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Literary Midget
Thursday, September 18, 2003. Entry #225
Weep for my lost childhood.
I have had so many conversations
over the last year or two that begin with 'What do you MEAN you haven't
read (such and such essential children's book).'
Now I've touched on my sad, misspent
literary youth before,
but let's put this to rest, shall we?
Folks, I skipped nearly every
children's book that people now consider to be essential. These are the
biggies, the books that fill a huge niche of the shared cultural experience
of literate North American life. I haven't read them.
Don't ask me what the hell I
was reading, because I couldn't tell you. I remember "Cat in the Hat",
and then nothing until "The Long Walk". It's such a jump from a whimsical
look at youthful disobedience to a novel about young boys walking themselves
literally to death in search of some semi-mythical prize that there had
to have been SOME books in between, but none have really stuck in my memory.
Let's look at the list. I cribbed
this from an article about "The Essential Guide to Children's Books and
Their Creators" by Anita Silvey, and added a couple of my own.
Preschool books I haven't
read:
- Freight Train (1978), Donald Crews
- Goodnight Moon (1947), Margaret Wise Brown, illustrated
by Clement Hurd
- Mr. Grumpy's Outing (1971), John Burningham
- Rosie's Walk (1968), Pat Hutchins
- The Snowman (1978), Raymond Briggs
- The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1969), Eric Carle
Easy readers (ages 7-8) I
haven't read:
- Amelia Bedelia series, Peggy Parish
- Frog and Toad series, Arnold Lobel
- Henry and Mudge series, Cynthia Rylant
- Little Bear (1957), Else Holmelund Minarik
- Nate the Great series, Marjorie Sharmat
Chapter books (ages 8-9) I
haven't read:
- And Then What Happened, Paul Revere? (1973), Jean
Fritz, illustrated by Margot Tomes
- The Courage of Sarah Noble (1954), Alice Dalgliesh
- Little House in the Big Woods (1932), Laura Ingalls
Wilder
- My Father's Dragon (1948), Ruth Stiles Gannett
- Ramona series, Beverly Cleary
- Sarah, Plain and Tall (1985), Patricia MacLachlan
- Stone Fox (1980), John Reynolds Gardiner
I did read a bunch of Donald
Sobol's Encyclopedia Brown series I recall. I either figured out the puzzle
so fast that I was bored, or I never figured it out and gave up early.
Same with the Hardy Boys. We had a stack of them, and I read some, but
I can't recall a single facet of them now.
Young fantasy books I haven't
read:
- The Adventures of Pinocchio (1891), Carlo Collodi
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), Lewis Carroll
- Animal Family (1965), Randall Jarrell
- The Blue Sword (1982) and The Hero and the Crown
(1985), Robin McKinley
- Borrowers series, Mary Norton
- Charlotte's Web (1952), E. B. White
- Chronicles of Chrestomanci series, Diana Wynne Jones
- Chronicles of Narnia series, C. S. Lewis
- Chronicles of Prydain series, Lloyd Alexander
- Dark Is Rising series, Susan Cooper,
- Earthsea series, Ursula K. Le Guin
- Five Children and It (1902), E. Nesbit
- Greene Knowe series, Lucy M. Boston
- Half-Magic (1954), Edward Eager
- Incredible Journey (1960), Sheila Burnford
- James and the Giant Peach (1961), Dahl, Roald
- The Mouse and His Child (2001), Russell Hoban, illustrated
by David Small
- Owl in Love (1993), Patrice Kindl
- The Oz Series, L. Frank Baum
- The Perilous Gard (1974), Elizabeth Marie Pope
- Redwall series, Brian Jacques
- The Secret Garden (1911), Frances Hodgson Burnett
- The Story of Dr. Dolittle (1920), Hugh Lofting
- The Sword in the Stone (1938), T. H. White
- Tom's Midnight Garden (1958), Philippa Pearce
- Tuck Everlasting (1975), Natalie Babbitt
- The Wind in the Willows (1908), Kenneth Grahame
- Winnie-the-Pooh (1926), A. A. Milne
- A Wrinkle in Time (1962), Madeleine L'Engle
As well, anything by Jack London,
Robert Louis Stevenson, Beatrix Potter, Mark Twain or Lucy Maud Montgomery.
I have read some Jules Verne and HG Wells, but only after I became an
adult. I have and have read the entire Harry Potter series, but you can't
count that, due to th fact that the first one was published in 1998.
What prompted all this? Lisa
brought home a copy of Robinson Crusoe a couple weeks back and I am doggedly
working my way through it. All I keep thinking is, when will he quit yakking
and get to the action?
That could be my problem.
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