Review: COZY CLASSICS - THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER by Jack and Holman Wang

Have you seen these books by Jack and Holman Wang?

The pair are the author-artists behind an entire series of boardbooks that use adorable felt characters to retell classic stories such as TOM SAWYER, PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, MOBY DICK, and more....

Yes, Board Books.

Now 'RETELL' is perhaps a bit of a misleading term because these books have virtually no text. The first page (above) might lead you to think that there's text, but that's not the case.

The entirety of the Cozy Classic's Tom Sawyer contains just a dozen words: Hide, Paint, Kiss, Cry, Play, Camp, Storm, Home, Cave, Lost, Out, and Gold.

This cute video gives you an idea of what the books contain and what you might do with them.

Here are a set of sample pages from Tom Sawyer.

I don't know whether this book will work for you and yours.  There is certainly no proof that children introduced to the classics in this way will be more interested in them as teens.  But the artwork is very engaging and I believe it's worth an experiment to see how your child reacts to the story and the book's presentation.  (go library!)

I CAN SEE...
-- I can see an adult refreshing their memory about the plot lines of these classics and then introducing the stories, in very simple terms, to their young children.

-- I can see using these books in a classroom setting with older children. The assignment being that they should try to sum up a different story in just 12 words, using the Cozy series as inspiration.

-- I can totally see giving a collection of these books as a gift to new or expecting parents.  

Pam~


COZY CLASSICS: TOM SAWYER
by Jack and Holman Wang

Reading Information:
Page Count: 24
reading information not applicable - 12 words

Here is a video of how the characters are made!