You Read to Me & I'll Read to You: Stories to Share from the 20th Century

Ah, The Shrinking of Treehorn. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs! Flat Stanley. Even the beloved, silly The Piggy in the Puddle. Janet Schulman, editor of The 20th-Century Children's Book Treasury and longtime children's book editor and publisher extraordinaire, knows how to pick 'em. Here, she has lovingly gathered 26 more best-loved stories in one stout volume. Although You Read to Me & I'll Read to You functions as a companion to her earlier anthology, it is not, as Schulman says in the introduction, more of the same. These stories, from William Steig's Amos and Boris and Daniel Pinkwater's Blue Moose to Freckle Juice by Judy Blume and The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, were carefully selected based on their appropriateness for reading aloud. Storylines are more fully developed, with more words and fewer pictures. In short, these stories are just right for children in their first few years of school who can now read--but still love to be read to. This collection of absolute gems, including portions of longer chapter books, is sure to find a permanent, favored spot on young children's bedside tables, long after they've mastered reading skills. An index of titles, authors, and illustrators allows readers to find their all-time favorites--or explore a brand-new (to you) author's work. This excellent, positively historic collection of the crème de la crème of read-aloud stories belongs on every bookshelf. And, though hefty in size, remember that it's just one book to throw in the travel bag! (Ages 4 and older) --Emilie Coulter