(4) 4-6 Illustrated by William O'Connor. Verne's iconic tale of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus is here illustrated with detailed pen-and-ink spot art and occasional full-color spreads of dramatic moments. The text has a Victorian stuffiness that's hard to follow, but the engaging artwork and sepia pages imitating the texture of old paper fully exploit the steampunk aesthetic of the work's groundbreaking author.

Reviewer: Anita L. Burkam

(4) 4-6 Illustrated by Scott McKowen. These classic stories are presented in unabridged formats. A handful of scratchboard illustrations in addition to a repeating chapter heading spot illustration accompany each story. A ribbon bookmark is attached. The books conclude with some generic open-ended questions. Review includes these titles: The Jungle Book, Frankenstein, Gulliver's Travels, and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) YA Books of Wonder series. Translated by Anthony Bonner. Illustrated by Leo Dillon & Diane Dillon. Using a dark palette that conveys a sense of mystery and the unknown, a dozen full-color paintings depict the exotic landscapes of Verne's classic submarine adventure in sumptuous detail. An afterword offers a bit of literary interpretation and some background information about Verne and the writing of the book.

Reviewer: Anne St. John

(4) 4-6 Eyewitness Classics series. Illustrated by Paul Wright. Abridgments of two famous novels preserve each book's most compelling incidents, but the brevity of each precludes much of the original's richness. Notes and informational sidebars throughout provide story comment and historical context, but clutter the book design and are distracting. The watercolor illustrations for Crusoe and the oil paintings for 20,000 Leagues nicely suit each story's mood and setting.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute