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THE GOLDEN BOOK OF NURSERY TALES by Elsa Jane- Ed. Werner

THE GOLDEN BOOK OF NURSERY TALES

By

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

A Giant Golden Book, with more than forty stories -- a generous to overwhelming number of pictures, many in color, by Tibor Gergely. Old favorites are here, like The Gingerbread Boy, The Ugly Duckling, Little Red Riding Hood, The Three Bears, Chicken Little; there are some modern nursery tales by today's writers, Margaret Wise Brown, Lucy Sprague Mitchell, Peggy Bacon; there's even a Charles Lamb story for the classicists. There is a lack of evidence of much editorial judgment, but this can be offset by the fact that the catholicity of inclusion makes the book fit a growing family, at different age levels. Parents will have to use their own judgment, however, as there is no indication as to which stories fit the very small listeners, and which the older brothers and sisters. This is true as to vocabulary level, length of story, emotional balance. So sell to parents (it is definitely a merchandise item rather than for public libraries) with the suggestion that it be analyzed a bit before using it. The binding, in heavy board, is not sufficiently reenforced for its 164 pages and it came apart in two days in one household.