#cozy classics

For those who haven't heard of the Cozy Classics, they are a series of board book adaptions of great classics such as Oliver Twist, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and Jane Eyre, created by Jack and Holman Wang and intended for young children. What makes these books stand out, however, is that they come with a most delightful needle felted twist!

Each book contains 12 illustrations, consisting of photographs depicting scenes from the original story and featuring needle felted characters and props.

In addition to this, 12 words related to the story are printed in-between the illustrations; "sailor", "leg", "boat", "find"...

...et cetera. Guess Moby-Dick gets a bonus word though, since "Pequod" is ever so neatly embroidered on the ship's fluffy name plate.

I have to say that this whole concept is nothing short of genius. Not only are the little ones presented with the classics fitting their own level of perception, but the materials shown in the pictures are all familiar ones to them sensory-wise, thus much more relatable than conventional illustrations.

As for the words, they are fitting 1-2 syllable ones, but their meaning - at least in this case - are somewhat unsual. I'm telling you, one doesn't find educational toddler literature containing "smash", "sink", and "mad" together all that often. The choice of words in combination with the pictures also works in an almost insidious fashion in that they will now be forever planted in the lil' one's brain and for the rest of their life they will recognize that peg legged dude with anger issues.

The book manages to capture the essence of the original quite well and what truly surprised me was how the creators did not hold back on the dark stuff. Ahab looks like something that definately will come crawling out from under your bed at night for a maniacal stabbing session, Moby Dick turns the Pequod to splinters, and a heart broken Ishmael floats around on a coffin. Even the color scheme is moody and ominous. We approve! 👍

Even if you don't have a child nearby to brain wash, I highly recommend you check this book out - it's up for a free read on archive.org - for the sake of admiring the pieces of downright wool art.

So, there's the Cozy Classics Moby-Dick for ya. Now I have to go ponder whether I should add a request for a needle felted coffin in my death plan.