Children's Classics

For Christmas I received quite a few new books to add to my ever-growing collection of pretty, unique editions of classic titles. These included some children's (or just child-like) books, like the Puffin Classics edition of Peter Pan, the Penguin Threads editions of Black Beauty and The Secret Garden, and the Penguin Classics edition of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

 Not only will these be decorative additions for my shelves, but they'll be a fun chance to rediscover these well known stories for the first time, as I've never actually read most of them in their original book forms.

I've started meandering through Peter Pan, reading a little bit here and there a few nights before bed. So far I'm amazed at what an odd little book it is! Peter is a much more annoying character than he is in the movie adaptations of the story, and Tinkerbell is portrayed as mean (and kind of a hussy!). Some of the writing is pretty lyrical, though, so I can see how it would be good read aloud in the way it's meant to be, as a betime story for children.
I'm also amazed at how I can't help but picture Johnny Depp as the narrator after seeing him play J.M. Barrie in this movie.