Sterling publishing

From Sterling Publishing comes two new hardcover editions of favorite children's classics, "Oliver Twist" by Charles Dickens and "Anne of Avonlea" by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The stories are lightly sprinkled with footnotes to explain certain words or phrases that may be foreign to anyone "? kid or adult "? today, for example, in "Oliver Twist" a small note defines a "Jack Ketch" as a hangman.

These classics include a series of questions at the end of the book to get kids thinking. The questions are posed by Arthur Pober, a veteran educator who has spent more than 20 years teaching young gifted children.

Most interesting, however, is the addition of unique illustrations created by Scott McKowan. The cover illustration, chapter title pictures and illustrations throughout the books were created using scratchboard, which is an engraving technique. A thin layer of black ink is rolled over the scratchboard and then the lines of the illustration are "drawn" by scraping the board with a sharp knife. The illustrations are surprisingly detailed, right down to the red strands of Anne Shirley's hair.

With fairly big print, explanations and drawings, these two editions are a great introduction for kids to the classics.

 "?Jenny Coon Peterson 

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