Tell Me a Story: A Collection for Under Fives

by Eileen Colwell (Editor), Judith Bledsoe (Illustrator)

Stories and verses for under fives.

176 pages, Paperback

First published July 30, 1962

Reviews

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this as a bedtime book for a few months with my 5-turned-6-year-olds. It was perfect for that purpose because 1) it is filled with short stories and poems, so it’s easy to work just one or two into the nighttime routine, 2) the illustrations are minimal, and the few small sketches aren’t really of enough interest for the kids to insist on seeing them, 3) the stories lend themselves beautifully to getting children relaxed and ready to sleep. The selections have been well-chosen for the age group. There were times a story was a bit dull to me, but the repetition I tired of was exactly what had them engaged, since they could anticipate and recite along with me as we got to the repetitive parts.

I did knock a star off simply due to the dated and foreign terms found in some of the selections. It is very obviously British, using words like garden for yard and lorry for truck, so there were quite a few times I had to stop and “translate.” For the most part, the stories had a somewhat timeless feel to them, as if they were classics we simply hadn’t heard before, but wouldn’t be out of place in a book alongside the likes of Goldilocks.