decision to buy this, they both touch on the problem of condensing stories and missing illustrations with the effect they have on the stories' impact. It is especially noticable for stories that rely on illustrations for pacing or an element of surprise. I find that my kids, both beginning readers, do not go to this book on their own the same way that they will run to look at any of their favorite individual story books and although we use it, it is usually only as a convenience to me (to avoid hunting down and carrying several goodnight books). If it gets you to read more, great, but for fostering a love of these classics in your kids there is nothing like using the real individual books in their covers, formatted as originally intended.

This is an absolutely wonderful book. I have 3 young children (ages 2-6)and this book is a favorite. We keep it at our bedside for storytime. It has stories for every reading level. You will probably remember many of them from your own childhood. What a collection, all together in a beautiful hardcover book!

It was an admirable venture. Take 44 classic children's stories and combine them into one, reasonably priced volume. I bought my copy through BOMC, which raved about it. The description said, "44 classic stories, including the entire text and original illustrations." Well, I can assure you that "entire" only refers to the text. Most of the stories are missing critical illustrations. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel is missing 50% of the original art. As is Sneeches, Make Way for Ducklings, Titch, Sylvester and the Magic Pebbble, and MANY more. As I was reading Sylvester and the Magic Pebble to my daughter, we got to the part where a wolf sits on the rock-that-was-Sylvester and howls at the moon. My daughter, who is 6 and has never before heard the story, said, "Dad, where is the picture of the wolf sitting on the rock?" "Good question, honey. I suspect that some pictures were left out to save money." I can appreciate the challenges the publisher faced in trying to take stories that were orginally printed in different shapes and formats and trying to make them fit in one book. In many cases, however, it is a lost cause. If the art wasn't killed, it was shrunk or placed on the wrong page or put in the margin, etc. To be truthful, although I think the book is a dismal failure and can understand why Amazon is selling the book at 50% off, my daughter loves it. BOMC offered to let me return the book and I have declined because of my daughter's protests.

My six year old daughter loves the stories in this book of collective stories. She is even able to read many of them by herself. What I like the most about this book is that it includes a majority of stories I have never read before and I found this to be extremely refreshing. My favorite story is a sing-songy story about the alphabet called "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom". My daughter's favorite is "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day". I purchased this book to take on vacation with us since it is filled with so many stories...and my daughter, Keri, was used to having two stories read to her every night at bedtime. I was so thankful to have the book...it provided so much entertainment every night on vacation and since! The illustrations are plentiful and wonderful. However, since it is a collective of many books it was not possible to include all of the original illustrations from each story. If you only buy one book of collective stories...this is definately the one to own!

I bought this book after checking it out at the library and being in awe at the wonderful stories in it. My boys are 2 and almost every night at dinner we read a new story. With classics from Curious George and Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel to the rhythmic Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, there are surely stories to fit every need. The book also lists which stories are appropriate for different ages. Most of the stories are condensed to 4-6 pages with lots of pictures, but some have few illustrations and are great for reading in the car, at dinner, or at bedtime when your child is really sleepy.

We own several of the individual books and will probably buy more of them for the boys to be able to read and hold. This book is too heavy and awkward for small children to be handling, but it is a convenient way to expose them (and me!) to some of the great stories that have been written over the years. Besides, you'll want to keep it in good shape to hand down to your grandchildren! This collection of stories will make a wonderful gift for new or expecting parents or for older children who love to read.

Well, that's silly! You probably are going to buy more than one children's book. But the truth is, even if you own some of these books on their own already, this collection is a great "take-along library," perfect for travel or curling up on the sofa.

Though the stories lose a little in the full-page format (stories like "Chicka-Chicka Boom-Boom" are really meant to be read a page at a time, and the built-in "suspense" suffers somewhat by seeing the pages all together), the book's comprehensiveness definitely makes up for it, as does its quality.

This book is amazingly well-bound and will stand up to a surprising amount of wear and tear. We've had ours for two years now, and even with some fraying around the edges, I've been pleasantly surprised at how durable this jumbo paperback has been. Even more surprising, the kids keep pulling it off the shelf long after newer books have lost their appeal. They can always find new and old stories: Madeline, the Tub People, Curious George... they're all here, and more.

For the old favourites you've always loved and the new ones you'll wish you had as a kid, this book makes a timeless addition to any children's library.

If your goal is to bring joy to your children through the reading of fantastic stories, this book will give you the most bang for your buck. If you have unlimited money, by all means go out and buy these books separately so you get the full-sized and complete illustrations. Whichever path you choose, these stories are too wonderful not to have for your children.

This is a great anthology of children's literature. Although some people have mentioned that artwork is lacking, there is a mention in the introduction that if your child becomes very attached to a particular story, you could purchase a separate copy of it for ease of carrying. You also could consider purchasing a separate copy if you wanted to see the full artwork.

I thought this book was a great overview because you could read the stories (with reading level indicated by a color-coded book) and decide for yourself if it was worth spending more money on individual copies. I like owning a copy because it has replaced many of my long-gone paperbacks from my childhood. Those paperbacks were made to be read, which means their longevity is limited. But this hardcover collection of some of my childhood favorites will (hopefully) hold up much longer.

So, I would buy it as an introduction to children's literature, and let your child browse and see what s/he likes. Then you can purchase separate copies later on.