Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever

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Summary: Still have my copy from 1977
Review: And I'm glad I do. Although much of the content is from previous Richard Scarry books -- it provides an excellent way to remember the funniest bits of those other books and has helped me decide which Richard Scarry books to get for my son.

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Summary: A Richard Scarry Classic-should be required reading for all
Review: I had this book as a child as it was originally published in paperback and I actually wore it rags. I believe I originally got it free in the early 1970's when my mom purchased a promotional box of laundry detergent. Now, I have just purchased a copy for my "Mr Frumble Loving" 2 year old son and I myself look forward to the memories of these great little stories being retold. Wonderful detailed color pictures and great short stories and lessons. Thank You Amazon.com for making it easy to find again!

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Summary: Storries originally from other Richard Scarry books
Review: I LOVE this book! I recieved one when I was born, and have worn it out! I recently had to replace mine. This is the standard gift I always buy for new babies!

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Summary: Good for even an older child
Review: I remember reading this classic as a child and wearing my copy out! I just recently acquired another copy for my teenaged son mainly as a joke gift (he's a tuba player and I think "Schtoompah, the Funny Austrian" is a sketch of a story, describes my son to a T!) It's interesting to get an older child's take on these stories, which have great morals and lessons to be learned from them, even at an older age.

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Summary: A little bit of everything..
Review: Im returning to this book with the birth of my two sons. I remember it from my childhood, and I wanted to share it with them.
There are so many delights in this book. The stories vary from longer fairy tales to simpler poems and one page drawings. I love the diagram of a castle in Denmark, complete with ghosts. You can pick up this book and find something for all occasions and moods. If you read to your children, this book is for you!

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Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: Like other reviewers, this was one of my favorite books as a child. Since the contents of the book have been covered in other reviews, I wanted to mention a few other things. First, I can proudly say that my 3-year-old son is currently thrilled with my original copy. Second, I believe that this book has much to offer in terms of pre-reading skills. When I pulled this book out for my son last year, I looked through it fondly, and vividly recognized almost all of the pictures. Interestingly, though, I didn't remember the words; I had memorized all of the pictures and created my own stories as a very young child. I was a very early reader; I was reading novels of 300-400 pages in the third grade. I believe that that had much to do with my desire to sit and "read" books on my own as a toddler.

Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever is designed for a child to work through on his/her own. My son "reads" to himself for about an hour each day (self-inflicted!) and he already matches letter sounds to words. I'm not a believer in the genetics argument for most children; I believe that children learn to read early, and learn to have a love for books based on the environment provided for them. This book is a fantastic way to begin to set that environment for your child.

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Summary: This book had an incredible imapct on me as a child
Review: Like other reviewers, this was one of my favorite books as a child. Since the contents of the book have been covered in other reviews, I wanted to mention a few other things. First, I can proudly say that my 3-year-old son is currently thrilled with my original copy. Second, I believe that this book has much to offer in terms of pre-reading skills. When I pulled this book out for my son last year, I looked through it fondly, and vividly recognized almost all of the pictures. Interestingly, though, I didn't remember the words; I had memorized all of the pictures and created my own stories as a very young child. I was a very early reader; I was reading novels of 300-400 pages in the third grade. I believe that that had much to do with my desire to sit and "read" books on my own as a toddler.

Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever is designed for a child to work through on his/her own. My son "reads" to himself for about an hour each day (self-inflicted!) and he already matches letter sounds to words. I'm not a believer in the genetics argument for most children; I believe that children learn to read early, and learn to have a love for books based on the environment provided for them. This book is a fantastic way to begin to set that environment for your child.

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Summary: Oodles of Richard Scarry and I Am a Bunny, Too!
Review: Researchers constantly find that reading to children is valuable in a variety of ways, not least of which are instilling a love of reading and improved reading skills. With better parent-child bonding from reading, your child will also be more emotionally secure and able to relate better to others. Intellectual performance will expand as well. Spending time together watching television fails as a substitute.

To help other parents apply this advice, as a parent of four I consulted an expert, our youngest child, and asked her to share with me her favorite books that were read to her as a young child. Richard Scarry's Best Story Book Ever was one of her picks.

This book was my daughter's choice night after night during the years from ages 3-6. The stories are all vividly colored, humorous, and reasonably short. They just suited her perfectly.

She would plead after each one, "Just one more story, Dad." (This was after her mother had read to her, as well.) I would read until I had almost no voice left. Eventually, we negotiated that she could pick two stories from this book, and if I was in the mood (and in good voice) we could go up from there. Otherwise, bedtime would have been delayed for hours!

If you don't know Richard Scarry, he has a wonderful, light sense of humor. He usually features intelligent animals, but in human-like contexts. This makes the moral of the story easier for the youngster to swallow, while making the story more interesting. For example, A Castle in Denmark is about the rules that you should follow in a castle (or a house) such as not leaving things on the floor where people can trip on them. Who else would have come up with such a wonderful way to help establish household rules?

The stories in the book contain all the elements needed in a preschool book, with lots of alphabet, numbers, socialization, and charming stories with important lessons attached. The book includes one of my daughter's all time favorite stories, I Am a Bunny by Ole Rison. This story was repeated like a mantra around our house by all four children. It is a great beginning reader story.

The stories vary in sophistication from simple ones to mini-mysteries involving detectives. My daughter especially loved the mini-mysteries.

Here are her favorite stories in the book (in the order they appear):

The Rabbit Family's Home

I Am a Bunny

Work Machines

Pip Pip Goes to London

A Castle in Denmark

Couscous, the Algerian Detective

Officer Montey of Monaco

Pierre, the Paris Policeman

The Country Mouse and the City Mouse by Patricia Scarry

Schtoompah, the Funny Austrian

From a value perspective, it is much less expensive to buy these stories in this form than to get them in the various Richard Scarry books. Of all the story books we bought for our children, this one was definitely the best value. I suspect it only cost about a penny per hour used. Running the television costs more than that!

Some readers have complained about the binding. Ours is a little loose in back after four years of hard use. For such a thick book, that's about par for the course. If your child is a hard user of books, you may want to get a new copy at some point.

After you have finished enjoying this book for the 4,317th evening in a row (if you have a large family), I suggest that you think about how these stories could be made even funnier by changing the context. For example, a castle in Denmark could become Cinderella's castle after she married the prince. What rules do you suppose Cinderella would have wanted to have? In this way, you and your child can exercise your imagination to have even more fun.

Take great stories and build on them . . . together with your child!

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Summary: Best book ever!
Review: This book was given to my sister when she was very young. It became the standard reading book in my family. Try as my mother did we always requested a story from this book. My favourite was "Egg in the hole". I loved this story and requested it night after night. After a while i knew it off by heart and would tell my parents off if they changes a word. Many years ago we discovered this book in a local bookshop and bought it for friends who had just had a baby - it became a sucess in their family as well. A friend of mine has a 1 year old and i was trying to think of a present for her. The daughter has enough cloths and toys when i thought of giving her a book and remembered how much my family had loved this book. I couldn't find it in any shops in Australia and am very excited to find that it is still in print and available. Although the child is only 1 this book will cover her all the way to school and i hope it becomes as much of a favourite with her as it did with me. Thanks Richard Scarry for some of the best stories ever.

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Summary: Excellent children's book
Review: This was my favorite book as a child, and is probably responsible for my prolific reading habits as an adult. I love giving this book to my friends when they have children. The pictures are wonderful, and the stories are memorable. Even today, I always look in the hollows of trees for Mr. Bunny.