Cozy Classics: Moby Dick

Cozy Classics

by Jack Wang, Holman Wang, Herman Melville

Classics never go out of style—that’s what makes them classic. Cozy Classics is a new board book series that presents well-loved stories to children aged 0+. Every classic in the series will be condensed to 12 baby-friendly words, and each word will appear alongside a photograph of needle felted objects. Moby Dick is a high seas adventure about one man’s quest to find the whale who took his leg, and one of the world’s most beloved classics. Now this classic can be shared with your youngest children.

Genres: Picture Books, Classics, Childrens, Fiction, Young Adult, Juvenile, Historical Fiction

24 pages, Board Book

First published November 8, 2012

About the author

WE TWO ALONE: STORIES

* Winner of the Danuta Gleed Literary Award from the Writers' Union of Canada for best debut collection in English
* Shortlisted for the Kobo Emerging Writer Prize
* CBC Books Best Canadian Fiction of 2020
* Quill and Quire 2020 Books of the Year
* 49th Shelf 2020 Fiction: Books of the Year

JACK WANG ’s fiction has been shortlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize and longlisted for the Journey Prize. In 2014–15, he held the David T. K. Wong Creative Writing Fellowship at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England, and in 2020, he was awarded a residency at Historic Joy Kogawa House in Vancouver. He holds a BSc from the University of Toronto, an MFA from the University of Arizona, and a PhD from Florida State University, and he is an associate professor in the Department of Writing at Ithaca College. Originally from Vancouver, he lives in Ithaca, New York, with his wife, novelist Angelina Mirabella, and their two daughters.

Reviews

[Alex McEwen]

Whale!

Let me just say, I am a cozy classic. I will be reading this entire series to Lochlan.

[Wren]

The first page draws the reader in to this rollicking tale. Another great Cozy Classic.

[AH]

I saw this at the local bookstore and it took me about 3 minutes to read. If you have a new baby or toddler or know someone that does, why not introduce that child to the classics right away? The books are illustrated with lovely felt people and each page has a word or emotion that is conveyed by the book following the lengthy story line of the original.

Hey, why not purchase these for yourself and you can say that you've read Moby Dick in less than 3 minutes?

[David]

A very enjoyable and short interpretation of Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick. The plot is concisely illustrated in adorable felt figures. It even begins with "Call me Ishmael." The boat is a majestic vessel and although Captain Ahab receives focus for a large part of the book, I wonder if younger readers will not understand what has happened with the Captain's leg.

[Danette]

It looks like the whale wins.

[Alysia]

A brilliant, succinct retelling. A must read.

[QNPoohBear]

This board book tells the story of Moby Dick in 12 simple words with photos made up of needle-felted props. Someone has fun with this series! The illustrations are photos of someone's incredible works of art. The first page of this book shows an image of the first page of the novel in the background. I've never read all of Moby Dick and I'm only a little bit familiar with the story but I think this charming little book captures the story nicely. I love Captain Ahab and his leg, Moby Dick and the incredible staging on this book. My infant nephew had no opinion on the story. He just wanted to chew on the book. His mother and big sister really liked the pictures and big sister thought the one word/page text looked easy enough for her to try to read to her baby brother.

[Miss Melissa]

Why?

[Angie]

Hilarious.

[Morgan]

I don't know why I am finding these so funny.

[Amber]

Simple and to the point. I feel it covers the main points.

[Pug]

They were serious about a "12-word book." Each page was one word, which you would imagine would be difficult for these classics. The illustrations (photographs with cute, felt characters) spoke volumes. I'm very impressed with this boardbook. Not sure how well people entirely unfamiliar with the plot would be able to follow, but an easy way to familiarize yourself with the story. :)

Still, Moby was pretty cute.

[Suzy]

The illustrations truly make the “Cozy Classics” something special. The felted illustrations in Moby Dick were well executed. I would say this book could’ve used a couple more pages. I don’t feel it captured the essence and angst of Moby Dick. Definitely not for a younger audience as it has some scary themes.

[Siskiyou-Suzy]

Haven’t actually read Moby Dick so it was interesting to read it in this format. Very sparse and bleak but I love the little felt characters. Also, just introducing children to great literature is pretty cool.

[Katy]

Young readers will enjoy this brief rendition of the timeless novel. It drew in baby's attention with the word "sailor" which brought out a huge smile. Must have read the original in a previous life perhaps?

[Tomi Alger]

This is a delightful board book adaptation of the classic book. It is a good introduction to the classic story. Of course, more in depth talks about the story can accompany the reading of this volume.

[Jade]

Today's goodnight story was Cozy Classics Herman Melville's Moby Dick by Jack & Holman Wang, which presents the story of a beloved classic by juxtaposing a word with needle felted illustrations. I can report that the toddler was confused by my exclamation of "Thar she blows!"

[Cassia]

And now our entire family had read Moby Dick! Hahaha this book is GREAT! One of the best we own— just hilarious! Very well written, of course, being a classic, and one we come back to again and again. We laugh every time and can read with enthusiasm and speed. A great one!

[Valeria Messalina]

Definitely an arduous read.

[Michelle]

I love how Cozy Classics tries to sum up very dense, complicated reading into single words. If you don't already know what these classics are about then I wonder if people would be confused.

[Lola]

I love the concept of one word with a picture. And the photos are super cute!

[Tarina Nye]

This is a great way to introduce young kids to huge novels without boring them with older writing. It has the main plot points and a picture to go along with it that is fun and easy to understand.

[Kaz]

Gorgeous art as is in the rest of this series. I prefer this telling over the actual story. Outlines the narrative really well.

[Nicole Meadows]

My favorite page is leg and it shows Ishmael angry with his leg. He looks Hysterical. The knitting is wonderful.

[Blakely Pierson]

I have very mature taste in books

[Carley Trumbower]

Concept/classic, published in 2016
This is a cute little summarization of a classic story that would be awesome for a child to read and then later connect to their future reading when they read the real Moby Dick in the future! These are great for very young kids because there is only one word per page.

[Vidya Tiru]

I previously read the Cozy Classic version of Pride and Prejudice and was impressed – I fell in love with the totally adorable photos of the needle-felted characters and scenes. Moby Dick is as delightful as well. Again, the creators of this series use twelve words paired with these unique felted illustrations to bring their youngest readers the story of Moby Dick. Familiarity with the original story does help a lot but at the same time, this book does help in introducing these classics and instill a love of literature in the young. Adults can retell the story any which way, many different ways, or the very same way each time they open the book. My favorite illustration here is of the ship and my favorite word – crash!

There are two more Cozy Classics (Les Miserables and War and Peace) coming out this year and I am looking forward to these. These are great gifts for adults who love classics and definitely for parents of infants and toddlers who are looking for great books to share with their young ones. A 3D experience without the need for glasses:)

The website includes some more information for each book – a cozy version of the book if you need some help with relating the story, cast information, quotes from the book, as well as tips for parents to tell the story. Cozy Classics brings a wonderful new dimension to board books.

Rating: A
Reading Level: 0+
Reread Level: 5/5 (I am sure the little ones will be rereading this book many times over)
Disclaimer: I had the digital ARC from NetGalley and received the actual board book from Jack and Holman Wang (thank you for this delightful addition to my library). There was no requirement to review or to provide a favorable one. This review is my honest opinion of the book. I just happen to love this book!

[karenbee]

Okay, first of all, the felted objects and photography in the Wangs' retelling of Moby Dick -- I read the digital version, but IRL it's a board book for babies -- are PERFECT. ADORABLE, CLEVER, BEAUTIFUL, PERFECT. I cannot say enough good things about them.

Telling the story of Moby-Dick in a baby-friendly way is a challenge, I suppose. Cozy Classics: Moby Dick uses twelve photographs, and pairs up a single word with each photograph. It can be confusing if you haven't read the classic text; I've never read Melville's version and have only a passing familiarity with the original tale. I could gather the gist of it by reading this board book, but who knows how accurate I was.

I do think the book, as a whole, could have benefited from having a unified theme in the words instead of trying to follow the original storyline; my 18-month-old could understand "boat" but there's a picture of an (ADORABLE) angry Ahab -- at least, that's who I think it is based on my sad half-knowledge -- that's been paired with the word "mad," which is a concept she really doesn't get yet. And "floating" didn't stand a chance. If all the words had been objects, it would have been smooth sailing (har har), but the mix of objects and emotions and action words (like "sail" and "find") is a little harder for her to grasp.

That wouldn't stop me from picking up a copy of this book, though. I'd probably just change the words as I read it, to something more concrete for the little ones. It'd be worth it. The felting! The photography! AAAH SO CUTE.


(three-and-half stars)

[Erin Reilly-Sanders]

Taken as an amusement for adults, this book is actually quite a hoot. The idea of simplifying classics to a baby-appropriate level is a bit ridiculous, no a lot ridiculous (um, they usually have completely different interests). The illustrations are photographs of finely crafted felted figures and are pretty excellent in quality but the color palette is so limited and the value of the shades is so minimal that it's not going to be appealing or even distinguishable to babies. The text is well chosen given the original tale, but like most baby board books will be read as a miscellany of various objects- even the actions may be a bit obscure when you think about the difficulty of illustrating verbs, especially for babes who are just beginning to understand 2D images. On the other hand, there's certainly something to be said for adults sharing books with children that they are excited about. This one will definitely ask adults to revisit Moby Dick from an interesting perspective creating an enjoyable reading experience. Anyway, adult-oriented books haven't been shown to hurt kids in the least- Robert Munsch's Love You Forever even remains a perennial favorite primarily because of the emotional bonds formed in the reading of the adult-perspective text.

[K]

As an English teacher, I love reading classic literature, so when I discovered the Cozy Classics series, I was thrilled. These books are designed for infants and toddlers and summarize lengthy works such as Moby Dick, Pride and Prejudice, and Les Miserables with a few simple words. The best part, however, is the art. Each series of pages features a felted character or image as the illustration, giving the book an almost 3-D feel, and making each page enticing. The rich colors and unique take on the classics is absolutely perfect for a little one.
The Cozy Classics version of Moby Dick is precious. It has Ishmael, Ahab, and of course, the white whale, but this is a book that is as amusing for children as it is for adults. For example, one of the images is of Ahab's wooden prosthetic, and the word on the facing page simply says "Leg". This honestly could even be fun in a middle school or high school classroom as an introductory or review activity.

Obviously there are parts that are left out of the story, but as a baby's first abridged version, this is a must, and I can't wait to see which other classics authors Jack and Holman Wang decide to tackle. From shelfishness.blog.com