# Recommended children's books



## Ingélou

Like many people, I often read the same book over and over in childhood, and was passionate about certain authors. 
Which were your favourite reads? 
And would you / did you recommend them to your own children? Or grandchildren?
And would you/ do you still enjoy reading them now?

I'd love to know what you think of children's literature in general? Is there a place for 'classics'? Are modern children's books better or worse. And what do you think of 'the big authors' like J. K. Rowling, Roald Dahl, or Enid Blyton?

Or are you done with childish things?

Thanks in advance for any replies.


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## Klavierspieler

You mean like Dr. Seuss?

.................


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## Ingélou

Exactly; I remember when the books first arrived in British libraries; my little brother was taught to read on Dr Seuss.

Our father used to rule the family like a Victorian & his six children sat in a row quietly reading most evenings. A good job we were all avid readers. I have too many 'favourites' to mention but will devote this post to the girly books that I loved between the ages of nine and twelve.

I loved *Louisa May Alcott* - Little Women, Good Wives, Jo's Boys and so on.
Also *Susan Coolidge*, her trilogy 'What Katy Did', 'What Katy Did at School' & 'What Katy Did Next'.
*Enid Blyton*'s 'school' series at Mallory Towers & St Clare's.
*Mabel Esther Allan*'s career books - an example, 'The Ballet Family'.

I could still happily read these, each series through from beginning to end! 

(& would happily have recommended them to children or grandchildren, if only I'd been lucky enough to have any!)


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## schuberkovich

In my childhood, Harry Potter was the thing. The Deathly Hallows came out when I was about 10, and as soon as I got it I read it in one day. I still love the books - I think I have read each one about 4 times  , and I remember feeling genuinely sad after my 11th birthday when I didn't get a letter from Hogwarts. I knew it wasn't real - but for some reason I still cared.

Many people will say that Harry Potter is poorly written, overrated blah blah but the world Rowling creates is just so absorbing and _cosy_, that I'm not surprised that many children (including me) become obsessed. Reading the books when I'm older is rewarding for the nostalgia, the familiarity, but also for getting more from the books. They are aimed at younger children, but the humour and messages in the books can be appreciated by more mature people too. So I am definitely a fan, and if I have children one day would recommend the series.

I also love(d) Roald Dahl. My favourite was always Mathilda (even though boys are all supposed to like Danny the Champion of the World) the most. My older brother for his 8th birthday I think got given a box of all the main Dahl children's books, and after a while I began devouring them too. The stories are so colourful and appealing to children. I haven't read one for years, but I would definitely recommend them.

I read a load of other children's books when I was younger, but none of them captivated me as much as the Harry Potter series and some by Darren Shan and Anthony Horowitz. I began reading adult fiction much sooner than my friends, as most of the stuff for my age range just seemed naff and "trying too hard".

I still read new children's books occasionally - on a whim I bought the first Hunger Games book and found it thoroughly engrossing, and soon finished the next two.

I didn't read many of the older books (Just William, Biggles, Famous Five) - they just struck me as a bit old-fashioned, and I was never really that interested in the classic view of "boysy stuff".

I think there is a place for children's classics, which is evident in the popularity of Roald Dahl. However, it seems to me that a lot of the children's books nowadays are all based on gadgets and technology, so aren't as likely to have lasting appeal. But at the end of the day, if lots of children still like them, then there's no reason for them to be forgotten. I can definitely imagine Harry Potter being read in 80 years time.


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## Lunasong

My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George was my favorite as a child. 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Side_of_the_Mountain
I very much wanted to live in the woods like Sam.

As a young teen reader about 10 years ago, my younger son was into a series called Warriors, which is about feral cats.
http://www.warriorcats.com/


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## GreenMamba

The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
Dogsbody by Diana Wynne Jones

One of my peeves is that people nowadays seem to think that children's books have to have a positive message. Screw that. They can have no message as long as they are good.


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## Ukko

James Oliver Curwood - a series of stories located in the Yukon and neighboring Alaska. Two of the protagonists are sled dogs, Kazan and his son Baree.

Edgar Rice Burroughs - the Tarzan books and the John Carter books. The Tarzan stories were a bit of a challenge for a 10 y.o., because the two story lines were in big chunks, hard to pick up again.

The Mother West Wind stories, early reading and I don't remember the author's name; she was a fine story teller. Peter Rabbit and Bowser the Hound... .


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## Guest

My son (the white tiger cub in my avatar) just turned seven. He devoured the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series a few months ago. I guess he enjoyed reading about life as a middle-schooler. We've been reading other books but none have grabbed him in quite the same way.

We'll have to check out Danny King of the World and Phantom Tollbooth. Not sure I've read those yet!


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## PetrB

I enjoy children's books, and do read the occasional one still.

I don't know how many other American boys of my generation were given the Enid Blyton "adventure" series, i.e. _"The Castle, or Island, etc. of Adventure_. (The more common two boys have an adventure American series was / is _The Hardy Boys_.) I recall not figuring out until later the British English, i.e. "torch" was a flashlight, and that those boys were drinking a soft drink (ginger beer) and not alcohol, so those boys were walking around with flaming torches and drinking booze -- too, I assumed the author was female  ... and they are pretty awful, not a woman in even passing mention, and when the boys got to a certain level of danger, always, an adult male showed up to their rescue. Those Blyton books are now considered downright misogynist and lame. 
I finally read one of _The Hardy Boys_ series (not at all bad), within the last few years, my nephew having picked up a copy of one of them he recalled having read when young, Lol.

Brit Traditional, or at least Brit from my childhood, early teens: 
Milne ~ The two Winnie the Pooh books.
Carroll ~ _Through the looking glass._
Barry ~ Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens (seriously dark
Conan Doyle ~ _Sherlock Holmes -- complete stories_. (need no press, still selling themselves 
Rider Haggard ~ _King Soloman's Mines / She._
John Galsworthy's _Forsyte Saga_ somehow came my way along with the Conan Doyle, and I read all three books with great fascination.
_Gulliver's travels_, again all three stories, in an edition with black and white engravings. 
_Withering Heights_, in an edition with nearly expressionist wood-block print illustrations -- I was properly enthralled and appropriately spooked 
Someplace in there, _The Borrowers_ (all four? books), was devoured.
In my early teens, _The Hobbit_, given me in by an English teacher whose daughter had 'discovered' it during a semester at Oxford just prior its general American release. That I read several times, and I suppose inevitably, read the ponderous Lord of the Rings, which I then and now think 'ponderous' more than wondrous.
_The Chronicles of Narnia_ (later, along with Ray Bradbury short stories, I discovered Lewis' _Perelandra_ sci-fi books.)
I recall one or more edited / bowdlerized versions of the 1001 nights, i.e. Scheherazade, and some Hans Christian Anderson (my God, they're all so dark!

_Homer Price,_by author and illustrator Robert McCloskey, was but a bit more than one decade old when I first read it, and looking it up, I find it is still one of those now on the 'Classics.' list. Homer is middle town middle America, with a cast of townspeople and neighbors which are near surreal odd: the characters are well-drawn, the adventures / misadventures fun, often in the realm of fantastic fiction.

_Huck Finn_ while I couldn't get much into Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn had me "right in" right away.

_Make way for Ducklings_, a children's book also by McCloskey... (mother duck and ducklings safely negotiate Manhattan and take up residence in Central Park  ...and _Paddle to the Sea_ (hand carved solid wood model canoe with model Amerind paddler journeys through the great lakes, a geography lesson), are two picture-books from my very early childhood, and two other now certified classics with which I grew up. 
I also remember an illustrated book for the very young, _Snorri the Seal_, about a seal pup, Norway / Scandanavia, ice floes and the Northern Lights 

In earlier childhood I had my share of "picture books," while not much later, books with mainly text and a few black and white engravings, already classic or vintage, are what I recall: Both books of _Winnie the Pooh_ had the text and a few engravings by Shepard -- ditto _Through the looking glass, or Alice's adventures in Wonderland,_ and _Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens_(that dark one .

Roald Dahl I came to later and is a fantastic writer.

J.K. Rowling, meh. Read I think two Harry Potter to see what the rage was, find them fun while not so well-written: currently, electronic media and video are so dominant, I have to agree with the big plus factor that the Rowling books are hugely responsible for a generation who barely read books discovering reading can be exciting / engaging.

_A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket_ seems to have captured a generation and will probably later be part of their well-remembered youthful reading... I had a glance, they're quite fun.

For "the young reader," _A Long Way From Chicago_," by Richard Peck. I read it with delight, and did not feel for one moment deprived of content or vocabulary, which is often the case in those books directed at the tween reader market (Roald Dahl also transcends that age / vocabulary limitation -- part of why he is so good.) _A Long Way From Chicago_ is a "novel in stories," (or a short story cycle). The second book with some of the same characters is _A Year Down Under_. I found them fully engaging.

P.s. How could I forget the first _Babar book_, or _The little Prince?_ (because, you, there are dozens more like that residing in slowly dimming brain cells 
and oh, Yes! I had a copy of _Little Black *****_ and I wonder, if in mint condition, what the hey that would be worth now


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## aleazk

It always struck me as singular the fact that books like Gulliver's travels or the Holmes series are often considered "for children". In the time it was written and published, Gulliver's travels was a mordacious satire of the society (Swift was a politician and was known for his political pamphlets, always with acid satirical remarks). Fortunately I read that book as an adolescent and I greatly enjoyed Swift's irony.


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## PetrB

aleazk said:


> It always struck me as singular the fact that books like Gulliver's travels or the Holmes series are often considered "for children". In the time it was written and published, Gulliver's travels was a mordacious satire of the society (Swift was a politician and was known for his political pamphlets, always with acid satirical remarks). Fortunately I read that book as an adolescent and I greatly enjoyed Swift's irony.


Swift's Lilliput, i.e. the first third of Gulliver's travels, is usually what is pitched to children.

I grew up in a house where Gulliver's travels -- complete and with engraved illustrations, and other nice editions with engravings, woodblock illustrations, etc (Wuthering Heights) were sitting on the shelves, and was brought up to enjoy reading. I found those 'as I was ready for them' I suppose. Nice to grow up with those sorts of things about the house, as it were.

I received the Sherlock Holmes collection as an eighth grader, or freshman in high school, one winter when I had a severe inner ear infection, and was housebound for weeks... developing a case of cabin fever, i.e. stir crazy, and with music out of the question, I received a stack of books, Sherlock Holmes and The Forsyte Saga among them....

So, I blame my parents for all of it


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## aleazk

PetrB said:


> Swift's Lilliput, i.e. the first third of Gulliver's travels, is usually what is pitched to children.
> 
> I grew up in a house where Gulliver's travels -- complete and with engraved illustrations, and other nice editions with engravings, woodblock illustrations, etc (Wuthering Heights) were sitting on the shelves, and was brought up to enjoy reading. I found those 'as I was ready for them' I suppose. Nice to grow up with those sorts of things about the house, as it were.
> 
> I received the Sherlock Holmes collection as an eighth grader, or freshman in high school, one winter when I had a severe inner ear infection, and was housebound for weeks... developing a case of cabin fever, i.e. stir crazy, and with music out of the question, I received a stack of books, Sherlock Holmes and The Forsyte Saga among them....
> 
> So, I blame my parents for all of it


... I just have a cheap paperback edition.


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## Ondine

Esopo, Fedro and Samaniego's fables from my grandmother. I remember that big book with outstanding beautiful illustrations with animals showing human traits. There I learn to trigger my imagination. 

Hundreds of cartoons or 'comics' like the Donald Duck, Little Lulu, Micky Mouse and Daisy -and the like- from my dad.

Also my dad used to buy many illustrated encyclopaedias and dictionaries with which I spent hours looking at those.

I remember Hans Christian Andersen's tales from my mother as well as 'Le Petit Prince' which was one of my favourite ones and many tales that were made into movies by Disney, but I remember enjoying a lot more reading them. 

Another one was Selma Lagerlof's 'The Wonderful Adventures of Niels'. After that book that I read several times I ask for a goose as a pet and I got it. I loved my goose and I named it 'Okka'.

These are the recollections of what I used to read frequently during my childhood. 

The high school is another story.


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## Ravndal

schuberkovich said:


> *In my childhood, Harry Potter was the thing. The Deathly Hallows came out when I was about 10, and as soon as I got it I read it in one day. I still love the books - I think I have read each one about 4 times  , and I remember feeling genuinely sad after my 11th birthday when I didn't get a letter from Hogwarts. I knew it wasn't real - but for some reason I still cared.
> 
> Many people will say that Harry Potter is poorly written, overrated blah blah but the world Rowling creates is just so absorbing and cosy, that I'm not surprised that many children (including me) become obsessed. Reading the books when I'm older is rewarding for the nostalgia, the familiarity, but also for getting more from the books. They are aimed at younger children, but the humour and messages in the books can be appreciated by more mature people too. So I am definitely a fan, and if I have children one day would recommend the series.
> *
> I also love(d) Roald Dahl. My favourite was always Mathilda (even though boys are all supposed to like Danny the Champion of the World) the most. My older brother for his 8th birthday I think got given a box of all the main Dahl children's books, and after a while I began devouring them too. The stories are so colourful and appealing to children. I haven't read one for years, but I would definitely recommend them.
> 
> I read a load of other children's books when I was younger, but none of them captivated me as much as the Harry Potter series and some by Darren Shan and Anthony Horowitz. I began reading adult fiction much sooner than my friends, as most of the stuff for my age range just seemed naff and "trying too hard".
> 
> I still read new children's books occasionally - on a whim I bought the first Hunger Games book and found it thoroughly engrossing, and soon finished the next two.
> 
> I didn't read many of the older books (Just William, Biggles, Famous Five) - they just struck me as a bit old-fashioned, and I was never really that interested in the classic view of "boysy stuff".
> 
> I think there is a place for children's classics, which is evident in the popularity of Roald Dahl. However, it seems to me that a lot of the children's books nowadays are all based on gadgets and technology, so aren't as likely to have lasting appeal. But at the end of the day, if lots of children still like them, then there's no reason for them to be forgotten. I can definitely imagine Harry Potter being read in 80 years time.


*Yes.*

I have never enjoyed something as much as the harry potter series. A nice little escape from reality!  I read them all and discover something new in them once in a while.


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## Vaneyes

Proceed from E.B. White to the short stories of Ray Bradbury and Flannery O'Connor. :tiphat:


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## elgar's ghost

Pyewacket by Rosemary Weir. It's a story about a street called Pig(?) Lane which has 7 dwellings ranging from a salubrious town house (no. 1) at one end down to a near-derelict hovel (no. 7) at the other. Each household has a cat who are all friends despite the differing social backgrounds - Pyewacket, who resides at no. 7, is the grizzled one-eared/one-eyed leader of the gang. The street where they live is under threat from unscrupulous property developers and the cats show collective resourcefulness to seize the day and take over their patch, even at one point arranging an amnesty with the rodents in a classic case of uniting against a common enemy. 

I haven't seen this book since about 1970 but I remember how avidly I read it. Nice illustrations as I recall, too. I guess there are comparisons to be made with Watership Down (although Pyewacket was written first) and Animal Farm seeing the creatures to a large degree have to take charge of their own destiny but although there is a serious side it doesn't have the darker elements of the other two.


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## Ingélou

My favourite books for the under-sixes:

*Beatrix Potter *- especially 'Squirrel Nutkin' with its Lakeland pictures; as a 'ginger', I've always identified with red squirrels!

*Ladybird Books*: especially Ginger's Adventures (a naughty puppy runs away home) & Bob Bushtail (another red squirrel!).

*Alison Uttley *- Little Grey Rabbit; again, charming illustrations; my favourite is 'Grey Rabbit and the Weasels' where she's kidnapped to be a skivvy and rescued by the Owl. The wicked weasels live in a den behind some sinister foxgloves. Also her Sam Pig books, full of country lore. But when I read Sam again a few years back, I was seriously underwhelmed.

*Helen Bannerman* - Little Black ***** & Little Black Mingo. The plots, pictures & jokes were fascinating - the tiger wearing slippers on his ears & the angry tigers whirling round a tree till they turn into ghee & are made into pancakes. The author was married to an Edwardian doctor in India and not a racist - but I agree with taking her books off the shelf for children. Her major crime, in my view, was mixing an African/Indian background, as if all brown-skinned people can be lumped together.

*Gwynneth Rae* - the Mary Plain books, about a naughty bear cub that lives in a zoo in Berne & has a keeper called 'The Owl Man' (he wears spectacles); and the same author's 'Teddy Robinson' books.

*Dorothy Edwards* - My Naughty Little Sister. I *had* one!


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## Vesteralen

Hilltroll72 said:


> The Mother West Wind stories, early reading and I don't remember the author's name; she was a fine story teller. Peter Rabbit and Bowser the Hound... .


The beginning of lifetime of collecting for me..Thornton W Burgess. I actually wrote him a fan letter when I was little and got a response. He wrote several different series of animal books - Mother West Wind / The Bedtime Story Books / The Green Meadow Series / The Smiling Pool Series, etc etc

Dover Publications in the US still prints most of them in paperback, I believe.


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## Taggart

I read voraciously as a child (still do). My favourites go all over the place.

I got heavily into Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons - absolutely excellent.

I read a lot of sci-fi including the delightfully trashy Kemlo series and the much better Madeleine L'Engle especially the "Wrinkle in Time". I also read some of the early Heinlein like "Have Space Suit will Travel" or "Farmer in the Sky". Another local writer was Angus McVicar - best remembered for the 1950s radio serial the Lost Planet - he wrote a range of juvenile sci fi which also appeared on BBC Scotland radio.

One that got going when I was in my teens was Alan Garner - Elidor, The Wierdstone of Brisingamen and of course the Owl Service, which was also an excellent TV serial in the 1960's.

Then of course we have C S Lewis and Tolkien - the whole Narnia and Middle Earth thing. Again, not to everyone's taste but absolutely engrossing.


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## Vesteralen

After the Thornton W Burgess books, I went on to the afore-mentioned *Hardy Boys* books and the *Black Stallion *books by Walter Farley. The latter series I would still recommend today.

(By the way, Ingenue, I still remember a book containing "Little Black *****" that was read to me many times when I was a kid)

Oddly enough, I didn't read any of these books to my own children when they were little.

Their favorites were storybooks like "Julius", "But No Elephants", the "Rum Rum Pum" book, etc.

Later they got into *Babar*, and even later into *The Boxcar Children *(probably inspired by Britain's _The Railway Children_)


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## Vesteralen

In more recent years, I've made a bit of an informal study of childrens' literature from the nineteenth century to the present. With resources like Gutenberg and publishing houses like Dodo Press and others, you can access a lot of material that local libraries have discarded long ago.

In general, I find boys' fiction much less interesting than that written for girls. Boys stories tend to be about _things_ (like gadgets and inventions) and thus seem to date even more. Girls' stories are often more about people and relationships and are generally much more engaging.

I wouldn't mind sharing some of the finds I've made if you're interested.


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## Ingélou

I'd love to hear about your finds. That would be great, Vesteralen - thank you! 

I didn't read many 'boys' books' as a child, but I did find a couple of anarchic boys' school books at a jumble sale when I was grown up. Bertram Smith wrote '*TOTTY* - the Truth about Ten Mysterious Terms' & '*A PERFECT GENIUS* - the Further Escapades of Totty' in 1908 and 1909, and they are wonderfully inventive and funny. The 'debunking boys' school book' probably started with '*Vice Versa'* by F. Anstey (1882), which I read, again, as an adult. Taggart likes Kipling's 'Stalky & Co' but for me it's a bit savage, though 'good in parts'.


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## Vesteralen

I'll have to look for the Bertram Smith books. For some reason, I never found a boys book that I really liked other than the Hardy Boys - a that was a long time ago (I doubt I'd find them very engaging now) and The Black Stallion books (which as I said, were very good).

Starting with the earliest:

*Elizabeth Stuart Phelps *- 1866 - Gypsy Breynton & Gypsy's Cousin Joy (plus two later ones I have not read) - Gypsy is a pretty engaging character - a tomboy who has to learn several lessons in life from her experiences. The first book is a little overly episodic and didactic for modern tastes, but the second book, about her cousin, is more like a complete story and involves a rather interesting change of perspective as Gypsy goes from outright dislike to total empathy for Joy. Some very sentimental parts, but more intelligent than you might expect.

Both books teach without being too preachy and they contain beautiful descriptions of the landscape of childhood.


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## Vesteralen

*Janet Aldridge *- 1913 - The Meadow Brook Girls Under Canvas - Title seems kind of ludicrous now, but it's a story about camping. There were three more books in this series that I have not read. I'd like to read them, though, because, despite what it may sound like, this was one of the best nice-girl / nasty-girl plots I've read. My written description of this book is _Corny but cute tale of four friends who go to an outdoor camping site and earn merit beads for accomplishments. Story is moved along by conflict between one of the girls and a bitter and nasty girl she meets at camp who becomes her implacable foe._ About sums it up.

*E A Gillie *- 1915 - Barbara in Brittany. This was actually more a book for young women than for children, because the heroine and her aunt both end up getting married in the end. Here's my written description on this one: _Amusingly level-headed young girl goes to France with her curmudgeonly aunt and proceeds to involve herself in helping other people out of danger. Aunt and niece end up marrying a father and son from America._ Other books by Gillie are harder to find than this one, but I'd like to read more.


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## Klavierspieler

PetrB said:


> Milne ~ The two Winnie the Pooh books.


Yes! I loved and love those books!


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## DavidA

The best children's books to e are the CS Lewis Narnia books. Works of absolute genius.

There is also a book called The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay.


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## MagneticGhost

I second a lot if what others have mentioned.
May I add....

*John Christopher* One of my favourite authors growing up. He was a master of sci-fi for kids. The Tripods trilogy, The Prince-in-Waiting Trilogy are both essential. His masterpiece though was Empty World in which a virus killed off all the adults. Thought provoking and bleak but compulsive reading.

*Philippa Pearce* - Tom's Midnight Garden. Read it so many times the book fell to bits. Have read it to my daughter.

Also adored Enid Blytons Faraway Tree books amongst others.
And anything by Raymond Briggs


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## Ingélou

I love all of these, MagneticGhost. You are a man/woman/ghost of taste!


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## Huilunsoittaja

This book:










What made this book so funny was all the bad things it was promoting, for example eating unhealthy foods (chocolate is its own food group), and doing foolish things like cooking a newspaper, or sweeping a pit into a dirt floor (the dirt just won't go away!), but that's what made it hilarious. It's almost grown-up humor, you could imagine Dragon is actually just being drunk when he's doing the stuff he does, there wouldn't be a difference in behavior. :lol: If you want a good laugh, it's this book.


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## Mesa

A few favourites as a nipper...


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## SiegendesLicht

Two of my childhood favorites were *Astrid Lindgren* and *H.C. Andersen*, and a lot of their stories are anything but positive, they often end with the death of the main character. One of Lindgren's books, "Brothers Lionheart", was written partly with the purpose of helping children come to terms with the idea of death and mortality. But they are all beautiful and touching, and I still enjoy them a lot as an adult and am definitely going to read them to my children.

*Jack London* and *Mark Twain* - I took my first geography lessons from them, learning about places like Alaska, Hawaii and the Mississippi. Back then those names sounded almost magical, unreal.

Professor *Tolkien* has been my hero since the day I spent all my meagre savings on four books - the Middle-Earth Trilogy and his biography, written by Humphrey Carpenter, and learned the story of an Oxford professor with a great passion for languages, talented enough to raise a whole world out of that passion. And also of a man who was part English, part German, and never lost love and pride for both sides of this family tree, even in the trenches of WWI.

And then there is the Professor's best friend, *C.S. Lewis*, a Wagnerian and another great storyteller (the difference between the two is that Lewis was a storyteller, while Tolkien was a myth-maker) with his Narnia Chronicles. Back in the times when I was far more religious than now, I loved his philosophical/theological works as well.

_Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone_ was the very first book I have ever read in English as a young teenager and enjoyed it a whole lot, just like all the other Harry Potter books a bit later.

Those are the first ones that come to mind, when I think of more I will post them too.


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## jani

When i was a child these books were the ones i enjoyed reading









I know that its not a "real book" but i really enjoyed reading these.


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## Huilunsoittaja

jani said:


> I know that its not a "real book" but i really enjoyed reading these.


My mom read that when she was little!! Swedish version that is, she is a Finland-Swede.


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## Cheyenne

I always particularly liked a short story by J.D. Salinger caled _For Esmé - With Love and Squalor_. I rarely read anything in my youth, but that one I remember fondly..


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## Vesteralen

We watched the BBC production of *The Young Visiters* (sic) last night. I'm not sure how faithful the film was to the book written by the nine year old Daisy Ashton in 1890 (the "behind the scenes" segment claimed it was very accurate). But, I feel the need to get a copy of the book and find out for myself.


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## peeyaj

My favorite children's writer is Roald Dahl. What fantastic and humorous books he wrote!


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## SiegendesLicht

I must admit I have only now learned about Roald Dahl being a children's writer. Before I knew him as an author of short stories with a delightfully dark and morbid sense of humor.


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## Ingélou

Vesteralen said:


> We watched the BBC production of *The Young Visiters* (sic) last night. I'm not sure how faithful the film was to the book written by the nine year old Daisy Ashton in 1890 (the "behind the scenes" segment claimed it was very accurate). But, I feel the need to get a copy of the book and find out for myself.
> 
> View attachment 22341


I was introduced to 'The Young Visiters' by my English teacher from when I was 14. I just love it. I didn't see the one last night but a BBC production that I saw about 10 years ago was very good. It's a delicious book. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, Vesteralen.


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## Vesteralen

Ingenue said:


> I was introduced to 'The Young Visiters' by my English teacher from when I was 14. I just love it. I didn't see the one last night but a BBC production that I saw about 10 years ago was very good. It's a delicious book. I'm sure you'll enjoy it, Vesteralen.


I'm sure it was the same production. We got the DVD out of the library. The pre-House Hugh Laurie is a favorite of ours.


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## Taggart

Slightly anarchic school stories - not surprising considering it's the same guy as did St Trinians










Molesworth is on wiki and wikiquotes. As this *is *a Classical Music site, I think this is worth quoting:

"His piece "Fairy Bells" on the skool piano will never be forgoten by those who hav heard it."


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## Vesteralen

We used to really enjoy this wordless story book with our kids. We could invent our own words to the charming pictures.


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## Tristan

I read a _lot_ when I was younger; sometimes I wish I could still read as much as I did >.<

*J. K. Rowling* - The _Harry Potter_ series was one of my favorites; being born in '96, I definitely grew up with it. I read that series twice (and of course have seen all of the movies multiple times).
*Gertrude Chandler Warner* - I definitely remember reading as many _Boxcar Children_ books as I could when I was in early elementary school.
*Roald Dahl* - When I was in elementary school, a lot of my teachers read these books out loud. I got to liking them and read many of them myself. I remember _The Witches_ being one that I especially liked. 
*C. S. Lewis* - Started reading _The Chronicles of Narnia_ in 3rd grade and eventually completed the series. Still one of my favorite fantasy series. 
*Madaleine L'Engle* - I remember really liking _A Wrinkle in Time_ and its sequels.
*Ursula K. LeGuin* - There was one point when I was in 3rd grade when kids at the library were practically fighting over the _Catwings_ books. 
*Louis Sachar* - His quirky books about school-aged children like the _Wayside School_ series and _Holes_ were always popular with me.

As I got into middle school, my tastes changed a bit, but I started loving "young adult" fiction, like Eoin Colfer, Philip Pullman, Carl Hiaasen, and Jerry Spinelli.


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## Vesteralen

Not a childrens' book by any means, but a great book from 1930 for young adults - this was the first in a series by Harrison Bardwell consisting of *Roberta's Flying Courage*, *The Lurtiss Field Mystery*, and the two-parter *The Airplane Girl and the Mystery of Seal Island / The Airplane Girl and the Mystery Ship*.

They also have the advantage of being recently in reprint, so you don't have to go searching for first editions.

Roberta, by the way, was pretty resourceful. With the exception perhaps of the second volume, she didn't need any help to get out of trouble.


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## Taggart

I only met Ursula le Guin's Earthsea books as an adult but think they must be a little dark for children.

I also read the Hugh Walters books - Blast off at Woomera et al

Another one I came to as an adult is Robert O'Brien's "Mrs Frisby and the Rats of Nimh".

As you might suspect, I am an unadulterated Sci-Fi freak.


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## Vesteralen

Speaking of YA books - this series was pretty good. The third book in the series was published in 2011. I never read that one, but the first two Mary Quinn books were well done. A young Victorian spy, Mary goes undercover as a boy on a construction project in the second book (The Body at the Tower).

On her website, by the way, Ms Lee recommends a number of childrens' books. Check it out.

She says she just finally delivered the manuscript of the fourth novel in the series to her publisher in June of this year (after some time off for maternity).


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## JCarmel

I'm afraid that I'm never done with childish things...as you, Ingenue wondered in your opening remarks to what is an interesting thread.
Like PetrB, I was an Enid Blyton fan and loved pretty-well all she wrote like The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and The 'Island of Adventure' and the other books in that series. In fact, the mental images the latter evoked in my childlike mind have remained with all me all my life & I finally got to see what a Puffin colony...with it's networks of burrows...looks like last month, when as a birthday treat I went up to the Farne Islands & took a boat trip around the islands, landing on Inner Farne, for a good 'goggle' at the wild seabirds, the nesting places, eggs and chicks.

Have an 'Aaaaah!......on me...(.if I can successfully post a photo I took of an Arctic Tern chick?!)


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## Vesteralen

This series is not for children, and I'm not sure it could even be called YA, but it's about an eleven year old girl called Flavia de Luce







who is a budding chemist, a bit of a troublemaker and a solver of mysteries.

I love this series!


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## Pantheon

I was, and still am a great fan of the Moomins (a little Finnish magic!), Dr Seuss, The Wind in the Willows, books by Michael Morpurgo and Roald Dahl


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## joen_cph

A few that stand out in my memory, both due to their content and presented visual world -

Astrid Lindgren:"The Tomten"








Astrid Lindgren:"Do you know Pippi Longstocking?"








Kenneth Grahame:"The Wind in the Willows"








Some of the best Scandinavian children´s books by Astrid Lindgren and Ole Lund Kirkegaard seem to have been provided with modernized illustrations for their release abroad, including (originals here):

Ole Lund Kirkegard:"Gummi Tarzan" 








Astrid Lindgren:"Emil fra Lønneberg"


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## Huilunsoittaja

OH MAN! I know almost everything you posted there, joen-cph!! My mom introduced me to those characters, especially Emil and Pippi Long-Stockings. I watched TV show versions of those stories, unfortunately I don't speak Swedish, but I understood what was going on for the most part.


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## Vesteralen

Another very good YA writer who wrote from the late 40's through the late 80's. I happen to like this early book of hers from 1948 best of all. It had a real sense of place and was an engrossing story as well.


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## Guest

Too lazy to read through this whole thread. But these are the ones that I enjoyed, either when I was young, or later on.

Harry Potter - These aren't masterpieces of English literature, but as far as being enjoyable, and captivating, they are excellent. There is plenty of time for reading stimulating Western literature masterpieces, but these books serve the important initial step of getting kids excited about reading. That is an important thing. If you start them with boring stuff, they won't get into reading.

The Chronicles of Narnia - I read this entire series when I was in 5th grade, over the course of a summer. This, for me, was like Harry Potter - it got me excited about reading. I enjoyed finishing each novel and going to get the next, then upset when it was all done.

The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander - I don't remember a lot of details about this series, but I remember I absolutely loved it when I was younger. They made a Disney movie out of one of them - The Black Cauldron. The movie was fairly forgettable, but the series was very good. Good fantasy series for kids.

I also went through a period when I was very much into the Hardy Boys. None in particular to recommend, and I don't know how well they age, but worth a try.

I will also recommend Tolkien - the Hobbit, and possibly even the Lord of the Rings.


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## Zabirilog

Well, is Lotr actually children's book? I can't read it without getting nightmares. (Lol!!!) 
Even Donald Duck's maybe not a book, they're fantastic and in Finland many kids learn how to read through Donald.


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## Ingélou

An interesting point, Zabirilog - though kids can be frightened when you least expect it. I remember being terrified after reading about how Alison Uttley's innocent Sam Pig meets a *bogart*.  Yet there's also a market for children's stories that are *just scary enough*.

*Folk tales* were for adults originally but have come to be children's tales. The Grimms' Fairy Tales are enough to give anyone nightmares, and remember, in the original Red Riding Hood, the wolf *eats* the grandmother. Charles Dickens was scared to death as a child by his nanny, who told him stories of how *Captain Murderer* married wife after wife, killed them, and cooked them in pies. However, his childhood nightmares turned out useful later, in producing some mesmerising scenes of horror in his novels!

*Though they may have helped cause his death. Dickens, against explicit doctor's orders, went on including 'the clubbing of Nancy to death' from Oliver Twist in his public readings, giving himself the horrors & high blood pressure into the bargain.


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## Taggart

Is Gulliver's Travels a children's book? Probably not, but it gets pushed at children because it's a good story. LOTR likewise is seen as teenage fantasy - ooh those awful orcs is one critique. But many people see it as an excellent read.

The Hobbit is definitely seen as a children's book but still has some delightfully spooky moments. Isn't that part of what we read for- the thrill of the unexpected - even if it does lead to night terrors?


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## Katie

Given the choice, I'll always rely on a subject matter expert...

"Sarah Palin's Reading List: Former Alaska Governor Shares Her Favorites 
The Huffington Post Nick Wing 
First Posted: 12/09/10 12:55 PM ET Updated: 05/25/11 07:20 PM ET"


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## georgedelorean

Though I don't read those anymore, I had several from when I was a kid: Where the Wild Things Are, Polar Express, Big Joe's Trailer Truck, any of the Berenstain Bears, George and Martha, almost anything from Dr. Seuss, The Happy Prince, The Fantastic Feats of Dr. Boox, The Boxcar Children, and Encyclopedia Brown are the ones that come to mind off the top of my head.


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## Sonata

The Amelia Bedelia books are great fun; both my kids enjoy that series (they are aged 5 & 7)
They are just getting into Roald Dahl, he was a favorite of mine as a child and I'm really enjoying re-exploring him with the kids. I read James and the Giant Peach with my son and George's Marvelous Medicine with both kids; there is a 15 (or 12, I don't recall) book set I found online that I ordered for Christmas

The Velveteen Rabbit was always a favorite when I was a child. The Little House on the Prairie books were my first chapter books.

Great thread! I'll come up with more when I'm less tired. I love books, and I'm having a great time going through children's books as my own kids grow


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## Annied

I collected a complete set of Sue Barton books by Helen Bore Doylston as a child and still find them very readable. I used to save threepences (which gives away my age), until I had enough to buy another. I also loved the "Chalet School" books by Elinor M Brent Dyer, although I find them quite hard to read as an adult. Even so, I was excited to discover that Pertisau, the village which inspired her to begin writing them and where the early books were based, was only about 30 miles from my home in Bavaria. My favourite books by Enid Blyton were always "The Faraway Tree" ones. A few years ago I picked up copies at a book sale, thoroughly enjoyed them and can only marvel at her imagination.

Does anyone else remember the "Twins" books that described childrens' lives in other countries? They're ones that also stand out in my memory.


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## Ingélou

Annied said:


> I collected a complete set of Sue Barton books by Helen Bore Doylston as a child and still find them very readable. I used to save threepences (which gives away my age), until I had enough to buy another. I also loved the "Chalet School" books by Elinor M Brent Dyer, although I find them quite hard to read as an adult. Even so, I was excited to discover that Pertisau, the village which inspired her to begin writing them and where the early books were based, was only about 30 miles from my home in Bavaria. My favourite books by Enid Blyton were always "The Faraway Tree" ones. A few years ago I picked up copies at a book sale, thoroughly enjoyed them and can only marvel at her imagination.
> 
> Does anyone else remember the "Twins" books that described childrens' lives in other countries? They're ones that also stand out in my memory.


Yes, I remember the twins books. They were often in York Children's Library and I'd borrow them and enjoy them. I even remember reading one in my first year at secondary school, when you could pick a book from the school library. But I don't remember much about any of them - except that The Chinese Twins did inform me about foot-binding.

Another series that was often in the Children's Library was The Young, as in The Young Mary Queen of Scots and The Young Elizabeth I. These were a good introduction to history and I did enjoy them.


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## TxllxT

While the Communist times in the Soviet Union after 1917 became particularly merciless to adults, Samuil Marshak created a paradise for children (& for himself) with his children's poems and literature. Every Russian child knows rhymes of Marshak by heart.


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## Ingélou

Ah, a trip down Memory Lane - when I was six, I broke my left tibia jumping from a low branch in a game suggested by my older brother. I was stuck at home for 3 months and remember this children's illustrated 'Heidi' being my mainstay. I'd reread the story and ponder the pictures for hours. Some of the illustrations can be seen if you follow the link.

https://picclick.co.uk/Heidi-Johann...GHhLJct_kPJz-9H0F17pBlL9Jy3nwt1w#&gid=1&pid=3

My aunt lived and worked in Geneva (and is still there, aged 94), so possibly this was a present from her. Lovely to see it again, anyhow!


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## Art Rock

Biggles (the whole series, 90 books or so) and Karl May's stories set in the Wild West, South America and the Orient were my reading delights in the mid sixties. Still have them - they are a part of my childhood, and I'd rather let them collect dust than get rid of them.


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## Ingélou

My two older brothers were fans of Biggles too, in the 1950s. 

And my younger brother was a fan of Dr Seuss! vvvv


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## Merl

As a young kid I was mesmerised by the Dr. Seuss books. The first one I borrowed from my local library was 'Green Eggs and Ham' followed by 'The Cat in the Hat' . The simple language, silly rhymes and strange illustrations caught my imagination. I still love them now and read them to my kids, when they were young, and the kids I have taught.


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## Allegro Con Brio

I am a firm believer in the idea that children are much smarter than we give them credit for, and that we should never give them books we wouldn't read ourselves. Here are a few that I loved when I was younger and which I still think are of great literary value:

Norton Juster - _The Phantom Tollbooth_ (heck, I _still_ read this)
Wilson Rawls - _Where the Red Fern Grows_
Louis Sachar - _Holes_
E.B. White - _Charlotte's Web_, _The Trumpet of the Swan_
Lewis Carroll - The Alice books
J.R.R. Tolkien - _The Hobbit_
C.S. Lewis - _The Chronicles of Narnia_
Natalie Babbitt - _Tuck Everlasting_, _The Search for Delicious_
Rodman Philbrick - _Freak the Mighty_
William Pene du Bois - _The Twenty-One Balloons_
Kathi Appelt - _The Underneath_
Vince Vawter - _Paperboy_
Clare Vanderpool - _Navigating Early_
Cornelia Funke - _Inkheart_
All books by Christopher Paul Curtis, Kate DiCamillo, Roald Dahl, E.L. Konigsburg, Robert Louis Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, and Jerry Spinelli.


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## Chilham

John Wyndham. Some of the best writing of any genre.


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## SixFootScowl

As a child, I stumbled upon this set at the library and loved it so much that decades later i got some of the books for my kids. 
There is *a whole series*. Here is book one:


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## Ingélou

I remember reading this as a child - Wiki says it was published in 1962 so I must have borrowed it from the library as soon as it came out. I loved it, as I've always been a Caledonophile* (my father was from Dundee) and always loved folk songs and fairy stories too.










The Seventh Swan by Nicholas Stuart Gray. He also wrote a successful stage play of the same name.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Speaking of Caledonophiles, what about this? 

__
https://www.reddit.com/r/starterpacks/comments/k8ev3m


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## SixFootScowl

There is a whole series of these Who is type books, maybe a hundred or more titles. I just read this one.


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