Cozy Classics: Les Miserables

Cozy Classics

by Jack Wang

Give a kid a classic! Cozy Classics is the popular board book series that presents well-loved stories to children aged 0+ through twelve child-friendly words and twelve needle-felted illustrations. Les Misérables is Victor Hugo’s sweeping French saga about one man’s search for redemption in a world of hardship and misery, and is one of the world’s most beloved classics. Now you can share this classic with children of any age.

Genres: Picture Books, Childrens, Classics, Fiction, France, Art

Hardcover

First published June 30, 2013

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

[Justyn Rampa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best adaptation of Les Mis I've ever read.

Subsequently, the only adaptation of Les Mis I've ever completed;-)

[Allison · Rating 1 out of 5]

The felt characters are beautiful. This book's words are vague and clearly intended to snare parents not for babies or even young children to enjoy--Strange.

[Danette · Rating 3 out of 5]

I need to re-read the original.

[QNPoohBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a story I know well and being obsessed with the musical, I've even read the novel... or skimmed it anyway... The 14 words here just aren't enough to tell the story. It misses why Valjean and young Cosette "climb" and "run" because it just shows Valjean as "poor" and then "rich." The word choice for the battle between students and soldiers is "fire." Why not fight? The illustrations are photographs of needle-felted props. They are amazing, though a little dark for a children's book. The first page shows an actual page from the novel in the background. This one is going to require some explanation if I read it to my nieces. My infant nephew's opinion is that it's good to chew on.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Le Mis distilled into 12 words! Yes, twelve. I don't know why I bothered setting myself reading the challenge of reading the real thing when I could just read it in twelve words? The illustrations- pictures of felted dolls are fabulous.

[Audric the Illiterate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’d always heard what a slog Les Mis is to get through, so imagine my surprise when I see it’s only 10 words. Y’all dramatic smh lmao

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 STARS

This is a nice picture book. Very few words but lots of pictures that tell the story. Very simply told. Good for babies and toddlers who like picture books. It would also help if adults had read the book and can explain more about the pictures.
I was given this ebook for free and asked to give honest review of it by Netgalley.
publication: May 30th 2013 by Simply Read Books 24 pages ISBN: 1927018218

Description below taken off of Netgalley.


Give a kid a classic! Cozy Classics is the popular board book series that presents well-loved stories to children aged 0+ through twelve child-friendly words and twelve needle-felted illustrations. Les Misérables is Victor Hugo’s sweeping French saga about one man’s search for redemption in a world of hardship and misery, and is one of the world’s most beloved classics. Now you can share this classic with children of any age.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

It loses something in the translation.

This very loose interpretation of Victor Hugo's classic Les Miserables suffers from the adaptation of the original work. If you didn't know that the character in the first illustrations are the same person then you might interpret the whole work differently. Jean ValJean is poor. And then he's rich? No. That's not quite right. And how do we know that the happy girl is the daughter of the sad lady? And where is the greedy innkeeper?

AND HOW DO WE GLOSS OVER THE MASSACRE OF THE STUDENTS?

[Lola · Rating 4 out of 5]

I adore the felted characters and one word a page. My concern is the creep factor on the happy page. It looks like Valjean is buying Cosette. When it’s more a ransom. I’d have chosen others words as well. All in all it’s very clever. This and the other Cosy Classics are definitely conversation starters.

[Susan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Average looking dolls in ho hum photos with one word (e.g. happy, sad, rich, poor) descriptions are supposed to give a quick, cosy overview of Victor Hugo's classic. A cartoon would have been better. It's a cute idea, but needed more development.

[Tomi Alger · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Cozy Classic is a wonderful retelling of the story with basic words and accompanying pictures. A poor man becomes rich, and a sad girl is given a safe home. Yet, trouble still abounds for them, but they do persevere. A wonderful little board book.

[Rebecca Caufman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Love the concept of these books. Thought some word choices could have been better.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really wanted to know how they were going to make Les Miserables kid-friendly, and somehow they did.

[Kaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unlike some of the others I didn't think this really gave the feeling of what Les Miserables is about. Excellent needle work on photos.
DNP.

[Pinky · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shortest version of Les Miserables ever.

[Domizia · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars, niente spiega meglio les mis come queste poche e brevi parole. would recommend

[Natasha Marie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful needle felted illustrations as usual, but I don’t think this story condensed down as well into a few words. My kids had a lot of questions about the story and what was happening.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cozy Classics: Les Miserables, Jack Wang
"Poor, Rich"
[I had a spare hour and was in the library, so I looked at these cool little books]

[Pug · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow!!!

First of all, they were serious about a "12-word book." Each page was one word, which you might imagine would be impossible for Hugo's 1,500 tome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And yet, this book did a fantastic job at portraying Les Misérables! The illustrations (photographs with cute, felt characters) spoke volumes. And for crazy superfans like me, there were even plot elements in the background of the pictures.

I'm very impressed with this boardbook. Not sure how well people entirely unfamiliar with Les Miz would be able to follow it. But it certainly did Les Miz justice.

[Anita Gomgal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bueno pensareis que debe ser una monería... Y eso mismo es lo que pensé yo cuando leí de qué se trataba el librito así que necesitaba verlo...
esta clase de libros me parecen una gran idea... Seamos sinceros ¿qué mejor manera de enseñarle a tus pequeños un gran clásico? Yo me imagino a mí misma, con el libro en las manos mi niñita y contándole por encima la preciosa historia de "Los Miserables" a través de las 12 palabras que creo que recogen perfectamente la esencia de esta bella historia.

Es un librito sencillo, cortito, tierno y con unas ilustraciones preciosas que para ser de fieltro recogen todo el espíritu de las palabras que representan, con lo difícil que eso podría ser...

Creo que sus autores, Holman Wang y Jack Wang, han conseguido con este librito una pequeña joya, útil para enseñar a los niños e introducirlos en el gran mundo de la lectura y estoy segura de que todos los libros de la colección de "Cozy Classics" deben ser igual de tiernos.

La pena es que se te hace muy rápido... yo le doblaría el número de palabras para disfrutarlo más.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cozy Classics: Les Miserables by Jack Wang & Holman Wang is a beautiful children's board book that tells a classic tale in a very simplified way.
I think it would be best if the parent is aware of the general story line of the actual classic novel. This way, if the child has any questions or just wants to know more, then the parent can answer them.
The thing that drew me in the most was the BEAUTIFUL felt creations. The imagery is amazing. I enjoyed reading this book with my daughter. She is learning sight words and could participate in reading this book.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cozy classics indeed! In this well-designed board book, young readers are introduced to Victor Hugo's Les Miserables and its rag to riches story. Although it's impossible to capture the complexity of that masterpiece with all of its drama, romance, and political intrigue set against the backdrop of revolution, this book does a good job of identifying 12 words that are significant to the story and then crafting 12 different scenes with felt that enable readers to have a handle on what the heart of the story involves. I consider this book as a great starting place for conversations about the book, its plot, and its characters, and it will certainly support a later, more mature reading of the book itself in later years. I cannot get enough of these Cozy Classics and would love to know more about how the author chooses the words used and scenes depicted! I'm heading over to the website to learn more now.

[T · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received an advanced copy of this book through NetGalley.

This is a relatively endearing and sweet rendition of the classic. While obviously much is pared down to accommodate for the length and the audience, Wang still does an effective job at making an accessible read for children. This book is ideal for parents who might want to introduce their children to their own beloved stories before they are old enough to tackle the depth and intensity of the original or its many adaptations.

What wins the most points, however, in my mind, is the art: the felt and needlepoint work is charming in the happier images and suitably dark and evoking in the lower points of the story. It successfully covers a fairly broad range and is, all in all, well done.

A good adaptation for children to ween them onto the classics.

[Drew Graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

There once was a man who committed a crime, served his time, and spent the rest of his life trying to make up for it, always being hounded by the law, despite his continued efforts to be a good man and a good father.

I'm really getting into this series. The illustration style using photographed felt characters is unique and interesting, and the descriptive images coupled with the very little text tell the story while still using vocabulary that's actually fitting for a board book. It was fun to see how this telling of Les Misérables told such a complex story in such a simple way, and it was interesting to note which elements and characters took a back seat, and which weren't mentioned or shown at all. It's also funny how even in this edition the cover art features the iconic image of young urchin Cosette pitifully holding a broom.

[AH · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars, just for the clever use of emotions.

Found a bunch of these books at the local bookstore and had a few chuckles reading them in all of two minutes flat. These make great baby gifts and think about it, what parent wouldn't want to boast that they read Les Miserables to their infant?

The book is illustrated with lovely little felt people and each page has one word describing the emotion of the story. Really cute.

[Thelibrarygirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is just amazing. Ive just read this book in the digital version and i couldnt believe my eyes. They managed to make such an intense and long book into a 13 pages childrens book with only one word every other page. The characters are made with felt and on the opposite page you will find one word: love, together, dark, etc. Its the best way to start kinder children in the love for classics.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series is not the most eloquent introduction to literary classics for children. But the felt dolls, their expressions, and the authors one word of choice per page spread, are certainly humorous from an adult perspective.

Each one of these makes me laugh! And anything that makes me laugh, is worthwhile to me.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The brothers Wang have done it again! Gorgeously illustrated, inspired word choices, and beautifully packaged. If you have a little one in your life to buy for, Cozy Classics are an absolutely failsafe choice.

[Jacob Combs · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a nice picture book. Very few words but lots of pictures that tell the story. Very simply told. Good for babies and toddlers who like picture books. It would also help if adults had read the book and can explain more about the pictures.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

simple & sweet little book of words with their description clearly shown with super cute felt dolls

** thanks to NetGalley & the publishers for this copy!