You Read to Me & I'll Read to You: Stories to Share from the 20th Century (Hardcover)

by Janet Schulman (Compiler) "Amos, a mouse, lived by the ocean..." (more)
Key Phrases: tomten language, silent little language, muddy little puddle, Hemlock Mountain, Miss Kelly, Lord Garp (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Ah, The Shrinking of Treehorn. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! Flat Stanley. Even the beloved, silly The Piggy in the Puddle. Janet Schulman, editor of The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury and longtime children's book editor and publisher extraordinaire, knows how to pick 'em. Here, she has lovingly gathered 26 more best-loved stories in one stout volume. Although You Read to Me & I'll Read to You functions as a companion to her earlier anthology, it is not, as Schulman says in the introduction, more of the same. These stories, from William Steig's Amos and Boris and Daniel Pinkwater's Blue Moose to Freckle Juice by Judy Blume and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, were carefully selected based on their appropriateness for reading aloud. Storylines are more fully developed, with more words and fewer pictures. In short, these stories are just right for children in their first few years of school who can now read--but still love to be read to. This collection of absolute gems, including portions of longer chapter books, is sure to find a permanent, favored spot on young children's bedside tables, long after they've mastered reading skills. An index of titles, authors, and illustrators allows readers to find their all-time favorites--or explore a brand-new (to you) author's work. This excellent, positively historic collection of the crème de la crème of read-aloud stories belongs on every bookshelf. And, though hefty in size, remember that it's just one book to throw in the travel bag! (Ages 4 and older) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly
A companion to Schulman's The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury, this hefty anthology also has ample treasures to share. Aimed at a slightly older child than that earlier work, this volume collects 26 of last century's most memorable picture books and early chapter books (or parts thereof) and represents the works of a sterling cast of authors and artists. In her introductory note, Schulman urges parents and others to share these tales with youngsters: "It is certainly true that most children continue to enjoy being read to long after they have mastered the skill themselves." The stories span the century, from 1936 (Edward Ardizzone's Little Tim and the Brave Sea Captain) to 2000 (Virgie Goes to School with Us Boys by Elizabeth Fitzgerald Howard, illus. by E.B. Lewis), with a healthy portion of them hailing from the 1970s. Schulman balances the poignant (Judith Viorst's The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, illus. by Erik Blegvad) with the comical (Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs), the nonsensical (Horton Hatches the Egg by Dr. Seuss) with the true-to-life (No One Is Going to Nashville by Mavis Jukes, illus. by Lloyd Bloom) and gems lesser known to today's readers such as Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown, illus. by Tomi Ungerer. It's easy to imagine entire families losing themselves in these pages for hours. Ages 5-up. (Sept.)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 4-8
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; 1st edition (September 11, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375810838
• ISBN-13: 978-0375810831
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #109,550 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

168 of 171 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some of the 20th Century's Treasures....., October 4, 2001

By	Roz Levine (Virginia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Janet Schulman, editor of the 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury, is back with another wonderful collection of stories, this time geared to emerging readers and beyond. These 26 carefully chosen selections, from some of the 20th century's best known and favorite children's authors and illustrators, range from the true-to-life, autobiographical and poignant, to the magical, humorous and just plain silly. But all have one important thing in common. They beg to be shared and read aloud. Included in this volume are the very best and brightest, a veritable smorgasbord of entertaining and engaging stories...William Steig's Amos & Boris, Roald Dahl's The Magic Finger, Dr Seuss' Horton Hatches the Egg, Judith Viorst's The Tenth Good Thing About Barney, Crockett Johnson's Ellen's Lion, Judy Blume's Freckle Juice, Jon Scieszka's The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs, Maurice Sendak's Pierre, Florence Parry Heide's The Shrinking of Treehorn, Daniel Pinkwater's Blue Moose and much more. All are unabridged and feature their original illustrations. This is a collection that inspires the love of reading and invites you to read together, with your children. Perfect for youngsters 4 and older, You Read To Me & I'll Read To You is a masterpiece to share, savor and enjoy, now and in the many years to come.

68 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sharing the Love of Reading and Your Mutual Love!, December 19, 2001

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

Reading to children is tremendously important in helping them develop an interest in reading, a competence to read better, and a closeness between the reader and listener. With beginning reading books, children often memorize the pages and "read" the material back. Gradually, the memory is connected to the specific letter combinations on the page and words are learned.

For the adults, the retreat from reader to listener is often rapid during the years from ages 5-7. It is easy to forget that children love to be read to when they are older. With more difficult material, the same learning process applies. My daughter, for example, delighted in having an English teacher in 7th grade who read to the class every day.

Even if you do decide to read to one another, what do you read? It is hard to take on 150 page youth books.

Into this perceptual and content gap comes the very helpful You Read to Me & I'll Read to You. Having helped raise four children and being quite interested in reading to them . . . as well as being someone who often reviews children's books, I was humbled to realize that the very fine stories in this volume were mostly new to me. I wish this book had been published about 25 years ago so I could have read all of these stories with my children.

Most of the stories are at a third grade reading level, so the reading to one another will make a lot of progress over time. Some of the material would be appealing to kindergartners, but the vocabulary for most of the stories would be past many first graders. My suggestion is that you read all of the stories, and think about which ones will be right for the child you will be listening to and reading to. There is no organization for helping you select the stories, other than a suggestion of beginning with Maurice Sendak's "Pierre."

If vocabulary is going to be a barrier for some stories, you might start working on explaining the unknown words by working them into everyday speech before reading the stories.

Then, think about the strategy for sharing the reading. The first time you read the book together, you might explain that you are looking forward to having the book read to you in the future. Before the child can read whole sentences, you might let your child read whatever words she or he knows and you read the other words. As competence builds, you could alternate words, sentences, paragraphs or whatever is fun for both of you. A good discussion of which method to use, which story to choose, and how long to read can make the time together livelier.

Notice that if you live at a distance or have to travel, you could acquire two books and share the reading over the telephone.

One of the strengths of the selections comes in that there is a good representation of stories about both boys and girls.

The original illustrations appear with the stories, which give them extra character for encouraging the right kind of emotion for reading aloud.

My favorite stories in the book are "Wilma Unlimited" (about Wilma Rudolph overcoming challenges to become a track champion), "The Bears on Hemlock Mountain" (handling danger in the dark), "The Practical Princess" (turning a princess into a dragon slayer and brave heroine), "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney" (dealing with the death of beloved pet) and "Flat Stanley" (about a boy who is temporary flattened and experiences a change in his life style).

Other excellent stories are "Amos & Boris" (a whale and mouse pair who help each other somewhat like the lion and mouse do in the Aesop's Fables), "The Magic Finger" (Roald Dahl's fantasy about role reversals between hunters and the hunted), "Horton Hatches the Egg" (Dr. Seuss's classic story about faithfulness), "The Araboolies of Liberty Street" (challenging what "different" means), and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" (a food fantasy).

The only story in the collection that I disliked was "No Kiss for Mother." If any of the stories are not your cup of tea, you can obviously skip it or them.

Having established the pleasant precedent of doing this mutual reading, I suggest that you continue to do it past third grade . . . graduating on to material that your child loves the most and would like to read and have read to her or him. I suspect you will have a happy reading partner at least until the teenage years arrive. Now, what could be nicer than that?

Give the gift of yourself and your love of reading . . . every day!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Book, January 30, 2003

By	Arlecia (Minneapolis, MN) - See all my reviews

I found this book on the sale table at my local Border's Book Store and though it might be fun to read to my soon who was 4 - 1/2 at the time. We both enjoyed the stories and I have read some of them by myself. My favorite is The True Story of The Three Little Pigs. As a budding stand up comic I have always found that there is a lot of fun and laughs in fairy tales and this story proves it. My son likes the longer stories and if it is to long we do it over two nights. I would recommend this book for anyone who enjoys reading to their kids and it also helps with children learing new words and works on their attention span.