Classics, Nonfiction, and Children's Literature
In Chapter 6 of my history of children’s literature textbook, Children’s Literature, Seth Lerer indicates: Almost from its original publication in 1719, Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe had an immense impact on literature for children and adults. It has been widely seen as one of the first major novels in English; as the stimulus for a
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is a magical friend to children, with her upside-down house and delicious cookies that are always waiting for you. She’s also a wonderful help to parents, who often don’t know how to solve the problems of parenthood. When I was young I loved learning Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s “cures” for naughty children’s problems, such as
I enjoyed The Midwife’s Apprentice by Karen Cushman, a Newbery-winning novel. Cushman believably created a 1300s scene, and I liked learning about midwifery and superstition in the middle ages. While modern girls won’t face trials as extreme as the girl’s in the novel, they still must develop self-confidence and determine what their own dreams are.
Green Knowe is a medieval castle in the English countryside, and it is full of enchantment and ghosts. L.M. Boston’s chronicles about the manor house are full of child-like delight. And yet, describing the series as a whole is challenging. They all, but one, involved magic of some kind. They all, but one, focus on
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi is almost a fairy tale. There is a magical fairy, there are talking animals, and of course, there is talking marionette who wants to be a real boy. And yet, Collodi’s tale fell just a little short of fairy tale status because of the obvious moralizing lessons: the
I loved reading The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkein (thoughts here), mostly for its beautiful and flowing language, so I thought I’d next pick up The Hobbit, which is a children’s story and takes place chronologically before The Lord of the Rings. Unfortunately, I didn’t like it. I found the story tedious and the writing stilted.
Is there a movie from your childhood that you recall watching over and over and over again? One that you think of, still, with fondness? For me, that movie was Mary Poppins. In 2007, I read A.A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh and loved it along with the movie; they both have their merits. So this year, I
There was no doubt that John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (reviewed here) was written to teach both children and adults lessons about Christianity and life; there was little attempt to veil the message behind the story. While the message in modern children’s literature may not be so thinly veiled, to me it seems obvious that authors
I was looking for something else light to read before Christmas when I found, via the Book Review Blog Carnival on Maw Books, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, reviewed at The Movieholic and Bibliophile’s Blog. Best of all, because it is in the public domain, I could jump over
If you like Harry Potter’s world, you’ll like J.K. Rowling’s latest edition to the cannon: The Tales of Beedle the Bard. After each tale, which has been carefully “translated” from the ancient runes by Hermione Granger, we read Dumbledore’s commentary/critical analysis of the tale, with Rowling’s special notes for Muggle audiences. The Tales of Beedle
I was putting together the list of Newbery Medal winners a few weeks ago, and I saw Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji on the list as winner in the 1920s. A novel about a pigeon? I pictured New York City, Central Park. I pictured the “Feed the Birds” scene in
Charles Dickens wrote one book that never appears on his “collected works” lists. That is The Life of Our Lord, a “child’s new testament” that he wrote for his own children for Christmas one year. It was first published in 1934, 64 years after Dickens’s death. In The Life of Our Lord, Charles Dickens retells
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