Usborne Books?

I am not certain that Usborne would be considered living books. I’m too new to Charlotte Mason. We happen to live outside of the U.S. on a tiny island, and the library is just one room here. So I find myself building my own library of sorts. Against the advice of classical home educators I know, I purchased loads of them for casual reading.

Whether these fit the CM mold, I have to respectfully say that I don’t worry about it. I continue to purchase select Usborne books. Two major reasons contribute to why I would wholeheartedly offer these books to any children (but not ALL the Usborne books and certainly not their Kane-Miller imprint, which is twaddle).

Firstly, my DDs (10 and 12) cling to great books for great lengths of time (you name the classic title they’ve read it at least three times), but they have enjoyed the “browsing” they can do casually with Usborne books. Perhaps during the few moments before a meal or right after a return from the beach or nature walk (I’ve apparently been doing CM all along and didn’t know it!), they walk by the bookshelf and pull off a few Usborne books, knowing they have a few moments to read but not enough to dig into a dense book. These “browsing” moments have been momentous for them. The Usborne titles on science and history topics–especially the “Real Stories” line–have acted as spring boards for my girls to ask for more.  I don’t know when I would have discovered that my DD (10) had such a fascination with spying and forensic science as well as the “illusions” our brains/eyes provide, especially when it comes to color. I don’t know when I would have discovered how much my other DD (12) enjoyed the topic of war, Greek mythology, and the German language. Because of those titles, they have had their interests piqued, and I have been able to give them great, dense books to further their interests. In fact, we are gathering books this year for them to study some of these topics independently.

Secondly, the “Illustrated Stories” line has also proven to be a real gem in this house. My DDs were able to read stories of Greek Mythology, Shakespeare, Dickens, etc., and know the basic, skeletal plot. Did that dumb down their experience? Not in the least. In fact, at ages 9 and 11, they began going to MY bookshelf to pull out the “real” versions of these classics. I even doubted that they could handle it and had them narrate to me chunks of chapters (again, doing CM before I knew it was CM!) just to see if they grasped it. Not only did they grasp it, but I was delighted to be able to discuss plots, characters, ideas, etc. with them from books I thoroughly enjoy reading to this day. And how wonderful is it to see their interests grow! I couldn’t believe how much they enjoyed Jane Eyre. They still have my book in their room, reading it over and over. I have yet to get a couple of my Dickens books back as well.

Now what do they do with these Usborne books that are clearly below their level now? They read to their sweet sisters (5 and 2) who are now also developing a love for these stories. In fact, when my brother-in-law offered to read my 5 year old her favorite book, she brought him Pride and Prejudice (Usborne) 🙂

Having said that, I don’t think that a steady diet of such books would have worked in the same way. If all my girls experience were Usborne instead of also Pooh, Beatrix Potter, etc., I don’t believe we’d have the same outcome. It’s all about balance. I’ve always read aloud to them from wonderful classics and given them access to living books. I think the balance is key.

Usborne does have unabridged classics that are part of their Illustrated Stories series that are just wonderful. So even if you don’t like their other offerings, those classics illustrated really are nice.

Two cautions about Usborne: the worldview opposes the Bible in every way. So any science-related materials runs the risk of containing evolution. I’ve also found that some of their books (Mysteries and Marvels of Science for one) are written in a way that confuse fact and fiction (time travel could be possible through wormholes, but scientists don’t even know if wormholes exist–what?). When my girls point this information out to me, we use it as an exercise in logic and communication, pointing out how it’s easy to manipulate language for your own agenda.

As with most modern book imprints, you have to sort through title by title. I can’t wholeheartedly recommend every book, but I do see benefits to using selected series from Usborne in a balanced way.

Sorry for such a lengthy response, but I thought our experience over the past four years with Usborne might be useful as you make a decision for what works for your family’s needs and goals.

I used to have a lot of Usborne books because I had a friend who sold them and hosted parties at my home. Many of them were a bit overstimulating for me because they just had tons of info and visuals on a page. They were hard for me to read aloud because of that. That’s just my quirk, though – despite being a generally non-linear thinker, my eyes and brain go a bit buggy with that kind of visual format, like Magic School Bus, any cartoon/comic book, etc. Also, I haven’t seen the new Usborne books for many years, so maybe there are many more that aren’t in this format.

A few that we loved and still have are all the “Search” books, like The Great History Search, The Great Insect Search, etc. Also the Usborne Complete First Book of Nature. I LOVE that one! Now that I have a little one again, that’s one of the books I’m most happy to use.