Summed up nicely. ( )

Characters made of felt tell the story of P&P in simple words. Very sweet. ( )

Simply delightful. ( )

This is an adorable, beautifully illustrated board book version of Pride and Prejudice which is designed to allow the classics to be shared with small children, but which will undoubtedly be appreciated by Austen fans of all ages. The story is efficiently reduced to twelve words—friends, sisters, dance, mean, sick, muddy, yes?, no!, write, read, walk, marry—and four characters—Jane, Bingley, Lizzy and Darcy. The book would make an excellent, creative jumping off point for reading aloud to kids—either you stick to the original storyline or you use the words and images to create something new. I can see myself reading this to my wee niece in a few years! The illustrations are beautiful photographs of little felt versions of the characters—I think my favourite is muddy Lizzy on the cover. ( )

As with [b:Cozy Classics: Moby Dick|13593636|Cozy Classics Moby Dick|Holman Wang|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1344751132s/13593636.jpg|19181790], the Wangs' Pride and Prejudice-themed board book could have used a unifying theme to make the whole thing work better for infants and younger toddlers.

Cozy Classics: Pride and Prejudice follows the series m.o. of twelve photographs of perfect needle-felted people and objects, each paired with a single descriptive word. However, Austen's plot is a little too complicated for a twelve-word synopsis that will make sense to a toddler, and the end result is a web of ADORABLE pictures that could be read in a hundred different ways. Luckily I had watched a film version of Pride and Prejudice the weekend prior to reading the board book, so I had some idea what was going on.

I read this one to my three-year-old, who wanted to know why the girl was sick and why the man was mean, and said the girl was mean for saying "no" to the man -- so at least this works for an older child, as a stepping-off point to a larger story. You'll just have to tell that story yourself.


(three-and-a-half stars) ( )