which encyclopedia?

[Moomin]

My dad wants to buy dd1 who's 5 a set of encyclopedia for christmas. Should we get this set which she can use now and may last a few years or this set which will last a lot longer but she may find hard to use right now?

Usborne do one too (single volume) and so do Dorling Kindersley (looks to be nearly out of print though, this is the only site I could find it on), but they are rather big unwieldy books for a little one.

Of the 2 you've mentioned, I think I would go with the First Encyclopaedia which she will be able to enjoy now; if she's still keen you could get the older version later.

I think the best ever children's set was probably the Oxford one but it seems to have been superseded by CD-ROM