In another episode of synchronicity, I was already going to write this post (for reasons below), when Shelf Awareness shared this item of “book candy”: 10 Children’s Books That Made Us, tagline “these beloved images and words defined the boomer generation.” Let’s be clear: I am not a boomer, but the child of boomers. So I was a little surprised to see that I grew up with all 10 of the books listed. Part of article author Linda Bernstein’s point was that boomer children loved these books enough to share them with their children, of course, so I can’t be all surprised. But still… I thought I was a Goodnight Moon baby, not that my mother was. Still fresh for me, you see. In fact, it was first published in 1947 – who knew? I guess that’s one definition of a classic: timelessness. I know there are new children’s books for every generation, and I know some of them are excellent (I’ve heard. I’m not a big reader of kid’s books myself), but I do hope that new parents are still turning to such geniuses as Dr. Seuss and Maurice Sendak for their children’s reading development and enjoyment.
But back to our regularly scheduled programming.
In reading Great Bear Wild by Ian McAllister (excellent!! but wait for my review at Shelf Awareness to learn more), I was charmed by discussion of the unique, complex, and surprisingly human-like social structures of wolves. This resonated with me because I remember clearly reading (and rereading) Julie of the Wolves, a kid’s “chapter book” by Jean Craighead George, and a Newbery Medal winner. Here is my plot summary, strictly from memory, so feel free to double-check me… a young girl (~13 years) escapes a forced marriage in an Alaska village into the tundra on her own. She has a few basic survival tools & skills, but of course finds herself in trouble in the winter, until she is adopted by a pack of wolves – not without her own efforts at observing them, mimicking their gestures of submission, and begging for food and help. They save her. And the reader learns a good deal about wolf packs.
This got me thinking about others in the category (children’s “chapter books”) that I loved, that I read and reread, and that helped form my love of reading. As a child, I read lots of books – lots! – but this is the list of those that still come to my mind, fondly, today.
- Eva by Peter Dickinson
- Enchantress from the Stars by Sylvia Engdahl
- Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
- The Borrowers series by Mary Norton
- Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books
- of course, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
- Susan Cooper’s The Dark is Rising series
- Beverly Cleary’s Ramona books
- The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
- The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren
- Hatchet (and others) by Gary Paulsen
- Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
- Summer of My German Soldier by Bette Greene
(Perhaps unsurprisingly, when I browsed the list of Newbery Medal winners, I found several of these titles there.)
What do you remember fondly from your childhood? Do they still resonate with you today?
Filed under: musings | Tagged: children's/YA, lists |
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There are a few things that I remember particularly (and I’m sure a lot that I don’t remember at all).
1) The Winnie the Pooh books. I could read (or hear) those stories again and again. My mother drew little drawings of Pooh and Piglet and the others which she put on the wall next to my bed.
2) The Dr. Doolittle books. The first time I ever picked up a book to read for myself was a Dr. Doolittle books that my father had been reading to me and he had stopped too early (he was never as enthusiastic about reading to me as my mother was). I wanted more, so I read it myself.
3) The Rick Brandt adventure books. I used to really like the Hardy Boys books, and then I discovered Rick Brandt, and I think it was the first time I was consciously aware that some books were better written than others.
I don’t know Dr. Doolittle or Rick Brandt! But of course, the Pooh books, what a treasure. My father surveyed the family (his mom & three sisters) and Pooh was the first one my grandmother remembered.
Even as a child I loved a book list, so I tried to read all the Newberys and loved so many of them, but the book series that made me a reader was Nancy Drew 🙂
So many options. I don’t think I ever read a Nancy Drew. Funny.
[…] you? Is there another list you’d like to see me work on? (In the past I’ve done movies, children’s books, audio favorites, science books, LGBTQ…) Let me know, and maybe I’ll put one […]