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Cozy Classics for Young and Old

Brothers Jack and Holman Wang teamed up in 2012 to create Cozy Classics, an infant primer board-book series that adapts classic novels into twelve simple, child-friendly words that appear alongside photographs of handmade figurines. The brothers create the characters, sets, and props themselves through the painstaking process of needle-felting, a handcraft that involves the shaping of woolen fibers with a barbed needle. Each figure takes between eighteen and twenty-five hours to create. The first two titles—Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice—were released this past November by Vancouver-based Simply Read Books; the next release, a cozy take on Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, is forthcoming in April.

01. Moby-Dick

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The cozy adaptation of Moby-Dick introduces young readers to Melville's classic sea-faring adventure. 

02. Sailor

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Ishmael, whose fibrous figurine illustrates the word "sailor," sets off on his famous voyage. 

03. Boat

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The meticulously needle-felted Pequod, Captain Ahab's famous whaleship, runs alongside the word "boat." 

04. Find

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To accompany the word "find," our hero is perched in a needle-felted crow's nest, one of many handmade set pieces in the Cozy Classics series. 

05. Whale

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The elusive white whale himself, carefully needle-felted right down to the teeth. 

06. Pride and Prejudice

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The cozy cover of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, published this past November by Simply Read Books.

07. Friends

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In the opening scene, the felted figures of Charles Bingley and Mr. Darcy introduce the word "friends" to the youngest of Jane Austen fans. 

08. Mean

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Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet teach readers what it means to be "mean." 

09. Muddy

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Elizabeth gets muddy. This scene, among others in the series, was shot by the creators using natural outdoor backgrounds.

10. Read

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Demonstrating the word "read," Elizabeth Bennet holds Mr. Darcy's famous letter—which, like the characters themselves, is also carefully needle-felted. 

11. Les Misérables

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The cozy cover of Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, forthcoming from Simply Read Books in April. 

12. Poor

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In the opening scene, a very poor Jean Valjean, recently released from prison, wanders the streets of Digne in search of a place to stay. 

13. Fire

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This needle-felted illustratration representing the word "fire" is set against a delicately hand-crafted background.  

14. Sad

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The young Cosette—at the window of a handmade miniature set, with carefully constructed broom in hand—dreams of a day when she will no longer be sad. 

15. Garden

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The scene depicted here, whose needle-felted figures stand before a living garden, illustrates one of the cozier moments of Hugo's tale. 

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adaptations

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