[.ca] The Random House Book of Easy-to-Read Stories (ISBN 0679834389)

lots of variety, may look better than it is:
This is an odd little collection of easy to read stories and poems, feauturing several prominent children's authors such as Dr. Seuss, Richard Scarry, and Stan & Jan Berenstain. It gets five stars for variety, two or three stars for substance. The collection doesn't seem to have any focus -- there is the very simple "Dog Party" ("Go dog go") and "Inside, Outside, Upside Down", short nonsense poems such as "Eat at Skipper Zipp's" and "Tweetle Beetles" by Dr. Seuss, and some more advanced stories like "The Surprise Story" and "20,000 Baseball Cards Under the Sea". Although the choice of stories and authors is commendable, the stories are not complete or developed enough to do the respective authories justice and give a child a meaningful introduction to the authors. The illustrations are plentiful and generally very good, and I expect that a toddler would enjoy looking at the pictures. The stories might not maintain the ongoing interest of a child capable of reading the stories for herself. If variety is what you're after, this may be a good choice. Otherwise, I'd look for a more focused collection of stories.

Well-Rounded Anthology:
The Random House Book of Easy-to Read Stories is a well-rounded and charming anthology featuring selections from more than a dozen classic authors and illustrators. Dr. Seuss, Stan & Jan Berenstain, Richard Scarry, Laurent de Brunhoff, Marc Brown, Tomie de Paola, P. D. Eastman, Jon Buller, Susan Schade, Deborah Hautzig, and R. W. Alley are some of the names which many parents will remember with fondness. This book is a wonderful way to introduce your child to some of the authors you loved best when you were a child! The featured selections are well-suited to reading aloud and each page is heavily illustrated to capture the attention of even the youngest listeners.

Stories are *NOT* complete:
Be careful with this book. "Go Dog Go" and "Fox in Socks" are not included, only short excerpts as with 3 other Dr. Suess "stories" included. 5 of the remaining 11 stories are less than 3 pages.

Great Sampling of Childhood Favorites:
The 16 stories in this excellent book are taken from authors that you loved as a kid: Richard Scarry, Dr. Seuss, the Berestains, P.D. Eastman and many more! The book contains 11 full stories including the following: Babar's Picnic The Ugly Duckling A Visit to Mr. Fixit Freddie's Spaghetti The other 5 works in the book are "selections" from the following: Fox in Socks Go, Dog, Go I Can Read with My Eyes Shut Oh, Say Can You Say We used this book to help teach my daughter learn to read when she was 4. She is now 6 and still loves to read the stories and gaze at the cute, colorful illustrations. This book is great for read aloud, to teach reading, or for a gift! I highly recommend it!