An Illustrated Treasury of Read-Aloud Classics for Young People: 40 Ten-Minute Selections from the World's Best-Loved Books for Parent and Child to Share Book

I bought this because I found it at a really good price and DWJ is one of my favorite authors ever. I was quite disappointed. Not only is it an anthology with only 1 story by DWJ (not a deal breaker, story collections can be a great place to find new authors similar to old favorites), but it's not even short stories or new material, but excerpts of older novels. I am NOT a fan of most book excerpts, and an anthology full of them is NOT a winning idea in my opinion. The excerpts are never as good or as interesting as they could be in context, and it's a real drag if you've already read the books, and just as bad if you haven't: if it's a good book you don't want to spoil it by reading a piece out of the middle, but if it's not you don't want a senseless chunk out of it, but of course you're never sure if the book was that bad or if it just wasn't satisfying or was particularly confusing without the beginning or the end.

These books could have been valid favorites, but hacking them to bits and publishing the pieces as a book is a good way to ruin them. In general, I really think you take the magic out of fiction when you don't let it unfold as the author intended. I didn't even get all the way through it, which is unusual for me.