Thanks to publisher Gibbs Smith, I got a chance to check out a few of their BabyLit Classic Lit line of books. These board books for babies use classic literature titles to teach colors, counting, and other topics. (Site readers will not be surprised to see the titles I chose.)
Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles uses the moody setting to tell us that hounds howl and stairs creak, among other typically gothic items.
A Christmas Carol is much closer to the source story, with illustrations of the various ghosts and other characters giving us the colors of a blue coat or red scarf.
Dracula presents 1 castle, 6 tombstones, and 9 boxes (coffins), among other sets of items.
Obviously, there’s no story in these books, but they’re a fun way to introduce familiarity with classic titles and make reading books to young ones more entertaining for adults. They’re written by Jennifer Adams with art by Alison Oliver.
Other titles range further afield than colors and numbers, themed appropriately:
- The Jungle Book for animals
- Frankenstein for body parts
- The Secret Garden for flowers
- Emma for emotions
- Moby Dick for ocean items
- The Great Gatsby for party items
Obviously, some of these topics are more crucial to learning than others, but these make cute gifts, particularly for literary friends. (The publisher provided review copies.)
