Five Minute Stories

by Miles Kelly Publishing

512 pages, Paperback

Published May 1, 2016

About the author

Miles Kelly is an independent UK children's book publisher, producing high-quality, affordable books for kids. The team's ethos is to create 'children's books to inspire and share' that reach as many children as possible, spreading the joy of reading. The company has more than 400 titles in print, for kids aged 3–12 years, including non-fiction books packed with awesome facts and dramatic photography, original illustrated picture books, preschool flashcards and workbooks, and classic illustrated children's fiction. Among the bestsellers are the hugely successful 100 Facts series, now with over 80 titles available, great-value bumper fiction and non-fiction books, and the much-loved Convertibles – books that fold out into vehicles or fold flat into playmats. There really is something for every child.

Reviews

[Jcb · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Good: This book has a wide variety of fairy tales. And, they really are 5-minute stories, so perfect length for bedtime

The Bad: For some strange reason, the author feels the need to strut their arcane vocabulary. For instance, in the story I read to my child tonight, these words appeared: rushes (as in the grass), fen, cloak, gruel. Also, there were some oddly-structured sentences like:
Father: "How much do you love me?"
Daughter: "Why, as I love my life."

I find myself editing the stories while reading to render them more comprehensible.

After finishing, my daughter admitted to me that there were a lot of words she didn't understand. Perhaps you will say that such is the point of reading to kids. OK, fair enough. Still, it detracts from the enjoyment of the bedtime story to have to struggle with vocab and phrasing, IMO.

Nevertheless, my kid does like this book and always wants to look at the illustrations when I turn a page. They're quite good.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must have book for parents of young ones. It has all the most memorable stories from European folk tales from Grimm, Anderson, the Blue Fairy Book, Greek Mythology, and more along with a few stories from Africa, Japan, and North America. Almost every story is a gem and perfectly retold.

[Chris Greenlee · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read over half of the book and was regularly shocked at the odd morals taught and how violent many of these folk tales are.