Best Barbara Robinson Treasury Ever

by Barbara Robinson

Complete text and illustrations of three The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, The Best (Worst) School Year Ever, My Brother Louis Measures Worms (and Other Louis Stories).

Genres: Childrens

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

I grew up in a southern Ohio river town -- Portsmouth -- and that small town atmosphere has affected most of my writing.
My mother, widowed when I was three years old, taught school for forty-nine years in that same small town, and her major (indeed, only) extravagance was books. I grew up with, and quickly adopted, the notion that reading was the only way to fill up every scrap of loose time you could snatch.

I had the benefit, as well, of a wide variety of aunts and uncles and cousins, plus the extended family so common to small town life -- the neighbors, friends, teachers, bus drivers, mailmen, local heroes and local neâer-do-wells, and even a local blacksmith...great stuff to feed the imagination.

I began writing very early -- poems, plays, stories -- and just never quit. I attended local schools and then, being both book-struck and stage-struck, found a college -- Allegheny College -- where I could satisfy both passions.

I've been a short story writer, with some forty-fifty stories in McCall's, Ladies' Home Journal, Redbook, etc.; a playwright; an occasional poet, and finally and most happily, an author of children's books...happily, because there's no greater audience than boys and girls who read books and demand that those books be the most exciting, the most mysterious, the most touching, the funniest...the Best.

I live and write in a suburb of Philadelphia, and I have two daughters -- Carolyn, who is a nurse, and Marjorie, who is a sixth grade teacher and at home now with my grandchildren Tomas and Marcos, and all these people read books like crazy!

Reviews

[Amy Bartley · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5⭐️

A Christmas present sent by my grandparents some 25+ years ago. Figured I should give it a shot 😅

I was simultaneously impressed by the writing itself (not nearly as cheesy or simplistic as I’ve seen in other middle/elementary grade books) and underwhelmed by the content (what age is this even for? Do kids enjoy reading this?)

There are moments that aged like milk (the fat kid in class whose only personality trait is that he’s an extremely fat kid, the line about the “brave” General Custer, and the old man with the Confederate money) but overall, not nearly as cringe-inducing as I might have expected from the 70s/80s publication dates. My biggest problem was in the first book (Best Christmas Pageant) where the good kids all go to church and the bad kids don’t. Where the good Christian mothers see a woman with 6 children abandoned by her husband as an embarrassment and a failure rather than considering to help her and her children out. Maybe they steal food all the time because they’re BLOODY HUNGRY! Should we feed them as Jesus would? Nope, let’s try to get them arrested.

I’m not sure why these 3 books are grouped together as the third is completely unconnected from the first two (it took me way too long to realize they were different families especially since our narrators had the same name) and I can’t imagine any child being entertained by the anecdotes of pregnant women, mistaken identity funerals, birth certificate mix-ups, and sisters who can’t drive.

[Elise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun, cute stories that are easy to read. Feel a little bad for the kids, that all the parents kind of treat poorly!

[Feather]

the book was funny

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two of the three "The Worst Best..." Books and funny stories from a bizarre family.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have a special needs son and I am glad I read this book before he did. I cannot express how awful these kids are in this book

[myKCmom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love at first hearing! I have no idea how I grew up without knowing this book, but I am so glad it has touched our hearts and blessed our family now. In the words of Larry the Cucumber, "I laughed. I cried. It moved me Bob."

[Lee Anne · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is Christmas, and I am feeling the need for the Herdmans. "Hey! Unto you a child is born!"

It was still as funny and sweet as I remember. Read it!

[P.S. Wells]

one of my all-time favorites.