Customer Reviews

The Children's Book of Virtues

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

We're on our second read through of this book of children's morality tales.

With poems, short homilies and stories, Bill Bennett entertains young children as life's good lessons are imparted. The accompanying illustrations are visually delightful.

Some of the stories, because of word usage, appeal to a slightly older audience than my four and five year olds, but they can appreciate most of the vignettes. A good book that helps parents in childhood instruction.

My name is David. I am eight years old. I am reading The Children's Book of Virtues, edited by William J. Bennett. My favorite story so far is "The Honest Woodman." It is about a poor woodcutter who looses his old axe in a river. A water fairy brought up a silver axe and a gold axe. The woodcutter said that they were not his. When she brought up his steel axe, he said it was his. The water fairy gave him all the axes for telling the truth. Telling the truth is very important.

This is an excellent book to read to your young ones (4+) The stories are old yet the principles are ageless. The children will curl up and live these tales. I find myself truely enjoying this special time. When they get to six or seven I would strongly recommend moving to the Book of Virtues by William J. Bennett. The stories will sweep you and the children away. MY childrens favorite time is reading these stories. They actually ask for the book and seldom does anything else draw such smiles and "Thank You Daddys". Enjoy the experience.

As a homeschool mother I am always looking for great stories for my almost 7 yo and my 2.5 yo. This book is part of the curriculum for Sonlight and it is fabulous. My daughter's favorite is about two brothers, one who doesn't let his "please" out of his mouth so the "please" jumps into the other brothers' mouth (which makes him say all his "pleases" twice). Eventually though, the "please-less" mouth wants his please back and his "please" is thrilled to be at home and allowed to get some fresh air. The stories are grouped by moral or attribute (compassion, courage, etc.). Both male and female main characters throughout the stories and the poems makes this book appropriate for both boys and girls. I highly, highly recommend this book, no qualms about it.

My daughter (6 yo) loves this book, and I do too. The stories are entertaining and engaging, and the illustrations are wonderful.

The book hearkens back to good old-fashioned values and morals, and is completely unashamed in doing so. Mr. Bennett writes in the foreword that the process of intentionally instructing the young in virtues was done without embarrassment in our recent past. I enjoyed the frankness of the approach in this book. Each selection is headed by a summary of the lesson contained in it.

This collection includes poems, fables from Aesop, adaptations of fairy tales, and other stories from cultures around the world in order to illustrate certain virtues, such as responsibility, kindness, honesty, and good manners. The selections are of a good length to sustain the interest of a young(4 - 8 yo) child. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to inculcate good values.

I had this book when I was a little kid. I honestly think that by reading it, it changed how I viewed things as a child. Partially because of this book, when I was little I had strong feelings about responsiblity, kindness, courage, perserverance, and many of the other subjects illustrated in The Children's Book of Virtues. I loved reading it and the stories affected me greatly.

These tales were collected from virtually every corner of the globe and some go far back into the reaches of antiquity. Bennett and his collaborators did a fine job of finding stories of universal, fairly non-controversial appeal that we can all cite without worrying about the inherent differences in religion or politics that might otherwise divide us. Segregated according to the principles being celebrated (Honesty, Courage, etc.) these fables and true life stories demonstrate virtues of conduct far too often left unstressed in our morally-undermined society.

I have been looking for a great collection of stories that convey important values for quite some time. I had not been able to find anything good enough (or easy enough) for my 5 year old son to find interesting...until now.

The Children's Book of Virtues is a compilation of short stories and poems, many of which I remember from my youth. The book is well organized, with stories/poems grouped by the virtue they represent (courage, perserverence, etc.). So if I want my son to think about a particular virtue, maybe due to what happened that day, I can easily find an appropriate story in this book.

The illustrations are also so well done. They are colorful and expressive, catching my son's attention as I read to him.

Thank you for this book. I hope additional volumes may be developed.

My children and I just adore this book. What a lovely collection of stories all heavily demonstrating solid virtues that are Biblically rooted, not worldly. My children, ages 5 and 4, request that several stories be read time and time again. This book will grow with us through the years; they are no where near growing out of it.

Bennett compiles the stories and poems in 4 categories: courage/perseverance, responsibility/work/self-discipline, compassion/faith, and honesty/loyalty/friendship. There is a nice selection in each category of 1 paged poems, to several paged stories. There is a solid virtue to be taken from every single work.

I recommend this book highly. Fill those little minds with things that are good, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable. Also recommended by the same author are The Children's Book of Faith and The Children's Book of Heroes. Both also have wonderful collections and wonderful illustrations.

If you are looking for a book that will instill "values" in your child while s/he reads, this is just the ticket--my only hesitation is that some of the values being instilled are somewhat out-of-date, so read the book carefully. Edited by William J. Bennett (yes, that William J. Bennett--I know, I was surprised too!), the book is divided into sections, e.g., "Courage/Perseverance," "Responsibility/Work/Self-Discipline," and so on. Each section contains several tales that illustrate its titular virtues. Now the problem is this: under the section "Responsibility...," he uses the poem "There Was a Little Girl"-you know, the one with the curl. The little girl raises a huge ruckus in her bedroom which her mother assumes is being made by her brothers "A-playing at combat in the attic"; but discovering that the miscreant was her daughter, "she did scold her most emphatic." Bennett writes a brief note at the beginning of each entry, and the entry he wrote for this one is: "In this poem, we see what happens to us sometimes when we do not behave!" Come on, for Pete's sake! The real lesson in this poem is that little girls must remain quiet, acquiescent and obedient while little boys can tear up the attic all they want, because that's what little boys do! Sorry Bill, but I don't buy it, and I don't think many parents will either. But there is much in this book to recommend it, particularly the 19th century retro illustrations which Michael Hague has contributed. And it really is an excellent compendium of favorite anecdotes, poems and tales, sort of a Norton's Anthology for the nursery set. Just keep a watchful eye on the content of a few of the selections.