I remember seeing these in bookshops at the time as a junior bookworm, but I only parted with 60 pence for one 60-pager back then. That was more down to my unadventurous taste than the quality of the selections, though the recency bias of inevitably forgotten '90s medal winners amid the time-honoured classics is pretty rad. Those are going to seem just as dated by 2030.
There's bound to be something decent in there, and the mini format is appealing to young readers, to the point that she's pretending to read them already. I might give them a try too. Just to make sure they're suitable, like. Then back to my big boy books.
**
Fracas in the foliage with the distant dullness of folk tales. Green was their go-to reteller for all the old myths, but at least some of the others were decent stories in the first place.
**
It was educational to get the (retold) origin story (I never twigged that there were two different swords), then there's another random violent caper. Merlin's prophetic spoilers keep things from ever getting too dramatic or having any sense of autonomy. Foreigners had better stories.
****
Ancient tales that never get old, this swift sampler actually did its job of whetting the appetite for the full book, but I'll probably stick with the D'aulaires.
Fave: 'Perseus the Gorgon-slayer'
**
Silly R@nD0M poetry would have been the most palatable kind to young me, but this poor showing would have put me off again. A public domain bill of Lear, Carroll and Anon without the likes of Milligan, though some more modern poets got their own mini anthologies.
Fave: 'One Fine Day in the Middle of the Night'
***
This Norwegian franchise had passed me by before now. I can't tell whether I would have really been into it back when I was reading Narnia and the like, but I found its quirky rural reluctant-magical escapism quite lovely.
***
I wasn't looking forward to this one, having reluctantly skimmed one of his novels at school, but its brief length (written to spec?) and rapid-fire chapters chasing the young millennial attention span made the eccentric magical sitcom fly by.
****
I wasn't fond of the public domain Arabian Nights anthology I read previously, but they picked out some delightfully morbid farces here, before it ta(i)led off.
Faves: 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,' 'The Tale of the Hunchback'
**
The first is the quirkiest, in its bizarro body horror. The others play with overly familiar concepts predictably, but kids will be less jaded.
Fave: 'The Copy'
***
Skipping introductions for five chapters from the adventurous middle (about an hour's worth of public domain audiobook), I probably got slightly more out of its presentation of pipe-smoking fictional feral toerags than if I'd been force-fed it in school.
****
Some bedtime keepers here, unless she turns out to be less easily impressed by the whimsically literal interpretation of figures of speech than I never fail to be.
Faves: 'Life Savings,' 'The Night Train'
***
Moody adolescent introspection with hints of the uncanny for nascent goths who've outgrown Point Horror.
Fave: 'The End of Silence'
***
Currently her favourite of this unreadable set for featuring 'Mummy' on the cover, apparently, these humdrum exploits of a self-sufficient, anti-establishment, upbeat orphan will be worth a try when she's old enough to be corrupted.
****
I quite enjoyed the '90s cartoon, but moderate affection and curiosity didn't get me very far when I tried one of the books back then. From an interfering parent's perspective, they're wholesomely nightmarish and timeless, but you need the illustrations.
Fave: 'The Secret of the Hattifatteners'
****
The first and probably best bit, though I was already drifting off. We've got the full version somewhere if she tunes in to its timeless polite whimsy.
***
A couple of imaginative juvenile fantasies and one incongruous juvenile gross-out. You're not always in the same mode, after all.
Fave: 'The Midnight Story on Griffon Hill'
****
Atmospheric, variably ambiguous and at one point downright creepy. One of the best in the boxset, but destined to be overlooked for its vagueness. Apparently, that's daddy on the cover.
Fave: 'Her Father's Attic'
**
Crap 20th century fables that anthropomorphise all the individuality out of animals and propagate paleo myths, with a dash of racism for good measure.
Fave: 'A Narrow Squeak'
*****
Whether or not it's one of the best, it's certainly one of the most memorable and maybe the best choice for a representative pick with its fresh country air, tense nocturnal action, unhelpfully vague dying warning and unnecessarily convoluted scheming, those are always my favourite.
**
I can't say I was looking forward to learning what that cover was about, and I'm still none the wiser. Three humdrum tales of spirited youth for you.
Fave: 'Fight the Good Fight'
**
He's no David Horner.
Fave: 'The Watch'
**
A fairly random assortment, heavy on the royals with a disappointing dearth of anthropomorphic animals, none really standing out as classics.
Fave: 'Tom Thumb'
*
The only one I picked up for myself at the time as a junior bookworm, having already read further full-length adventures of the Time Warp Trio, this is abridged to the point of deflation, but still gives you a good sense of the hilarious wiseguy '90s cartoon kids out of water generic antics you can expect and that somehow satisfied me at 10.
***
The first and only memorable part of the author's childhood autobiography, at least I don't remember making it further when reading it in school, but I appreciated it more from this side. Perhaps an odd choice for your Dahl selection, but it ticks off a different genre.
****
Mini anthology of obvious but worthy rhymes, just missing 'The Raven.'
Fave: Robert Browning, 'The Pied Piper of Hamelin'
****
A brilliant Dickens tale joined by incrementally lesser oldies, though I don't really see how any of them would appeal to kids.
Fave: Charles Dickens, 'The Signal-Man'
*
Selected sequence of splendid schooldays. Was this supposed to be the good bit? I'll read her some chick books, but I have my limits.
****
Two magical tales and a classic scepticism parable for boys and girls.
Fave: 'The Emperor's New Clothes'
**
A bit of a letdown, but so were his other pre/post-Python projects generally. They're not especially funny, you're better off reading some proper folk tales for a bit of culture.
Fave: 'The Dragon on the Roof'
**
Skipping the ones adapted for the film to give the readers new stories is reasonable, but the selections of mongoose pest control and parade preparations are disappointingly domestic and worthlessly anthropomorphic. That tiger doesn't show up.
***
I wouldn't want to read the full-length book set in this shared domestic microcosm, but it was nice to visit from several vantage points, and the fanciful anthropomorphs behave more like animals this time.
Fave: 'Sam and the Honda Ride'
