In the interests of discussing every aspect of every topic, I figure I’ll ask the follow-up question in a new thread instead of the old one. What books did you love as a child and, when re-reading them as an adult, found that they were still pretty damned good?
I’ll start with two suggestions:
-Lloyd Alexanders Prydain Chronicles. I was afraid to reread them for a long time, out of fear that they would turn out to suck. But finally I ventured it, and hot dang, those books are fantastic! They’re probably the best children’s fantasy I’ve ever read–and I’ve read a lot of children’s fantasy.
-Harold and the Purple Crayon. Loved it as a small child. Picked it up recently. Yup, still love it. To me, it’s the best depiction of a toddler’s imagination; I’m pretty sure it’s how I saw the world until I was about four or five.
E.B. White & E. Nesbitt have held up well for me. I re-read Dick King-Smythe’s “Harry’s Mad” in the store the other day, chuckling and remembering why I liked it so much at age 6.
I think all the serious classics like Phantom Tollbooth, Westinghouse, Basil E. Frankweiler, View from the Cherry Tree, Betsy Tacy, Lucy Maud Montgomery are all holding up well for me. Oh and Enid Blyton, can’t forget the old bird. I snap those books up every time I find a copy. Yes they’re mildly racist and sexist…whatever. They’re still great. J.K. Rowling owes a lot to Enid Blyton.
The only ones I look back on with a jaundiced eye are Beverly Cleary-Ramona is okay but some of her series are true treacle fests.
I still enjoy reading my old Trixie Belden and Three Investigators series.
I don’t know why, but even the somewhat dated earlier Trixie Belden stories seemed more “real” to me as a kid than Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys (both of which I liked too, just not nearly as much). Maybe it was the fact that Trixie’s group included both girls and boys, they interacted mostly as equals, and they (at least the ones who weren’t super-rich) lived like normal people with normal families. Sure, there was a bit of the “boys take care of the girls” sort of thing, but it wasn’t that bad, especially for the time period. And Trixie was undeniably the leader and main instigator for the group.
As for the Three Investigators–even now, after all these years, I’d still like to have Headquarters in my backyard!
Where did you grow up, that you had access to EB? I thought I was somewhat ususual among Americans in reading her. (They weren’t published in the US when I was a kid.)
Brighty of the Grand Canyon, by Marguerite Henry, the story of a Grand Canyon burro. My second grade teacher read it to us in installments. Almost 40 years later, I bought a copy on a visit to the North Rim. I was delighted that I remembered so much of it.
On a different note, P.S Your Cat is Dead. Which I read in 4th grade. Over and over. Yes, I was interested in books about tied up male prostitutes when I was ten. Read it again recently and while dated I still thought it was funny.
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, especially **Green Witch ** (that marvellous sequence where all the legends of Cornwall come alive for one night), The Grey King and Silver on the Tree.
The **Weirdstone of Brisingamen ** and it’s sequel **The Moon of Gomrath ** by Alan Garner. Come to think of it, anything by Alan Garner.
And the books I learned to read on:- The Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.
English language: Dr. Seuss. Also, I look forward to introducing my daughter to Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books (my niece likes them).
Spanish language: nothing comes to mind. I’ve been looking for children’s books in Spanish (not previously translated from English) that my daughter and niece might like, but most of them have rather advanced vocabulary and stilted phrases, IMO. Nava or other Spanish speakers, am I off base in thinking this? Just as an example, here is a translated excerpt from a Spanish edition of Puss 'n’Boots:
OK, it doesn’t sound so bad in English. But this is a relatively modern edition of this book.
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (I read it in my early teens; reread it a few years ago and was amazed at how much I missed – it was good then; it is great now)
