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Post by cheerypeabrain on Dec 1, 2010 18:59:57 GMT
K2 talking about Harry Potter got me thinking, what books do you remember enjoying as a child? and are there any modern childrens' authors skilled enough to capture your imagination as an adult? I quite enjoyed J K Rowling's books, but found them quite derivative, (having been an avid reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction for YEARS!) As a child I loved C S Lewis, I didn't really associate the Narnia books with religion as I was raised in an atheist household and it never crossed my mind....(my first encounter with religion of any kind being in school aged 5....) The Wind in the Willows (Kenneth Graham) was a book I enjoyed both as a child and as an adult.... I really enjoyed Alan Garner's books...T he Weirdstone of Brisinghamen and The Moon of Gomrath are still favourites... www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/g/alan-garner/weirdstone-of-brisingamen.htmAnother favourite was The Weathermonger by Peter Dickinson... excellent book. www.peterdickinson.com/Excerpts.html#WeathermongerI read The Hobbit and LOTR as an 11-12 year old...preferring former A modern series of childrens' books that I would reccommend are the ' His Dark Materials' trilogy by Philip Pullman...really top quality writing (far superior to HP imo) excellent books... Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass are wonderful books. www.philip-pullman.com/Another series of books that my OH and I have enjoyed are the Triskelion books by Will Peterson.... www.triskellionadventure.com/so....what did you enjoy reading as a child?
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 1, 2010 19:37:52 GMT
I have lost track of how many times I've read Through the Looking Glass, both as a child and an adult. Nothing against Alice in Wonderland, it's just that I've always had a copy of Looking Glass with delicately tinted Tenniel illustrations. It was issued the same year I was born, and is the copy I've always read. Another series that kept its enchantment for me was The Princess and Curdie / The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald. I looked it up just now, and The Princess and Curdie can be read online: www.pagebypagebooks.com/George_MacDonald/The_Princess_and_Curdie/What is interesting is that I don't remember the book being that elaborately written. Probably if I'd never seen it before, I would deem it too fussy for a child to like. But not only did I love it, I was completely carried away by the plot and the setting, to the point I can remember some of the scenes to this day, as though I'd viewed them in a movie. Also loved Heidi, which is the first non-picture book I ever read. I read it multiple times, crying furiously each time her grandfather died. For a picture book, nothing will ever top The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies. My brother and I used to read this together, making up stories about the elves on the front cover and turning to the book each time with great anticipation. The Garth Williams illustrations live on in my mind -- the girl tripping out of her wooden clogs and cream puffs spill from her tray and her silver slippers are revealed -- ahhhhhh. Others: Bobbsey Twins lots of Enid Blyton books Nancy Drew
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Post by bjd on Dec 1, 2010 19:55:20 GMT
As a kid I spent a lot of time going to the library and always read a lot. Oddly, I didn't remember most of what I read until i got to the end of Bixa's post -- I also read The Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew, fairy tales (all those colour books: red, blue, green, etc). One name that stays is The Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. The Narnia books too I really enjoyed, and like Cheery, I didn't realize they had any religious overtones until I read them to my own children. I also remember liking Anne of Green Gables, Heidi and other classic kids' books. The names are coming back: The 5 Children and It by Edith Nesbit, There were probably more English books than American ones, although I remember reading a whole series of books from the library about American heroes/heroines. They were bound in orange covers and were about people like Julia Ward Howe!
Among more contemporary children's books I like and bought for my kids when they were small were of course CS Lewis's Narnia books, but also Graham Oakley's Church Cat books, which I think are great and still enjoy.
I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in high school but never made it past the first couple of pages of The Hobbit.
On a less serious note, I also read Classics Illustrated comic books and Mad magazine.
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Post by onlymark on Dec 1, 2010 20:40:11 GMT
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Post by ninchursanga on Aug 25, 2011 20:14:16 GMT
As a kid I absolutely loved Astrid Lindgren and read many of her books. The six Bullerby Children was one of my favourite, along with Karson from the Roof. Another of my all time favourites was 'the neverending story' and 'Momo' by Michael Ende.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 25, 2011 20:46:49 GMT
I actually have a lot of catching up to do with children's books because I missed so many of them as a child, and the good ones can be appreciated on so many more levels than just "children's entertainment," even the ones for very young children. I am still haunted by a book that I read when babysitting a friend's three kids in Strasbourg. It was for kids no more than 6 years old, but in pictures and with very few words, it told what it is like to be a refugee. First you see a peaceful African village with huts and children playing, but then the army (or the rebel force?) arrives. People run and hide, and the huts are burned down. The hero's father is taken away and is never seen again. The rest of the family walks a long way to a refugee camp with almost nothing, and they finally are told they can get on a plane. But they have to leave their little dog behind. Woof, woof, woof, he runs along the field as the plane takes off with the hero watching him. They arrive in a new country (France, I suppose) and are given a place to live and some other assistance. School starts and the hero makes new friends but plays basically the same games at recess that he always played. Life goes on, but he will never forget the wonderful little village that he had to leave. A story like that just bounces off the kids, but I had tears running down my face and I still get upset remembering that book.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 26, 2011 6:34:55 GMT
Kerouac - that story is far too sad for any child younger than 10 in my view. Imagine reading it just before bedtime with tears trickling down ones cheeks. That should unsettle any kid waiting for the Sandman! I bought my grandson a delighful little book in BHV last year. All in French about a snail. Sounds stupid when I can't speako Frencho but my son graduated with a good mark in school French so thought he may give it a go just for the sheer novelty of gettting a puzzled look on McNabs face ;D
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2011 17:45:06 GMT
Tod2, as I mentioned, the story just bounced off them. Things that we find horrifying do not affect young children the same way, especially real life tragedies.
I remember from early youth, though, that I was extremely affected (as were millions of other children) by The Velveteen Rabbit. No dead fathers or abandoned pets there -- just a crummy stuffed toy. And I am very much aware that on the same level, small children often cry when the parents get a new car -- the old car is a family member with stains and smells that have important stories.
Any of us could probably make a fortune by writing a children's book about the trauma of a new car and what happened to the old one.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 27, 2011 7:47:10 GMT
I have never heard of The Velveteen Rabbit - I also have never heard of children crying when parents get a new car?? Having said that, my grandson is absolutely ga-ga about his grandfather's bakkie ( small truck). He asks about it all the time and runs to our garages to see if it is parked - then points and squeels with delight at seeing it! (His parents have changed cars at least 5 times). Now at 3 years old he can point to my car and say its mine, and the same goes for his mothers car, and of course Pa's bakkie. Seems this is when they get attached to the mode of transport always taking them here and there, or is it something deeper?!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2011 14:47:30 GMT
The Velveteen Rabbit is considered to be an immortal classic in the United States, right up there with Winnie the Pooh and other such things.
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Post by tod2 on Aug 27, 2011 15:20:09 GMT
Goodness! I will look out for it but may decide against buying it ;D My son's favourite (and mine) was the Richard Scarry books. I liked the story about 'Flying down to Rio' with the python wrapped around the plane to stop it bursting - It felt like that when I flew from Miami to Rio and saw all the enormous suitcases some people took! (We experienced a lightning storm over the Amazon - I have never been so frightened in all my life and wished there was a python wrapped around our plane)
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Post by bixaorellana on Dec 16, 2011 16:16:00 GMT
Although the OP is about books we enjoyed as children, anybody with kids naturally thinks of what books those children liked & which ones we enjoyed reading to them. Tod, my son loved his Richard Scarry books, too. And they were fun for a grown-up to read with the child, with all the detail in the pictures. I just read that Russell Hoban died yesterday and felt a pang of sadness that such a huge and gentle intelligence has left this world. My first exposure to him was when my son was little and we discovered Frances the badger making her way through childhood and delighting human children along the way. Later I found his books for adults and became a staunch fan of his brilliant language and imagination. Washington Post obituaryWikipedia entry
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Post by joanne28 on Dec 16, 2011 19:43:55 GMT
I was very lucky in that my parents had me entered in a junior book of the month club. I read Heidi, Little Women, Black Beauty, The Peterkin Papers, The Wizard of Oz, a lot of Dickens (I got lost in Oliver Twist but I was only 8 when I first tried to read it). I always received books as presents - Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, The Heart of a Dog by Albert Payson Terhune. I remember reading King Arthur at the age of 8 or so. And I read the series books - Nancy Drew, The Bobbsey Twins, Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden. I read anything I could get my hands on - I was reading Pearl Buck at the age of 12 or so. I did read books that were over my head (amazing what you pick up when you reread something years later ). I'm very lucky in that I have most of my childhood books. I have of course read Narnia & The Hobbit & LOTR but those were in my teen years.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 28, 2013 17:54:07 GMT
I have always wanted to do a children's book. I am in the midst of collaborating with two artist friends of mine and I am writing the text. It evolves around my garden, most prominently the pond and the ecosystem surrounding (frogs, toads, skinks, and lizards). I am most excited about this project. We have a local publisher who is a friend, and he is willing to help us in this endeavor. I'm not looking to make a major profit from this but, as I mentioned, it is always something I have wanted to do.
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Post by htmb on Sept 28, 2013 18:06:02 GMT
Good for you, Casimira! That's really exciting. I hope the endeavor will prove to be very fulfilling for you in many different creative ways.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 29, 2013 13:52:45 GMT
So exciting, Casimira! You'll have a built-in avid audience at anyport for the progress of the project, & of course we'll all be eagerly awaiting publication.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 29, 2013 15:02:34 GMT
Thanks good people! Having 2 artists with great talent will most definitely make it an even more exciting project, particularly because neither artist have enormous egos and will make it such much more pleasurable.
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Post by rikita on Oct 17, 2013 19:47:57 GMT
what i read most, probably, was astrid lindgren. the first ever book i read was "pippi longstocking", my mom claims i did so before i even knew all of the letters of the alphabet. i also loved "mio, my son", "brothers lionheart", and especially "ronja the robbers daughter" and "kalle blomquist" ...
also liked "the neverending story" by michael ende ...
i liked reading all kinds of books about horses ...
and there was a phase where i read lots of books about poor children in latin america (like interviews and reports about children living in the streets or working as shoe cleaners or in mines or similar).
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2013 14:42:03 GMT
The Secret Garden was always a favorite of mine. Also, Maurice Maeterlinck's The Blue Bird is a perennial favorite. (It's actually a play). And, The Velveteen Rabbit. Charlotte's' Web and The Wind in the Willows
All classics.
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Post by bixaorellana on Oct 31, 2013 16:30:58 GMT
Reading Rikita's post was a real reminder for me that we grow up with different stories depending on our countries &/or languages. And, as discussed, different age groups might have different favorites. Betty, I never heard of The Blue Bird -- must look it up. children living in the streets or working as shoe cleaners or in mines This reminded me of something that I'd like help with, please. When I was a kid I had a novel, maybe a series, about a family of Cornish tin miners. That's mostly what I remember about it, but I think part of it involved their moving to the US(?). Years later, after moving to Mexico, I found out that it was immigrant Cornish miners who introduced soccer to the New World, in the town of Pachuca -- where they still eat pasties. Anyway, can anyone think what this book(s) might be?
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2013 18:10:29 GMT
I was haunted so much by "Tom's Midnight Garden" as a child that I ordered it from Amazon a couple of years ago to read it again. It didn't affect me as much, but it is still an excellent book.
When I started looking for the book since I didn't even know the author's name (Philippa Pearce -- it was published in 1958), I found out that it has actually been made in to a feature film, a TV movie, a stage play and a radio play over the years, so I must not be the only person who was affected by it.
I also discovered that the Japanese have elevated this book to cult status.
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Post by bixaorellana on Apr 22, 2015 1:08:45 GMT
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Post by patricklondon on Apr 22, 2015 6:13:26 GMT
Dearie me, I can't remember much about children's books when I was a child, but I must have had the usual diet - Pooh and Wind in the Willows. It was the 50s, so I also remember a hand-me-down book my older brother must have had: the title dates it straight away: "Bulgy the Barrage Balloon". Worzel Gummidge, of course. Mostly I remember as an older child wandering among the odd collection of Victorian books my parents inherited, among them Ivanhoe, which must have sparked off an interest in historical novels (Rosemary Sutcliffe's Eagle of the Ninth, and Geoffrey Trease's mediaeval stories). I'd probably find them insufferable now, but I also read all the way through Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series ("Better dead than duffers if not duffers won't drown. Father" - parenting, 1920s style), and Geoffrey Trease's "Black Banner" series, also set in the Lake District. Quite a lot were sparked by radio adaptations - I can still remember the haunting trumpet sound that opened The Eagle of the Ninth. And also "The Silver Sword" by Ian Seraillier, set in occupied Poland. My blog | My photos | My video clips"too literate to be spam"
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 20, 2016 17:30:49 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 26, 2016 16:30:29 GMT
Fabulous illustration there Bixa!!!
I just heard on NPR that some newly discovered stories by Beatrix Potter have surfaced.
Exciting news for both young and old.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 26, 2016 21:55:42 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2016 1:13:07 GMT
Aw shucks, it;s only one. But what the hey,better than none.
(Bixa, don't yo and Ms. Potter share a birthday? Seems to ring a bell in my adled brain).
I never did get around to seeing the bio-pic of her portrayed by Rennee Zelwinger. Something just kept made me stall. I think I didn't want my personal image of Potter tainted in some kind of way.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jan 27, 2016 1:17:03 GMT
Yes, Beatrix and I are exactly alike except for that talent and discipline thing!
Funny, I keep not seeing that bio-pic either. I think I started one time, but can't remember why I didn't continue watching.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 27, 2016 2:07:26 GMT
You're being much too hard on yourself Bixa.
I remember thinking that Zellwinger seemed a good choice to portray Potter but again, something kept me from seeing it.
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Post by gabriele on Apr 7, 2016 11:10:52 GMT
My mother read to us some evenings and since I was the youngest I often didn't know quite what the stories were about but I loved to listen to them anyway. I'm old enough (now) and when I was young we lived in an area where there was no tv reception so I listened to the radio, especially the serials...for children in the afternoon and then adults in the evening. But books! We had a series, My Book House, edited by a woman who wanted to expose children to good literature starting with nursery rhymes and simple stories, all the way up to nonfiction and biographies. The illustrations were wonderful! (our edition was from the 30's, perhaps a gift from our father's mother who had been the principal of a school way back when). The classic illustrators of the 20s and 30s made every story (especially the fairy and folk tales) magical. East of the Sun, West of the Moon; Baba Yaga; Snow White and Rose Red; stories from the Arabian Nights...they colored my imagination and while we were in a rather dull small town, I 'lived' in a different world. I loved the garments in the PRB illustrations and when I learned to sew well of course I made dresses reflecting my memories. I have continued to read children's stories and especially quality Young Adults. For those who still like fantasy, a favorite of mine is the Garth Nix (he's from Oz) series Sabriel, Lirael and Abhorsen. There's a younger series with each book based on the day of the week, I forget the name of that series. And someone who I dearly love (and reread some of his books every couple years) is Charles de Lint. He's Canadian and his stories take place in Canada and other lands not of this place and time.
I echo the votes for for the Narnia series, the Golden Compass series (but what a horrible movie!) did anyone read the Madeleine L'Engle books? Probably still available but not known outside of the US (and probably not that well in the US anymore, but books by Holling C Holling. The one I read first and loved the most was Tree in the Trail but he wrote other books. "The story of a cottonwood tree that watched the pageant of history on the Santa Fe Trail where it stood, a landmark to travelers and a peace-medicine tree to Indians, for over 200 years." I learned more history and Indian culture from that book than from school... As an aunt, great-aunt and adopted aunt many times over, sharing books with children has always been a great delight for me. I don't know who posted about Children's Books on Facebook but I'm so glad you did--
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