July 1, 2016 by L.

Baby Jane Austen

So I’m sure some of you might be thinking that I will be writing about Jane Austen’s life as a baby.

She was probably a cute baby.

Well no, I’m not. Instead I am talking about Jane Austen novels for babies!

OMG gasp

I know, how cool is that? There is a company called BabyLit that takes classic novels and turns them into baby primer board books; that is learning books for babies.

Mal_huh Whoa Wow what

Now they can also read classic novels!

readclassics

So far they have Dracula on counting: Alice in Wonderland on colors; A Christmas Carol on colors; Wuthering Heights on the weather; Moby Dick on the ocean, Jane Eyre on counting; Romeo & Juliet on counting; The Jungle Book on animals; Sherlock Holmes and the Hounds of Baskerville on sounds; Anna Karenina on fashion; Jabberwocky on nonsense; Frankenstein on anatomy; The Wonderful Wizard of Oz on colors, and Huckleberry Finn on camping.

keanu Whoa

And of course they have covered Jane Austen with Emma, Pride & Prejudice, and Sense & Sensibility.

Double double yay

And of course me being a major fan, I just had to buy them and check them out.

LifeasaFangirl

But as I have no children and didn’t have any extra book space to hold onto them for if that ever happened (my books are already in every spare spot I have) I bought them for my friend’s baby. So far I have only purchased two (Emma and Pride & Prejudice), one for Christmas and the other for her first birthday. When I buy Sense & Sensibility for this Christmas I’ll review it.

Emma

Emma: A BabyLit Emotions Primer by Jennifer Adams

So we know the story of Emma right? The bare bones of it is a bored girl tries her hand at matchmaking:

Emma-Woodhouse-mr.elton

But in the ends her schemes don’t go anything like she planned.

clueless mybad oops

However, that is too advanced for a baby; so this one is all about emotions with cute illustrations. Emma is excited! Mrs. Bates is scared! Mr. Knightley is Loved.

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You got that right!

EmmaMrKnightlyP&PMrDarcy

Pride & Prejudice

Pride & Prejudice: A BabyLit Counting Primer by Jennifer Adams

So Pride & Prejudice, the most famous of the Jane Austen novels. In it a mother is trying to marry off her offspring, but her meddling can cause some issues.

Pride&PrejudiceTruthUniversallyAcknowledged

Plus some manipulations, misunderstanding, and perseverance see that four couples find their happy match (once again bare bones).

Pride&PrejudiceDarcy

So once again too much for a baby, so this one is all about counting: nine fashionable dresses, five sisters, two gentlemen, etc.

darcybingleypride&prejudice

sense&sensibility

Sense & Sensibility: A BabyLit Opposites Primer by Jennifer Adams

So this is the story of two sisters who go from being wealthy, to having nothing.

Elinor Dashwood: Marianne, you must change. You will catch a cold. Marianne: What care I for colds when there is such a man. Elinor Dashwood: You will care very much when your nose swells up.

They get caught up in others manipulations, in their own striving for happiness, and discovering that being all sense or all sensibility isn’t the right way to be; their should be a balance of both. Plus sisters will always be there for the other.

Frozen Sacrifice self love you sisters

There are also manipulations, secret affairs, meddling matchmakers and more. But of course, that isn’t something babies can grasp so instead we have opposites: big, small, happy, sad, etc.

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So What Did I Think Of It?

So while it doesn’t tell the whole story of these novels (which I didn’t expect it to) I thought these were a wonderful idea and I want to purchase them all.

ShutUpTake MY Money

In a world where less and less people are reading, especially the classics: it is important to bring these memorable works back into the mainstream. I mean there is a reason why they were chosen as classics and they need to be read by everyone.

classicnovel

And while this book focus on it’s theme (colors, counting, feelings) more than the plot of the novel; two very imoprtant things come out of here.

First, the child is being given a classic novel and grows up hearing that name and the characters; making them much more open to reading the real book when they are old enough.

matildalovetoreadeverything

And second, you reading to your child teaches them the importance of family time and the importance of reading. Thus making them book fans too.

read-i-love-matilda

So I highly recommend buying these and adding them to your child’s bookshelf. After all:

raybradburybooksburnstopreading

Save Our Youth! Read Classics Today!

For more on Emma, go to When You Shockingly Relate to Mr. Woodhouse

For more on Pride & Prejudice, go to Death Comes to Pemberley

For more on Sense & Sensibility, go to I Don’t Want You Far From Me: Sense and Sensibility (1995)

For more Emma variations, go to The Austen Series: Amanda

For more Pride & Prejudice variations, go to The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy

For more Sense & Sensibility variations, go to The Dashwood Sisters Tell All: A Modern Day Novel of Jane Austen

For more books based on Jane Austen, go to Captain Wentworth’s Diary

May 29, 2013 by L.

Happy Birthday Pride & Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice was first published in 1813, marking this year the 200th anniversary!

Now many there are many fandoms out there and in which the people convene, talk, dress as their favorite characters, create fan-fiction tales, etc. Some of the more known ones are Star Wars, Star Trek, Supernatural, Sherlock, Lord of the Rings, and Doctor Who; but none of these are anywhere near as well known, talked about, continuously recreated in film, book, clothing, memes, etc as Jane Austen. Face it, us Austenites have been around a long time and we are all pretty crazy.

If Jane Austen were still alive today this would countless fans

If Jane Austen were still alive today this would be countless fans

And out of all of her amazing works which is the most loved, fantasized, recreated, and inspirational to other films/books/movies?

You guessed it Pride & Prejudice

I mean when someone mentions the name we all fangirl over it

This is so me

When a group of us Austenites get together and start discussing the books and the movies and we hear that someone hasn’t read it, we all are shocked and disappointed.

It is a testament to how awesome Jane Austen is that her work is still compatible to today’s times. It is so easily relatable, and she has clearly stood the test of time.

Here’s to another 200 years!

One of the biggest reasons why is is the characters. Elizabeth and Darcy are so lovable, everyone wants to be Elizabeth and everyone wants a Darcy.

I mean even in a culture where bad writing has become popular reads (for example Twilight and Fifty Shades of Grey) Pride and Prejudice still reigns supreme.

So to celebrate Pride and Prejudice’s birthday, I am going to be doing a series of Pride and Prejudice posts honoring one of Jane’s greatest works.

I also will be reviewing the books, films, musicals, etc that are based on Pride and Prejudice. So if you are a fan, I am pretty sure you will enjoy these posts, if not-sorry but Jane Austen is in the web address.

For those of you who enjoy my non-Austen posts, never fear those will be coming as well. I just figured it was time to put the Austen back in JaneAustenRunsMyLife.

Here is the first of a series: 30 works based on Pride & Prejudice that I plan to be reviewing. (As there are a LOT, I will be posting multiple lists. In fact, thus far my list is 83 items and I’m adding all the time.)