101 Read-Aloud Classics: Ten-Minute Readings from the World's Best-Loved Children's Books

by Pamela Horn

Ten-minute readings from the worlds best-loved children's books. Features ten-minute selections and illustrations from Charlotte's Web, Pippi Longstocking, Black Beauty, The Little Prince, The Chronicles of Narnia, Little House on the Prairie and 95 other classics for all ages. Designed for parents and children to read together.

Genres: Childrens, Fiction, Classics, Reference

402 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Pamela Horn is an historian specialising in Victorian social history. The author of acclaimed books on rural life, servant lives and childhood, she lectured on economic and social history at Oxford Polytechnic, now Oxford Brookes University, for over twenty years.

Reviews

[ashes ➷]

I went back to this one because I remembered often rereading specific parts as a child, and I definitely focused on those bits as an adult as well. To some extent that's just a matter of taste-- I'm not really a fan of excerpts from novels presented on their own, and I have my own genre preferences that I read towards-- so I can't say based on the amount I read that the book isn't worth having. On the contrary, I think it served its purpose in showing me what I did and did not want to read, both as a child and an adult.

I do, however, have some issues with the book, mostly centering on (you guessed it) racism. Though I wasn't reading through particularly closely (hence the DNF; I chose to just read what I liked for fun) I did confirm that the story The Water Babies which is excerpted here is in fact the one known for basically every kind of racism, which was just odd to me. There's also, obviously, a huge focus on white Christian authors, and I think we've reached a point where that kind of collection is simply lacking. It doesn't make sense to me to try and do a variety of time periods, styles, genres, and so on, but not include a substantial amount of non-white authors.

So: an outdated book. As a read-aloud, you can absolutely just cut the stuff you don't want to read and read what you would like to read, and there are many bits that give me nostalgia (not to mention the accessibility of the classics that are here-- things like Wilde and O. Henry). Still, though, I just have to wonder if we don't have better options out there for those who are willing to look.

[Jess Van Dyne-Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a GREAT idea - ten minute readings of classic stories - just right for my son - he can read a bit of say, Mark Twain or Roald Dahl - jump in at a great bit, and get excited about the book before beginning the real story!

[Theresa · Rating 2 out of 5]

101 Read-Aloud Classics: Ten-Minute Readings from the World's Best-Loved Children's Books
Horn, Pamela

a short retelling of american classics and british stories

[Joyce · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was written to read to children but I enjoyed rereading these stories from my childhood.