Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30980 in Books
• Published on: 2004-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 208 pages

Customer Reviews

Real Stories about the Real World
I live in Norway and have been very jealous at the extent of really good children's books they have here that simply deal with real life. No animals pretending to be people, no rhyming patterns, no fantasy worlds to teach by allusion. Just real kids doing real stuff that is interesting and relevant for 4 and 5 year olds. Titles like "Emma's first day of kindergarten", or "Karsten and Petra go to the Theater".

I still have not found the equivalent in English. If you know of some, please let me know. In the meantime, the Arthur series comes close. (Even though the characters are animals pretending to be human. Why not just make a kid a kid?)

The collection of stories in this book have Arthur taking the bus by himself, breaking the computer and lying about it, saving up to buy a junk product from an infomercial only to be disappointed, learning your teacher is a real person after all, etc... This is stuff kids can relate to and it teaches some lessons. It is more appropriate to the 7 year old set, but my 5 year old loves it.

Still not as good as the Scandinavian books my wife reads to the kids, but the best I have been able to find.