Max's Apples (Max and Ruby Series) Book

Extremely charming! I haven't read all the stories yet but the ones I have read are filled with warmth, humor and a gentle understanding of children, imparting wisdom and empathy effortlessly and without being obnoxiously preachy. Though the village life is "old-fashioned" by today's standards, the children yearn to be independent as well as helpful, and I think this is timeless.

ETA Sept 2020: I requested this via ILL so I could share it with my own children now that they are old enough to appreciate the stories. The stories are even more dear to my heart now and both my boys (ages 7 and almost-5) enjoyed them, too. The book that arrived is titled "The BIG Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook" and was published in May 2000 by Kingfisher. The illustrations are by Clara Vulliamy. (Funny coincidence, I don't think I had ever encountered her work before and then we quite serendipitously ended up with three of her books from the library at the same time!) On one hand, I was miffed that the original illustrations were replaced. Why, oh, why? The originals are delightful. That said, perhaps some children today would be happier with the full color illustrations and I must say Vulliamy's do a fairly good job of capturing the spirit of the originals.

I enjoyed Vulliamy's Forward and include this excerpt as is so beautifully captures the charm and enduring appeal of these stories:

"One glance at the map of the village -- which Milly-Molly-Mandy so rarely leaves -- tells us that her world is small: living in a nice white cottage with her extended family, where the neighbors all know each other; playing out of doors with her friends, inventing their own fun, safe and free. [...] The children's days a full of adventure and incident. And more telling still are the many ways the children find to fill the time while waiting for the big event -- the snow, the party, the day at sea... timeless, beautifully observed and described with charm, humor, and subtly."