The Doll Book of the Month Club: Cozy Classics, Les Miserables?

   Even though I'm away, the Book Club lingers on. This month's Doll Book of the Month isn't about dolls, but the illustrations are all doll. The book is from the Cozy Classics collection, published by Chronicle Books. It's a board book, and so you'd think it must be for very small kids, right? And what is this wonderful, cozy classic for tiny children? Why, Les Miserables, of course.

  Now, if there's a classic that I wouldn't term 'cozy', this is one of them. The story is downright depressing. I mean, there's a reason it's called "Les Miserables", and not "Le Heureux" (The Happy").

  I got this book at Dollar Tree. What made me buy it was the illustrations, which I thought you might enjoy seeing. The book is one word per page, if you don't count the first page, which has a picture over a picture of a printed page. 

Apparently the intention was to introduce kids to the classics, while teaching them simple first reading words.

Other books in the series include "Emma", "Huckleberry Finn", "War and Peace", "Pride and Prejudice", Moby Dick", and "the Wizard of Oz", which probably lends itself better to the format than say, "War and Peace".  But I guess they realize there's something a bit out of the ordinary in the idea, as their website says, "These unique and inventive board books serve as true word primers for toddlers, storytelling vehicles for older kids, and ironic and humorous coffee-table pieces for adults!" 

  The illustrations are photographs, using felted dolls as the characters. 

According to their website, they never use photoshop. All pictures are shot on real locations, or in scenes built especially for the photographs.

  The books are by Jack and Holman Wang. I'm not sure who needle felts the characters. 

  I like the idea of introducing kids to the classics, and the illustrations are reminiscent of the old puppet illustrations in books like the ones I posted about HERE, albeit a lot simpler than the Shiba ones. 

To learn more about the series, and other things the Wangs have done, check out their website at: www.mycozyclassics.com.

  See you next month for another book. That one really will be cozy.