growing up as a kid?

These books were a collection of stories, poetry, legends, and fairytails from dozens of cultures going back as far as ancient Greece. From Grimm's Fairy Tails, to the Legend of Roland, to Faust, to Jason's quest for the Golden Fleece, the list goes on and on. From Norway to Africa, and from America to China. Numerous tales from India, the ME, Russia, Egypt...etc. Essentially, the entire world was my play place through these books. I am having a son in a few months, and I literally CANNOT WAIT, to teach him to read and to see him read from these books as I did.

There were different run lengths, and dates. I grew up with the 12 book series from 1937. Which was the second to last printing, the next wasn't until 1971.

These books are amazing, I still sit down and read the ones for older children. Book 1 was for toddlers, Book 12 was for roughly 11th grade or so. To give you an idea of how the series worked. The founder's goals were for them to educate children, she described it as follows:

quote:
"First,--To be well equipped for life, to have ideas and the ability to express them, the child needs a broad background of familiarity with the best in literature.

"Second,--His stories and rhymes must be selected with care that he may absorb no distorted view of life and its actual values, but may grow up to be mentally clear about values and emotionally impelled to seek what is truly desirable and worthwhile in human living.

"Third,--The stories and rhymes selected must be graded to the child's understanding at different periods of his growth, graded as to vocabulary, as to subject matter and as to complexity of structure and plot."

How many kids these days read Faust in highschool? How many read Faust at all? I'm not the biggest fan, but it was still literature I read. These books were the foundation for my imagination and taught me untold numbers of lessons throughout the years. Because of this series, I started a life long love affair with books. My wife and I currently have roughly 2,000 books in our library, and try to add more every chance we get.

Was just wondering if anyone else had read these, or had them as a child.

Sorry, first image is a tad large.