The Collins Book of Stories for Four-Year-Olds ¦ The Collins Book of Stories for Five-Year-Olds ¦ The Collins Book of Stories for Six-Year-Olds

Three excellent anthologies to add to any collection. Despite the rather arbitrary division by age, they offer and child within the Infant age range a selection of stories which will last throughout their early year of literacy. The stories are chosen from a wide range of cultures and styles, very few are familiar and all have something intelligent to offer both reader and listener. Because of this depth of ideas, those from the Five-Year-Old collection will still be worthwhile for children to read for themselves at an older age, and many of the Six-Year-Old stories could well be listened to by a younger child.

It's a pity the age label will inhibit flexibility... it takes a brave six-year-old to be seen reading a book labelled so obviously for four-year-olds. Parents, too, might miss the opportunity provided for young fluent readers to read these themselves, because of the silly 'Read Aloud' label imposed by the publisher. Why risk circumstances books, especially ones as good as these?