Children of the Forest: Mini Edition

Elsa Beskow’s stories are always appreciated at our house. Quality stories with great imagination.

This is definitely my favorite book for young children. The illustrations are beautiful (obviously, it’s Elsa Beskow), the premise is imaginative (little people playing with forest creatures!), and the content encourages a deep connection to nature that is like a breath of fresh air (especially for my young city dwellers). Overall, it’s a sweet, gentle, and rich book that we really enjoy reading and never tire of.

_Children of the Forest_ is perfect for little people just past picture-only books, or those able to follow a simple story line. It is the tale of a family of tiny people who live in the forest, with a description of their daily lives and interactions with critters of the woods. A very charming story. But the illustrations are also marvelous, of an almost "art-nouveau" style of the early 20th century. Highly recommended.

Elsa Beskow is classic! What a wonderful book deeply explorative of the Earth. Elsa is accurate with her botanical drawings. She has such a beautiful mind! She places fairy children and elf children as the helping hands to Earth's changes. As the insects and bugs are preparing for Spring's entrance, the children paint and polish them. Perfect book for ages 2-6. Innocent, perfect for homeschooled children.

Adorable tale about a miniature family, mother, father, two daughters and two sons who live in the forest. Children play and go to school with forest animals. The animals and children speak to each other. There are several morals taught in the course of the story. Follows the family from one season through the next. The children help the parents work, harvest food for winter, etc. It is nice to see the children happily working with the family rather than just existing to be entertained. The children have several adventures and lots of different fun activities playing with the animals in the forest. The book is formatted with text on the left page with one or more black and white illustrations above and/or below it, and the right side of the book is one big full color illustration. The book is a large format. The illustrations are gorgeous and offer much to look at, many details, rather than just mimicking the exact words of the text. I wish there were more books of this high quality available today. If there are more 100 year old books like this, I wish they would be republished. The story is lovely and the adult will enjoy reading it over and over.

This is a wonderful book which has been in my family for generations. This book has adventure, educates children about nature and animals, family bonding, etc. The detailed pictures can be explored for hours toghether with your children.