Yesterday's Classics: Classical Children's Lit at a Classy Price

     When I was growing up, I only read a few older books which were owned by my parents or were available in my school library.  Most everything I read was much more modern.  If it hadn't been for reading out of a King James Bible, I might have had a tough time reading Shakespeare or other similar books in high school.

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     I didn't necessarily care very much for older books when I was younger.  I think a lot of that stemmed from not being introduced to many older styles of writing until I was in my last two years of high school.

     But now as an adult, I really enjoy reading older books!  In fact, one of my favorite books is going on 100 years old, and I enjoy it immensely.

     When I heard that I might have the opportunity to use and review 225 older books via eBook format, I was excited!  Then, I looked at the titles being offered.  I knew that some of these books were already available at no cost on the internet already, so I wasn't sure how I was going to review this eBook company, Yesterday's Classics, if they were charging money for what I could already obtain on the internet for no charge.

Yesterday's Classics sells over
22 genres of books in both paperback and eBook formats.

Here is a brief sample of some
of the titles that
Yesterday's Classics publishes:

      I had to smile when I saw a few of the titles available from Yesterday's Classics.  I actually already owned three of their paperback books; I purchased these to use with Tapestry of Grace curriculum! 

     Yesterday's Classics republishes classic books for children from the golden age of children's literature, the era from 1880 to 1920.  Many of the titles they offer have been out of print for decades and have been difficult to find.

     My husband and I have encouraged our daughters to listen to old-fashioned radio programs which are now available via MP3 or CD.  It took them a little while to get used to the more formal manner in which people spoke to each other fifty to one-hundred years ago, but now they enjoy most of the audios to which they listen.

     I've tried to do much the same with the types of books that our girls have read.  We've allowed them to read books "just for fun", and books that are more modern in their language style, but we've also encouraged them to read books that are deeper and more meaningful, and are written with more style and grace than many books these days.

     When I received these 225 books downloaded from Yesterday's Classics, we didn't own a Kindle or EPUB type of eReader.  That was fine; I'd installed the Kindle for PC application onto both of our computers, so we read through the clear directions that Yesterday's Classics provides and made sure we could read these new eBooks on both computers, if necessary. 

     I'm going to be honest with you.  Yes, many of these older books are available for free online.  However, some are not, or they can only be read online and not downloaded to my computer.

     The eBooks from Yesterday's Classics are very nice and clean compared to many of the free books that I've downloaded over the years. The illustrations are clear, and the table of contents in each eBook is clickable so that you won't need to page through every page in a book to reach the place where you wanted to start reading.  I have found that being able to use a clickable Table of Contents is invaluable!  That alone makes Yesterday's Classics books worthwhile. 

     Many of the eBooks in their large list of 225 older books are used frequently for homeschooling curricula like Ambleside Online, Heart of Dakota, Living Books curriculum, Old Fashioned Education, Mater Amabilis, and Tapestry of Grace.  To buy these 225 books separately in printed form would cost a lot more money than I have to spend on an entire school year of curriculum!  It's such a great deal to be able to have excellent digital copies of 225 books like these for under 50 cents per book!

     Yesterday's Classics has done something else that I really appreciate seeing on their products:  a 100% risk-free guarantee.  Since I was a bit wary of the clarity and professionalism in these eBooks, this would have allowed me to give it a try and to be able to get my money back if I had bought this set of books and had a problem with what I was viewing and reading.

     One of my daughters won a Kindle about a month after I was able to download the 225 eBooks.  We were thrilled to be able to transfer them to the Kindle and view them there as well.  They are clear and easy to use on the Kindle.

     In addition, my hard drive on my computer failed in the middle of using Yesterday's Classics eBooks.  I was able to download the books again after contacting the company.  Thank you, Yesterday's Classics, for your excellent customer service!

     If you'd like to give a sample eBook a try from Yesterday's Classics, you can go HERE.  You'll find the link to download The Dutch Twins for free, just to see how it works with your computer or your eReader or iPhone or iPhone Touch.  The eBooks are DRM-free, so there's no problem with having them available on several computers and devices in your home. 

     Bottom line?  We are thrilled to be able to have access to high quality e-formats of these classic books!  The girls have already read through some nice and enjoyable books, and they are especially enjoying reading these classic books in eBook format on the Kindle.

     I do have to say here that if your children are used to reading more "fluff" types of books, like most of the newer books available for children in the last 30-40 years, it may take some getting used to with classic children's literature.  But a few read alouds to them, now and then, should help them turn the tide so that they'll more readily enjoy reading classic children's books.

     Yesterday's Classics has announced that they are discounting their set of 225 classic eBooks for children to $99.95 through May 31st, 2011.  This set normally costs $149.95, so it's nice that they are offering a sale price to families through the month of May.

     To see what the rest of the Crew thinks about Yesterday's Classics, visit the Homeschool Crew Blog.

     Have you viewed and read any of Yesterday's Classics in your home?  If you have, what did you think about them?  How did they compare to the regular, free versions that are available for some of these 225 titles?   I hope you have enjoyed them as much as our family has!

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