Children's Classics
Friday, November 28, 2008
Claire, my third-grader niece, is in love with books. "Classics!" she says, when you ask her what she likes. "The Cricket in Times Square!" she declares, a recent favorite. Books that have survived, that have been loved, that are time tested and therefore true. She reads them to herself; she invites others to read to her; she recounts the tales in loving detail (then breaks into an all-out rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas").
Talking with Claire takes me back. To Heidi and Pippi Longstockings. To Harriet the Spy, The Secret Garden, Doctor Doolittle, and Black Beauty. It floods me with the desire to fill her library with more books to love—with classic classics or with books, newly written, that feel timeless. So far I've bought her the following for Christmas: River of Words, The Phantom Tollbooth, The Penderwicks, and From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. (Along with necklace, for she's as pretty as can be.)
I wonder what you might suggest.
15 comments:
I would definately recommend The City of Ember. That was my favorite book in third grade!
I loved mixed-up files! I really need to re-read it one of these days!
And how about The 21 Balloons?
Elizabeth Enright's Gone-Away Lake. And perhaps Ballet Shoes.
I loved the Betsy Tacy Books by Maud Hart Lovelace. Oh, now I want to read them again :)
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett. One of my all-time favorites. I still read it every year around Christmas. :) My brother and I also loved The Boxcar Children.
A treasure trove of responses, for which I am so grateful. Clearly there are books here that I must myself read so that I can pass the love of them on.
Thank you, all of you.
Aww.. you are so thoughtful!
I don't know how old I was when I read these but Roald Dahl's Matilda and The Witches I definitely remember fondly!
Buying books as gifts is so much fun!
It's not so much of a classic, but in third grade I absolutely loved (and still love lots) Molly Moon's Incredible Book of Hypnotism by Georgia Byng. It was absolutely fantastical and made my imagination soar!
Hope all is well and am eagerly waiting to read your latest!!!!
More Elizabeth Enright! The Melendy Family quartet have been loyal friends: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and Spiderweb for Two. Also, The Silver Curlew and The Glass Slipper by Eleanor Farjeon are out of print (though I should check on that-- I may be pleasantly surprised) are retellings of the Rumpelstiltskin and Cinderella fairy tales years before the publishing industry exploded with those kinds of books.
Asking this question is catnip to your readers, I hope you realize.:)
--Farida
I absolutely loved A Cricket in Times Square! And From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I was just about to recommend The Saturdays (it's on my desk to send to a 30-year-old friend!), but Saints and Spinners beat me to it.
Was Enid Blyton popular there at all? I adored The Malory Towers series of boarding school books when I was young. Yes, okay, I still re-read them now. :)
And what a lovely aunt you must be.
So here is what I am going to do with all your gracious postings: Print them out, go to a book store, look around some more. And in the bundle of books that I give to my niece, slip in the page with all your thoughts. Because you caring so much is a big gift in and of itself, for which I sincerely thank you.
That is a great idea! You will have to let us know what she thinks :D
I think you've picked some of the best books especially River of Words.
Oh, you know me - HARRIET THE SPY (and its sequel) all the way! I also read all the Sherlock Holmes I could get my mitts on...and LITTLE WOMEN and all the Laura Ingalls Wilder books...and on and on...
[sigh]
:^) Anna
Anna,
I LOVE Harriet the Spy. I was thinking of buying that one for myself.... Then passing it on (but, since I'd read it first, it wouldn't count as a gift).
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