Messageboard
The Village Hall permalink
Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
This discussion has been closed.
-
Message 1.Â
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Your Desert Island choices. Everyone is welcome. To join the Book Club, all you need do is post here.
CHILDREN'S BOOKS
This month the Book Club invites you to compile and elaborate on a selection of 8 children's books you would take to your castaway island.
You are also asked to mention which book you will rescue from the sudden incoming tide. Perhaps you'd like to share with us why that particular book is so dear to you.
You will also be given a handsome set of Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books (The Blue Fairy Book, The Crimson Fairy Book etc.), twelve books in all. And you will receive a copy of Charles and Mary Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare, illustrated by Arthur Rackham.
Perhaps you're groaning already...not to worry!
In the event these are not to your liking, you may substitute either or both of these prescribed extra's with something equally 'universally' appealing. You might prefer a book of myths and legends, or an anthology of poetry instead. Today the choice is all yours.
The Desert Island concept is all about personal choices. Hopefully we won't all be coming up with what might be regarded as a canon of worthy children's literature. The classics will always be there and doubtless they will feature, perhaps even heavily. But all those books we read as children, or had read to us, have played some part in our development and in the forming of our literary preferences, I believe.
So there are no bad or weak books. Everything you enjoyed as a child and still hold dear has equal merit. That pile of comic books you spent hours pouring over, and the copy of Wind in the Willows your Nan gave you, both played a part in forming your sense of humour, surely?
On the other hand, you might like to include some of those books you missed out on as a child, or just didn't enjoy at the time but which you'd like to give a second chance now you're grown up.
Will some of those books you thought of as being good for comfort reading turn out to be a huge disappointment, now that you scrutinize them again?
And what about illustrations - what part did they play in your choice of books as a child?
Once you've compiled your selection, will you discover that it's a mixed bag of goodies, or does it look like all-much-of-the-same? I already know that my choice will reflect a certain limitation in my reading. There are huge gaps that sadly enough can never be put right.
I shall be posting my choices later in the day. My homework last night was rudely interrupted by a long power failure in my part of the Netherlands (honest, Miss, honest). And I'm a slow thinker and writer.
But please, go ahead and start without me, I'll be rushing to join you.
*** Rusters, could I call on you to post a flyer with a link in The Bull? Ta ever so much.
WinterlingLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 2
Posted by Babs (U12089863) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Oooh!
Five go off in a caravan Enid Blyton
Five go to Smuggler's Top
The Put Em Rights
The Railway Children E Nesbit
Five Children and It
The Phoenix and the Carpet
Marianne Dreams Catherine Storr
When Marnie Was Here sorry can't rememberLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 3
Posted by tinners-hare (U9904261) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Hello, here's my list and I've included a very short comment on each if that's okay.
The Woolpack - Cynthia Harnett, good historical story-telling.
The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame, classic tale and the first book I ever bought with my own money. (40p)
The Tailor of Gloucester - Beatrix Potter, atmospheric and wonderful illustrations, natch.
Night Cargoes - Nicholas Cavanagh, smuggling adventure with a hint of romance thrown in.
James and The Giant Peach - Roald Dahl. What characters!
A Bear Called Paddington - Michael Bond. Gentle humour with the loveable bear.
A Green Wishbone - Ruth Tomalin. Exploration of two children's dreams.
Peacock Pie - Walter de la Mare, a collection of wonderfully wistful poetry full of beautiful imagery.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 4
Posted by Jane (U1484860) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
what an interesting idea
1. Swallows & Amazons - Arthur Ransome
2. Little House on the Prairie - Laura Ingalls Wilder
3. The Little Broomstick - Mary Stewart
4. Ann of Avalon - Lucy Maud Montgomery
5. Little Women - Louisa May Alcott
6. My Friend Flicka (trilogy) -Mary O'Hara
7. When We Were Very Young & Now We are Six - AA Milne (I can still remember many of them and they will always remind me of my Dad reading them, complete with voices, to my sister & I)
8. Arabella the Pink and Gold Spotted Elephant (not sure of author)
This has proved harder than I thought. There are many authors/series of books from my childhood that were crucial in my reading development
- Enid Blyton
- the Pullien-Thompson sisters (and similar, i was pony crazy!)
- Anthony Buckeridge; Jennings & Darbyshire
- Elinor M Brent-Dyer; the Chalet School
- E Nesbitt
- Noel Streatfield
- Helen Dore Boylston; Sue Barton
- CS Lewis; Narnia
- Classics such as Wind in the Willows, Toms Secret Garden, The Little Princess, What Katy Did, Paddington, Dr Suess, The Secret Garden etc etc
JaneLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 5
Posted by Jane (U1484860) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
and as soon as I've posted I remember that I've left out
Ursula Le Guin
Alison Utley; A Traveller in Time
Alan Garner; Owl Service, The Wierd Stone etc
and once I post this I'll remember more.
Where is the line drawn between children's and adult fiction anyway? I'm sure I've listed stuff that others will think of as adult but which I read when fairly young
JaneLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 6
Posted by Auntie Molly (U14110968) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Marianne Dreams, Catherine Storr
Space Hostages, Nicholas Fisk
The Complete Malory Towers and St Claires - E Blyton
The Complete Professor Branestawm Stories - Norman Hunter
A Wrinkle in Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Chronicles of Narnia
A Little Princess - Frances Hodgson Burnett
The Long Winter - Laura Ingalls WilderLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 7
Posted by Babs (U12089863) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Ditto, I thought of so many more, The Owl Service and Little Women included. I devoured most of Enid Blyton throughout my childhood; it did me no harm, I grew up to be a perfectly normal axe-murderer.
As a very small child I had a book handed down from my dad, so it had to have been written before the 1930's...all I remember of it is that some children staying in a large house, discovered that at 1am, a door appeared in a wall opposite a sundial and they could go through it. On the other side was some kind of fairy-tale world with fairies named after flowers (Aquilegia being the one I remember).
I'd love to read it again but have no idea what it's called, or who wrote it.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 8
Posted by goalpostsoflife (U10655386) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Lovely concept for a thread ... most of mine have been mentioned beautifully above so I won't reiterate them, but:
Alice in Wonderland and
Through the Looking Glass
I'm not sure I can describe the impact of reading those at an age where I couldn't really decipher fact from fiction - oh the time spent looking into a mirror at the room behind and waiting for the glass to melt so I could go through ... I didn't just read those books, I lived them.
And Finn Family Moomintroll. So subversive, so wise, such lovely drawings. I still have my childhood copies and if I'm sick in bed will reread them.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 9
Posted by Babs (U12089863) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
I still love and read Alice now - loved them as child despite the surreal feeling they gave me (or maybe, because of...?)
I read the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe as a child and didn't like it. Finally read the whole Chronicles after my OH bought me the set five years ago, and love them now as an adult.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 10
Posted by goalpostsoflife (U10655386) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Yes, Babs, maybe because of the surrealism - I think that was a major aspect for me too.
I did read The Lion and Co. as a child but wasn't grabbed in the same way, however I can easily understand others' love of those books.
Though I do recall getting into wardrobes and hoping for the best.
Ahem not as an adult, you understand.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 11
Posted by E Yore (U1479700) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 10:19 GMT, in reply to Winterling in message 1
What an absolutely wonderful idea for a book club! Only question is, how to choose?
First, many thanks for the Compleat Andrew Lang & Lamb's Tales illustrated by Rackham.
My provisional list:
Chronicles of Narnia
Complete Borrowers
Complete E. Nesbit
Alice's Adventures through the Looking-Glass (with the Tenniel illustrations)
The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth Speare
The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli
The Secret Garden
The Hobbit
The Compleat PoohLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 12
Posted by whippet_walker (U6107899) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
oooh
In no particular order:
Silver Sword - Ian Serailler - survival in war torn Poland
The Family From One End Street - Eve Garnet - I loved the whole series - Esp. Lily ironing the artificial silk petticoat
Trillions - Nicholas Fisk - strange crystals suddenly shower the earth
The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett - a classic
Marianne Dreams - Catherine Storr - creeping stones & an ill child
Valley of Adventure - Enid Blyton ..well...
Citizen of the Galaxy -Robert Heinlein another early foray into science fiction
Asterix & Cleopatra - René Goscinny and Albert Uderzo - Ptennis Net - my favourite egyptian
I loved all these and read then all till my copies decomposed I think.
W_WLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 13
Posted by Jane (U1484860) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Ohhhhhh I'd clean forgotten The Family from One End Street; now I can see and feel my copy of the book. It was an old 2nd hand hardback.
I think that, compared to others, I was being v good choosing actual books rather than the whole series of books!
I've never really 'got' the Alice books tho', read them but couldn't put them on a 'love' listLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 14
Posted by sadie (U781345) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
This probably needs more thought but first books to mind are
Christmas at Nettleford - Malcolm Saville
Colours - Shirley Hughes
Five on Kirren Island - Enid Blyton
Island of Adventure - Enid Blyton
The Faraway Tree - Enid Blyton
What Katy Did - Susan Coolidge
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe - CS Lewis
The Illustrated Mum - Jaqueline Wilson
The House at Pooh Corner - AA Milne
a mixture of my own childhood favourites and those of my children and fond memories of reading them aloud. If I had to rescue just one it would be Shirley Hughes, Colours is a magnificant picture book with splendid rhymes and wonderful illustrations.
One to give up would be one of the Enid Blytons, but probably not the Faraway Tree.
SxLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 15
Posted by whippet_walker (U6107899) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
oooh can i swap secret garden for Fattypuffs & Thinifers by André Maurois - I can't ride an underground escalator without thinking of this book. ..I'll rescue this from the incoming tide if necessary
Waaah there are too many books that I had forgotten aboutLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 16
Posted by Auntie Molly (U14110968) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
I forgot John Christopher - 5 of his books - The Lotus Caves, 2 bored schoolboys living on the moon go exploring one day and crash through a crevice in the moon's surface into an eerie alien world. And The Guardians, a glimpse into a future where British society is divided into the Conurb - where the masses live - and the County, where a privileged few live, and one boy from the Conurb, discovers exactly how this society is controlled. Plus the Tripods trilogy.
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 17
Posted by whippet_walker (U6107899) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Oh yes ..John Christopher I loved the Tripods particularly...and the Lotus Caves but I don't rememember the divided society one...
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 18
Posted by Rusters (U11225963) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
This isn't proving as easy as I first thought, but here goes:
"Pookie" by Ivy Wallace, an illustrated book about a little white rabbit with wings: a sad story with a happy ending. Worth looking at again if only for the beautiful artwork.
"Five on a Treasure Island" by Enid Blyton, the first of the Famous Five series. If I'd been asked when a child to choose eight books, they'd probably all have been Blytons: the Famous Five, Secret Seven, ....of Adventure, and the boarding school series.
"The 101 Dalmations" by Dodie Smith: dogs and puppies, thrills and spills, a sinister baddie who gets her comeuppance, and a safe journey home for all the animals. It is great fun and has the added pleasure of a dry humour that adults can appreciate.
"I Am David" by Anne Holm. David is a young teenager who has spent his childhood in a concentration camp, separated from his family. When the War is over, he has to journey on foot across Europe to find home. It might sound rather bleak, but it is thought-provoking and ultimately uplifting:
"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott. Is there anyone who *didn't" want to be Jo (perhaps with Amy's looks thrown in though)?
"The Incredible Journey" by Sheila Burnford. Two dogs, Bodger the elderly bull terrier and Luath the young lab, and Tao, a Siamese cat, travel hundreds of miles across the wilds of Canada in search of home and their beloved humans, who left them with friends the other side of the country. The animals survive many dangerous adventures and encounter humans and other animals - some benign, others not - along the way.
I particularly liked the fact that there was little anthropomorphism: the animals don't talk to each other or lose their essential cat and dog-ness.
The next couple might not be strictly children's books but I am pretty sure have been read by many, perhaps as their first foray into grown-up reading:
"The Chyrsalids" by John Wyndham. It's set in a post-apocalyptic world of subsistence farming and fundamentalist religion. The main characters are six (?) children who deviate from the norm and are hounded away from "civilisation" and forced to escape to the Badlands.
"I Capture The Castle" by Dodie Smith. This is about a bohemian, ramshackle family, seen through the eyes of one of the teenage daughters, Cassandra. It is rather sad and poignant in places, but also very funny.
Which would I save if the others were swept away? Ummmm......... "Little Women", I think. I am a sucker for anything about families.
RustyLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 19
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
What wonderful responses from you all so far. Lots of titles I've never heard of so am well pleased, all the more for me to go investigating.
***
My selection: Part One
For starters I'm rejecting Lamb's Shakespeare. Some of the Tales were read to us in our last year of primary school, and although I remember laughing at some point, probably during Midsummer Night's Dream, I mostly recall being bored. Those strange names and intricate situations were too much on hot afternoons.
(Shakespeare had earlier came to life for me during an open air theatre production, at night, of Macbeth. Much of it went over my head, but my friends and I played at being witches and murderers for weeks after).
So instead I'd like an anthology of poetry, and I'm hoping more will be mentioned here for me to choose from, as I never had one as a child.
Lang's Fairy Books will do nicely. In fact, I wouldn'tcomplain if those were all I had. So many wonderful tales from different countries and accompanied by lots of intricate illustrations. A real treasure trove. Perhaps this one's for saving, or perhaps not. Will decide later.
Before I continue with my selection, a small introduction might be required:
As the first child of very young, hard-working Dutch immigrant parents living in an English speaking country, I had an unfortunate start on the road to reading and books. There were no children's books (plenty of Dutch adult books though), no grandparents, no aunts and uncles or older siblings to pass on their much loved copies to me. My first encounter with children's books and the English language took place at school.
At the beginning of the third year I experienced what I can only describe as a moment of wonderful clarity. I understood what the teacher was reading to us (Shadow the Sheepdog) and I wanted more.
So having missed out on the usual books for the younger child, I shall call my first two books catch-up books.
1. Any of the Beatrix Potter books.
Small, lovingly illustrated tales about animals that behaved and were dressed as people. And exciting adventures, too.
2. Peter and Wendy (aka Peter Pan).
Again a book that has a foot in reality but demands that you let go and fly off into a fantasy world.
I'm sure that had I been introduced to these books, and others like them, at the appropriate age, I wouldn't now be so horribly grounded in realistic fiction. But perhaps others will disagree with me.
More parts still to come...Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 20
Posted by Silver Jenny (U12795676) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Interesting challenge this month.
Many of my favoourites have already been mentioned. Love the choice of the Lang opus and anything illustrated by Rackham gets my atention.
1. Chronicles of Narnia C.S.Lewis
2. The Secret Garden Burnett
3. E. Nesbit Collected works
4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar Eric Carle
[not my era but the many children who have shared it with me love it, and so do I]
5. Andersen, Hans Christian Fairy Tales, illustrated by Dulac
6. Anne of Green Gables L.M.Montgomery
7. Children of the New Forest Captain Marryat [just one of very mnay historical adventure books by different authors which I enjoyed.]
8. Green Dolphin Street Elizabeth Goudge [not, strictly speaking, a children's book but I read it when I was about 13 and loved it.]Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 21
Posted by Bette (U2222559) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
This thread is impossible to contribute to /without/ having a heavy dose of classics. here goes (order tending towards most-read-and-loved towards the top):
- Just So Stories
- Alice's adventures in wonderland( /esp/ TTLG): Illustrations by Tenniel, even though I've seen other wonderful illustrations)
- The Jungle book ( /esp/ 'Rikki-Tikki-Tavi')
- Winnie The Pooh
- The Ship That Flew by Hilda Lewis (read and re-read at primary school, and still love it)
- The Tiger Who Came To Tea by Judith Kerr (copy falling to bits with use)
- Oscar Wilde Short Stories (came to them in later rather than earlier childhood)
- Boxed set of The Famous Five (just for nostalgia, and the pure enjoyment I had reading them when I was young)Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 22
Posted by JoleBlon (U12091094) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
These are the books I devoured as a child so I think I'd have them!
1) Mary Poppins collection, P L Travers
2) St Claire books, Enid Blyton
3) Malory Towers books, Enid Blyton
4) Famous Five books, Enid Blyton
5) When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Judith Kerr
6) Finn Family Moomintroll books, Tove Jansson
7) Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
8) The Hobbit, J R R TolkienLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 23
Posted by Silver Jenny (U12795676) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
P.S. I would rescue the Andersen Fairy tales.
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 24
Posted by E Yore (U1479700) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:17 GMT, in reply to silverjenny in message 20
I knew my list would only be provisional! Having read more choices I need to amend my list:
The Chronicles of Narnia have to remain on the list (and would probably be the one collected edition I save) as they are the ones I do reread time and again - simple but beautiful English, characters one loves, big hankie moments (do I dare mention the farewell to Reepicheep?) and wonderful comic moments (Eustace as a hot water bottle and the ineffable Puddleglum).
The Complete Borrowers would have to remain on the list as well, as Mary Norton's ability to reinvent our world through the world of Arrity is so magical. I can reread as an adult and still be entranced.
Much more difficulty deciding whether the complete E. Nesbit stays on the list, as I adored them as a child (especially the Treasure Seekers & Wouldbegoods) but am not sure I could now reread them - but, on balance, I'd keep them. Wonderful comfort reading.
Alice is going to be scrapped because although it was a staple of my childhood reading, in fact it used to scare the living daylights out of me. Was I the only child terrified of the Red Queen? This fear is one reason Alice in Wonderland didn't make it. (And I suspect that Tenniel's illustrations had a lot to do with my choice of TtLG in the first place). To be replaced by:
101 Dalmations - how could I possibly have overlooked one of my favourite books, set initially in one of my favourite parks in London, with a cast of characters involving my favourite species? Tch.
On balance, I am maintaining Witch of Blackbird Pond with little difficulty as its description of late 17th century Puritan New England and the clash between the feisty pleasure-loving free thinking heroine and the dour-but-good Puritan family that give her a home, brought history alive for me and as I love its principal character. This won the Newbery Medal and over the years that one book prize has chosen many of my favourite books - in fact, if I could take all the prize winners of just one prize, it would be the Newbery (certainly not the Booker or Pulitzer):
A lot more hesitation with 'A Door in the Wall', another Newbery Medallist, which is set in mediaeval England and is about overcoming difficulties in different ways. A toss-up between that and 'The Trumpeter of Krakow' by Eric P. Kelly (Newbery medallist again). Which way is the coin falling?
Secret Garden is going to have to be replaced by Anne of Green Gables, because the first three of those books (Anne of Avonlea & Anne of the Island) gave me so much pleasure as a child, and the humour in the books does cheer me up still.
The Hobbit will remain on my list and Pooh. I was going to trade in Pooh for the Harry Potters, but in the end the timelessness of Pooh, and his whole philosophy of life had to win out.
Might I suggest we all choose the same desert island, as this way no one book will have to be sacrificed?Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 25
Posted by Silver Jenny (U12795676) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
And everyone could choose a bookcase as their luxury, E.Yore. Sorted!
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 26
Posted by That Old Janx Spirit (U2140966) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Tough call. I didn't get many classic children's books when I was a child as neither parent had had them either.
But I think Alice in Wonderland is a must-read for everyone.
So.. here are books I liked as a child:
1. Willard Price books
2. Alice in Wonderland and through the Looking-Glass
3. Gerald Durrell books (he and Willard Price can teach you lots about animals)
4. The Seven Times Search by Paul Biegel
(A Dutch writer. I read this at least twice. It was a Llandudno library book and the story didn't let me go. I spent years searching for it. Unbelievably, it's about the seven times table.)
5. A book of British fairy tales (I read loads of fairy tales as a child)
6. Swiss Family Robinson
7. Cherry Ames (thanks to a neighbour I had Cherry Ames Army Nurse and Cherry Ames Rest Ö÷²¥´óÐã Nurse)
8. Shirley Flight Air Hostess
9. Nancy Drew
10. Some of Enid Blyton's short storiesLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 27
Posted by Jane (U1484860) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
I'm swapping Laura Ingalls Wilder for The Swish of the Curtain (and sequals) by Pamela Brown
Contributing factor to my ongoing huge love of the theatreLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 28
Posted by Rwth of the Cornovii (U2570790) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 15:24 GMT, in reply to Jane in message 27
Listing in random order
1) Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfield. I loved all the characters and the struggle and Winifred who was struggling harder than any of them. All the others too, but that one was the first.
2) Family at One End Street by Eve ? mentioned upthread. We were never that poor, but there was a family at my school which had at least two children in leg irons and they were poor. Country poor. I wanted to understand them. I got closest to it by getting them to talk to me.
3) Mary Plain by Gwynnedd Rae Totally antropomorphic but with much more charm than Paddington. I wanted the Owl Man and the Fur Coat Lady to fall in love and get married.
4) Little Women - I was part Jo and part Beth. I hated Amy. I loved the way Jo grew up and married her lovely Professor instead of the glamorous Laurie. Laurie missed several tricks there.
5) Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Heidi's homesickness while she was living in Munich was so heartbreaking, I nearly took up sleepwalking myself.
6) The Lord of the Rushie River by Cicely (the flower Fairies woman) A heartrending tale of child abuse, and rescue by Swans.
7) I have to include "The Children of the New Forest" because it is like Robinson Crusoe/the Swiss family Robinson and they learn new skills while being in Terrible Danger.
8) The Legion of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff. A tale of a young Roman who has to try and find the lost eagle from the standard of the Ninth Legion that was all but destroyed by Boadicea and her army.
I have dozens more but these seem to have been most memorable.
I would have to save "The Lord of the Rushie River" because I love Swans and want to save them too. And all the other birds.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 29
Posted by goalpostsoflife (U10655386) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
It's such fun to read everyone's choices. Wouldn't this be a good idea for a radio programme?
(1) Alice in Wonderland And Through the Looking Glass (I had them in one volume ... is this cheating?!)
(2) The Wind in the Willows
(3) James and the Giant Peach
(4) The Secret Garden
(5) The Little Princess
(6) House at Pooh Corner
(7) Moominpappa goes to Sea
(8) I Capture the Castle
Getting it to eight is painful ...Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 30
Posted by goalpostsoflife (U10655386) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Oh yes Rwth (and whoever else), Ballet Shoes.
Hmm.
This is a hard task!Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 31
Posted by dens canis (U1983532) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
It's an impossible task!
I'm leaving out Pooh and Alice and the Wind in the Willows since I can pretty much recite them. Ditto Molesworth. Enid Blyton I can lose since although I read lots of her I don't think they'd bear re-reading. Not sure I could bear to leave out The Thirteen Clocks - but in truth it belongs in the "can recite" group. So taking a deep breath and without stopping for thought I get
Finn Family Moomintroll - I especially love the bit where Moominmamma uses her Hobgoblin wish to stop Moomintroll from missing Snufkin.
A Wizard of Earthsea - alienation, youthful arrogance and a young man learning how to use power, and beautifully, sparely written.
Marianne Dreams - those stones with eyes are some of the scariest things I have ever met.
A Little Princess - fullblown sentimentality and none the worse for it.
The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green - an alien, romantic, dangerous world. Introduced me to dropsy amongst other things.
The Sword in the Stone - Legend and imagination and that incredibly funny bit where Sir Grummore and King Pellinore are jousting.
The Summer Birds - the joys of freedom and the pains of growing up and having to be sensible.
Earthfasts - a powerful and imaginative novel, especially the section where Keith thinks that David is dead.
I could write a much longer list but if first thoughts are truest this is it. If I could only rescue one it would probably be A Wizard of Earthsea but only by a nose.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 32
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
My selection: Part Two
So far on my list
1. Beatrix Potter (any book)
2. Peter Pan
For my third choice:
Books about families, with many children. And preferably a plain, moody misunderstood child for me to identify with. There are many series to choose from: The Family From One End Street tops the list. Sidney Taylor's All-Of-A-Kind Family coming a close second - these introduced me to the customs of a Jewish Household, and the children, though from a relatively poor family, always wore perfectly starched white pinafores.
The books by Elizabeth Enright, the first I read and possibly therefore my favourite was The Saturdays. Pamela Brown and her theatre family, The Swish of the Curtain has already been taken. Never mind. The Windmill Family is just as good.
Madeleine L'Engle's Meet the Austins, one of the most excentric bunch of people you'd ever meet with an irritatingly "wise" baby of about four years old.
I'm not taking any of these.
3. The Children Who Lived in a Barn (1938) by Eleanor Graham, who was editor of Puffin Books during the Second World War.
Five children whose parents have gone missing are left to cope on their own. They move into a barn and learn how to behave as responsible adults. You'll also learn all about hay boxes and how to make one.
I wonder if this has travelled well into the 21 st century. I loved it as a child, and am going to give it another try.
And now, off to think about numbers 4 and 5....Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 33
Posted by goalpostsoflife (U10655386) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
dens canis,
I just had to wave at a Moomin fan! (apologies if anyone else has mentioned them apart from me, I've been skimming).Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 34
Posted by Wanda_Ofwandas (U2258758) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Winterling, The Children Who Lived in a Barn is one of my favourites, too, and oh how I mourn the loss of my old copy. I re-read it from the library about a year ago and although the foreword pointed out numerous holes in the situation of the children being left alone, I frankly don't care. I loved that book for being UNsentimental, and funny, and wise, and detailed about the difficulties of keeping the family together and on the straight and narrow. Loved the tramps, and the hayboxes, and the D.V. and the frumpy knitted dress and the golden-topped rabbit pie and the laundry-scrubbing at four am.... oh dear, I really MUST get a copy.
Eeek. Are we supposed to avoid books that have already been chosen? A good idea for the sake of the thread, I think, but a challenge...Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 35
Posted by dens canis (U1983532) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
I don't think we're alone, goalposts. I'm sure someone else has mentioned them (JoeBlon, perhaps). Although I think that FFM is the original and best I love the others too: she does melancholy and wistfulness so very well, as well as joie de vivre. (I have a friend known to me as the Mymble, though I wouldn't dare tell her so.)
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 36
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Hallo Wanda, You just go ahead and choose any books you fancy, never mind the others!
So glad there is someone else who loved The Children Who Lived in a Barn. I still have my original paperback copy, but it's travelled half way round the world and back and is terribly reeky. Still, I'll never get rid of it.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 37
Posted by Wanda_Ofwandas (U2258758) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
OK, here are my offerings, in no particular order of preference and (hopefully) all books that haven't made an appearance so far:
I want a proper Shakespeare, not the Lambs' Tales From. My great-aunt's leatherbound copy, given to her at Christmas 1909, will do very nicely.
1) The Book Thief - Mr Wandaful and I both read it on holiday this year, both got completely absorbed, both cried absolute buckets and buckets. Fab.
2) Of the Pullein-Thompson sisters' books (yes I know they've been mentioned but not individually) I'd like One Day Event, in which Henry nearly proposes to Noel.
3) Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Book by Lauren Child, much loved by my youngest stepdaughter and me. In which Herb enters his own book of fairy stories, learns the consequences of his scribblings, and does something 'orrible and deserved to Goldilocks.
4) Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Because they are very good.
5) A Necklace of Raindrops - Joan Aiken. In fact, almost anything she wrote, especially about the Armitages and Candleberry, but Necklace of Raindrops with its bewitching silhouette-and-colour pictures really started me off.
6) The Spice Woman's Basket and other stories - Alison Uttley. I want to read this out loud to YS when she's a little older but I don't know if I can get through the last sentence where Betsy opens the spicewoman's basket to find it is filled with Love, and the old woman has gone but a little brown bird is whirling into the starry sky...
7) Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 'cos even if you never read any of the others, this stands as a rattling good yarn.
8) still working on 8)... this is tough!!Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 38
Posted by dens canis (U1983532) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Dang, I forgot The Land of Green Ginger. But it's OK, it's another of the ones I can recite. I can even remember how Kenneth Williams sounded when he read it on Jackanory.
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 39
Posted by Wanda_Ofwandas (U2258758) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
oooooh dens, you've reminded me, Bernard Cribbins reading Arabel's Raven is on my shortlist for number 8!!! But I've already got a Joan Aiken...
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 40
Posted by Lynnie P (U3585914) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
This is impossible - my list is getting longer and longer!
If I MUST whittle it down to 8, in no particular order:
1. What Katy Did - my ultimate comfort book. I have read it so many times I know it by heart - I love What Katy Did at School almost as much. As a child who was ill a lot, Katy's accident and recovery struck a chord
2. Alice Through The Looking Glass - read when I was 8 and it was when I discovered I had a sense of humour - it really made me laugh
3. Little Women - almost everything I said about What Katy Did goes for this too. I WAS Jo for most of my childhood. I love Jo's Boys too, but not Good Wives.
4. Ballet Shoes - all of Noel Streatfield, probably but Ballet Shoes best.
5. She Shall Have Music by Kitty Barnes - a very dated book with a very dubious Irish maid character. About a young girl's discovery of music and playing the piano.
6. A Dream of Sadlers Wells by Lorna Hill. I loved all the Wells books but the first is my favourite.
7. Mary Poppins - P.L. Travers - So much better than the film.
8. The Railway Children. Perfect, sublime story, real characters.
The one I rescue? The Railway Children.....I think.
LynnieP x
I could have included The Once and Future King by T.H. White, nominally a children's book but I didn't read it until I was in my 20s so it doesn't count.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 41
Posted by cookiepuss (U1485231) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
1. Earthsea trilogy
2. The Dark is Rising sequence
3. Winnie the Pooh/House at Pooh Corner
4. My Cat Likes to Hide in Boxes (ok it's a little kids' book but I like it)
5. Bridge to Terebithia
6. Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass
7. A Wrinkle in Time
8. The Hobbit
I think I'd save Winnie the Pooh - just so many childhood memories
There's still Mary Poppins, The Railway Children, Ivanhoe, Robin Hood, Paddington Bear, Charlotte's Web, Railway Children, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Six Dinner Sid, so many fairy tales...
Can't stand moralising tales like Little Women
=^..^=Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 42
Posted by goalpostsoflife (U10655386) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
I can't believe I forgot Charlotte's Web!
Doh.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 43
Posted by sunlitfern (U1481854) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:00 GMT, in reply to LynnieP in message 40
This is so difficult i kept seeing others choices and wanting them too
My first thoughts were
1 Carries War - I loved war stories of childrens experiences when \I was young
2 Where the Wild Things Are just lovely illustrations and lots of imagination
3 Thursdays Child (?) Noel Strefield about a girl and two brothers that meet in a childrens home
4 Five Children and It and all of E Nesbits really
5 The Narnia books
6 The Hobbit
7 Charlie and the great Glass elevator
8 Just William
9 The Great ghost rescue (I had to sneak that one in as it reminds me of my sister)
I have a least 2 shelves of childrens books and still re read them, choosing only one is hard but it would have to be The Hobbit as I reread that the most. It started my love of Sci fi/fantasy.
Sunlit
PS I would also nick everyone else's choices given half the chanceLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 44
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Thursday, 1st October 2009
I see the lists of wonderful choices, and find myself wondering how people came to read those books in the first place. I had practically no guidance, and the books I read were mostly those I could find at the local library.
My selection Part Three
(Auto)Biographies and Diaries
I believe the first biography I read was called Dancing Star about Anna Pavlova, the second was a book about Helen Keller, but it is the third biography I read that is going on my list:
4. Prelude by C.H. Abrahall
An account of the early life of Tasmanian Pianist Eileen Joyce. My interest in classical music started with this book. I don't remember the details, but I treasured my copy: it was one of the few hard-cover books I owned.
5. A Vicarage Family - A Biography of Myself by Noel Streatfeild
About headstrong Victoria's life in a strict vicarage before the First World War. For a very short while I considered becoming an author myself, but then I also wanted to became a Prima Ballerina as well as a world class pianist....
6. The Diary of Anne Frank
My childhood was filled with the stories my parents told me about their own childhood in occuppied Holland. And my mother couldn't wait for me to grow up so that she could share this book with me. I was given a rather cheap abridged copy (Pan I think) with a tacky looking front cover. Since then I've read the original Dutch version, but I shall be taking my English translation to the desert island.
And now to think about my final two books, and which I shall save.....Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 45
Posted by Lynnie P (U3585914) on Friday, 2nd October 2009
Winterling - thank you so much for reminding me of A Vicarage Family. I remember reading that with such pleasure. Now I want to read it again!
I also loved The Family at One End Street. I too can see my copy of the book, and all the illustrations, especially when Lily Rose shrunk the petticoat...
And Milly-Molly-Mandy...and the two books I had about classical music: Going to a Concert by Lionel Salter and a book of Tales from the Opera. At the time I was about as likely to go to either an opera or a concert as fly to the moon, but I was totally enraptured by both and read them until they literally fell apart. Lionel Salter's book especially stays with me, and when I did start going to concerts his wise words guided me many times about what to listen to and how.
LynnieP xLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 46
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Friday, 2nd October 2009
Decided at last
My selection The Final Part
So far:
1. Beatrix Potter (any book)
2. Peter Pan
3. The Children Who Lived in a Barn - Eleanor Graham
4. Prelude - C.H. Abrahall
5. The Vicarage Family - Noel Streatfeild
6. The Diary of Anne Frank
For my seventh choice I must choose one of the classics. They have all been mentioned, and I've read them all. Following LynnieP in this, who said it is so much better than the film, I'm choosing the wonderfully strange and sometimes dark
7. Mary Poppins (all of 'em please)
My final choice, and the book I'll save is
8. A Dog So Small by Philappa Pearce
This book was rejected by a publisher for being too depressing. It is a story about seeing and failing to see, about the difference between fantasy and reality. Philappa Pearce managed to show emotions rather than describe them. If you ever need a good cry, just to let it out of your system, you should read this book.
I discovered A Dog So Small by accident. It was sitting on a friend's bookshelf, looking quite out of place in a row of Hardy Boys, Nancy Drews and Bobbsey Twins. Oh the joy of finding another book by a much loved author. It puzzled me on first reading it, because it was so very different. It made me cry and feel angry. Bewildered, I would say.
A Dog So Small has haunted me all my life, possibly because I never owned a copy and was never able to re-read it. Until a couple of years ago when I found it in a Dutch charity shop, a most unlikely place I thought. This book and I were meant to be together. That much is obvious. And this is the book I will hang onto when the tide comes sweeping in.
So there it is. I look at my choices and somehow feel disappointed. The first two are definitely wrong - you can't re-do the past.
Someone said this is an impossible task, compiling a list. I'd like to add to that: It shouldn't be allowed. It's like unpicking a carefully-made colourful tapestry, and then trying to pick out the best strands of wool. A lost tapestry is what you're left with!
My list can never reflect the joy I experienced, nor the sometimes complex relationship I had with the books of my childhood.
WinterlingLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 47
Posted by Hollydaze (U14054088) on Friday, 2nd October 2009
Apologies to all, especially the Pearce Foundation, I meant Philippa!
Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 48
Posted by PinaGrigio (U11141735) on Friday, 2nd October 2009
Gosh - only 8? Ok, here goes:
1. Tom's Midnight Garden - Philippa Pearce's fantastic concept. Found a 2nd hand copy recently and *loved* it all over again. Also loved 'A Dog So Small' so thanks for the reminder.
2. 'Carrie's War'. Nina Bawden writes so well, whether for adults or children; all her fiction is worth a look IMO.
3. Marianne Dreams - Catherine Storr (also try 'Clever Polly & the Stupid Wolf'. Fond memories of me & Mum in tears of laughter reading that at bedtime.
4. The Bagthorpe Saga stories by Helen Cresswell - these are absolutely hilarious, all of them. Jack & his faithful dog Zero cope in the midst of a 'higly strung' family.
5. Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House books. Just because.
6. 'Danny, Champion of the World' by Roald Dahl. Slightly darker but thus more interesting.
7. 'When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit', by Judith Kerr
8. The Katy Did books - I loved these too as they were so evocative of family life. I'm not the straightening your forehead tip works, but I did try!
Also loved 'The Eagle of the 9th' which is apparently being filmed at the moment, and also Molesworth, who is just a genius.
the one I'd save would depend on what day it was, I suppose, but probably the Bagthorpes to cheer me up when I needed that.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 49
Posted by Rusters (U11225963) on Friday, 2nd October 2009
It's interesting seeing other people's choices. Although I've heard of most of them, and read many, there are some that completely passed me by.
A bit like you, Winterling, I had a slightly unconventional childhood: brought up in Hong Kong but on a far-flung island necessitating a 2 hour ferry journey to get to the city, so visits to book shops were a real treat.
I insisted on collecting Blytons and my parents tried in vain to interest me in "better" books, ("The Children of the New Forest", "Lorna Doone".....). Don't know how I came to leave "The Railway Children" off my list though.
It wasn't until access to shops was easier and my younger sisters were reading that I caught up with things like "I Am David" and a few others I remember enjoying: "The Golden Goblet" by Eloise Jarvis McGraw, set in ancient Egypt, as well as books by Ursula Le Guin and Alan Garner, for instance.
On the whole I seemed to graduate from the Blyton-type stuff to grown-up books without reading many.... hmm... intelligent children's books in between: historical stuff by Elizabeth Goudge, Anya Seton, Jean Plaidy, Margaret Irwin, Georgette Heyer, and detective novels by Agatha Christie and Patricia Wentworth, before moving on to Allingham, Sayers and Tey (never that keen on Ngaio Marsh).
BTW, can I just mention Anna Sewell's "Black Beauty" without bringing down upon me the wrath of ML? I loved this book, read it over and over again, always crying you-know-when. However, I couldn't bear to read it now. The older I get, the less I can stand reading about cruelty to the vulnerable, especially animals.
RustyLink to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
-
Message 50
Posted by Rwth of the Cornovii (U2570790) on Saturday, 3rd October 2009
Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:41 GMT, in reply to Rusters in message 49
I was wondering if people were choosing books they had loved as children, or looking back and maybe re-reading some to see if they 'passed the test of time'. Like Rusters, I was reading adult books by the time I was 12 or 13.
I read 'Katherine' when I was about 12 or 13, and "The Cruel Sea" and "Tchiffeley's ride" a ripping yarn about a man who travelled from Buenos Aires to Mexico City or thereabouts on foot, with a couple of horses, plug uglies, and actually had to buy another two thirds of the way because one of the originals died, but he started with two and ended with two. I also read and loved "The Long Walk" by Slavomir Rawicz. which was basically true, but with a lot of embroidery added.
I also read a couple of Century books, "A Century of Creepy Stories" and "A Century of Ghost Stories". Also "They never came back" about explorers and mountaineers. This tended to satisfy my craving for extreme travel. I will travel independently, but do not require the added temptations of extreme temperatures and terrain.
All the Flower Fairy books too. The Tailor of Gloucester, The Squirrel, the Hare and the Little Grey Rabbit gave me the recipe for a wonderful cake with flowers in it. I still add a rose to my major fruit cakes, and would add lavender too if I could find the sachet of cooking lavender I bought in the market. Elizabeth Goudge's Cathedral cities trilogy (The City of Bells, The Dean's Watch and Towers in the Mist)
Then there are the ripping yarns, "King Solomon's Mines" "Prester John" "Kidnapped" "Robinson Crusoe" "Treasure Island" "The Coral Island" and one or two like "The Dog Crusoe and his master" by Ballantyne about a trio of chaps and their Newfoundland dog who went out to make peace with the Indians.
I loved John Buchan, and there are still one or two I love, like "The Courts of the Morning" and the last one set in Canada about a starving Indian tribe"
I liked Biggles, though I can only remember "The Cruise of the Condor".
"Phraa the Phonoecian" left a deep impression on me, though I can't swear to ever reading it, but I vaguely recall getting it out of the library.
I loved the "Dark is Rising" etc, but have to hold my hand up to reading those on my daughter's behalf when she was getting pony books out. I made her get them out as well, but I suspect I was the only one to read them. I wasn't all that impressed with Alan Garner, but if he wrote "Elidor", I take that back.
Does anyone recall "Appley Dappley's nursery Rhymes"? or "Snow White and Rose Red"? Or the "Kathleen Fidler Omnibus" which I really loved.Link to this forum: Oct 2009 Book Club D.I. Children's Books
About this Board
Welcome to the Archers Messageboard.
or  to take part in a discussion.
The message board is currently closed for posting.
This messageboard is now closed.
This messageboard is .
Find out more about this board's
Search this Board
Ö÷²¥´óÐã iD
Ö÷²¥´óÐã navigation
Ö÷²¥´óÐã links
Ö÷²¥´óÐã © 2014 The Ö÷²¥´óÐã is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.
This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.