I love the Baby Lit line of board books (compact cardboard books, simple, small and durable enough for drooling, babbling beebs) showcasing literary classics such as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
We received Pride and Prejudice as a gift yesterday and (once I got over the fact that I should have produced this book) I marveled at the opportunity it presents for me to connect with my daughter.
Kids books are deliberately juvenile and understandably designed to promote certain types of behavior over others (for example: sharing and kindness are heralded; soiling one's pants is to be avoided). However, this cleverly written version of Jane Austen's masterpiece offers a vehicle for me to dish about a most-beloved heroine in terms that Leighton can understand.
I met the cheerfully illustrated pages with equal parts nostalgia and excitement.
I am a smelly english major. I took two Jane Austen and three Shakespeare courses in college. I enrolled in electives dedicated to Chaucer and Spenser respectively. I spent several semesters delving into these authors with an enthusiasm that still exists within me - buried deeply beneath a current lack of leisure and welcomed family obligation.
Apparently, board books are the best way for me to revisit some of my favorite stories. Who knew?
To Aunt Chris, thank you for sending Pride and Prejudice and for introducing us to Baby Lit.
To Baby Lit, (and ultimately Gibbs Smith) thank you for publishing an inspired and fashionable way for me to introduce classic literature to my precocious toddler and her paper page-destroying little sis.
To Elizabeth (Lizzy) Darcy (nee Bennett) thank you for your timeless complexity, idealism and sense of daughterly duty. And for being, in Ms. Austen's own words,"as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print."
Coming soon:
About the Authors:
Jennifer Adams is the author of a dozen books including Remarkably Jane: Notable Quotations on Jane Austen and the popular Y Is for Yorick: A Slightly Irreverent ABC Book for Grown-Ups. Jennifer works as a writer and editor in Salt Lake City. Her favorite baby name is Fitzwilliam.
Alison Oliver runs Sugar design studio. Alison's design portfolio includes everything from logos to packaging and product design for clients such as Chronicle Books, Citibabes, Aerie, as well as Gibbs Smith. She lives in Manhattan. Her favorite baby name is Lizzy.
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