friends sisters dance mean sick muddy yes? no! write read walk marry*

March 22, 2013 2:40 PM

Cozy Classics are board book versions of classic novels, each story represented by 12 child-friendly words and 12 needle-felted illustrations, with the idea of developing "early literacy"—everything children know about reading and writing before they can actually do either. Current titles include Pride and Prejudice, Moby Dick, Les Miserables, and War and Peace, with Jane Eyre and Oliver Twist forthcoming.

*Pride and Prejudice in 12 words. The illustrations that accompany them are:

• friends: Darcy and Bingley
• sisters: Jane and Lizzie
• dance: Jane and Bingley at the ball
• mean: Darcy declines to dance with Lizzie
• sick: Jane, feverish at Netherfield
• muddy: Lizzie walking with her muddy dress
• yes?: Darcy's first proposal
• no!: Lizzie's refusal
• write: Darcy writes to Lizzie
• read: Lizzie reads the letter
• walk: Lizzie and Darcy walk and talk together
• marry: Bingley, Jane, Lizzie, and Darcy's double wedding

posted by ocherdraco (15 comments total)

One huge excuse to do a lot of needle felting and get paid for it for a change.
posted by GuyZero at 2:48 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Cool! Now do Finnegans Wake.
posted by prize bull octorok at 2:50 PM on March 22 [16 favorites]

Cute!
Buy!
posted by shothotbot at 2:50 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

Fantastic, I'm always looking for more board books. Little light thief is voracious "reader," and sometimes his eagerness translates into book destruction.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:01 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

I thought the twelve title words were Little Women.
posted by annathea at 3:13 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

I just saw Pride and Prejudice as a counting and Sense and Sensibility as an opposites board book.
posted by brujita at 3:30 PM on March 22

It looks like these are well done but as a Librarian who works with children I have to say that not everything needs to have a board book version.

Half the picture books they make into board books just don't work, I can't imagine making an adult novel into one.
posted by amapolaroja at 4:02 PM on March 22

We have the Pride and Prejudice counting book, my toddlers love it. They're like, "Two rich gentlemen! Three grand houses! FOUR MARRIAGE PROPOSALS!"

It also excites book nerds of all ages.

But it's just a cute book of counting objects that amuses adults who know the book, while having pretty and interesting pictures for the kids to count with. It doesn't attempt to follow the plot or anything, although I assume when they're first exposed to the book or the movie, they'll be like, "Wait, didn't I have a counting book that had Netherfield in it? This is weirdly familiar?"

Ten, you will be glad to know, is "Ten Thousand Pounds a Year."
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 4:12 PM on March 22 [12 favorites]

Aaaaaaah I must have it
posted by bq at 4:26 PM on March 22

Spoilers for Kidz
posted by the jam at 5:22 PM on March 22 [1 favorite]

I have the pride and prejudice one, which is excellent. Sadly the entire Lydia caught in bed with Wickham scene is absent. ( And i wonder, What would the one word be if it had been included? )
posted by chapps at 10:54 PM on March 22

chapps: scandal.
posted by Hactar at 11:08 PM on March 22 [2 favorites]

03. Boat

The meticulously needle-felted Pequod, Captain Ahab's famous whaleship, runs alongside the word "boat."

Hey, neat. Except the Pequod isn't a boat; it's a ship. Understanding the distinction is pretty important to most of the exciting bits of Moby Dick.
posted by Sys Rq at 9:51 AM on March 23

12 Shades of Gray

Peter Rabbit's Run

Portnoy's Tasteful Demurral
posted by y2karl at 11:02 AM on March 23

I love these. I bought P&P as a baby gift recently. The distillation of a classic novel into single words is fun, but oh my, the felted illustrations are adorable.
posted by donajo at 9:59 PM on March 23