Okay, maybe I missed it in my admittedly cursory scan of the third page, or maybe one or two people mentioned it, but does no one any longer care for “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland,” or for “Through The Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There” by the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, AKA Lewis Carroll? I’m tempted to say it may be a generational thing, the dopers seeming to be a rather youngish lot, but really! I see no mention of Aesop’s Fables, either, for that matter, nor any of Edward Lear’s nonsense verses. I’m gratified to see a few mentions of “The Phantom Toolbooth,” and “A Wrinkle In Time,” and disappointed to see so much said of Bev Cleary’s “Ramona” books when her earlier “Henry Huggins” books (“Henry And The Paper Route” and “Henry And The Clubhouse,” in which Ramona had bit parts) were so far superior. sigh I guess Ramona was more commercial.
No-one so far seems to have mentioned Homer Price (I’m sorry, I don’t recall the author’s name, but three years ago, those stories could still be found in my local library via title search). There were about a dozen short stories, in which Homer’s uncle Ulysses and cousin Telemachus (get it?) figured fairly prominently as an inside joke for the parents who were reading the stories to their kids. The stories included Homer’s (temporary) pet skunk, Aroma; a bioengineering experiment (in the early 60’s, mind) that resulted in giant ragweed plants; a snake-oil salesman selling the perfect product: Ever-So-Much-More-So; and the construction of the first suburban cookie-cutter housing development in Centerburg, Ohio. Delightful stories, all. I’ve left out a few really good ones on purpose.
I liked the first Harry Potter book, but am dismayed to learn that the American editions of all the HP books (the only editions available in the US, by publishing contract) have been TRANSLATED from English to American, of all things. Maybe I make too much of it, but part of the adventure of reading Lewis Carroll, C.S. Lewis, and, at a slightly older age, P.G. Wodehouse, was that the people and the narration spoke slightly differently, though not so you couldn’t understand them. It was a noteworthy part of what was enriching about that reading. SHAME on J.K. Rowling (the “J” is for Janice, BTW, another thing her American publishers would prefer to suppress, since, in their assessment, American boys would reject good stories if they knew they were written by a woman) for agreeing to this. I guess money talks, and inasmuch as she was homeless at one time, I suppose I can’t fault her for desiring financial security, but … YUCK!
Someone earlier on mentioned that s/he had missed the undertones of Christian dogma in the Narnia books until re-reading them as an adult. I got that the first time around all right, but it wasn’t until I re-read the series when I was about seventeen that I picked up the Platonic undertones in the texts. Everytime I re-read one of those books now (about once a year in a continuing cycle), I find something I hadn’t known was there before. There may be no better example of literature that has enduring appeal for both children and adults than what I call the Heptateuch (seven books).
I don’t think anyone has mentioned C.S. Lewis’ fabulous space trilogy (“Out Of The Silent Planet,” “Perelandra,” and “That Hideous Strength”), perhaps because it’s not routinely regarded as children’s lit. Certainly the third book is beyond most children (I read the first two at ten, couldn’t get through the third book until I was fourteen).
How about “The Trolley Car Family?”
Thank Bog someone finally mentioned “The Pushcart Wars.” I started to fear I’d hallucinated that whole thing until I saw a volume on my shelves of “Pushcart Prize” stories.
Goodness, but I do go on. Sincere apologies to any and all whom I may have bored, offended, and/or patronized by my remarks. Peace,
Nemo
(no clever sig is my sig)