KidLit List

[callmemadam]

There's a very interesting list of 101 Children's Books over on Geranium Cat’s Bookshelf. These lists are very hard to draw up. If you were making one, would you feel (I would) that you had to include some books you didn't like because they were significant landmarks in publishing? Or would your list consist entirely of personal favourites?

Comments

[land-girl.livejournal.com]

That is the best list I've seen (since my dad did one for The Times, that is!) ... there are only a couple that I would like to see in there that aren't already. For me a list would absolutely have to be about personal favourites; I think such a list loses its integrity if the compiler doesn't love every book on there! It's a different thing from, say, I recommended reading list or a book shop's list of best sellers.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

It's really good, isn't it?
I'd feel obliged to put in a Famous Five book even though I've never liked them, because of the huge influence on children's reading.

[sloopjonb.livejournal.com]

Depends what I was doing it for. A list of Significant Books in World Literature would be different (very different) from a list of These I Have Loved.

ETA: Treasure Island, unreadable? What?

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

I so agree about Treasure Island; I think it's terrific! Never been able to persuade huskyteer to read it, though.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

I would have to include the Conjurer's Box on any list of books I like, because more than anything it made a massive impression on me. Giant rats in a hot air balloon, a rocking horse that comes to life and a malevolent statue of a Chinese lady. Ditto Bogwoppit (the first book I ever bought, I liked it so much on Jackanory).

I've been wondering lately why few adult books have affected me as much as the children's ones I read years ago, and why adult fantasy is frequently unimaginative compared to the amazing things being put out for children. There's so much more freedom in children's novels.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

See, that's what makes posting these lists interesting. I've never heard of The Conjurer's Box!

I don't really like fantasy, with a few exceptions, but I know what you mean. Children escape into books and perhaps we spend our whole adult reading lives trying to recapture that experience.

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

It's from 1974. I don't know why it had such an impact on me. The Enchanted Castle also grabbed me, although I think it was the television programme that really caught my attention. I adored Diana Wynne Jones.

It's probably my age, but I do like 1970s children's books. I didn't read The Borribles when it came out, I got it a couple of years ago, and it's brilliant. You could call the Borribles a late 20th century version of the lost boys; they're children who live on the streets, having fallen into bad ways. Borribles never age, and live on what they can steal, and they all have pointy ears which they cover with woolly hats. If the police or social services catch a Borrible, they trim his or her ears and then the Borrible grows up. In the first book the Borribles go to take on the Rumbles - hairy creatures with vicious teeth and mad red eyes who live on Wimbledon Common.

KidLit List

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks for mentioning my post. I tried to answer your question on my blog, as I wanted to talk about it some more: http://geraniumcatsbookshelf.blogspot.com/2008/07/more-on-childrens-books.html

I had to google Bogwoppit, but I don't think it would have made it, as it seems to have been published in 1978; while doing that I found the first book missing off my list, Gobbolino the Witch's Cat! And I've never come across Ann Lawrence and The Conjuror's Box, so I'll have to look for that one. I'm making a note of suggestions so, if you have others, please leave a comment on my blog.

Re: KidLit List

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

As you see, your super list has got people going. Ah yes, Gobbolino! After my time but one of those I read aloud.

Re: KidLit List

[mimmimmim.livejournal.com]

Good grief! Have you seen how much secondhand copies of that are selling for? I still have mine. (I'm not selling it, no matter how much it's worth... I saved little 10p book stamps for weeks to be able to buy it!)

Re: KidLit List

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Really? I had no idea.

[lethe1]

Difficult question. My list would definitely be personal favourites, but should I include books I loved as a child but don't like as much any more as an adult (Enid Blyton, Harlekijntje*, even Mary Poppins and Narnia), or only books I loved then and now?

How about books I didn't read until I became an adult (Winnie the Pooh, The Wind in the Willows, and my favourite from Geranium Cat's list, The Mouse and His Child)?

And would I include Peter Pan, which I dislike too but which is so beautifully written and sits on my shelf in a gorgeous edition?

These are all hypothetical questions, really, because for me there is little point in making such a list in LJ. Many of my favourites were Dutch books or *translations from other, non-English languages, and so few of them seem to have been translated into English. Nobody would know what I was talking about.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

We really must be kindred spirits. I am always telling people how absolutely wonderful The Mouse and His Child is! I read it as an adult and was knocked out by it.

'Nobody would know what I was talking about.'
That sounds so sad! Surely there are Dutch people who share your interest?

[lethe1]

Haha, I didn't mean it to sound sad, but the truth is I have only two Dutchies on my friends list; one hardly ever posts and the other is not interested in children's literature.

To be fair, I also have an American LJ friend living in the Netherlands who is a great fan of our national treasure Annie M.G. Schmidt, but she wouldn't know the more obscure children's authors I grew up with. I did introduce her though to my favourite children's book ever, De tuinen van Dorr by Paul Biegel (http://www.nlpvf.nl/book/book2.php?Book=290), and I'm happy to say she loved it.

Always happy to meet fellow Russell Hoban fans! I've only read three of his books, but all three were wonderful: The Mouse and His Child, Turtle Diary, and The Marzipan Pig, a delightful picture book with illustrations by Quentin Blake.

Just last night I was searching online for more titles of his. He seems to have a very varied oeuvre.

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

Russell Hoban: yes, very varied, from picture books (Frances) to adult fiction. The adult novel which brought him to my attention was Riddley Walker, one of those books that grabs you by its total strangeness and brilliance. Not everyone liked it, though.

[lethe1]

I learned about Riddley Walker last night, but reading the book might be hard work for a non-native speaker like me. (When Trainspotting came out I wanted to read it, but I was put off by the phonetic Scots.)

[callmemadam.livejournal.com]

That might be true: the debased, post holocaust language is so strange that probably many native English speakers wouldn't get it. I've never had the slightest desire to read Trainspotting!

[lethe1]

Haha, I know what you mean! What was I thinking! It must have been all those critics gushing about how brilliant it was. I did see the film, but once was enough.