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The Slant Book

by Peter Newell (1862-1924)

This recording of Peter Newell’s The Slant Book (1910) kicks off voiced renderings by LibriVox of public domain books in the International Children’s Digital Library (ICDL).

The ICDL book can be found at: http://www.childrenslibrary.org/.

The Slant Book is literally the shape of a parallelogram, with the spine of the book running down one side. When opened, facing pages form a “V” shape. All the pictures on the slanted recto pages show a way-too-precocious infant in a carriage [the “go-cart” of yesteryear] racing downhill who has somehow gotten away from his nanny, gleefully creating havoc all along the way! The facing verso pages contain two stanzas of commentary on the charming –if alarming!– illustrations.

This book pioneered the “special format” children’s literature of today, such as pop-up books or cutout books like Eric Carle’s The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Newell books from 80 years ago have been reprinted, since Newell has undergone a resurgence in popularity much as Dr. Seuss’s books did during the 1980s. This is a boon for teachers and home-schooling parents, since this recording can now be listened to as youngsters page through a real book (ISBN: 080-480-5326) or as they view the ICDL scanned version online (both are a real treat)! (Summary by Denny Sayers)

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