ngj schlieve

It's A Classic, Baby started with tea and a dream that brought 3 generations of writers together to create a series of books for babies based on classic literature. n.g.j are 3 authors that have “alternative” careers; a tea samovar, a mobility app creator and a retired English teacher. When opening our first tea room we wanted to create a space in the tea room to relax, read and drink tea. The elder two generations were surprised and concerned about the “reading” habits of the latest generation. Instead of being given books – babies were being given smart phones and iPads. But what books would we give our youngest guests? We wanted books especially for the tea room but we really did not want to begin a new career as baby book writers. While there are many classic baby books there are few baby books based on classic literature. There is a universe of classic literature just waiting to be introduced to the newest generation– to help turn them into lifelong readers and people who appreciate the beauty of classic literature. As 30-year members of JASNA (Jane Austen Society of Northern America), the obvious choice was to create a series of books based on Jane Austen's literature. As we worked on these books (the first are Emma's Picnic on Box Hill and Pride and Prejudice: We Go Together) we found the difficulty in “editing” Jane Austen's beautiful prose. We decided to start with something easier – Classic Poetry. We would not have to change the words we would simply add illustrations. For our first book in the series, It's Classic Poetry, Baby, I Wandered Lonely As Cloud, we hired an illustrator. The illustrations were beautiful but the illustrator was not available for next series of 5 poetry books. It was at this point we came upon the idea of marrying classic poetry to classic paintings. This series is for the benefit of both the reader and the listener – everyone will be entertained by the beautiful words and pictures. This series is not available as an ebook and therefore will not read by the mechanical voice of a computer. These books stimulate the minds of both adult and child and allow them to interact with the word, pictures and each other. They also give babies and young children an appreciation of the classics. When the children reach high school literature classes the classics will be old friends, not obsolete new acquaintances.

Next time you find yourself sitting in a waiting room, look around – are people reading a book or engrossed in their iPhones? Are young parents giving their children books and crayons to distract them in restaurants or iPads? It's a Classic, Baby is not anti-technology but an alternative to technology. The basic premise that the physical act of a child sitting on an adult's lap, holding a book, turning the pages, reading and discussing the book and concepts is important as is e connecting to classic literature. This is the goal of It's a Classic, Baby.

Look for our upcoming books. In addition to the Jane Austen series, we have “Words by Shakespeare; the ABCs of Words Shakespeare Invented”, and “Baby Larry's Christmas Party” based on the Christmas classic, A Bird's Christmas Carol.