Classics for preschoolers

If so much learning happens in the early years of life (ages 1 through 5), then it must be a good time to hear great classic stories. A great story, with good illustrations, will hold the attention of a preschooler for 30 minutes or even longer.

Some creative publishers offer abridged versions of great books like Pilgrim’s Progress. That’s the one I’ve selected as the top story to keep reading to my own grandchildren, in multiple versions.

John Bunyan was a great storyteller, and he offers a strong and balanced approach to the Christian life. Coming to Christ will include some agonizing over our deeply sinful nature. We don’t live happily ever after beyond conversion to Christ. We suffer. We get attacked. We face peer pressure and scorn. We endure spiritual warfare. Bunyan offers a healthy alternative to stories that feel good but might not prepare children for real life.

The Bunyan Press in England has a 63-page version with good illustrations on each page, available through the Gospel Standard Trust Publications. Great Commission Publications offers a 111-page version with fewer illustrations but a nice map at the start, to follow Bunyan’s route through the Slough of Despond, the Wicket Gate, the Hill Difficulty, and Vanity Fair.

Dangerous Journey, by the late BBC producer Oliver Hunkin (Eerdmans, 1985), offers the vivid full-page illustrations so helpful for preschoolers: I read one text and keep some others at hand for the illustrations. Barbour Publishing several years ago came out with an edition of Pilgrim’s Progress (along with Ben Hur and Robinson Crusoe) that has black-and-white cartoon illustrations on every other page—but the illustrations aren’t top notch like the ones in Dangerous Journey.

Next on my list is C.S. Lewis’ The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and the other Narnia stories. The best version I have found, The World of Narnia Collection, is illustrated by Deborah Maze and comes from HarperCollins (1997).

Our 5-year-old granddaughter has fallen in love with The Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald’s (1824-1905) story for children. Eerdmans published a good British children’s version in 1987, abridged by the BBC’s Hunkin. C.S. Lewis often paid tribute to MacDonald’s stories for his inspiration.

Mark Twain’s The Prince and the Pauper is available in a 48-page young children’s version (Troll Associates, 1990), with illustrations on most pages. In some ways the Prince is like Christ as King, getting down in the muck of human life. In real life he is King Edward VI of England, who reigned only a few years as a young man but strongly advanced the cause of reform. Twain’s fun story is great for children who learn about 16th-century England while enjoying Twain’s gift for telling a story.

Two more: Carolyn Nystrom took Robert Munger’s classic lordship plea, My Heart—Christ’s Home, and translated it into a preschool children’s version in 2010 (IVP). Sandy Creek in 2010 published a few Stuart Little stories in a preschool version.

As a read-aloud grandparent, I long for more of these classics translated for the preschool years. I am puzzled over why more publishers have not undertaken this task. Who might publish an excellent version of Robinson Crusoe for preschoolers, with the necessary illustrations?

With the right illustrations, a story can be as great for a 3-year-old as it is for a 63-year-old.