A World Full of Dickens Stories: 8 Best Loved Classic Tales Retold for Children written by Angela McAllister and illustrated by Jannicke Hansen is a finely arranged book featuring the best of Charles Dickens wrapped in many pages of beautifully crafted illustrations and storytelling.
The tales include, of course, A Christmas Carol but also The Old Curiosity Shop, Great Expectations and A Tale of Two Cities. Children will also meet Oliver Twist, David Copperfield and Nicholas Nickleby and read about their adventures. This collection of stories needs to be read slowly to track the twists and turns of all of the constantly moving plots.
The skillful illustrations put forth each character in great detail---allowing the reader to be informed by every facial expression, glance, gaze and body stance. Each story is preceded by a colorful and helpful page entitled Cast of Characters where the illustrator has provided a portrait of each character that prepares the reader to spot Oliver Twist and the Artful Dodger, David Copperfield and Uriah Heep, Bob Cratchit and Ebenezer Scrooge and so many more.
The back material is well developed with a biographical note about Dicken’s life and a well put forth Timeline which begins with Dickens birth in 1812 and ends with his death in 1870. An outstanding glossary of 62 words such as Apprentice, Cobbled Street, Magistrate, Patron and Workhouse is also included.
A World Full of Dickens Stories: 8 Best-Loved Classic Tales Retold for Children by Angela McAllister with illustrations by Jannicke Hansen is a handsome gift of literature for readers 9-12 years of age (Francis Lincoln Children’s Books and The Quarto Group, 2020).
The Children’s Bookshelf is a production of WCMU. Links to the podcast and the activity questions, ideal for home use, can be found at Children’s Bookshelf dot org.
Activity Questions for A World Full of Dickens Stories
Study the very interesting end papers at the back of this book. They are filled with items and details pictured and talked about in each of the 8 stories. There are over 100 items pictured in the end papers. Without looking back at each story try to identify in which story each item belongs. Next, hunt back through the book’s illustrations to find those items you could not identify. Then finally, draw your own picture of the item that you think is the most important item in each story----in other words, the item that best represents each of the eight stories.
Which of the 8 classic stories did you most enjoy? Why? Which of the 8 classic stories did you like the least? Why? Write a sales pitch that will convince a friend or a family member to read the story that you liked the best. In this way you will be spreading classic stories to friends and family members as well as supporting the important and private act of reading.
There are 62 words listed in the Glossary that occur in these stories. Were any of these words new to you? Were there other words in these stories that you would have added to this list?
