Cozy Classics: Best Board Books Ever

I finally read War and Peace last week… in about two minutes!

At first I thought Cozy Classics, 12-word board book summaries of classic works of literature, were gimmicky. But then I read War and Peace and Les Misérables. And the cuteness nearly melted me. (“So adorable it makes our hearts hurt,” rightly said one reviewer.)

My kids (ranging in age from pre-school to lower elementary) love the books, and my littlest one can easily memorize them. They’re perfect reading practice for my middle child.

Yes, it’s really impressive that anyone could even attempt to summarize such massive tomes in a dozen words. Les Mis begins:

poor
rich
sad

But what stands out even more is the beautifully detailed images of needle-felted characters. Check out the detail of the first page of Les Mis. (And note the page in the background!)

From the adult version of the book:

Cosette was made to run on errands, to sweep the rooms, the courtyard, the street, to wash the dishes, to even carry burdens… It was a heart-breaking thing to see this poor child, not yet six years old, shivering in the winter in her old rags of linen, full of holes, sweeping the street before daylight, with an enormous broom in her tiny red hands, and a tear in her great eyes.

Or, as the Cozy Classic puts it:

sad

Both Les Mis and War and Peace initially make for a quick read, as you might guess. But my kids have really enjoyed the detail of the images (as have I!), and having so few words makes them easy to understand and retain. I did have to explain “stroll” to my three-year-old, but that provided a nice little vocabulary lesson.