Books my Mother Read Me [Archive]

Mara

12-17-2008, 12:38 AM

My mother read aloud to me from as early as I can remember every night until I was eight or nine. She would have continued, but at that age I started snitching the book when she wasn't looking and finishing it before she had a chance. (My mother claims I first did this with The Wind in the Willows.)

We continued reading aloud to each other occasionally, especially on family vacations. Now, as adults, we have been communting to and from work together and we still read.

My companion in bedtime stories was my brother Gabriel, who was 18 months older. We were very close and enjoyed the same sort of books. I also often sat in as a teenager when my mother read to my three younger siblings. (Occasionally, if my mother was not around, I would take over her duties.)

To really appreciate the wealth of children's literature in my home, however, I have to go back to my great-grandmother, Kathryn Martin. She was a minister's daugther who became an English Teacher, who eventually became a writer. She published two novels late in her life, and several poems. By all accounts, she was a pretty awful mother, but a great grandmother. She sent my mother and her siblings box after box after box of books. Often the copies we read in my household were the original editions from the fifties and sixties that Grandma Kay had sent over.

So, as an introduction, I will share with you a poem that Kathryn Martin published in a book called Touching this Earth: Poems by Women in 1977.

Reading
by Kathryn Martin

You taught me to read
One faraway Oregon day
When I was five, and you
Came in, blown gently
Through the wide front door:
You came, your long coat blowing,
With your hat pinned to your hair,
Wisps flying around, escaping hairpins.

I ran down the stairs, and you
Took my hand; this was a different day,
For we walked to my room up the stair
And you knelt beside my bed
With your coat flowing on the floor
And your wide hat on;
I stood beside you, looking a question
Into your face, and heard
Paper crackling from a parcel;
I was as tall as you when
You got on your knees,
And I stared at your profile
Clean as a cameo;

Until you opened the book
Flat on the bed, stripped off
Your goves from your blue-veined hands
And took my forefinger,
Pointing it at the letter I.
I heard you murmuring, and
I said, "I see the cat."
Then you kissed me, and we
Murmured together, smooth
As water flowing, into the dusk
Of a green afternoon, you
Never stopping to take off your hat
Or to unfasten your coat
Or to tidy your hair and I
Tall as you, my scalp crinkling,
The gooseflesh prickling my arms
As the Word was made Flesh.

I was never a beggar again,
Running to lean on the knees
Of my three older brothers
Or on my father, or even on you,
Begging to hear
The mysteries between covers.
The words came to my eyes
Like opening leaves,
The alphabet danced in designs,
The doors and windows opened
On endless new worlds,
While the dolls looked on,
Staring and dumb, patient because
They were not alive.

Mara

12-17-2008, 12:53 AM

Watership Down by Richard Adams

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For ages: 10-12

I know my mother read me this book, and I know it's generally considered a children's book, but I almost hesitated to put it on the list. It's the story of a warren of male rabbits who, after their home is destroyed, flee from flawed society to flawed society until they finally decide to build their own, new civilization.

First, the good: the book is extremely imaginative and exciting. It also works as a critique of poor government: sort of Animal Farm for the pre-teen set. The mythology and culture of the rabbits is fascinating.

But, there's the not-so-good. I loved edgy, violent things as a child, but even so, some of the stuff in this novel was just too scary. There's one warren where the rabbits are essentially sacrificing their own kind. You are never allowed to begin a sentence with "where..." without being interrupted, because you are never allowed to question the disappearances.

Also, it's misogynistic.

For all its faults, however, it's a fascinating and challenging read for the thoughtful reader.

Sven

12-17-2008, 12:59 AM

Believe it or not, but I actually found, as a young teen, that Animal Farm was the much easier read. Love both books, but something about Adams's prose just doesn't flow. Great story, wonderfully drawn characters, but Orwell has a terseness that sells it much more efficiently.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:27 AM

Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott

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Alcott sure had some solid opinions on how girls should be raised. (See this and the next two posts.) She often came across as painfully didactic, but she has such good advice that it's hard to be offended.

In this particular novel, published in 1875, young Rose is orphaned, sickly, and spoiled. She comes under the guardianship of her uncle, who decides to remake her by getting rid of her feminine trappings (like corsets and high shoes), feeding her healthy meals, weaning her off pharmecuticals, and trying to get her to play and exercise with her seven male cousins.

I don't think I realized as a kid how revolutionary these ideas were back when the book was published. I just enjoyed the story, immensely.

D_Davis

12-17-2008, 01:31 AM

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:35 AM

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

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Alcott's most autobiographical work is easily her most popular. First published in 1868, it follows the lives of the four March sisters as they grow up, get jobs, marry, and raise families. The very different characterizations of the sisters makes for great sibling interchange, although every girl reader really wanted to be Jo. The book is occasionally heart-wrenching, especially with the death of one sister.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:36 AM

I don't know if Animal Farm is easier to read, but for me, I'd say that Watership Down is easier to understand. If I'd tried Orwell when I was 10 or 11 I would have been baffled.

Sven

12-17-2008, 01:39 AM

I don't know if Animal Farm is easier to read, but for me, I'd say that Watership Down is easier to understand. If I'd tried Orwell when I was 10 or 11 I would have been baffled.

This is a good point. I read it for school, the other one for fun. I suppose it helps to have a teacher who can translate things for you. And while Animal Farm is almost entirely metaphorical, Watership Down is allegorical, which allows it to still work as a conventional narrative.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:46 AM

An Old-Fashioned Girl

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It may seem like a funny title for an Alcott book, considering how relatively progressive most of her ideas were. In this novel, however, "old-fashioned" is Alcott's shorthand for being honest, wholesome, and unmoved by frivolities. The plot revolves around contrasting Polly, a sweet-natured girl from the country, with a city family she visits, who are silly and gossipy and fashionable.

My mother-- who I really believe is a closet Mennonite-- used to quote this book to us reguarly when we wondered why we didn't have any money, or had to wear shirts with sleeves, or complained about how strict/cheap/virtuous our family was. I loved and still love the character of Polly, and there's actually a very sweet little romance in the second half of the book, after she grows up.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:55 AM

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

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The Book of Three
The Black Cauldron
The Castle of Llyr
Taran Wanderer
The High King

I can't think of a better choice for a child's first fantasy series, when they are maybe 6-8. The books are short and crisply written, with a rollicking good story and engaging characters. They are primarily action and hero-quest books, with a good dose of Welsh mythology thrown in, but are still funny and charming, without the morose navel-gazing that much young fantasy is prone to.

They are also, in my opinion, the perfect level of scary for young children. (The Horned King will make you shiver and clutch the blankets, but won't keep you up all night in a cold sweat.) Also a good choice for boys, since Taran is a relatable hero, although (as a girl) my favorite character was Eilonwy.

Mara

12-17-2008, 02:05 AM

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater

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My mother read this to me when I was so young that I barely remember it. She read it to me from a very old edition that was my grandfather's when he was a little boy. The story revolves around a regular, everyday sort of man who, through a series of unlikely circumstances, comes to be in possession of twelve penguins in his tiny house.

What I remember best about the book is that it is gut-bustingly funny. My brother and I would be howling aloud as my mother tried to keep going through the chapters. The penguins get into loads of mischief, which always tickles kids.

I really think my mother read this to me when I was only about four, so it's a good bet for very young readers.

monolith94

12-17-2008, 03:02 AM

My mom read me this book:

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when I was very little.

When I got older, my dad started reading to me Mark Twain's travel stories. Great stuff. Great thread idea!

D_Davis

12-17-2008, 03:08 AM

I never heard the phrase ''chapter book'' until after I was an adult; just a few years go actually. Someone said it and I had no idea what they were talking about.

SpaceOddity

12-17-2008, 09:17 AM

I don't think my parents read to me. *shrug*

Hugh_Grant

12-17-2008, 12:24 PM

I don't think my parents read to me. *shrug*
Neither did mine, from what I can recall. Mom, definitely not; Dad, perhaps.

Mara

12-17-2008, 12:48 PM

I never heard the phrase ''chapter book'' until after I was an adult; just a few years go actually. Someone said it and I had no idea what they were talking about.

Really? I guess my family always used the expression to differentiate, say, The Poky Little Puppy from Winnie the Pooh, although they are both for roughly the same age group.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:08 PM

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi.

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This is one that my mother thinks that I might have read to myself, but I'm not as sure. I know it had just come out, in 1990, when I was 11 years old, and I know that I attended a lecture by Avi himself in promotion, which was incredibly cool. For some reason, though, I seem to remember my mother reading it aloud to me.

Either way, it's a humdinger of a book. It takes place in 1832 and follows a very correct, lady-like girl of 13 on a journey from England to her home in Rhode Island. There are a number of maritime highjinks, includes storms and mutiny. Charlotte eventually lops her hair off and becomes a member of the crew. It's all a bit like a feminist fantasy Horatio Hornblower, with many deeds of derring-do on the high seas.

The chapter where, in excrutiating detail, Charlotte climbs the main mast, is (I think) one of the all-time greatest moments in children's literature.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:28 PM

The Devil's Storybook and The Devil's Other Storybook by Natalie Babbit

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Ah, Natalie Babbit: the queen of moral complexity. This is the first truly subversive entry on my list, and far from the last.

These two books follow the misadventures of-- you guessed it-- Old Scratch himself, as he enlivens his boring days in Hell with field trips up to earth. While there, he likes to play practical jokes on the hypocritical and the sanctimonious. The stories are self-contained and amusing, and the devil is (absurdly enough) a somewhat likeable perpetrator of mischief.

I haven't read the book in probably fifteen to twenty years, and so I remember bits and pieces of most of the stories, but not completely. Here, though, is as much as I can remember from my favorite story, which explored the moral implications of art: Once there was a man who was an artist. Although he was a good and pious man, he produced evil and debased paintings. The devil loved his artwork, naturally, and wanted to make sure that the artist went to Hell when he died so that he could keep making the paintings. So, the devil began to plague the man, making his life miserable. He got him to lose his job and his money, and eventually drove the man to become bitter and malicious. The devil was delighted. One day, however, when digging out a ditch to try and make some money, the artist struck clay. He took the clay home and began to sculpt it; but now that he was a wicked and depraved man, he chose as his subjects ones of love and piety, like children and parents embracing. The devil was furious. When the man finally died, nobody in Heaven or Hell could decide where he actually belonged, and he finally ended up floating somewhere in the middle.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:36 PM

Knee-Knock Rise by Natalie Babbit

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Like many Babbit novels, this one exists on a couple of different levels. On the surface, it's a fish-out-of-water story of a young boy who goes to visit relatives at Knee-Knock Rise and finds himself baffled by their odd traditions and superstitions, particularly in their belief that up in the mountains exists a monster called the Megrimum.

The deeper question that the novel asks, however, is not "Is there a Megrimum?", but instead, "Why do people feel the need to believe in a Megrimum?" Our little hero discovers that the belief system surrounding this terrifying creature, oddly enough, is what keeps the people at the foot of the mountain happy.

Obviously, the book has some things to say about relgion and the nature of faith that will fly over the heads of younger readers. Even though it's not the strongest of Babbit's novels, it's still a fascinating read.

Mara

12-17-2008, 01:52 PM

The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbit

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Of the Babbit books on my list, this is the most appropriate for very young children. You could probably read it to someone who is 3-4 years old, although they would probably enjoy it up to 8-9.

In this light-hearted tale, a small kingdom is brought to the point of war over-- of all things-- the definition of "delicious" that should be included in the royal dictionary. A young boy, Gaylen, is sent out to poll the entire country to try and come to a consensus, and he ends up uncovering ancient mysteries and political conspiracies on the way. The book finds a nice balance between the mythic-- dwarves and mermaids-- and the sophisticated, with Hemlock, the queen's brother, attempting to overthrow the government.

Due to this book, I spent several years of my childhood randomly breaking out with: "Whistles and keys! Whistles and keys! Poor Ardis has lost her doll."

Mara

12-17-2008, 02:15 PM

Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbit

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Why do people need to die? Babbit tackles this ominous question with grace and compassion in her opus novel, which introduces quiet, fearful Winnie to the immortal Tuck family. Winnie's final refusal of immortality and accepting her future life along with her eventual death is profoundly moving.

My mother read us this book during a vacation. During the pivotal scene when Tuck takes the uncomprehending Winnie out on the rowboat, my mother actually took us out on a rowboat.

My mother read to me, and I leaned over the edge of the boat and watched the leaves, and thought. After my mother finished the chapter, she put down the book and talked to us for a long time.

I remember this moment as clearly as if it was happening, right now.

Kurosawa Fan

12-17-2008, 02:48 PM

This is exciting. I'm going to check for The Chronicles of Prydian at my library, and if I can't find them I'll grab the first one from B&N the next time we're there. Several others are on my list of stuff to recommend to my son. I hate that he doesn't want me to read to him, but I respect his independence. Thanks so much for doing this.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really break through Watership Down. I'm going to give it another go sometime, but I got about 100 pages into it and just found I had no desire to pick it up at night, which bothered me because I was enjoying the story. It was odd. Hasn't happened to me since.

Mara

12-18-2008, 01:09 PM

The Indian in the Cupboard Series by Lynne Reid Banks

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The Indian in the Cupboard
The Return of the Indian
The Secret of the Indian
The Mystery of the Cupboard
The Key to the Indian

Like many series (including Prydain, above) my mother only read us aloud the first of these, and we went on to read others ourselves. I think my brother and I only made it up to the third in the series, because the rest were published when we were a little older and had lost interest.

A nice, creative series, though, and one that I think would be particularly good for young boys or reluctant readers. It's the story of Omri, who discovers that an old cupboard and key can bring plastic figures to life and through time when locked inside. Most notably, he brings to life Little Bear, a 19th century Indian.

The book has fun with differences both cultural, generational, and fantasical between the two as they eventually become friends. The difference is size leads to some Borrowers-esque creativity, but most of the conflict comes from the unwise re-enlivening of other plastic figures.

No explanation is ever given (as far I as know) for the magical properties of the cupboard, but if you can suspend your disbelief enough to swallow the premise, it's good fun.

Mara

12-18-2008, 01:28 PM

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, sometimes published as Peter and Wendy or Peter Pan and Wendy

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This is one of several books on this list that really shouldn't be confused with the film edition. Nothing against the Disney version, really, but it isn't a good indication of what is in the novel. Some feathers have been ruffled by the emergent romantic feelings displayed by the children in the book, but I thought that was realistic and gently played. The biggest difference, though, is that the book is pretty violent-- brutal, in places. I remember the first time we read it and my mother paused a moment before finishing a sentence that ended with "mopping up the blood."

With that heads-up aside, though, I think the stripping of all violence from childrens' books is a mistake. Children are naturally inclined to anger as well as any other emotion, and the catharsis of reading about violence without necessarily participating in it can be very healthy. If your kids start trying to scalp each other after reading the book, well, then, it's time for a little talk.

From a psychological perspective, though, I think that Peter Pan is really fascinating to children. I'm actually a fan of the pro-Freudian text The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim, and I think he would argue that the fear of growing up in a profound anxiety for children, and that the myth of the boy who rejected his parents and chose to remain a child forever-- contrasted with Wendy, who chose to return to her parents and become a woman-- can help them think and play through those fears.

Mara

12-18-2008, 01:42 PM

The Oz Books by L. Frank Baum

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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
The Marvelous Land of Oz
Ozma of Oz
Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz
The Road to Oz
The Emerald City of Oz
The Patchwork Girl of Oz
Tik-Tok of Oz
The Scarecrow of Oz
Rinkitink in Oz
The Lost Princess of Oz
The Tin Woodman of Oz
The Magic of Oz
Glinda of Oz

This is one of the rare series that I know my mother read all of them out loud to us. Kurosawa Fan (sorry!) recently criticized the prose style of the novel, but I was honestly too young when we read them to be that discerning about style.

What I knew, and still know, is that these are truly imaginitive books. Baum never seemed to run out of crazy characters and bizarre creatures. The characterizations were wonderful. (As a child, I was a huge fan of Ozma, much more than Dorothy. It probably helped that she was lovely in the illustrations.)

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Actually, googling that image has brought it all back, for a moment. I wanted to be Ozma.

In terms of wacky creatures, though, by favorite was Tik-Tok, the round copper robot.

Mara

12-18-2008, 01:56 PM

The Paddington Bear Books by Michael Bond

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A Bear Called Paddington
More About Paddington
Paddington Helps Out
Paddington Abroad
Paddington at Large
Paddington Marches On
Paddington at Work
Paddington Goes to Town
Paddington Takes the Air
Paddington's Garden
Paddington's Blue Peter Story Book a.k.a. Paddington Takes to TV
Paddington on Top
Paddington Takes the Test
Paddington Rules the Waves
Paddington Here and Now

Wow. There are a lot of these. I'm fairly certain we only read two or three.

Paddington is a great character, and he's really what sells this fish-out-of-water story. The Brown family finds him, wearing a raincoat and a floppy hat, at Paddington station. He has journeyed from Darkest Peru, and has a tag on his coat that says, "Please look after this bear." As a walking and talking animal, Paddington is polite and gentle, but constantly flustered by a big world he doesn't understand.

The manners and social rules that Paddington learns in the books contributed, along with several other books on this list, to a misapprehension I had as a child that I lived in England.

Kurosawa Fan

12-18-2008, 02:02 PM

Someone in the Book Discussion Thread recently criticized the prose style of the novel, but I was honestly too young when we read them to be that discerning about style.

:sad:

I'm only a "someone" to you now?

Mara

12-18-2008, 02:04 PM

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink

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Carol Brink apparently based this novel on the pioneer experiences of her grandmother, who raised her. Set in an early settlement in Wisconsin, Caddie is presented as an irrepressable red-haired tomboy, who consistently rejects the more traditional role espoused by her mother in order to slip out and have wild adventures. The novel also has a very sympathetic and thoughtful view of the Indians in the area, with whom Caddie has a close relationship.

Despite the more pro-feminist agenda of this novel, I have to admit that I'm a bigger fan on the Laura Ingalls Wilder books (which will be showing up on the list later.)

Mara

12-18-2008, 02:09 PM

:sad:

I'm only a "someone" to you now?

Oh, like I was going to go and look it up. I think you underestimate my laziness.

Humph.

*runs off to edit post*

Mara

12-18-2008, 02:27 PM

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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This book is a victim of the Misleading Title Syndrome. There is no princess in this book, and readers who expect it to be a fantasy novel are going to be disappointed.

Which is a shame, because this is a particularly charming and moving work.

It's the story of Sarah Crewe, who is the pampered and beloved daughter of a rich widower in India. At the age of seven, she is sent back to England to a girls' boarding school run by the fawning and devious Miss Minchen. Sarah is unfailingly kind and gentle, even to those who are considered beneath her (like the scullery maid, who becomes a friend.) Sarah's most powerful obsession, however, is in imagination. She loves to read and tell stories, and pretend that she is a princess. (Hence the title.)

After the first couple of years in the school, however, Sarah's father dies and leaves her penniless. Miss Minchen turns on her with a vengeance, and forces her to become virtually a slave in the household, living with hunger and filth and disdain, in order to keep from being turned out on the street. This, of course, is the true test of Sarah's character, to see if she can remain a good and hopeful person after all her advantages are taken away.

The book is virtuous and gentle without being didactic, and some of the moral moments are actually quite moving. A starving and miserable Sarah, at one point, discovers a sixpence in the snow and buys herself some hot rolls at the bakery. Upon leaving, however, she is confronted by a begger child, and slowly ends up feeding her all the rolls but one, because she cannot bear to watch the girl suffer.

...I think I'm going to go home and reread this book. It's been years.

Mara

12-18-2008, 02:40 PM

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

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I love this one.

Forget all the film and stage adaptations. They have a few charms, but really pale in comparison to the original, which is a classic for a very good reason.

Mary Lennox is a sour, unhappy, unloved child raised by English parents in India until her entire household is wiped out by an outbreak of the Cholera. She is therefore bundled off to live with a sad and mostly absent uncle in Yorkshire, which is wet and cold and alienating.

Mary eventually becomes influenced by the only two people she ever sees; Martha the chambermaid and Ben the gardner, and begins to be interested in the outside world, especially the gardens. Her worldview shifts entirely when she manages to find the "secret" garden on the grounds of the manor, which has been walled off for a decade after the mistress of the house died there. Mary is eventually introduced to her even more ill and unhappy cousin Colin, and both of them are introduced to the poor (but happy and healthy) Dickon, who loves wild creatures and the outdoors.

Dickon teaches them how to care for the garden, which eventually heals their bodies and minds, letting them learn to love other people and creatures.

This book heavily romanticizes the outdoors as a place of healing and growth, which is an idea that has never quite left me.

Kurosawa Fan

12-18-2008, 03:44 PM

Oh, like I was going to go and look it up. I think you underestimate my laziness.

Humph.

*runs off to edit post*

Your laziness is forgiven. I'm the last person who can admonish others for that particular trait.

thefourthwall

12-18-2008, 05:42 PM

We continued reading aloud to each other occasionally, especially on family vacations. Now, as adults, we have been communting to and from work together and we still read.

I love this thread, although I'm going to work to remember what my parents were reading to me. My friends and I will do this now whenever we're on road trips. I love it!

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander

Awesome x 5 books = Awesome to the fifth power, which is pretty awesome, which is what these books are.

The Search for Delicious by Natalie Babbit

I also love this one and quote it constantly when I partake of what the book finally deems as 'delicious'.

Mara

12-18-2008, 06:03 PM

I also love this one and quote it constantly when I partake of what the book finally deems as 'delicious'.

Oh, yay! Not too many people have read this book, in my experience, so it's always fun to find someone who has. The final definition of delicious is quite brilliant.

Mara

12-18-2008, 06:31 PM

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and what Alice Found There by Lewis Carroll

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These two books are often mixed up by silly people. The first involves Alice falling asleep outside, falling down a rabbit hole, and getting involved with a deck of cards. The second involves her accidently slipping through the mirror inside her living room to an alternate version of her own house, where she gets involved with an elaborate chess game. Cards. Chess. Different.

Anyhoo, these books are nonsensical, fantasy-like, and just about as creepy as literature gets. Yes, Carroll (Dodgson, really) was a weirdo. Yes, he probably did a bunch of drugs. There is an anti-logical bent to the books, which float between characters and places the same way dreams do. Through the Looking Glass is particularly dark and disconcerting. As a child, I found the atmosphere fascinating.

As a side note, I deliberately didn't choose to put any books of childrens' poetry on this list, but I really must point out how great Carroll's poetry is for children. It's nonsensical, lyrical, and memorable. To this day, I can quote all of Jabberwocky and How Doth the Little Crocodile and You Are Old, Father William all the way through.

Mara

12-18-2008, 06:47 PM

The Tripod Trilogy by John Christopher

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The White Mountains
The City of Gold and Lead
The Pool of Fire

There's a prequel, too, but I was never a fan.

If the Prydain are good for a child's first fantasy series, this is probably the counterpart for a child's first science fiction series. All the main characters are boys, as well, which is unusual and nice for masculine readers.

This series takes place in the future, when a very large portion of the human race has been wiped out, and those who are left live peacably on farms and in small communities. All children are "capped" when they are fourteen years old, when giant metal tripods (which they worship) come to the villages and take the children away briefly. When they return, they are shaven and small metal caps have been surgically melded to their heads, making them docile and amenable.

The story follows a young man, Will, who begins to believe the rumors that there are still pockets of free, uncapped men in the world and so, at thirteen, he runs away from home and goes in search of them. He is eventually joined by two young companions as they travel through what we would call England and France, going into Switzerland (the White Mountains.)

It's quite an adventure, and very tense and scary at times. The first book is basically a long chase between the tripods and our heroes. In the second book (my favorite) Will goes undercover into the tripods' secret world, and in the third the human race tries to fight back against its oppressors. It's all very exciting.

Mara

12-18-2008, 07:00 PM

The Ramona Series by Beverly Cleary

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Beezus and Ramona
Ramona the Pest
Ramona the Brave
Ramona and Her Father
Ramona and Her Mother
Ramona Quimby, Age 8
Ramona Forever
Ramona's World

I only read up through Ramona Forever, because the last one was published fairly recently.

Cleary wrote many classic books, but this series was special to me, probably because I was just about Ramona's age when my mother read them to me (between kindergarten and third grade) and I was also kind of a pain.

Let's be honest: our favorite child characters are those who behave badly.

The books, as I recall, are funny and thoughtful and geared towards very young readers.

Mara

12-18-2008, 07:10 PM

The Dark is Rising Sequence by Susan Cooper

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Over Sea, Under Stone
The Dark is Rising
Greenwitch
The Gray King
The Silver on the Tree

You know, I really need to reread these. I'd forgotten a great deal about them, but remembered enough to be offended when they tried to adapt the second book in the series a year or two back, and it looked terrible.

This is a good fantasy series for the middle years-- say, 8-11 years old. It draws heavily on Arthurian legend, and in my favorite of the series, The Grey King they get heavily into Welsh folklore. Other than that, my memories are a little bit hazy-- it's a huge epic struggle between a family of siblings and The Dark. I really should dig these out again.

Ezee E

12-18-2008, 07:58 PM

Boxcar Children, Wrinkle in Time, The Bible, The Indian in the Cupboard (the first few at least, I hated one of them in the series and just stopped), and Paddington Bear are the ones I remember the most. Although I did most of the reading to the parents.

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:04 PM

Boxcar Children

We never read these, and I feel like I'm left out a little bit, because a bunch of people in my generation did. Are they really good? (Like, worth visiting as an adult?)

A Wrinkle in Time is going to show up on this list. I'm not counting the Bible as read-aloud time, since it was for instruction instead of pleaure. Also, my dad would read instead of my mom.

By the way, my dad (step-dad, actually) is getting a little bit ignored in this thread. He did read us picture books when we were very young, and would sometimes tell us stories he made up at bedtime. When it came to bonding with the children, though, he was much more into play and games than books.

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:18 PM

The BFG by Roald Dahl

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I would almost consign this to being one of Dahl's "minor" works (although even they are quite enjoyable) except that, even as an adult, I still can't quite get over how much I love the way that the Big Friendly Giant talks.

"The matter with human beans is that they is absolutely refusing to believe in anything unless they is actually seeing it right in front of their own schnozzles."

The story is actually quite slight, although chock-full of Dahl's somewhat macabre sensibilities. In this one a young orphan, Sophie, encounters the BFG, who likes to create dreams that he trumpets into the bedrooms of sleeping children. Unfortunately, his giant brethren are hulking savages who like to gobble children up.

A cute story (I think): Just last week, my somewhat serious-minded brother-in-law came over and was using my computer to conduct some business. While he was waiting for a reply to an e-mail, he picked up a copy of The BFG and began reading it. I got nothing out of him but "mm-hmms" for the next hour, because he couldn't quite put it down. This from a twenty-nine year old man! I was quite amused.

megladon8

12-18-2008, 08:19 PM

You've got some wonderful looking books here, Mara, but I'm sad to say I haven't read any of them save "Tuck Everlasting".

And I'm in the "parents didn't read to me much" camp as well. We often looked at books together - usually National Geographic books about the ocean - but most reading I did myself.

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:28 PM

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl

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This entry is unusual, because not only did I like the film adaptation of this book, I liked it twice.

Still, obviously, the book is the best. It mixes up the fantastical with the nonsensical in a mish-mash of escapism. The descriptions of the inside of the magical chocolate factory are a child's wonderland, with strange creatures and concoctions and, of course, with just about everything being edible.

And, as previously mentioned, it's always fun to watch children behaving badly. The kids are little demons in this one (although our hero Charlie is a saint.) Veruca is my favorite.

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:30 PM

You've got some wonderful looking books here, Mara, but I'm sad to say I haven't read any of them save "Tuck Everlasting".

Really? There's a few of these you really shouldn't miss, even as an adult. The ones I feel that strongest about are coming up later, I think, but I'll point them out as I go.

megladon8

12-18-2008, 08:32 PM

Really? There's a few of these you really shouldn't miss, even as an adult. The ones I feel that strongest about are coming up later, I think, but I'll point them out as I go.

I've also read "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory".

*nods*

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:37 PM

James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl

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I don't know if this would still be my favorite Dahl book, but it certainly was when I read it. It's the tale of a boy, James, who accidently spills a bag of magical greenish things on the ground, where they get into the roots of a peach tree, and also into several insects. The insects become enormous, and end up living inside the pit of the giant peach, which grows off the tree. James eventually joins them, and the peach rolls off into the ocean, where they have adventures.

It sounds a little silly when I write it out, but trust me-- Dahl makes it charming.

As a side-note, I was an adult when the Harry Potter books first came out, and I was skeptical. I bought the first one, and the first couple of chapters reminded me very strongly of the first chapter in James and the Giant Peach. I figured if the book was reminding me of Dahl, it was doing something right.

megladon8

12-18-2008, 08:38 PM

Read that one, too :lol:

Kurosawa Fan

12-18-2008, 08:42 PM

Love Roald Dahl. One of my childhood favorites. I think my favorite was The Witches, but it could be that that was the one that creeped me out the most, which made it the most memorable.

megladon8

12-18-2008, 08:42 PM

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:45 PM

Matilda by Roald Dahl

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This is my final Dahl entry. He's tied with Babbit for the most single-novel entries on my list. I'm also a big fan of his adult-oriented short stories.

Any story about bookish, nerdy girls will probably get the Natalie Stamp of Approval. When the girl then develops telekinetic powers to enact vengeance on those who have wronged her, you know you have a winner.

There is a lot of child-fantasy fulfilment in the book: that you can learn and read anything, be the smartest kid in the class, be magical, punish unfair authority-holders, choose your new family who will never be mean to you, etc. We like Matilda, but not nearly as much as we dislike the other, horrible people in the book, like her evil headmistress and her shallow, self-serving parents. Watching them get their come-uppence is quite gratifying.

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:46 PM

Read that one, too :lol:

Okay, so you weren't that deprived.

Mara

12-18-2008, 08:53 PM

Love Roald Dahl. One of my childhood favorites. I think my favorite was The Witches, but it could be that that was the one that creeped me out the most, which made it the most memorable.

I had big problems, as a child, with the ending of The Witches. Well, it didn't end so much as it just kind of... stopped. I remember turning over the page, staring at it, and then going back again. Surely I had missed something? Had someone ripped out the final chapter?

***

I decided to check out the one-star reviews of the book on Amazon to see if anyone else was annoyed, but all the one-star reviews are by Wiccans and Pagans who are offended at the depiction of Witches as child-hating evil people.

I can only imagine the outcry if every occurrence of "Witch" in this book was replaced with "Christian" or "Jew" or "Muslim".

Apparently, there's a group of witches out there with no sense of fun. All of the Wiccans and Pagans I know are much more charming.

monolith94

12-19-2008, 01:45 AM

Ezee E

12-19-2008, 01:55 AM

We never read these, and I feel like I'm left out a little bit, because a bunch of people in my generation did. Are they really good? (Like, worth visiting as an adult?)

A Wrinkle in Time is going to show up on this list. I'm not counting the Bible as read-aloud time, since it was for instruction instead of pleaure. Also, my dad would read instead of my mom.

By the way, my dad (step-dad, actually) is getting a little bit ignored in this thread. He did read us picture books when we were very young, and would sometimes tell us stories he made up at bedtime. When it came to bonding with the children, though, he was much more into play and games than books.
I have no idea what to think of the Boxcar Children now, but I loved them as a kid, always signed up for them when we got that monthly book order deal. I'm surprised there was never a movie made about them.

monolith94

12-19-2008, 02:45 AM

Nat, you missed the boxcar children boat. They're enjoyable only when you don't know any better (which I didn't, at the age of seven or whatever).

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:51 AM

Wait a sec… isn't this a bit reminiscent of Chaucer?

I don't remember being reminded of it while reading Chaucer...

Also, did you read any Cormier when you were younger?

I read Cormier when I was older, like 13-15. I remember really liking I am the Cheese and The Chocolate War.

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:55 AM

Nat, you missed the boxcar children boat. They're enjoyable only when you don't know any better (which I didn't, at the age of seven or whatever).

Just my luck.

monolith94

12-19-2008, 04:50 AM

I read those two Cormier books just last year, and after having read them, I wished that I had read them when I was younger. I think the titles threw me off.

Re: Chaucer: The queen punishes the knight by sending him out on a quest to find out what women really want "more than anything else," giving him a year and a day to discover it and having his word that he will return. <from wikipedia>

this just reminded me of the "quest for delicious".

Spinal

12-19-2008, 06:53 AM

Wow, didn't realize how much Dahl I've read to my kid. We've read those four that you mentioned plus Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, which is really quite bizarre, even for him.

Mara

12-19-2008, 12:59 PM

Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator

It's like Dahl sat down and thought, "If I just wrote stream-of-conscious blather for 150 pages, I wonder if anyone would publish it? Oh, oh, and ALIENS!"

Mara

12-19-2008, 01:02 PM

Re: Chaucer: The queen punishes the knight by sending him out on a quest to find out what women really want "more than anything else," giving him a year and a day to discover it and having his word that he will return. <from wikipedia>

Ah, yes. That is a little similar.

At the end of the book (if you don't mind spoilers) Hemlock is trying to feed the fire of dissention by damming off the only water source in the kingdom, so the people are dehydrated as well as paranoid and cranky. When Gaylen manages to have the dam broken so that the rioting people can finally drink, they are united at last in the definition of delicious: "Delicious is a drink of cold water when you are very, very thirsty."

Mara

12-19-2008, 01:28 PM

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

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This is one of the books you have to read as an adult if you missed it as a child.

You may notice that this is one of the very few books on my list that have been translated from another language. I have absolutely nothing against children's literature not written in English, but I consistently find myself frustrated by translations. (This is true in adult literature as well.) Something often just feels slightly "off" to me, and I usually have a nagging suspicion that I'm missing the true beauty of a book by not being able to read it in the original.

I don't have that problem with this book. It might be that I've actually been able to read it in the original French. Or, it might be that the translations are particularly good. But I believe that it's because the book is deliberately written in such a pure, simple style that it can transcend the differences in grammar and syntax and be equally beautiful in any language.

This deeply allegorical tale follows a pilot who is stranded in the Sahara when his plane breaks down, and the strange, laughing little boy he meets there. In bits and pieces the pilot gleans the prince's story: he was the sole inhabitant of a small asteroid, and he loved a rose, who was selfish and vain and broke his heart.

The function of the story is to compare the Prince, who is simple, forthright, and logical as a child, with an unnecessarily complex and ridiculous grown-up world. It also explores the nature of affection and belonging, and why of a thousand roses we would only love one.

I cry at the end of this book. Every stinking time.

Mara

12-19-2008, 01:41 PM

The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman

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This book didn't come out until I was eight or so, but I think I would have enjoyed it even more if I had been a couple of years younger.

This is the story of Prince Brat, and insufferable pain who is not permitted to be whipped because he is royal. So, a peasant boy named Jemmy is whipped in his place. Unfortunately, Prince Brat loves to get Jemmy beaten, and so gets into trouble all the time on purpose.

Things get fun when Brat decides to run away, and tricks Jemmy into going with him. Brat's exposure to the world outside is a rude awakening, particularly when Jemmy gets mistaken for being the prince, since he is the one who is literatue, polite, and genteel.

The whole thing is an airy, rollicking adventure story with a few nice come-uppance moments. The minor characters are interesting with great names (like "Hold-your-nose-Billy.")

Mara

12-19-2008, 01:56 PM

Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

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Most of the historical fiction for children I've read has been awful. I suspect it's because the creative process goes backwards instead of forward: "Kids these days should know more about the industrial revolution! Let's write a book about it!" instead of beginning with an important idea, good characters, and a heart, and then putting it into the time and place that would be most effective.

Johnny Tremain is a book that takes place during the American Revolution while managing to still be about one particular boy, with whom we sympathize. Several historical characters are introduced, but this is mainly the story of a young man whose entire life plans (to be a silversmith) are ruined in a terrible accident, and he falls into the politics of the time without really meaning to.

Although I think the blending of history and fiction is handled well in this book, beware reading it to someone too young-- anyone below 9 or 10 will probably become bored with all the background information they need.

monolith94

12-19-2008, 02:06 PM

That poor man has been split in half by a courthouse!

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:11 PM

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craigshead George

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Miyax, a 13-year-old Eskimo girl, is already conflicted between her home culture and that of school, where she goes by Julie. Her dissociation gets worse when her father dies and she is married to a young man of about her same age. After a distressing incident (more on that later) she runs away into the wilderness of Alaska, with the confused idea that she can somehow get to San Francisco, where her pen pal lives.

Instead, we have the greatest part of this novel, where Julie learns to survive in the wild and is eventually accepted by a wolf pack, with whom she communciates via cunning and survivalist tactics her father had taught her. The extreme landscape and weather, along with Miyax's introspection and fierce will to live, make for some gripping drama.

Be forewarned. (My mother wasn't, when she read it to me.) This book is for older or more mature young people. Miyax's marriage at 13 is supposed to be platonic, but her mentally deficient husband is goaded and teased by other boys into trying to rape her, which is when she runs away. The incident is treated carefully, but might confuse and frighten younger readers.

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:13 PM

That poor man has been split in half by a courthouse!

Ha! I hadn't noticed that. I was thinking about doing a post about the incredible ugliness of most of these covers. Many of the newer editions of classics were so singularly awful that I went through many pages of google to try and find a decent one.

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:24 PM

That poor man has been split in half by a courthouse!

Wait... "poor man"? That's a redcoat! Whose side are you on?

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:32 PM

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

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This would possibly be the most pastoral, languid book ever if it weren't for Toad. Badger, Ratty and and Mole would fish on the river, and lay on the banks, and consider how lovely it is to be an anthropomorphized animal in beautiful rural England.

But, instead, we have Toad. Insane, compulsive, obsessive, manic Toad. Usually, in a book like this, all the characters are eccentric, or all of them are placid. But, no. In The Wind in the Willows we have three English gentlemen and one bipolar amphibian. Go figure.

Mara

12-19-2008, 02:49 PM

Swan Lake by Mark Helprin

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Unusually enough, I am recommending this book for its visual beauty as well as its story. I insist you find the blue cloth-bound cover, like above, and make sure it has the artwork by Chris Van Allsburg. (Odd story-- I used to know Chris Van Allsburg's cousin.) This is a ridiculously beautiful book, with creamy pages and full-page glossy illustrations.

The story is obviously based on the Russian ballet, although with the magic taken out. Instead it is a story of star-crossed love and betrayal between a prince and the common girl he loves. Don't let the illustrations fool you-- this is more appropriate for 9-10 years old than the very young. It's challenging and lovely, and I'm somewhat dismayed to see that it appears to have gone out of print, but I'm sure you can find used copies.

Mara

12-19-2008, 03:00 PM

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norman Juster

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Essentially, this is a book-length pun. The plays on words come thick and fast, and even if a child only understands a third of them, they're going to have a blast.

The plot, such as it is, concerns the very bored Milo who ends up going through a mysterious toll booth in a toy car and finds himself in the Kingdom of Wisdom, ruled by King Azaz, who is in charge of words, and the Mathemagician, who handles numbers. Unfortunately, the two princesses Rhyme and Reason have been lost, and so nothing in the land makes any real sense. Milo, along with a Tock the Watch Dog (see illustration, above) go on a quest to rescue them.

Kurosawa Fan

12-19-2008, 03:02 PM

LOVE The Little Prince. I was certain it would make your list. Great pick.

Benny Profane

12-19-2008, 03:17 PM

The Phanton Tollbooth is my favorite book from childhood. Read it twice and saw the movie a bunch of times.

Mara

12-19-2008, 03:26 PM

The Phantom Tollbooth is my favorite book from childhood. Read it twice and saw the movie a bunch of times.

I was in a theatrical production of it when I was... I dunno... maybe 14? My next-youngest sister played one of the market people hawking letters, but I was the Whether Man (yes, man) and I had a whole speech about "Welcome welcome welcome to the land of expectations expectations expectations!" I got the part because I could talk very quickly.

Good times.

Hugh_Grant

12-19-2008, 03:30 PM

Wow, unless my memory is REALLY bad, I don't think I've ever read any of these books. :(
So, it's been educational, Mara. :)

Mara

12-19-2008, 03:32 PM

Wow, unless my memory is REALLY bad, I don't think I've ever read any of these books. :(

...this distresses me. Go and pick up The Little Prince ASAP.

What books did you like as a child? Maybe they're coming up on the list.

Spinal

12-19-2008, 03:37 PM

Another fan of The Phantom Tollbooth here, although I didn't read it until a couple years ago.

monolith94

12-19-2008, 04:59 PM

Mara

12-19-2008, 05:49 PM

The Ordinary Princess by M. M. Kaye

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This cover is so-so, but infinitely better than the cover on my old version. It's too bad, because the pictures inside were actually kind of cute.

Anyhoo, this is a revisionist fairy tale that doesn't stray too far from the conventional. Her Serene and Royal Highness Princess Amethyst Alexandra Augusta Araminta Adelaide Aurelia Anne is born sweet-tempered, blond, and genteel, just like all her sisters. Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on who you ask) one of her fairy godmothers takes pity on her and gives as a christening gift: "You shall be ordinary." Princess Amy (as she comes to be called) ends up being plain-looking, easily bored, and is quickly tired of her frantic parents' efforts to marry her off. She therefore takes herself off into the woods one night, and eventually becomes a serving maid in a nearby kingdom.

This book is sweet, inoffensive, and gentle in the extreme. There's a nice lesson; that there's nothing wrong with being ordinary, and it's told with good humor and fun. Appropriate for fairly small children, maybe 4-5.

Mara

12-19-2008, 06:02 PM

Just-So Stories by Rudyard Kipling

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The terrific cadence and syntax of these stories make it a shame not to read them aloud.

In the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth--so! Till at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a small 'Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so as to be out of harm's way.

These are a sequence of origin stories that explain, for instance, how the camel got his hump. The stories are silly and fun, with high-falutin' language and many charming asides. The most famous of the stories, and my personal favorite, is The Elephant's Child, because like him, I was always full of 'satiable curtiosity.

Mara

12-19-2008, 06:10 PM

Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb

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Here's a conundrum. If I was an adult who loved reading Shakespeare (as I do) but had never read the above book, I think I probably would have been scandalized to discover it. It was written in 1807 and simplifies the plots of a number of Shakespeare plays into childrens' stories. I imagine that I would have been offended that someone would water down works of art.

But here's the question: if I hadn't read the above book as a child, would I have ever grown up to be an adult who loved reading Shakespeare?

As a side note, I thought for years that these stories were the original works of Shakespeare. I would tell people, for instance, that I had read The Tempest when I was 7 or 8 years old. I think I figured out that Shakespeare wrote plays, not kiddie stories, when I was about 10.

Mara

12-19-2008, 06:26 PM

The Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. LeGuin

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A Wizard of Earthsea
The Tombs of Atuan
The Farthest Shore

Dear sweet heaven, this had had some ugly covers. This is the version we own at home. By the way, I have discovered just now that this is not longer a trilogy, but there are a couple later sequels lurking about. I'm not sure how I feel about that, particularly since the third in the series was kind of weak.

Although short novels, LeGuin tells her story in epic, formal language that give them a mythic, folklorish feel. The first book follows Ged, an impetuous but talented young wizard whose early mistakes haunt and endanger him as he matures. It's quite good.

But the second book is my absolute favorite. Ged is a secondary character in that novel, which centers on Tenar, a young girl who is consecrated to be a Priestess to strict, bloodthirsty gods. She is powerful in name, but actually lives a very confined and manipulated life. She becomes obsessed with the tombs below her temple, where light is forbidden. This second book is creepy and absorbing in the extreme.

The third, as I mentioned, is only so-so.

Mara

12-19-2008, 07:28 PM

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

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This is another one where I bawl at the end. Maybe it's just that I adore my younger siblings so much, but Meg's final act of escape from IT by finding out that IT cannot comprehend her feelings for her little brother gets me every time:

She could love Charles Wallace.

Charles. Charles, I love you. My baby brother who always takes care of me. Come back to me, Charles Wallace, come away from IT, come back, come home. I love you, Charles. Oh, Charles Wallace, I love you.

Tears were streaming down her cheeks, but she was unaware of them.

Now she was even able to look at him, at this animated thing that was not her own Charles Wallace at all. She was able to look and love.

I love you. Charles Wallace, you are my darling and my dear and the light of my life and the treasure of my heart. I love you. I love you, I love you.

It kills me.

I can't believe anyone got through grade school without reading this, but in case you haven't, it's the story of the brilliant, awkward Meg who lives with her siblings and her genius mother. Their father disappeared some time ago, but the family refuses to believe that he deserted them. Instead, Meg, her friend Calvin, and her youngest brother Charles Wallace end up meeting a trio of extraordinary women who help them go through time and space to try and recover her father.

thefourthwall

12-19-2008, 09:00 PM

When I was in junior high, Madeline L' Engle was signing books at the college three blocks away, so my parents okay'd me skipping school for an afternoon to go see her and have her sign my books. I had to get two signed, this one because it is her most important, and A Ring of Endless Light because it is my favorite.

monolith94

12-19-2008, 09:43 PM

In "A Special Message from Madeleine L'Engle" on the Random House website, L'Engle explains another possible reason for the rejections: "A Wrinkle in Time had a female protagonist in a science fiction book," which at the time "wasn't done" according to L'Engle. After trying "forty-odd" publishers (L'Engle later said "twenty-six rejections"), L'Engle's agent returned the manuscript to her. Then at Christmas, L'Engle threw a tea party for her mother. One of the guests happened to know John Farrar of Farrar, Straus & Giroux, and insisted that L'Engle should meet with him. Although the publisher did not at the time publish a line of children's books, Farrar met L'Engle, liked the novel and ultimately published it.[15]

Wow. Just goes to show how luck plays such an important role.

Mara

12-22-2008, 01:02 PM

The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis

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The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

I know that they're didactic. I know that they're dated. I know that they are being made into increasingly mediocre films. I don't care.

I find these books to be some of the most profoundly moving literature I've ever read. They were extremely influential in my childhood (and, I would say, Lewis' entire ouevre has been the most influential writing in my adult life.) I find them thoughtful, imaginative, and stylistically beautiful.

The stories exist on several levels, obviously. They are primarily adventure stories, and are sometimes extremely funny. (Puddleglum, in The Silver Chair, makes me giggle every time.) They are also very moralistic and religious, although I didn't pick up on a lot of that as a child. Especially towards the last couple of books, they are dark and sad.

I think these ought to be read as adults and children alike. I also stubbornly and adamantly believe they should be read in publication order, as seen above.

Mara

12-22-2008, 01:12 PM

The Pippi Longstocking Books by Astrid Lindgren

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Pippi Longstocking
Pippi Goes on Board
Pippi in the South Seas

I think, without checking too thoroughly, that this is the only other entry not written originally in English. Still, I bet it's better in Swedish.

Anyway.

These are unadulterated childhood wish fulfilment. Imagine if, as a child, you were the strongest person in the world! And you had unlimited wealth! And you lived without parents! And you had a pet monkey and a horse!

Pippi is a delightful creation. She's the Child Behaving Badly that we can love because she's so good-hearted and generous. She plays off her supremely dull neighbors, Tommy and Annika, to show off her eccentricities. She also regularly makes adults look ridiculous, which is good fun for young readers.

Mara

12-22-2008, 01:27 PM

The Dr. Doolittle Books by Hugo Lofting

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/Story_of_Doctor_Dolittle.jpg

The Story of Doctor Dolittle
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
Doctor Dolittle's Post Office
Doctor Dolittle's Circus
Doctor Dolittle's Zoo
Doctor Dolittle's Caravan
Doctor Dolittle's Garden
Doctor Dolittle in the Moon
Doctor Dolittle's Return
Doctor Dolittle and the Secret Lake
Doctor Dolittle and the Green Canary
Doctor Dolittle's Puddleby Adventures

I think we read three or four of these. This is the story of a doctor who decides to stop seeing human patients so that we can treat animals, whose language he understands. In the later books, he leaves his home in England (whimsically named Puddleby-on-the-Marsh) in order to travel the world. The animal characters are a lot of fun, particularly the Pushmi-pullyu, an antelope with a head on either end.

My mother has asked me to mention that these books have some racist parts. (They were written in the 1920s-1940s.) She says that she used to edit them for us as she read to us, but there are also edited versions of the books available. I certainly never noticed any of that, so she must have done a good job. It's unfortunate, though, because there is still enjoyable stuff in the books.

Mara

12-22-2008, 01:46 PM

The Giver by Lois Lowry

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I believe in dystopian novels. I think they hold an important place in literature, and are powerful warning systems in the present to make us think about our future.

This book is for those too young for 1984, although I wouldn't read it to children who are very young-- it's probably appropriate for 9-10-year-olds. It has some truly disturbing things (at one point, for instance, a newborn is cleanly and efficiently murdered.) The ending is also quite ambiguous, depending on what you believe (personally, I believe the sad ending. My next younger sister believes the happier one.)

The book takes place in a future where everything is strictly controlled in order to have the least mess and the most security. Family units are assigned and deep emotions are considered embarassing. People take pills to limit sexual desire and nothing is considered private. In the first couple chapters in the book, everything doesn't seem so bad. The society seems functional, and people are happy, although they don't seem to feel things very profoundly.

Jonas, who is twelve, is called to be a sort of apprentice to The Giver, who is a leader in the community assigned to rembember all the things that the society would rather regret-- like war, and pain, and love, and joy. As Jonas becomes the recipient of those memories, his view of his world changes, and he begins to question everything he has been taught.

A very moving work.

Raiders

12-22-2008, 01:53 PM

Wow. My mom (or dad) only read a few books to me. My favorites were the "My Teacher is an Alien" series. Pretty prototypical "children's" brooks I suppose, but there was some good, adult stuff in there and to this day the memories of those books are among my favorite.

Mara

12-22-2008, 01:55 PM

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

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You know how children are afraid of monsters under the bed and in the closet? My next younger sister, as a child, was afraid of Nazis. She was sure they were coming to get her.

I blame this book (which she read when she was a little too young) and The Sound of Music.

Lowry sure doesn't pick easy subject matter for her books. In this one, she deals with the Nazi occupation in Denmark. The main character, Annemarie, ends up hiding a Jewish friend, Ellen, by pretending that they are sisters. They eventually smuggle her and her family in fishing boats across to Sweden. The book contains some fascinating and true information about the Resistance movement of the time.

Be forewarned-- some parts of this book are really scary. It works well, however, as an introduction to the idea of the Holocaust. Reading it along with children is a good idea so you can answer their questions and help them process.

Mara

12-22-2008, 02:07 PM

The Light Princess by George MacDonald

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/thelightprincess.jpg

I've been picking all actual book covers for these entries, but I found this painting and thought it was supremely awesome. It's by an artist named William Collins.

A note: I think George MacDonald is really a strange man. His books and stories have been influential on other, more well-known writers like C. S. Lewis and Tolkien and L'Engle, but I find reading him to be more bewildering than inspirational. This is one of his more accessible works, and it's still a little odd.

This is the story of a princess who is cursed to have no gravity. This is true both in a literal and figurative sense. Literally, she floats away if you let her go. She must be tethered at all times. Figuratively, she is shallow and bright and does not understand sadness or loss. The only thing that makes her "normal" is when she swims in water, which improves both her personal gravity and her personality.

The plot revolves around a prince who loves her, and ends up risking her life to keep her happy, while she has trouble returning any kind of deep affection. The moral is, of course, that it's not human to be happy and light-hearted all the time. It's our capacity to grieve and empathize that makes us complete.

Mara

12-22-2008, 02:14 PM

Wow. My mom (or dad) only read a few books to me. My favorites were the "My Teacher is an Alien" series.

I don't know them... Wikipedia makes it sound a little like The Day the Earth Stood Still. Are they good?

SpaceOddity

12-22-2008, 04:10 PM

Is E. Nesbit unknown in North America? *curious*

Mara

12-22-2008, 04:36 PM

Is E. Nesbit unknown in North America? *curious*

Wow. I have never heard of her.

What books would you recommend?

Melville

12-22-2008, 04:38 PM

The sheer number of books in this thread is boggling my mind.

Is E. Nesbit unknown in North America? *curious*
I read The Phoenix and the Carpet when I was a kid, and I remember my sister telling me that it was a classic, so it must be moderately well known here.

Mara

12-22-2008, 04:42 PM

I read The Phoenix and the Carpet when I was a kid, and I remember my sister telling me that it was a classic, so it must be moderately well known here.

That's it. I am calling my mother, and we are having a Little Talk about how she sent me unprepared into the world.

Mara

12-22-2008, 04:49 PM

By the way, in case anyone is curious, I have done 44 out of the 73 books that will be on the list.

Mara

12-22-2008, 04:57 PM

The Dream Stealer by Gregory Maguire

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/n43686.jpg

Wow-- interesting-- until I was actually getting this post ready, I never made the connection that this is the same Gregory Maguire that wrote Wicked and Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister et al. This is a straight-forward fairy tale, though, not a fractured one.

This book scared me to death as a child, but in a good way. My brother and I would be hiding under the blankets, and my mother would say, "Maybe we should stop here. You guys are going to have nightmares." "Nononono!" we'd shriek, refusing to come out. We loved it.

This is based on Russian folklore, especially Baba Yaga and the firebird. It tells the story of two young children who must save their village from the Blood Prince, a white wolf who steals peoples' souls. Good stuff.

Mara

12-22-2008, 05:06 PM

Beauty by Robin McKinley

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McKinley wrote a great deal of fantasy that I enjoyed all through my teenage years, but this is the only one my mother read me. It's a retelling of Beauty and the Beast, but with a great deal of humanity and understanding. The characters are very likeable and there's a dream-like quality to the story that makes for a very pleasant read.

Interesting story. McKinley wrote this in 1978, but then in 1997 she wrote another novel that was an adaptation of the Beauty and the Beast story called Rose Daughter. The difference that twenty years made in her as a writer makes for an extraordinary contrast. The second novel is darker and more eccentric, with less defined roles of right and wrong. It is definitely for an older audience. My friends who have read both novels are sharply divided in which they like better, with many of them absolutely hating the ending to the second one, which I thought was brilliant: Beauty chooses to have the Beast remain a Beast instead of turning into a prince.

Raiders

12-22-2008, 05:10 PM

I don't know them... Wikipedia makes it sound a little like The Day the Earth Stood Still. Are they good?

Yeah, I thought they were pretty good for taking childhood myths and fears (teachers being aliens and "evil") and turning a fairly interesting story, especially one where we have to defend our right to exist (this only really comes into play near the end). It's certainly underplayed more than in something like the afore-mentioned movie and an adult reading solely for their own purposes is likely to be turned off (in fact, I'm not sure you would make it through book 1), but to read to a child about the age of 9 or 10 I found them very entertaining.

Benny Profane

12-22-2008, 05:15 PM

How old were you when your mom stopped reading to you? I am just curious.

Mara

12-22-2008, 05:20 PM

Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne

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This is another one you must read as an adult if you did not read it as a child. It's brilliant. It is childrens' literature at its best.

Don't be fooled by the Disney adaptations, which are stupid. These books are beautiful, simple, and immensely enjoyable. They are appropriate for very young children, 3-4, but we loved to read and re-read them until we were 9-10. The books are about Christopher Robin and his stuffed toys, who are alive and have adventures in the Hundred Acre Wood. The stories and gentle and funny, and the quiet subplot about Christopher Robin growing up, going to school, and becoming too old for his friends is poignant.

I cry like a baby at the end of the book.

I must also note how great the poetry is in the book. Pooh is always making up little songs, and they are memorable and enjoyable. I made a point not to include books of childrens' poetry on this list, because I wanted to focus on chapter books, but I really have to plug Milne's two books of poetry: When we were very Young and Now we are Six. The poems are enjoyable and clever, and to this day my family and I recite them to each other, and quote them in casual conversation. For fun, here is the one we probably quote the most often: "The King's Breakfast."

The King's Breakfast

The King asked
The Queen, and
The Queen asked
The Dairymaid:
"Could we have some butter for
The Royal slice of bread?"
The Queen asked the Dairymaid,
The Dairymaid
Said, "Certainly,
I'll go and tell the cow
Now
Before she goes to bed."

The Dairymaid
She curtsied,
And went and told
The Alderney:
"Don't forget the butter for
The Royal slice of bread."
The Alderney
Said sleepily:
"You'd better tell
His Majesty
That many people nowadays
Like marmalade
Instead."

The Dairymaid
Said, "Fancy!"
And went to
Her Majesty.
She curtsied to the Queen, and
She turned a little red:
"Excuse me,
Your Majesty,
For taking of
The liberty,
But marmalade is tasty, if
It's very
Thickly
Spread."

The Queen said
"Oh!:
And went to
His Majesty:
"Talking of the butter for
The royal slice of bread,
Many people
Think that
Marmalade
Is nicer.
Would you like to try a little
Marmalade
Instead?"

The King said,
"Bother!"
And then he said,
"Oh, deary me!"
The King sobbed, "Oh, deary me!"
And went back to bed.
"Nobody,"
He whimpered,
"Could call me
A fussy man;
I only want
A little bit
Of butter for
My bread!"

The Queen said,
"There, there!"
And went to
The Dairymaid.
The Dairymaid
Said, "There, there!"
And went to the shed.
The cow said,
"There, there!
I didn't really
Mean it;
Here's milk for his porringer,
And butter for his bread."

The Queen took
The butter
And brought it to
His Majesty;
The King said,
"Butter, eh?"
And bounced out of bed.
"Nobody," he said,
As he kissed her
Tenderly,
"Nobody," he said,
As he slid down the banisters,
"Nobody,
My darling,
Could call me
A fussy man -
BUT
I do like a little bit of butter to my bread!"

Mara

12-22-2008, 05:22 PM

How old were you when your mom stopped reading to you? I am just curious.

Pretty much every night until I was 8 or 9, and then occasionally (especially on vacations or car trips) until I was maybe 12 or 13. By then, of course, she was reading regularly to my younger siblings, and so I often sat in on those sessions, too.

Benny Profane

12-22-2008, 05:24 PM

Pretty much every night until I was 8 or 9, and then occasionally (especially on vacations or car trips) until I was maybe 12 or 13. By then, of course, she was reading regularly to my younger siblings, and so I often sat in on those sessions, too.

Very cool and impressive.

Spinal

12-22-2008, 06:00 PM

Mara

12-22-2008, 06:05 PM

Ooo, this sounds great.

If you haven't read it, I would recommend it strongly.

Mara

12-22-2008, 07:56 PM

Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

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Anne (with an "e") is an orphan and an outsider, with red hair and freckles, who has never felt wanted anywhere. She is mistakenly adopted by middle-aged siblings who meant to get a boy to work the farm, but of course end up loving Anne and keeping her.

Anne tends to get in trouble, either from her temper (cracking her slate over Gilbert's head-- a great moment) or her wandering imagination (she nearly drowns while pretending to be the Lady of the Lake.) The loveliest part of the books, however, are the descriptions of Anne's home on Prince Edward Island and the descriptions of life at the turn of the century. The books are more gentle than funny, with very likeable characters.

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:05 PM

The Borrowers by Mary Norton

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The Borrowers
The Borrowers Afield
The Borrowers Afloat
The Borrowers Aloft

These stories are about tiny little people-- 3-4 inches tall-- that live inside the houses of big people (or "human beans" as they call them) and exist by "borrowing" things they need-- using spools of thread for seats, etc. They are terrified of being seen, and of predators like cats.

Arrietty is the young daughter of two more careful parents, and she accidently strikes up a friendship with a normal-sized Boy, against their warnings. The books are clever and sometimes exciting. I particularly enjoyed how they repurposed everyday objects to suit their size.

SpaceOddity

12-22-2008, 08:09 PM

I read The Phoenix and the Carpet when I was a kid, and I remember my sister telling me that it was a classic, so it must be moderately well known here.

My favourite. She was an influence upon C.S. Lewis.
Particularly, The Story of the Amulet.

SpaceOddity

12-22-2008, 08:13 PM

By the way, in case anyone is curious, I have done 44 out of the 73 books that will be on the list.

Are the Green Knowe books mentioned? What about The Box of Delights & The Midnight Folk?

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:16 PM

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/frisby.jpg

How awesome is this book?

Even though it deals with animals that talk and interact, the story is surprisingly fact-based and realistic. (I will never --never-- forgive the animated film for trying to introduce magic.) Mrs. Frisby, a widowed mouse, cares for her three baby mice in a farm field. Unfortunately, during the time of year she needs to move, her son falls ill. Desperate for help, she ends up contacting old friends of her late husband-- a group of escaped laboratory rats. They were experimented on in a lab called NIMH, which made them extremely intelligent, literature, and organized. They fought back by planning and executing their own escape, but live in fear of being discovered by the scientists who modified them.

The details and thoughtfulness of the super-intelligent rats who don't want to live like vermin, but also object to leeching off human technology (for instance, tapping into the farmer's electricity to light their tunnels) makes for intriguing reading.

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:17 PM

Are the Green Knowe books mentioned? What about The Box of Delights & The Midnight Folk?

I don't know them, but I am going to seek them out. They sound just my style.

SpaceOddity

12-22-2008, 08:26 PM

You may enjoy Tom's Midnight Garden, too.

Oooooh, did you read the Carbonel books?

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:27 PM

The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/6a00c22527a98bf21900cdf3a6c2c8 cb8f-.jpg

O'Dell wrote a number of historically-based novels for children, but I think none better than this, based on the true story of a Nicoleño Indian girl who was left alone on her island for 18 years after her people were massacred and the survivors evacuated.

Karana learns to survive on her own, and to defend herself. It's a bit like Robinson Crusoe, without the insufferable egotism. The descriptions of life on the island are stunning.

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:30 PM

You may enjoy Tom's Midnight Garden, too.

Oooooh, did you read the Carbonel books?

I don't know them. I'm going to have to check and see if my crummy local library has any of these.

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:41 PM

The Amelia Bedelia Books by Peggy Parish

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These books are really very funny for children just old enough to understand idioms and expressions. There are about a dozen of them, and I think we read four or five. Amelia Bedelia is a good-hearted maid to a wealthy family, but she can't help but take everything literally. If they tell her to draw the curtains, she will take pen and paper and made a picture. When asked to dress a chicken, she makes it clothes.

Hilarity ensues.

These aren't exactly subtle books, and the schtick gets old after a few of them, but they're really amusing. They helped me puzzle out a lot of the expressions I didn't understand myself as a child.

SpaceOddity

12-22-2008, 08:44 PM

*chants Noel Streatfeild and Enid Blyton*

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:48 PM

The Bridge to Terebithia by Katherine Patterson

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Sad, sad, sad. This, along with Where the Red Fern Grows, was one of the first real tear-jerkers I ever read. The story follows two children, Jesse and Leslie, as they invent an imaginary world that they derive from Leslie's love of fantasy books. They can only go there by swinging a rope across a creek.

This was a real eye-opener for me as a reader, because while I was used to my characters being imperiled in books, they never actually ended up... you know... dying. Jesse's grief after losing his friend is devastating.

Mara

12-22-2008, 08:54 PM

Bill Peet: An Autobiography by Bill Peet

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/bill.jpg

How may autobiographies appeal to children? Really?

But, you see, this one is about Bill Peet, the brilliant Disney animator and children's book writer and illustrator. He is funny and self-depricating, and the book is chock-full of his illustrations of his own life.

He is honest about his struggles, and his view of growing up in the Depression, but still tells his story in a way appropriate to young people. The book is charming, and highly recommended for children with an artistic bent.

monolith94

12-23-2008, 03:11 AM

How may autobiographies appeal to children? Really?

Boy?

Mara

12-23-2008, 12:27 PM

Boy?

I forgot about this one! I didn't read it until I was an adult.

monolith94

12-23-2008, 02:05 PM

I went through a big Bill Peet phase when I was a kid. I read almost anything that looked visually appealing on the picture-book shelf at the library. Then I stumbled across Tintin, and my child-life was altered forever.

thefourthwall

12-26-2008, 03:10 AM

Bill Peet: An Autobiography by Bill Peet

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/bill.jpg

I haven't thought about this book in a long time. I love all the great memories this thread is bringing up!

Spinal

12-28-2008, 05:07 AM

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien

How awesome is this book?

Majorly awesome. Thanks for the reminder. Got to put this one in the bedtime reading queue. Almost done with The Thirteen Clocks, by the way. Very fun. Very witty.

Mara

12-29-2008, 12:55 PM

Majorly awesome. Thanks for the reminder. Got to put this one in the bedtime reading queue. Almost done with The Thirteen Clocks, by the way. Very fun. Very witty.

I'm glad you're enjoying it. I'm starting to hear back from the half-dozen people who got it from me as a Christmas gift, and the responses are positive.

My work here is done.

Mara

12-29-2008, 01:06 PM

The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/51RZ78PBJGL.jpg

...This cover is better than my cover. Hmm.

I have very distinct memories of the first time my mother read this to me. It was on a car trip, and the story frightened me. (I was maybe 8.) Eventually, the sun went down and we couldn't read anymore, and I couldn't sleep because I was so freaked out. I held the book open and tried to read it in the dark.

This book became oddly influential for me. It was the first book I've read where "Fairies" aren't cute little people with wings, but cold-hearted, frightening, unhuman creatures that you don't want to mess with. I'm fascinated by this. They snatch children and perform human sacrifice. This book was also my first exposure to the ballad of Tam Lin, which became an obsession of mine in high school, and I eventually adapted it into a full-length play when I was in college.

Anyway, this book takes the idea of Tam Lin (which, if you don't know it, is the story of a young woman who falls in love with a human man who is the captive of some blood-thirsty Fair Folk) and adapts it to the 1500s where a pre-Queen Elizabeth exiles a headstrong young woman to a remote country manse where the ruling family has secret, sinister ties to the more pagan elements in the land.

The story is engrossing, frightening, and exciting. There's even a pretty compelling romance, although it plays out in the less-romantic vein that I tend to favor. I want to reread the book just from writing about it.

Mara

12-29-2008, 01:16 PM

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/WestingGamethepix.gif

If, at the end of my life, I had to write up a list of "Literary Regrets," this might be near the top: I insisted my mother read this book to me as if it was a book, instead of a novel-length riddle.

The problem, you see, is that I wanted to find out what happened next. So, I ignored the clues and tricks and puzzles and just steam-rolled through to the end. I really, really wish we had stopped and written down all the clues to see if I could have solved the answer on my own. Now I'll never know.

So, if you do read this to your kids, slow down and see if you can figure it out!

The story, for those of you who haven't read it, involves a rich dead man dressed like Uncle Sam, a group of seemingly unrelated tenants in a high-rise apartment building, a set of clues, and purple waves. Too much fun.

Mara

12-29-2008, 01:32 PM

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/Where-Red-Fern-Grows-Book.jpg

This, along with Bridge to Terebithia, make up my three-hanky selections. My mother read this to me first, but then we ended up reading it in fifth grade as a class, and even the boys in my class were bawling like babies.

Only the ending is really weepy, though. The rest is an exciting story of a young boy in the Ozarks and his two dogs as they try to hunt raccoons. I don't really understand or empathize with hunters, but the book works as a slice of American life, and the connection between Billy and his dogs is very touching.

Mara

12-29-2008, 01:41 PM

The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/n150213.jpg

Well, this book is no light-hearted romp, either. Don't blame me-- I'm just following the alphabet.

I've read a few books that dally with this subject, and most did it very badly. They felt annoying, condescending, and forced, and usually took a side (white v. native) that was never very convincing.

I always felt that this book, however, found a sort of melancholy balance.

This is the story of True Son, an English settler who as a very young boy was taken captive by the Lenni Lenape Indians. He is raised by a family that loves him, with Native American values and is completely encultured.

The trouble comes when, as a part of a peace treaty with the settlers, the Indians agree to return all white captives. True Son is now a young man, and resists being returned to a family he does not remember and does not respect. He hates the language, clothing, and rules of his white family, although he eventually bonds with a younger brother.

True Son eventually runs away and tries to reintegrate with his Indian family, but finds that he has been rendered unsuitable for both cultures, and is left somewhere in the middle.

Mara

12-29-2008, 01:52 PM

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/best-christmas-pageant-ever.jpg

I've always liked stories of children behaving badly. I was a pretty well-behaved kid myself, but I was absolutely tickled to read about children who did and said all the things that I never would.

I was also raised to be a church-goer, and knew how to fold my arms piously before I knew how to talk.

So, imagine how much I enjoyed a book about children behaving badly in church. The irascable Herdman children, who have little discipline and no idea of good behavior, hijack a quiet church's Christmas pageant, with screaming angels and a thug Joseph who threatens the other children.

Eventually, of course, everyone learns something about the True Meaning of Christmas, but the lesson was learned not only by the Herdmans, but by the pious sticklers who kept insisting that Christmas can only be understood in one narrow way.

Not life-changing literature, by any means, but good fun.

Mara

12-29-2008, 08:26 PM

The Cricket in Times Square by George Seldon

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/044041563201LZZZZZZZ.jpg

I think I was very young indeed when we read this-- maybe only 4 or 5. I remember loving it, but I'm a little hazy on the details. I know the main character was a cricket adopted by a little boy in Times Square, and that he could chirp classical music and mimic any tune.

From the cover, there also appear to have been a mouse and a cat.

Mara

12-29-2008, 08:35 PM

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/whitman-blackbeauty.jpg

Not for the tender-hearted, this book is a damning view of the way horses were treated in Victorian England, particularly of the violent and brutal practices that were used for fashion and ornament, although it also deals with the merciless beatings and neglect that were also common.

Although disturbing in this aspect, the book makes an excellent tool for teaching about compassion and welfare. I loved horses as a girl (cliche, I know) and expected this to be a heart-warming riding-on-the-beach, wind-through-the-mane fare, but I was actually glad to be disappointed.

Mara

12-29-2008, 08:45 PM

The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/ddf4024128a0b23d3489d010L.jpg

I know, I know. The cover is ugly. I couldn't find a nice one the size that I wanted.

This is another one of the few historical childrens' novels that manages to be much more interesting than a list of facts. It introduces subjects like Puritian life, slavery in the English colonies, and is a good way to work up to the Salem Witch Trials, which took place only a few years after the (fictional) events in this book.

Kit is a young woman who lived on a plantation in Barbados until her grandfather died, when she was sent off to live with her Puritain Aunt and Uncle in New England. Kit is dismayed by the spartan living and rigid discipline, and ends up retreating to Blackbird pond, where lives a quiet Quaker woman named Hannah, who is ostrasized because of her faith and is rumored to be a witch.

This story does a good job of getting into the hysterical headspace of the witch trials of the time while not demonizing the settlers.

Mara

12-29-2008, 09:01 PM

Dominic by William Steig

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/51qCtfJ5GhL_SL500_.jpg

Ah, William Steig. He is one of the greatest picture book writers for children of all time. He is bizarre and thoughtful and brilliant. If you have never read the original Shrek! you are really missing out. If you've never visited Rotten Island or wondered why Spinky Sulks, you have no idea how truly bizarre kid's lit can be. If I was making this list of picture books instead of chapter books, he would have a half-dozen entries, rivialing only perhaps Maurice Sendak.

As it is, this is the only chapter book by him I ever read. It is a heroic journey in its purest form: Dominic leaves home to seek adventure for no reason other than to leave home and seek adventure. It has Steig's normal dream-like dialogue and almost-messy pictures. Good times.

Mara

12-30-2008, 07:39 PM

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/432px-TreasureIslandCover.jpg

Pirates! And maps! And mutiny! And treasure!

Mara

12-30-2008, 07:45 PM

The Girl of the Limberlost by Gene Stratton-Porter

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/61079PSENVL.jpg

I have twice in my life been convinced by books that I am interested in bugs. There was this book, which gave me the baffling impression that I wanted to grow up and collect moths, and then the double whammy in my early teens of Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and An American Childhood.

The influence of these books waned significantly in any situation when I actually had to... you know... be anywhere near bugs.

Kurosawa Fan

12-30-2008, 07:47 PM

Can I request a printable list when you finish? My son has been kind of drooling over this thread, and it would be easier if I had something I could print off and highlight for trips to B&N and the library.

Mara

12-30-2008, 07:52 PM

Mara

12-30-2008, 07:53 PM

Kurosawa Fan

12-30-2008, 07:54 PM

Sure! I'll cut and paste from my excel spreadsheet.

No joke. I have one.

You rule.

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:03 PM

The Mary Poppins Books by P. L. Travers

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/270px-Mary_Poppins-1.jpg

Mary Poppins
Mary Poppins Comes Back
Mary Poppins Opens the Door
Mary Poppins in the Park
Mary Poppins From A to Z
Mary Poppins in the Kitchen
Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane
Mary Poppins and the House Next Door

The main difference between the book character of Mary Poppins and the Disneyfied movie one is that the original Mary is... well, not very nice. She's vain and somewhat sarcastic. She refused to acknowledge that there is anything magical in her nature, and punishes the children if they suggest otherwise.

Oddly enough, this makes the books much more fun. You have these wild adventures, but they're being orchestrated by a prissy, narrow sort of person. Her rules of good behavior are never suspended, even under the most fantastical circumstances.

The magical adventures are quite fun, too. Mary has a sequence of nutty relatives whom they often visit. Book characters come to life. The children and Mary wander into wonderlands. It's a great mixture of the mundane and the enchanted.

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:10 PM

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/tomsawyer.jpg

We can call it "Huck Finn Lite." The prequel to Mark Twain's masterpiece is similar in form-- our hero is a mischevious prankster always getting into trouble-- but the story is much gentler and more appopriate to younger audiences. Tom has a support system, unlike Huck, even if he feuds with his Aunt sometimes.

Unlike Huck, Tom is in love, and his crazy escapades to try and win Becky are some of the best in the book. He is clever, a sort of con artist, and very badly behaved. I had a total crush on him when I was a kid.

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:19 PM

Charlotte's Web by E. B. White

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/CharlottesWeb.jpg

I don't have to mention how perfect White's style is, do I? I mean, he literally wrote the book on stylistics.

This is his most famous book, and for good reason. The story is amusing and affecting. Wilbur, a runt pig, struggles to save himself from a future as bacon, with the help of a barn spider, Charlotte.

By the way, to the adults (not the kids) reading, you really must read White's sort of precurser to this novel; his autobiographical essay Death of a Pig. (http://www.theatlantic.com/ideastour/animals/white-full.mhtml)

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:26 PM

Stuart Little by E. B. White

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/n53439.jpg

The premise of this book is really odd-- a family inexplicably has a son who is sort of a mouse, and he falls in love with a bird. Why not?

The way it plays out, though, is lovely and interesting. White has fun with trying to navigate a big world as a little person, and once he leaves home to have adventures, it gets really exciting.

I have a friend who wanted to name her baby Margalo after the bird in this book, until she found out she was having a boy. I confess, I am a little relieved.

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:31 PM

The Trumpet of the Swan by E. B. White

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/Trumpet_of_the_Swan_Cover.jpg

They made a movie of this one, too? Gah, it looks awful.

Well, the book is lovely. A young swan, Louis, is born mute. He decides to read and write in order to communicate, and gets chalk and a chalkboard that he hangs around his neck. This way, he makes human friends.

The problems arise when he is full grown, and falls in love with a girl-swan. The swan mating ritual is verbal, and so he has no way to tell her he loves her. He decides to learn how to play a trumpet in order to win her.

Okay, it sounds silly, but it's actually really sweet and fun. Louis' struggle to adapt to a world to which he is ill-suited makes for a great story.

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:43 PM

The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/006001241201LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Little House in the Big Woods
Farmer Boy
Little House on the Prairie
On the Banks of Plum Creek
By the Shores of Silver Lake
The Long Winter
Little Town on the Prairie
These Happy Golden Years

I love these. Really.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, these books were written by Laura late in life, adapted from her journals of her memories growing up as a pioneer in the West. Her family is beautifully delineated, and written with affection but without sentimentality.

Mostly, Laura writes about work. If you have any doubt how hard those women worked, you have to read the books. They started as children, and they started before the sun came up. They cooked and cleaned and cared for the animals. They worked the farm and carried wood. They stacked hay and they cured meat. There was never enough money (partially because Laura's Pa insisted on packing up and moving every couple of years to go further West) and so the girls take in sewing and mending and boarders. At fifteen, Laura gets her teaching degree and leaves home to live with psychopaths in the middle of nowhere, teaching children older than herself.

The Ingalls celebrate joys, and they suffer. They have illness and death, and famine and fear. But they also have love and laughter and happiness. Laura falls in love and marries, a romance that is among the best I have ever read.

The books are absorbing, informative, and fun.

Mara

12-30-2008, 08:56 PM

The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/4193GC1JWXL.jpg

I came to really appreciate Jane Yolen as an adult, especially her fantasy novels. In truth, though, she's written on every possible subject for every possible age. (According to Wikipedia, over 300 books...!)

This was, I think, my first exposure to her. This is a melancholy book, another introduction to the Holocaust meant for older children (10-12.) In it, a twelve-year-old contemporary girl is embarassed by her relatives, who went through the holocaust, and is also alienated from her Jewish faith. During a celebration of Passover, she is magically transported back to Poland in the 1940s.

I remember it as being pretty affecting. It's not just about the holocaust, really, but also about respecting religion and family, especially family history.

Mara

12-30-2008, 09:00 PM

Okay, all done.

Easy-to-read list:

Watership Down by Adams, Richard
An Old-Fashioned Girl by Alcott, Louisa May
Eight Cousins by Alcott, Louisa May
Little Women by Alcott, Louisa May
The Chronicles of Prydian by Alexander, Lloyd
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Atwater, Richard
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
Knee-Knock Rise by Babbit, Natalie
The Devil's Storybook & The Devil's Other Storybook by Babbit, Natalie
The Search for Delicious by Babbit, Natalie
Tuck Everlasting by Babbit, Natalie
The Indian in the Cupboard Series by Banks, Lynne
Peter Pan by Barrie, J. M.
The Oz Books by Baum, L. Frank
The Paddington Books by Bond, Michael
Caddie Woodlawn by Brink, Carol Kyrie
A Little Princess by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
The Secret Garden by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Alice in Wonderland & Alice Through the Looking Glass by Carroll, Lewis
The Tripod Trilogy by Christopher, John
The Ramona Series by Cleary, Beverly
The Dark is Rising Series by Cooper, Susan
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Dahl, Roald
James and the Giant Peach by Dahl, Roald
Matilda by Dahl, Roald
The BFG by Dahl, Roald
The Little Prince by de Saint-Exbury, Antoine
The Whipping Boy by Fleishman, Sid
Johnny Tremain by Forbes, Esther
Julie of the Wolves by George, Jean Craighead
The Wind in the Willows by Grahame, Kenneth
Swan Lake by Helprin, Mark
The Phantom Tollbooth by Juster, Norton
The Ordinary Princess by Kaye, M. M.
The Just-So Stories by Kipling, Rudyard
Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb, Charles and Mary
The Earthsea Trilogy by Le Guin, Ursula K.
A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle, Madeleine
The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis, C. S.
The Pippi Longstocking Books by Lindgren, Astrid
The Dr. Doolittle Stories by Lofting, Hugh
Number the Stars by Lowry, Lois
The Giver by Lowry, Lois
The Light Princess by MacDonald, George
The Dream Stealer by Maguire, Gregory
Beauty by McKinley, Robin
Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner & Poetry by Milne, A. A.
Anne of Green Gables by Montgomery, L. M.
The Borrowers Series by Norton, Mary
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by O'Brian, Richard
The Island of the Blue Dolphins by O'Dell, Scott
The Amelia Bedelia Books by Parish, Peggy
Bridge to Terebithia by Patterson, Katherine
Bill Peet: An Autobiography by Peet, Bill
The Perilous Gard by Pope, Elizabeth Marie
The Westing Game by Raskin, Ellen
Where the Red Fern Grows by Rawls, Wilson
The Light in the Forest by Richter, Conrad
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Robinson, Barbara
The Cricket in Times Square by Seldon, George
Black Beauty by Sewell, Anna
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Spears, Elizabeth George
Dominic by Steig, William
Treasure Island by Stevenson, Robert Louis
The Girl of the Limberlost by Stratton-Porter, Gene
The Thirteen Clocks by Thurber, James
The Mary Poppins Books by Travers, P. L.
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Twain, Mark
Charlotte's Web by White, E. B.
Stuart Little by White, E. B.
The Trumpet of the Swan by White, E. B.
The Little House Books by Wilder, Laura Ingalls
The Devil's Arithmetic by Yolen, Jane

Mara

12-30-2008, 09:00 PM

*takes bow*

Melville

12-30-2008, 09:10 PM

I can't say I'm all that interested in children's literature (though Winnie-the-Pooh, The Little Prince, and Pippi Longstocking are awesome), but I'm glad that this site has a thread like this.

Ezee E

12-30-2008, 11:38 PM

Great thread. As I looked over the list, there were more books that came to my mind. Some of them were holocaust books no less. Weird?

monolith94

12-31-2008, 01:34 AM

Robert Louis Stevenson is SO great. Ever read Kidnapped? It might be as good as Treasure Island!

Mara

12-31-2008, 12:40 PM

Robert Louis Stevenson is SO great. Ever read Kidnapped? It might be as good as Treasure Island!

I don't think I have... or if I did, I don't remember it. I'll have to check it out.

Maybe next year I'll do a thread of picture books, but not every one... just a top 30 or 40. We still have bookshelves stuffed with those things.

Still very influential on me, though. My senior year of college I wrote a scholarly paper on Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There.

Mara

12-31-2008, 02:35 PM

Actually, maybe I'll just do the jacked up picture books we read as children. You know: In Defense of the Disturbing.

Kurosawa Fan

12-31-2008, 05:54 PM

Just finished printing and highlighting the list with my son, and these are the titles we highlighted (the ones that interest him the most):

The Chronicles of Prydian by Alexander, Lloyd
Mr. Popper's Penguins by Atwater, Richard
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi
The Search for Delicious by Babbit, Natalie
Tuck Everlasting by Babbit, Natalie
Peter Pan by Barrie, J. M.
The Oz Books by Baum, L. Frank
The Paddington Books by Bond, Michael
The Secret Garden by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
Alice in Wonderland & Alice Through the Looking Glass by Carroll, Lewis
The Tripod Trilogy by Christopher, John
The Dark is Rising Series by Cooper, Susan
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Dahl, Roald
James and the Giant Peach by Dahl, Roald
Matilda by Dahl, Roald
The BFG by Dahl, Roald
The Little Prince by de Saint-Exbury, Antoine
The Whipping Boy by Fleishman, Sid
Johnny Tremain by Forbes, Esther
Julie of the Wolves by George, Jean Craighead
Swan Lake by Helprin, Mark
The Phantom Tollbooth by Juster, Norton
Lamb's Tales from Shakespeare by Lamb, Charles and Mary
The Earthsea Trilogy by Le Guin, Ursula K.
A Wrinkle in Time by L'Engle, Madeleine
The Chronicles of Narnia by Lewis, C. S.
The Dr. Doolittle Stories by Lofting, Hugh
The Giver by Lowry, Lois
The Light Princess by MacDonald, George
The Dream Stealer by Maguire, Gregory
Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner & Poetry by Milne, A. A.
Anne of Green Gables by Montgomery, L. M.
The Borrowers Series by Norton, Mary
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by O'Brian, Richard
The Island of the Blue Dolphins by O'Dell, Scott
The Amelia Bedelia Books by Parish, Peggy
Bill Peet: An Autobiography by Peet, Bill
The Perilous Gard by Pope, Elizabeth Marie
The Westing Game by Raskin, Ellen
Where the Red Fern Grows by Rawls, Wilson
The Light in the Forest by Richter, Conrad
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Robinson, Barbara
The Cricket in Times Square by Seldon, George
Black Beauty by Sewell, Anna
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Spears, Elizabeth George
Treasure Island by Stevenson, Robert Louis
The Girl of the Limberlost by Stratton-Porter, Gene
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Twain, Mark
Charlotte's Web by White, E. B.
Stuart Little by White, E. B.
The Trumpet of the Swan by White, E. B.
The Devil's Arithmetic by Yolen, Jane

For some reason he's adamant against The Indian in the Cupboard, The Bridge to Terabithia, and the Mary Poppins books. No matter how much I tried to convince him otherwise, he wouldn't add them to his list. He's a strange child.

Mara

01-01-2009, 02:58 PM

For some reason he's adamant against The Indian in the Cupboard, The Bridge to Terabithia, and the Mary Poppins books. No matter how much I tried to convince him otherwise, he wouldn't add them to his list. He's a strange child.

I'm impressed he wants to read as many books as all that; it's startling gratifying.

You raised him good. *sniff*

bac0n

01-27-2012, 02:55 AM

The 13 Clocks by James Thurber

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/The_13_Clocks_Simont.jpg

My obsession with this book led indirectly to the creation of this entire thread. The book recently came back from out-of-print limbo with a gorgeous new edition, which is, without exaggeration, the third most exciting thing that happened to me this year.

Stylistically, the book is just about perfect. The language is beautiful and clever. The story is funny and exciting and (sometimes) really frightening.

It can be read to children who are very young, but I would really recommend this book for any age. I force it on adult friends all the time, and nobody has killed me yet.

I just want to say that I bought this book 3 years ago for my daughter, then 4, shortly after Mara posted this. She wasn't quite ready for it then.

Three years later, at 7 years old, she is ready, and I must say... words cannot explain how wonderful, whimsical and magical this book is. Camille cannot wait for story time when we get to read the next chapter. And I can't either. Mara and Neil Gaiman are right. This just might be the best book in the world.

Thank you thank you thank you so much for this recommendation, Mara.

Lucky

01-27-2012, 04:20 AM

The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v254/maragirl/006001241201LZZZZZZZ.jpg

My grandmother bought me this book when I was a child. Scrolling through this thread and seeing that book cover again took me aback. I remember thinking as a kid (not knowing AT ALL what these books were about) that the woman on the cover was a ghost. I was very disappointed when my young boy self realized this was not a horror story. At all. I think I ended up liking the book ok, though. I remember bear traps and how big a deal it was when Pa went to market.

Mara

01-27-2012, 12:34 PM

I just want to say that I bought this book 3 years ago for my daughter, then 4, shortly after Mara posted this. She wasn't quite ready for it then.

Three years later, at 7 years old, she is ready, and I must say... words cannot explain how wonderful, whimsical and magical this book is. Camille cannot wait for story time when we get to read the next chapter. And I can't either. Mara and Neil Gaiman are right. This just might be the best book in the world.

Thank you thank you thank you so much for this recommendation, Mara.

Aw, I honestly just teared up a little. I love this book and I get so happy when children discover it for the first time.