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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 24, 2018 20:23:06 GMT -5
I'm on a campaign to read famous children's classics to my kids -- you know, the kind of stuff you feel sort of odd not to have read, once you've grown up, because they're cultural touchstones and everyone else seems to know them. So far, we've done Charlotte's Web, Old Yeller, and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and we've just started Bridge to Terabithia. We also read The Cat Who Went to Heaven, which isn't as famous but was one of my personal faves when I was a kid. We have Island of the Blue Dolphins on deck.
Anyone have any recommendations?? Classics-to-be would be cool too.
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Post by Miss Terri Novelle on Sept 24, 2018 21:01:25 GMT -5
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle
If it's not considered a classic, it should be.
Black Beauty
The Oz books
Alice in Wonderland
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 24, 2018 23:28:26 GMT -5
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'engle If it's not considered a classic, it should be. Black Beauty The Oz books Alice in Wonderland Ah, yes! And I have Wrinkle on my shelf. I've taught it, in fact (in YA lit classes). Don't know why I didn't think of that. I've never actually read the Oz books.  See? That's the kind of embarrassment I'm trying to spare my kids.  Black Beauty ... that's a brutal one. Oh man. I do still have it, though. On the list it goes! |
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Post by Suzy on Sept 25, 2018 2:54:45 GMT -5
I was such a bookworm!
Some faves: Anne of Green Gables, the Five Children and It (magic!), the Bullerby books (by Astrid Lindgren who wrote Pippi Longstrump ) Mary Poppins, and many more.
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Post by Victoria on Sept 25, 2018 3:14:11 GMT -5
I have no idea how popular she is in the US, but I have to suggest E Nesbit. She wrote loads of classics, but the one I remember most fondly is The Phoenix and the Carpet. I was so obsessed with it that my mum made me a cardboard phoenix to keep in the airing cupboard, which is where the phoenix in the book lived. I suppose The Railway Children or Five Children and It might be better known, though.
Also The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Again, I don't know about the US, but that definitely meets your cultural touchstone description over here.
My own childhood was largely defined by Enid Blyton books. Maybe a Faraway Tree book or a Secret Seven/Famous Five one?
Oh, and definitely anything by Roald Dahl!
This is a lovely idea! How old are your kids?
EDIT: I see Suzy and I overlapped on Five Children and It! That's how long it took me to stop being distracted by Wikipedia pages on all these books and actually finish the post, lol.
Edit again: Oh, oh, oh! Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild!
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Post by Pru Freda on Sept 25, 2018 3:32:39 GMT -5
Hard to suggest one that haven’t already been mentioned, and you don’t say how old your children are, but Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson is a real classic. Also What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge.
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Post by Suzy on Sept 25, 2018 4:11:13 GMT -5
I read What Katy did to my daughter and she listened intently and then, when the book ended she said: "but she never did anything."
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Post by Daniel on Sept 25, 2018 8:08:07 GMT -5
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. Have a box of tissues handy.
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Post by Miss Terri Novelle on Sept 25, 2018 8:25:00 GMT -5
I have no idea how popular she is in the US, but I have to suggest E Nesbit. She wrote loads of classics, but the one I remember most fondly is The Phoenix and the Carpet. I was so obsessed with it that my mum made me a cardboard phoenix to keep in the airing cupboard, which is where the phoenix in the book lived. I suppose The Railway Children or Five Children and It might be better known, though. I read Edward Eager who admitted without shame that he was inspired be Edith Nesbit's work. But I could never find a single book by her in my library. So at some point shortly after I got my Kindle, I looked up her books and found that since they'd gone out of copyright, they were free on Amazon and downloaded every one of them I could find and binge read the lot. Fabulous. |
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Post by scdaffron on Sept 25, 2018 8:31:11 GMT -5
Okay, Victoria put in a bunch that I would have added. All the Shoes books (Noel Streatfeild) and the Enid Blyton books. I also loved Elizabeth Enright who wrote The Four Story Mistake and other books. The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge is great too. I think she wrote a couple of other kids books as well. I'm not sure how old the kids are, but I loved Little Women by Lousia May Alcott and all the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder (although I read somewhere they are considered racist now...oh well). Here are more from my Goodreads list (I actually logged into GR, folks... must not look beyond the book list  ) The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, The Harry Potter series (if the kids are little, stick to the early ones before the evil gets too scary). All of the Margurite Henry horse books (Misty of Chincoteague), The Albert Payson Terhune dog books (Lad: a Dog), Beverly Clearly books (The Mouse and the Motorcycle), Paddington Bear books by Michael Bond, The Walter Farley horse books (The Black Stallion and a bunch more), The Borrowers series by Mary Norton, Heidi by Johanna Spyri. Okay, running away from Goodreads now... |
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Post by Miss Terri Novelle on Sept 25, 2018 8:37:20 GMT -5
The Borrowers!! Yes, I loved those books.
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 25, 2018 11:42:19 GMT -5
My gosh, this is great! Thank you all! My girls are eight. Well, eight and a half -- the half is important, I'll have you know.  |
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 25, 2018 11:43:13 GMT -5
Seriously, this is going to have us in reading for the next two years!  |
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Post by Pru Freda on Sept 25, 2018 12:37:02 GMT -5
Just thought of another one. It’s rarely heard of these days, but was a firm favourite of mine when I was about ten. It’s a fantasy about time travel called Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce. Wonderful story.
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Post by Victoria on Sept 25, 2018 13:15:53 GMT -5
Just thought of another one. It’s rarely heard of these days, but was a firm favourite of mine when I was about ten. It’s a fantasy about time travel called Tom’s Midnight Garden by Phillipa Pearce. Wonderful story. Yes!! I second this recommendation, that's an amazing book! |
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 25, 2018 13:50:12 GMT -5
Ah, there's also Philip Pullman's books ...
And Judy Blume ...
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 25, 2018 13:54:13 GMT -5
Mmmm ... how about Watership Down? Think I was a bit older than the girls when I read that.
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 25, 2018 13:55:31 GMT -5
Lloyd Alexander. I've never actually read him.
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Post by Becca Mills on Sept 25, 2018 14:16:42 GMT -5
Just bought Tom's Midnight Garden, The Five Children and It, The Phoenix and the Carpet, The Borrowers, Ballet Shoes, The Four-Story Mistake, and The Little White Horse. We're going to have to allot more time for reading in the evenings.  I never have quite gotten over the fact that my Mom got rid of my complete original paperback collection of Farley's Black Stallion books. Maybe they'd come off as sort of cheesy, now, but boy did I love them as a kid. |
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Post by Daniel on Sept 25, 2018 14:49:05 GMT -5
Good one, scdaffron . I remember loving The Mouse and the Motorcycle. |
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See? That's the kind of embarrassment I'm trying to spare my kids. 
)
