By Janet Schulman
One big book with forty-four complete picture-book classics inside — Goodnight Moon, Madeline, Ferdinand, and dozens more, every word and every picture.
Forty-four famous picture books are here in full — every word, the original art, nothing trimmed down to fit. Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, Curious George, Make Way for Ducklings, The Story of Ferdinand, Madeline, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, and dozens more, one after another in a single fat volume. You can read one a night and it lasts for months. Along the way your child meets the stories that everyone will later just assume they already know.
Bought one at a time, these forty-four books would cost a small fortune and fill a shelf. Together in one volume they run about the price of a single hardcover, which is what makes it such a good gift or a good first library. Night to night it works as a grab-bag: something short, something funny, something quiet, and always one you haven't read yet. You can pick to match the mood in the room, and since these are the real classics rather than filler, they hold up to being read again and again. Fair warning that the book is big and heavy, so it tends to live on the shelf at home rather than travel in a bag.