Usborne My Reading Library Classics 30 Books Box Set Collection

I bought this for my 9 year old for Xmas. I’m so impressed with the variety of books in this collection. It has beautiful pictures to keep him entertained and to help him visualize what he is reading!

Thank you for books

Arrived sooner than expected and as advertised.

The Usborne book sets are a gift to all children! They introduce literature (in every sense of that word, from folk tales to 19th century Victorian lit) to children without dumbing them down, and whilst retaining the individual voices of authors such as Dickens, Austen etc. which a lot of other adaptations fail to do. Of course, some of these have poor orphans, monsters, and wives hidden in attics, but I find these no more scary than the standard Grimm or Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, or indeed, some Pixar movies that kids watch. In sum, highly recommended!

Definitely a different kind of book series, says for 6+. The series has stories with fighting and killing, and some words are incredibly hard to read. I’m returning as these are not little kid friendly, yet are geared toward young readers. Stories like Romeo and Juliet , but just like original, not changed enough for kids.

Excellent

I purchased these books for my 7-year-old when I realised the reading books she was getting from school were boring her. She's a very strong reader and very inquisitive so giving her stories a bit more complex was a no-brainer. She read the entire library in about 2 days and talked about the various stories she'd read for several weeks. The stories are very well abridged and beautifully illustrated making them more suitable for the younger reader, with more complex books also providing shot guides and relevant information (Pronunciation guides in Midsummer Night's Dream & a family tree for Wuthering Heights, also beautifully illustrated.) It was also a delight to share some of my favourite stories with my daughter in a way that she could understand and enjoy. It was far more enjoyable reading and talking about these books together than the books she received from her school. They really made her think and ask genuine questions about the themes and histories of each story. If your little one is a bright little button looking for something more interesting, I definitely recommend this collection.

I have a couple of these Usborne sets and I love how they make some of the classics accessible to younger readers. Illustrations are great and on very page. Very good value when you factor in the amount of books for the money. A small gripe is that depending on the combination of sets you buy you end up with duplicate versions of the same books but I just gift those to family. Others have complained that some of the content is inappropriate, depending on the age of the reader you would want to have a look at the books first and remove some of them if you fell they are not ready for some of the themes or illustrations (deaths etc).

Other reviewers found the reading level below that of an 8-year-old; we've not felt this at all. My son is hooked, and it's wonderful to see him explore - and draw his own conclusions about - the themes of these classics.