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Best in Children's Books, Volume 1
1. Abraham Lincoln - Ingri and Edgar Parin D'Aulaire
2. How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin - Rudyard Kipling
3. A Child's Garden of Verses - Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Hansel and Gretel - Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
5. Mother Goose Rhymes
6. The Story of Gold - Maud and Miska Petersham
7. Puppet Play - Tina Lee
8. What a Magnet Can Do - Gerald S. Craig and Sara E. Baldwin
9. Animal Children
10. Angus and the Cat - Marjorie Flack
11. Pancakes for Breakfast - Grace Paull
12. This Is Australia
2. How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin - Rudyard Kipling
3. A Child's Garden of Verses - Robert Louis Stevenson
4. Hansel and Gretel - Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm
5. Mother Goose Rhymes
6. The Story of Gold - Maud and Miska Petersham
7. Puppet Play - Tina Lee
8. What a Magnet Can Do - Gerald S. Craig and Sara E. Baldwin
9. Animal Children
10. Angus and the Cat - Marjorie Flack
11. Pancakes for Breakfast - Grace Paull
12. This Is Australia
- GenresChildrensShort Stories
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1957
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 10, 2011
my grand parents had this co9llection and when i would visit them in madison wis. i would love to have them read to me and that was in the 60 s and early 70 s
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August 18, 2016Have had this since I was a child. Kept for nostalgic reasons.
September 11, 2024
They call this series Best in Children's Books, but I'm thinking they're really most suited to kids grades kindergarten through maybe fourth grade. Kids older than that might enjoy reading them on their own -- I certainly did, certain stories and poems -- but the books are aimed at giving kids an introduction to multiple subjects and a broad background of information to build on and at providing busy parents something to read to the little ones.
I always used this in February for Abraham Lincoln's birthday, but "Pancakes for Breakfast" would probably work better in March.
The D'Aulaire's "Abraham Lincoln" is an excellent introduction for children to the sixteenth president. It ends with the end of the Civil War on a fairly positive note.
"How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" is my favorite from Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories," perhaps because it is so short! I quite like the illustrations by Nicholas, who makes the Parsee look both gloriously self-satisfied and oddly peaceful as he takes his revenge.
I highly recommend the entire book of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses," but this is a good selection, including "At the Seaside," "The Swing," "Happy Thought," "My Shadow," "The Lamplighter" and others. I loved the elaborate illustrations by Ruth Ives as a child and like them just as much as an adult.
Barbara Cooney's illustrations for "Hansel and Gretel" are perfectly satisfactory and so is this version of the story. The story hits all the usual points and includes the white duck who is generally neglected.
"Mother Goose Rhymes" is another one where I say you should get the book, although that's a bit more of a challenge than recommending Stevenson's because with Stevenson's all I need to say is go for a complete collection, but there are multiple Mother Goose books that all have their own spin on things. My favorite is The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright. The illustrations here are by Leonard Weisgard; I prefer both Wright's and Marguerite de Angeli's for the Mother Goose collection in Volume 39 of this series. Weisgard's illustrations are more simplified, which I suppose might be better for younger ones.
"The Story of Gold" covers man's history with gold, beginning with a girl "in the time of the cave men" who finds a gold nugget, moving on to gold items from the bronze age, touches on King Midas, alchemists, the conquest of the Americas, the 49ers and the Klondike rush. Then it switches to mining techniques both ancient and current. While mining has advanced from the mid-twentieth century, this is a nice historical overview and gives the child a place to start. Kids love to learn, but most kids also enjoy building on knowledge they already have, which is one of the great advantages of this series; it gives them something to build on regarding a broad category of subjects.
"Puppet Play" gives a brief overview of puppet shows, instructions on how to construct a finger puppet stage, as well as finger and hand puppets, then includes a short play with tips on how to perform it. "What a Magnet Can Do" does what it says, although only in a small way; it's mostly experiments to get the child interested in the subject and doesn't say much about magnetic fields or the commercial uses of magnets or anything like that.
"Animal Children" covers a wide range of mammalian youngsters but doesn't mention they are all mammals.
"Angus and the Cat" by Marjorie Flack is a delight, however as a child I wondered why it was the first Angus story in the BICB series because it is not the first Angus story. As an adult I picked up the entire Angus series, and while this version seemed complete enough to me as a child, the original book has a few more illustrations and an added surprise that is purely visual. But while I highly recommend the original books, this version is a delight as well.
"Pancakes for Breakfast" by Grace Paull is set somewhere in the eastern(ish) US. Ann and Peter get to spend their spring vacation with their aunt and uncle and two cousins. Ann is very much hoping her aunt will serve pancakes for breakfast during the visit, and also hoping that she can bake some of them. She is doomed to some disappointment, but enjoys sledding and other winter fun, including joining in on collecting maple sap and boiling it down, and is eventually rewarded for that hard work.
"This is Australia" discusses why Australia is "the land down under" and gives a few other tidbits in one page of text, one of photos, and two making up a map with things to look for.
This is a brilliant introduction to the series and one of my favorites.
I always used this in February for Abraham Lincoln's birthday, but "Pancakes for Breakfast" would probably work better in March.
The D'Aulaire's "Abraham Lincoln" is an excellent introduction for children to the sixteenth president. It ends with the end of the Civil War on a fairly positive note.
"How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin" is my favorite from Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories," perhaps because it is so short! I quite like the illustrations by Nicholas, who makes the Parsee look both gloriously self-satisfied and oddly peaceful as he takes his revenge.
I highly recommend the entire book of Robert Louis Stevenson's "A Child's Garden of Verses," but this is a good selection, including "At the Seaside," "The Swing," "Happy Thought," "My Shadow," "The Lamplighter" and others. I loved the elaborate illustrations by Ruth Ives as a child and like them just as much as an adult.
Barbara Cooney's illustrations for "Hansel and Gretel" are perfectly satisfactory and so is this version of the story. The story hits all the usual points and includes the white duck who is generally neglected.
"Mother Goose Rhymes" is another one where I say you should get the book, although that's a bit more of a challenge than recommending Stevenson's because with Stevenson's all I need to say is go for a complete collection, but there are multiple Mother Goose books that all have their own spin on things. My favorite is The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright. The illustrations here are by Leonard Weisgard; I prefer both Wright's and Marguerite de Angeli's for the Mother Goose collection in Volume 39 of this series. Weisgard's illustrations are more simplified, which I suppose might be better for younger ones.
"The Story of Gold" covers man's history with gold, beginning with a girl "in the time of the cave men" who finds a gold nugget, moving on to gold items from the bronze age, touches on King Midas, alchemists, the conquest of the Americas, the 49ers and the Klondike rush. Then it switches to mining techniques both ancient and current. While mining has advanced from the mid-twentieth century, this is a nice historical overview and gives the child a place to start. Kids love to learn, but most kids also enjoy building on knowledge they already have, which is one of the great advantages of this series; it gives them something to build on regarding a broad category of subjects.
"Puppet Play" gives a brief overview of puppet shows, instructions on how to construct a finger puppet stage, as well as finger and hand puppets, then includes a short play with tips on how to perform it. "What a Magnet Can Do" does what it says, although only in a small way; it's mostly experiments to get the child interested in the subject and doesn't say much about magnetic fields or the commercial uses of magnets or anything like that.
"Animal Children" covers a wide range of mammalian youngsters but doesn't mention they are all mammals.
"Angus and the Cat" by Marjorie Flack is a delight, however as a child I wondered why it was the first Angus story in the BICB series because it is not the first Angus story. As an adult I picked up the entire Angus series, and while this version seemed complete enough to me as a child, the original book has a few more illustrations and an added surprise that is purely visual. But while I highly recommend the original books, this version is a delight as well.
"Pancakes for Breakfast" by Grace Paull is set somewhere in the eastern(ish) US. Ann and Peter get to spend their spring vacation with their aunt and uncle and two cousins. Ann is very much hoping her aunt will serve pancakes for breakfast during the visit, and also hoping that she can bake some of them. She is doomed to some disappointment, but enjoys sledding and other winter fun, including joining in on collecting maple sap and boiling it down, and is eventually rewarded for that hard work.
"This is Australia" discusses why Australia is "the land down under" and gives a few other tidbits in one page of text, one of photos, and two making up a map with things to look for.
This is a brilliant introduction to the series and one of my favorites.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews