Thanks to Netgalley, Sweet Cherry and Stephanie Baudet for this ARC in return for my honest review. Jane Eyre is an iconic classic that I first read many years ago. It's a much loved story and one that I return to again and again. This edition opens up the story to a new era of readers that hopefully go on to read Charlotte's version in years to come. I enjoyed the story and the illustrations.

Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to Jane Eyre (easy classics) by Stephanie Baeuet

I’ve never been one for the classics and I’ve also never read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Here seemed like a good place to start but I was disappointed by exactly what it said on the tin. This book is written for children with illustrations and has condemned Bronte’s classic into 59 pages. I hoped it would be written like a middle grade, perhaps a little longer but it was written very much like a children’s book. Again, exactly what was advertised but it tainted my enjoyment. Respectfully, the writing was bad. At the root of my miss-enjoyment with classics is the old timely beliefs and behaviours. Now let’s talk about the love story if we can call it that. I’d like to again point out that this book is marketed towards children and Jane is 18 years old and Mr Rochester is around 40, whilst Jane would be seen as an adult in some countries, she is still technically a teenager. What message does this send to children? Not one I want to send out. I understand that the author is simplifying a classic for children, but this could’ve been changed, there could’ve been a appropriate twist. Alternatively, I understand that marrying an older man, a master marrying his employee would be accepted in the 18000s, but not in 2000s.
I found it hard to see the Rochester/Eyre relationship as romance, more of power play and grooming.

Easy Classics- Jane Eyre
Based on the original story By Charlotte Bronte

Adapted by Stephanie Baudet./ Illustrated by Arianna Bellucci
Published by Sweet Cherry Publishing Limited 2021

What a great idea!

Sweet Cherry Publishing adapts classic literature into illustrated stories for children of all ages- no wonder they won Small press of the Year at the 2021 British Book awards.
As well as being such a simple and great idea, its execution is remarkable - due to the classic novel itself and the paired down adaptation and stunning illustrations.
The chapters are short and sweet and the drawings pack a serious emotive impact. This version of Jane Eyre is an excellent distillation of the brilliant Bronte novel. The ageless and powerful love story is now an easy read without losing any of the impact of each character and the drama of the storyline.
The touch of her employment letters being illustrated was ingenious - as though we were Jane reading them for the first time. The handsome Mr Rochester comes alive in all his brooding glory as does the terrifying Grace Poole. Wuthering Heights is on the way and Anna Karenina- collect them all.
Miranda Y, Reviewer. 4.5 stars

*thank you to Netgalley, Stephanie Baudet and Sweet Cherry Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*


3 stars.

I always appreciate when a well known classic has been retold in an easy to read kids version. So when I saw this I knew I wanted to read it. I find the original adult versions rather difficult to take in.

Jane Eyre is one rare classic I actually managed to finish in the original text. So I am able to compare the two. I found this version was well told. It includes enough basics of the story and I think kids will enjoy it.

What I wasn't keen on were the illustrations. The illustrations themselves just weren't for me. I do like that they were kept basic to match the story. As in, the story is simplified down to the basics and you could say the illustrations were too. I would have just prefered them to be a bit more detail and not have that rushed look.

Overall though, it was enjoyable.

An excellent telling of this classic for a younger audience. The story was not lost and I enjoyed revisiting Jane and her story having read the full version many years ago.. I thoroughly recommend this book to engage children and get them interested in reading some of these classic stories. Well done!

I'd like to preface this by saying that there are a lot of typo's in the arc, (soften/often/after, etc are all missing the ft) which made the beginning of the book confusing - however by about chapter 6 I realised what was going on, and managed to auto-correct as I read. However I really hope that this will be picked up and sorted for the printing as it would be very confusing for children.

I like this format, which follows that of the Tolstoy and Austen easy classics which I have also reviewed, with pictures of the main characters and throughout that help with the story. I felt that this classic was potentially reduced slightly too far, and a few more chapters would have helped the flow be slightly more consistent, but in general this is easy to understand.

My main worry, is that a lot of the themes within classics of this era, is that a lot of themes are outdated - marrying cousins, locking children in their rooms (and threatening to tie them up at that), beatings at school and locking up those who need medical attention (though granted in this era, that was probably better than actually going to an asylum).

I am glad that even in this reduced version, it is obvious that Jane knew she was worth more than what her family and bullies said she was - and her horrid "cousin"... well he can go look for someone else to put up with him haha.

This book is for children and I would definitely recommend it for children. The illustrations are wonderful and the writing is simplistic and very easy to understand. I have never read Jayne Eyre and I think this book helps people to gain a basic understanding of the plot and characters. The cover is sweet too.

Firstly, I’m going to start by saying that I am not part of the intended audience for this book. I read it only because I struggle with being interested in classics; I often find them boring and the language outdated. I managed to get through this one quickly, which is always a bonus. However, words like ‘after’ ‘soften’ and ‘often’ were spelt like ‘aer’ ‘soen’ and ‘oen’. I found this really confusing as nearly all of the words with ‘ft’’ in them were spelt like this. I spent half the time trying to decipher what the word was.

Secondly, I found the story a bit too fast paced. Obviously I know this written for children so that is expected, but I was shocked at just how fast the story moved along. Also, some of themes in here were outdated and mostly unacceptable in today’s modern society. A quick google search showed that Mr Rochester was 35 and Jane Eyre was 18! That’s an age gap of 17 years. I suppose that is to be expected from the time period it was written in, but still, that’s not a good thing for children to read about. On that note, Jane’s cousin asked her to marry him! I bet cousinly incest was acceptable then, but it certainly isn’t now.

So overall, I have given this book 2 stars because of the confusing writing style and inappropriate, outdated themes. I will certainly pick up the original and see if that one is any better.