Margaret E. Martignoni (1908–1974)

Not all collections of children’s stories are created the same, and it seems that somewhere in between the golden age of children’s book illustration and the current age of lusciousness we had a publishing moment of weakness… This book is from the 1950s and claims to provide a range of stories and illustrations in a collected volume to encourage families to come together and read. Maybe the encyclopaedic style of the book appeals to some, but I frankly found it messy and overwhelming. show more The selection of stories is extensive, I’ll grant them that, but the sheer density, haphazard page design, and often greatly shortened excerpts made even an attempted browse of the volume an impossible undertaking. I mostly bought the collection because it contained a few illustrations from my favourite of the classic illustrators, Arthur Rackham, but even trying to limit my reading to his specifics proved impossible by the inaccurate scope of their index! Instead of indexing him both as a collector (Arthur Rackham’s Fairy Book, which was illustrated by himself and others) and an illustrator, they simply listed him as the former! I did eventually manage to browse through the entire volume to peruse all of his pictorial work, but I may have to go back and re-annotate the book to serve my own research purposes. I’m sure that I have most of the illustrations elsewhere in my collection (and in far better form), so at most this book will serve as a prime example of how not to do book design! show less

Thanks to Volume 2 I quickly fell in love with folk tales and fairy tales at an early age, especially the ones with more sinister plots.

Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Collier's Junior Classics were read to my sister and me every night for several months. Then I started reading it by myself, over and over and over. There was a large gap of time between my last read (around 12) and when I first read it to my daughter in 2000, but that gap only helped to remind me how much I loved those stories show more growing up. I'm holding onto this 10-volume set - the same set I've had all my life - so I can hand it down to my daughter to read to her kids someday. show less

Volume 1 and Volume 2 of Collier's Junior Classics were read to me and my sister every night for several months. Then I started reading it by myself, over and over and over. There was a large gap of time between my last read (around 12) and when I first read it to my daughter in 2000, but that gap only helped to remind me how much I loved those stories growing up. I'm holding onto this 10-volume set - the same set I've had all my life - so I can hand it down to my daughter to read to her show more kids someday. show less

Great book but some title may not be good for young children.