Classic Young Children Books

[Alia]

I would like to donate this thread to nothing but our favorite classic young children books, be it either Fantasy or Scifi.

First of my favorites:

Where The Wild Things Are
Story and Pictures by Maurice Sendak
written in 1963

This is one of my favorite stories, mostly because I have boys (2). After a hard day with the oldest (9) and knowing it wasn't anything serious but the mischief that a little boy gets into, I would read this book to him to calm both of us down. I would get into the reading and together we would have a blast "roaring our terrible roars, gnashing our terrible teeth and rolling our terrible eyes and showing our terrible claws"... loads of fun!



Anyone else have a young children book to recommend?

 

[GOLLUM]

DOH!!! I was about to go to log off and go to sleep when I saw those fatal words "Classic" spring up before my very eyes....

OK very quickly off the top of my head I'll name 4 classic fantasy YA books:

The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
Wind In The Willoww - AA Milne
A Wrinkle In Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Wizard Of EarthSea - Ursula LeGuin

Night all!!!...

 

[shandril]

night Gollum...


mine favorites are:
Legend of the Truplar
Wild Ponies
but for the life of me i can remember the authors

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I believe she's asking about books aimed at much younger readers, Gollum.

Which is why I'm hesitating to answer, because I'm wondering how much younger. In the same age group as Where the Wild Things Are, though, you can't beat Dr. Seuss. Was there ever a wilder imagination? And the books are as much fun for an adult to read out loud as they are for the children who are listening (or to read to themselves a little bit later).

My own favorites as a youngster were Scrambled Eggs Super, On Beyond Zebra, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, and Bartholomew and the Oobleck.

 

[Alia]

Your right Kelpie, I was aiming for children books for ages 0-8 years old. And I have to admit, I read Dr Suess every single day and I didn't even think of him. (of course it's the Foot book) He is wonderful! And to add to your list: The Cat in the Hat!

 

[Princess Ivy]

the little white horse by elizabeth goudge
Narnia - C S Lewis

 

[Princess Ivy]

5 children and it - e nesbit
anything by enid blyton
rhald dhald - again, anything, and yes, they are classics!

 

[GOLLUM]

Sorry Alia I was half asleep when I posted that so I should have been paying better attention...

Intrestingly enough I didn't read much or have a lot of things read to me b/w ages 0-8 but I'll add Dr Suess and Enid Blyton to that list too. Great memories!!!

OH I meant to mention there was an interesting interview with local comedian Andrew Denton (who does a parkinson-style intreview each week) the other night on TV interviewing YA author Mem Fox all about YA fiction and the importance for reading to your children. I think she said you should easily be able to read something like 5,00 books to your kids up to a certain age provided you read to them 10 plus minutes every night. I'll try to see if I can grab the transcript and post it in the YA section.

Over and out...

 

[Alia]

That would be awsome Gollum and thank you. The importance of reading to children can't be stressed enough and I will argue strongly about reading fantasy to children! I think it should be required!

I will look forward to seeing the transcript.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I second E. Nesbit. And I love The Little White Horse and also Goudge's lesser known Linnets and Valerians. They aren't exactly picture books, but most editions do come with some lovely line drawing illustrations.

 

[Rane Longfox]

5 children and it - e nesbit
anything by enid blyton
rhald dhald - again, anything, and yes, they are classics!

I agree absolutely. Though you should be hung drawn and quartered for that spelling of Roald Dahl

 

[Princess Ivy]

I second E. Nesbit. And I love The Little White Horse and also Goudge's lesser known Linnets and Valerians. They aren't exactly picture books, but most editions do come with some lovely line drawing illustrations.

Goudge has writen such lovely books. i had a full collection. unfortunatly they were all hardback and didn't survive the purge when i emigrated. i was very lucky to find the little white horse again. although i do find it very ironic that this edition is being advertised by a refernce by JK Rowling
And cal, you should know by know that i can't spell thats why god (ok, so he only thinks he is), bill gates, invented spell checker
would also love to nominate the adventure fantasy, swallows and amazons, though i can't remember who wrote them.

 

[Rane Longfox]

I doubt Roald Dahl is in spell checker

Swallows and Amazons (and all the others, "We didn't mean to go to sea", "Swallowdale", "Secret Water", "Pigeon Post", "Coot Club" etc) was written by Arthur Ransome, and again, I agree absolutely. How the memories come flooding back Those books were probably what first got my interested in sailing. How the seeds grow

 

[Princess Ivy]

thanks babe, was to lazy to google. what bugs me, is that these books are not available easily inthe library. ok i can order them in, but they aren't just on the shelf (rohld dhald being the exception obviously). all i can find now are jackie wilson (blech) and other such rubish.

 

[Milena]

If we're going for very young classics then I guess I'd go for illustrated fiction ; the Story About Ping (not sure of the author), Orlando the Marmalade cat - the sort of book where you remember the pictures and the colours as much as the words. Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag is brilliant, and still in print I think. Madeline, Outside Over There - which I always prefered to Wild Things - but I have 2 daughters!

 

[Mcpon]

Mine is Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.

 

[hermi-nomi]

Ummm ... The Railway Children and Run Swift, Run Free (Roger McGough), The Vagabond (?) (by Colin Dann) and any Dick-King Smith book. Before that, The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe ~ I still got the TV film tie-in book. And going further back ... the picture books The Snowman and Father Christmas (Raymond Briggs) and The Witches ~ Oh, and any Roald Dahl book of course!

 

[Rosemary]

These days apparently one should start reading stories to the unborn child..

I loved Enid Blyton's books. Narnia of course and the Railway Children. The Swallows and Amazons were wonderful adventure books and there was even a series of film on the television.

There was also a little story about a robin family in one of the English magazines. I can remember my mother reading it to me when I was very small.

 

[Adasunshine]

My first unborn child was introduced to JRR Tolkein - what I was reading at the time. TIP: Don't start reading LOTR whilst pregnant, none of it sinks in, I had to start all over again once the babe was born!!!

As for favourite childrens books, I loved The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe, I also loved Tom's Midnight Garden, anything by Roald Dahl but especially The Witches and BFG plus The Little Vampire series by Angela Sommer-Bodenburg - I loved those.

xx

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Keep in mind that when reading to the unborn (or simply reading to yourself while pregnant) you may be doing something more than influencing your offspring's future literary tastes -- you may actually be contributing to the formation of the demon-child's character. A certain amount of caution is necessary, particularly when reading series books, which naturally have a cumulative effect.

The books I remember best from earliest childhood were by Dr Seuss, Beatrix Potter, and L. Frank Baum. I read one chapter from one of the E. Nesbit books about the Bastable children (it was in a magazine) when I was seven or eight, and even though I couldn't remember the author or the title the story stuck with me until I rediscovered it as an adult -- so I'd say that made a big impression.