Usborne Opinions

My 6 yo son enjoys looking at the pictures, but I loathe reading them and none of the kids really enjoy them either. They do not fit the definition of a living book, IMO, but are more tidbits of factual information.

~ Christie

We feel the same as Christie… the kids enjoy looking at them but greatly dislike reading them (atleast together).

They give little, choppy info and go from one thing to another.  I asked about them before… whether they were a “living book”.  I didn’t think they were but it was nice to see someone agree. lol  

I have a few in my lending library, but only if it contains something I have no better resource for. 

Nope. Don’t like them!  It’s like reading in ADD mode to me.  Not pleasant.  

I like Usborne for reasons that some of you don’t…lol…

I think the encylopedias do have short tidbits of information, but the photgraphs/illustrations are beautiful and captivating to go with it.  I like this because I have a child that gets OVERWHELMED with too much text, even if I am reading it. 

So Usborne works well for this, the small amount of information is there, the illustrations draw my child in…we end up having great narrations and then proceed to use the quicklinks they provide to get more information.  As well as move into other books that may fall better under the catagory of “living books”

I think they work well to introduce young children to the non-fiction books, and aids in helping them use encycopedia type reference books with out it being intimidating.  Older children 10 + may require more, but may still also enjoy looking something up in an Usborne encylopedia to ‘light the fire’.  I use it that way too, if there is an independent study I’d like the older one to do.  They flip through that and it gives us a jumping off point for a topic and then off to the library we go.

I also have a child who at 5 years old would not mind thumbing through something like “Handbook of Nature Study”.  That child is not intimidated by text or large books.  As for my other child, I think because of a few Usborne books and encyclopedia, he is now really appreciating where books can take him.

So they are working for us and leading into great living books.  My children are still young though, and I can appreciate what others have found too.  It is just nice to see my child who previously did not like to read, wanting to get more and more from the library now!

They’re just OK to me.  I like the pictures, my kids are excited to look at them, and I agree that the “choppy” information isn’t overwhelming for my kids.  The thing that drives me crazy about Usborne is that a ton of people I know are now consultants and I’m constantly getting bombarded with online party invitations…

We have several that my kids like to flip through.  We don’t read them aloud, though, because, as other people mentioned, the snippets of information don’t lend themselves to being read aloud.