Can someone tell me about these books?

[Melinda S in TX]

Does anyone know about the Landmark and Signature books? 8ds has read a couple of each and loves them. I'd like to know more before I try and find him some more. Are they good books or a waste?

 

Melinda S in TX

[JaneGrey]

Landmark books are recommended everywhere. They are biographies written for children. According to the NY Times, they're one of the most critically acclaimed, best-selling children's book series ever published. (Well, I've seen that claim attributed to the NYT repeatedly, but I've never seen the article myself.) Pretty impressive claim given how many books were in the series.

 

They're out of print for the most part, but Random House has reprinted some. You'll see these lots sell pretty well on ebay. These are not the same thing as some other series called Landmark (like Landmark Events).

 

Greenleaf Press highly recommends them. See here: http://www.greenleafpress.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=42

 

Veritas Press uses quite a few of these. The owner there apparently makes it a hobby to collect these.

 

Signature is a similar series. They don't have the same buzz (or demand) that the Landmarks seem to. I only stumbled on one because the used bookstore here sold one to me as a Landmark. Too tired to go return it.

[scrapbabe]

We love the landmark books at our house. I read them to my 11 and 8 year old boys. They are my favorite historical biographies for this age, and we've tried a lot of different ones. I have been buying up used ones for really cheap on amazon. I always make sure they are in great condition and hardbound. I have not been disappointed at all! I've aquired quite a few and look forward to reading them all.

 

Smiles,

Shalynn

[VaKim]

Landmarks are excellent and well worth having. Some are naturally better than others because there are different authors, but we have only found one we didn't like so far. He was just too "liberal" or something, for us. Sorry, it's been a while and I don't remember which one. But just because we didn't like him doesn't mean someone else wouldn't anyway.:)

[In The Great White North]

Landmark books are great. I must have about 70 - 80 of them. They have some about historical events and places, as well as the biographies. They are also at varying reading levels.

 

The reissued paperbacks are about half the size but I haven't checked what was lost. After seeing what happened to Nancy Drew, I didn't bother.

 

I've gotten most of mine at the dump, library sales and ebay. They show up at Used Book stores too, but usually cost more there.