This was so cute. The illustrations are gorgeous. There’s not a lot of text but that’s better for little bits imagination so we talked (I talked ^.^) all about the objects and actions in the pictures. Great first little reader ( )

Edgar Avian Poe: The Early Years

(Full disclosure: I received a free copy of this book for review through Goodreads’s First Reads program.)

Edgar is a rambunctious little toddler who just so happens to be a raven. One day his mother goes out, leaving Edgar and his sister Lenore to fend for themselves. What starts out as a fun afternoon of coloring ends in disaster, when Edgar starts chasing Lenore around the house with paper airplanes and accidentally knocks over the bust of his namesake, Edgar Allen Poe. Edgar attempts to hide the evidence, but Poe’s head is way too large to stuff under the floor boards – and with Lenore threatening to Cindy Brady him, it’s unlikely he’ll escape punishment anyway. What’s a toddler to do?

Part of Jennifer Adams’s “BabyLit” series, Edgar and the Tattle-Tale Heart is a fun way for parents to instill a love of literature in their kids from the crib onward. Other books in the series include homages to Dracula; Jane Austen; Moby Dick; Romeo & Juliet; Jane Eyre; Wuthering Heights; Frankenstein; The Wizard of Oz; A Christmas Carol; and Sherlock Holmes – and Edgar and the Tattle-Tale Heart is preceded by the similarly Poe-themed Edgar Gets Ready for Bed. (Quoth the raven: “Nevermore!”)

I had kind of hoped for more Poe references, but I guess there are only so many you can cram into a text consisting of a scant 115 words. The black and purple artwork suits Poe perfectly while also remaining appropriate for children. I especially love how Poe’s eyes keep shifting in each photo, following Edgar’s antics and even winking at the reader from the back cover.

Buy with: The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe, for when they get older. (As a personal aside: this is literally the only gift my father picked out for me all by his little lonesome – mom did the entirety of gift shopping around our house - and I still love and cherish it to this day.)

http://www.easyvegan.info/2014/11/19/edgar-and-the-tattle-tale-heart-by-jennifer... ( )