You Read to Me & I'll Read to You: Stories to Share from the 20th Century
Ah,The Shrinking of Treehorn.Cloudy with a Chance of  Meatballs!Flat Stanley. Even the beloved, sillyThe Piggy in the  Puddle. Janet Schulman, editor ofThe 20th-Century Children's Book  Treasuryand longtime children's book editor and publisher  extraordinaire, knows how to pick 'em. Here, she has lovingly gathered 26 more  best-loved stories in one stout volume. AlthoughYou Read to Me & I'll Read  to Youfunctions as a companion to her earlier anthology, it is not, as  Schulman says in the introduction, more of the same. These stories, from William  Steig'sAmos and Borisand Daniel Pinkwater'sBlue MoosetoFreckle Juiceby Judy Blume andThe True Story of the 3 Little  Pigsby Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith, were carefully selected based on their  appropriateness for reading aloud. Storylines are more fully developed, with  more words and fewer pictures. In short, these stories are just right for  children in their first few years of school who can now read--but still love to  be read to. This collection of absolute gems, including portions of longer  chapter books, is sure to find a permanent, favored spot on young children's  bedside tables, long after they've mastered reading skills. An index of titles,  authors, and illustrators allows readers to find their all-time favorites--or  explore a brand-new (to you) author's work. This excellent, positively historic  collection of the crème de la crème of read-aloud stories belongs  on every bookshelf. And, though hefty in size, remember that it's just one book  to throw in the travel bag! (Ages 4 and older)--Emilie Coulter