Do you read children's books? (merged)

[HLGStrider]

All right, I am going to start this off by saying I can read the heavy stuff. I have read War and Peace for gosh sakes (didn't particularly like it, but I have read it.)!

That disclaimer carefully claimed, I will continue to say my true love is childrens' books!

I adore childrens' books. I devour childrens' books! I covet them on my book shelves with their lovely covers and fanciful language. I find true, classic children's literature is a class unto itself and in many ways it is better than the "heavy stuff."

Some of my favorites:
Kate DiCamillo!
The Tale of Desperaux was gorgeous. Because of Winn-Dixie was perfect! I just ordered The Tiger Rising on Amazon tonight because I couldn't find it anywhere in my town and I want to devour every bit of this author's work. She is a genius. I think I'd like her too after spending a little bit of time on her website.

James Barrie's Peter Pann is a children's book I am not really certain is "well written." He breaks a hundred or so literary rules. The plot is only sort of there. However, he understands children's so well. They are heartless little beasts but they are so wonderful! Plus who could forget anything he says about Neverlands and Fairies?

Roald Dahl is one of our modern genius's. His work is frighteningly lighthearted about sometimes very dark matters, but at the same time always funny, and with one or two exceptions (I really didn't see what was so fantastic about Mr. Fox) winning and entertaining. He is a master!

One of my earliest memories is my mother reading me Ruth Stiles Gannet's My Father's Dragon. When I came into money and found a copy of this, I bought it instantly, finding to my delight that it had two sequels. I will never forget that being kind to an old alley cat can send you on the most remarkable adventures, nor that a river of fierce crocodiles can be tamed with lollypops.

Norton Juster gave us a philosophical gem in The Phantom Tollbooth which is part Alice in Wonderland part something so original that we could never again hope to touch it. "Whether or not you find your own way, you're bound to find someway. If you happen to find my way, please return it, as it was lost years ago. I imagine by now it is quite rusty."

Ah. . .Catwings! While Ursula LeGuin is known "heavier" stuff, I enjoyed most this strange little series about flying cats, but maybe I just like the picture.

NARNIA (Enough said, right?).

Anything by George MacDonald is magic, from the frothy Light Princess to the deeply beautiful Curdie books. I will never forget the first time I climbed the long stairs and found my great, great, great grandmother.

Of course, there is the Hobbit, but we have a whole section for that.

Last but anything but least is The Little Prince. The moment I read this book I became a "tamed fox." The book itself tamed me, and I will never ever never forget a thing it said. If I had to list a favorite quote from this book I would tear my hair out choosing. It is all so perfectly beautiful and tragic. . .but happy at the same time.

I'm sure you have favorites. Childhood memories.

Most of what I have listed has been chapter books. Anyone want to put in a word for picture books? Dr. Suess?


Elgee: Located two similar threads and shoved them together forcibly.

[HLGStrider]

I just added Lemony Snicket to my devoured list. It took me about an hour to read the first one, and I actually wasn't very impressed. I liked the movie a lot more than I liked the books which is highly unusual for me. I think because the movie does capture the mood, tone and even the language of the book exactly, but on the other hand condesses the action of several of the books into one movie (I only bought/read the first book, but from looking at the covers, it looks as if they took the snake/reptile section from the second, and I am guessing the rest of the movie was lifted from other parts of the series.).

Picture books and comic books are a bit different. Dr. Suess, Barbara Coony. . .I do like good picture books.

I also like collections of fairy tales. I have a Grimms, Hans Christian Andersons, and one book of miscelaneous. The mixed one (The Golden Book of Fairy Tales) is the prettiest and best written, but also the shortest. However, it has several stories in it that I have never found elsewhere but are so perfect . . . the one about the girl who marries a green snake. The one about the prince who visits his true love as a blue bird. Etc, etc, etc.

http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showthread.php?t=17083

My own personal fairy tale.

[Beleg]

Some of my favorite Young-adult/children books are,

'Where the Red Fern Grows,' (blinks back tears)

'Heidi,' - probably my favorite book on earth

'Anne of Green Gables,' - Lucy Maud Montgomery (really I like every single book of hers!)

'To Kill a Mockingbird,' - Harper Lee. (It's not really a children book, but the protagnists are young so I included it anyway)

'Bridge to Terebithia,' - (same as red fern... even more so)

'My Antonia,' - Willa Cather

'The Giver,' - Lois Lowry

'Earthsea,' - Ursula Le Guin

'Coot Club,' - Arthur Ransom

'Five Children and It,' - Edith Nesbit

'Dark is Rising' - Susan Copper

'Sunshine' - Robin McKinley (and the Hero and the Crown too)

'Watership Down' - Richard Adams

'The Little Prince' (Beautiful little book)

'The Borrible Trilogy' - Michael D. Larrabieti

'Red Shift,' - Alan Garner


Not to mention authors like Roald Dahl (who IS a genius), Enid Blyton, Rowling, earlier Young-adult works by Robert E. Heinlein, Patricia McKillip (if you want to term her works as young-adult), Patricia Werde, the various contributors to the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew series, Andre Norton, Paul Zindel etc..

For some reason or other, I just couldn't like either of Narnia or 'His Dark Materials' on my first read. Though I did love 'The Lion, Witch and Wardrobe' in translation.

[HLGStrider]

For some reason I have a special fondness for Heidi too. .. wonder why. . .


Do you feel strange buying children's books as an adult? The clerk at my local bookstore is still under the false impression that I am a grade school teacher because of my purchases. I have told her otherwise twice, but she is an older lady and keeps reverting back to her supposition. It makes it worse that I often buy for my cousins' birthdays who are all under 12 right now. Therefore I buy one adult books to my three children's book. I make the excuse that I plan to be published as a young adult author one day, so this is research.

Really, I don't read much contemporary adult fiction. There are one or two exceptions. I like Alexander McCall Smith and Yann Matel and one or two others, but really, for me to read a book written for adults it has to be at least fifty years old.

[Beleg]

For some reason I have a special fondness for Heidi too. .. wonder why.

I can guess! :p


I buy most of my books from second-hand shops, sales and junk-brokers. Even If bought them from established bookshops which sell English novels (and these are almost as hard to come by as gaint panda's) I daresay they won't know the difference between William Shakespeare and Joyce, let alone distinguish between two genres of literature.

I wonder at this apparant 'looking-askance' at adults reading young-adult fiction attitude. Young-adult books are generally better plotted, more compact, bigger tearkjerkers and more emotionally harrowing on a personal scale than most adult books. There is a certain allure in reading about the charms and passions of childhood; on subjects like first love, friendship, betrayal, school, sacrifice etc.

However, I am generalizating, and it maybe that since I only read books that have a good 'reputation', most of the young-adult books deserve to be trashed, their authors frowned at and the very fact of their existance lamented - it gives a bad name to the whole genre.

[Violanthe]

If you're an adult, do you ever read children's books? Harry Potter is probably the most notorious example of what I'm talking about. A lot of adults are picking up children's (or young adult) novels, especially in the alternative reality (scifi, fantasy, etc.) genres, for their own reading pleasure. Do you do this? Why or why not? Do you find a universal appeal in children's books? Or did you gladly leave them behind when you grew up?

[HLGStrider]

I read children's books more than adult books.

For one thing, adult literature can be a long investment, so if I am going to the library I may intentionally pick a book I know I can finish in an hour.
For another childrens' books are generally (not always) happier and I usually like the characters more than I do in adult fiction.

My favorite children's author I read as an adult is Kate DiCamillo, but I'll even read picture books if you put them near me.

[e.Blackstar]

I'll occasionally grab a Tamora Pierce book, but I generally don't read "young adult literature" (*laughs at the euphemism :p ), and never full-fledged "children's books".

[Barliman Butterbur]

If you're an adult, do you ever read children's books? Harry Potter is probably the most notorious example of what I'm talking about. A lot of adults are picking up children's (or young adult) novels, especially in the alternative reality (scifi, fantasy, etc.) genres, for their own reading pleasure.

You seem to be making some pretty blurry distinctions from the get-go. Harry Potter has leaped over the boundaries, and I wouldn't call the series one just for children — at least not in the sense that the "Uncle Wiggly" series or the "Pooh" series are for children. I got hooked on HP when I read the first book to see what all the furor was about, and I found myself laughing uproariously at a whole lot of what was being said, and the way it was being said: bright, intelligent, subtle, sometimes calculatedly crude and many times very funny! This series is the exception to what I see as an otherwise alarming trend: general adult societal intellectual regression. Rowling writes for smart kids, and it paid off!

And if a lot of adults are picking up so-called children's books, what's really going on? Are adults and their values really regressing? I think they are: witness all the movies about comic-book heroes of late. Superman, Batman, The Punisher, Spiderman — and let's not forget Sin City and the ultimate stupid comic strip, Star Wars. I worry. I think all of this is yet another sign of our deplorable societal cultural implosion, along with the worst political situation in American history. But of course, we aren't allowed to talk about that.

Barley

[Lindir]

Yes, from time to time I do read children's books, for example Rowlings and Pullman. I don't think there has to be such a rigid division between different kinds of litterature that you have to stick to books written with your own age group or gender in mind. A good book is a good book, be it written by Milne or Joyce.

[Barliman Butterbur]

...A good book is a good book, be it written by Milne or Joyce.

Right you are!

Barley

[HLGStrider]

I guess it is really hard to define "children's books."

I think Kate DiCamillo is undebatebly for children but also undebateably wonderful (and if you try to debate me on this, you will be attack viciously with a stuffed leopard.). The same goes for A. A. Milne, Lewis's Narnia books, and any number of fairy tales.

On the other hand Robin McKinnley (I've only read The Hero and the Crown so you can correct me if you want to) I find to be a very mature writer who publishes in the YA genre. Actually, I would be a little bit anxious if my eleven-year-old (Not that I have an eleven-year-old; it would be physically impossible for me to have an eleven-year-old.) was reading that. I consider it a bit of a PG-13'er.

I just read another children's book, Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, and was very much impressed. Some reviewer compared it to Alice in Wonderland in the 'this is such a great book' notes on the back cover, but it actually reminded me of a much obscurer book, Lilith by George MacDonald, with a little less symbolism. Carrol's work has a haphazard feel and it is very obvious that the author of that work was also using something mind altering in his spare time. Gaiman and MacDonald manage to be surreal in a way that is carefully planned and implemented. I was very impressed.

I think what sets asides children's novels is not the abscence of good (as in Good writing, good character development, though obviously when you are writing for younger children you may have to hold back on the vocabulary somewhat. I mean, you don't go throwing ten page words at a six-year-old, it isn't fair, and somethings will bore a child under ten) but the abscence of bad (as in ideas that six-year-olds are not ready to handle, such as mass murder).

As children get older you can slowly introduce ideas of difficult subject, but most children's authors are smart about how they handle it, how they introduce what could be a child's first glimpse (in real life or fiction) of racism or violence or sexual issues. Where a lot of adult authors just like to slap it on heavy, children's books have a little bit lighter content.

Now personally I don't like a lot of graphic violence or sex and I really don't see the point to swearing in literature. I'll put up with some of all the above for the sake of a good story or book (I don't care if Solzhentisyn has the "f" word in his books. I like his writing. I like what he has to say.), but sometimes it feels as if I am continually wading through things I don't like, a swamp of filth if you will, in order to find the occasional bit of high ground in the book. With Children's books I don't generally have to deal with this.

Now of course some children's books are pure fluff, but I'd much rather zip through a book and in the end realize, "You know I really didn't get anything out of that." then get to the end and think, "Gosh, I lost something reading that because all I did was see language I want to forget and situations with absolutely no merit."

Honestly, I think sensationalism or extreme sex and violence has about the same place in adult literature as potty humor does in children's literature. It's placed there because authors/publishers think it sales, it really has little value, and generally appeals the baser bits of human nature.

So, if I can get amazing insights on human nature from Kate DiCamillo without the junk I get from an adult author, I'll go for DiCamillo.

Of course this is from the girl with the Dr. Suess quote in her signature. . .

[Ithrynluin]

Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials saga is probably my favourite when it comes to children's literature. It touches on some serious issues, though, so it could also be classified as "young adult" literature.

Beleg mentions Enid Blyton. I loved her many "Famous Five" books. I remember curling up in my bed as a kid with a Famous Five adventure/mystery...it brings back happy memories. I think I may give them another go, though I daresay it will be very different.

Otherwise, I don't think I have read that much that would qualify as children's literature. The following come to mind, all delightful:

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

The Secret Garden and The Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

[HLGStrider]

Here is another coin to the side. . . cide to the soin . . . .blah blah blah. . .

Here is another way to look at the question:

My boyfriend and I have talked a lot about books and, while I am constantly clinging to my beloved childhood memories, he has mentioned more than once that he doesn't reread the books he loved as a kid for fear of "disillusionment." He says as he has grown older his tastes have as well and the few times he has gone back and read something he enjoyed when he was younger he has come away thinking, "I liked that?" He says he would just rather remember them as good and leave it at that.

I've never had this problem, but maybe I was more selective as a kid than he was. Don't tell the other Marines but I happen to know Matt read ANYTHING that got within ten feet of him as a kid, including Anne of Green Gables, though he does roll his eyes at the memory of this.

[Rhiannon]

I read lots of children's and YA books--not as many as I used to (I mean, gosh, I'm twenty now), but I still love them. It seems to me that a lot of the most original, creative things in fantasy literature are being marketed to the 'crossover' teen/adult area of YA lit. Robin McKinley, Patricia McKillip, Garth Nix, Neil Gaiman, they're all marketed to both adults and older teens, and gosh, do I love them. A lot of the things people have been listing here aren't what I'd call 'children's books'--Amelia Bedelia is a children's book. Phillip Pullman is definitely not, in my opinion.

But I also collect picture books. And read comic books. And watch anime. And cult films.

[Starbrow]

I would say that about half of the books I read are children's books. Of course, I have the handy excuse of being a school teacher and having two children of my own (ages 9 and 5). Some I read with my children and others for my own enjoyment. Some of the best are Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Engels Wilder, Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey, Roald Dahl books, the Earthsea series by Ursula K. Leguin, Stone Fox (I'm always sobbing by the end of it, no matter how many times I read it.), On My Honor, and I could go on.
I should mention some of my favorite picture books: Sector 7(a wordless book); The Highrise Glorious, Skittleskat Roarious, Sky Pie Angelfood Cake; Ten Minutes 'Til Bedtime; Mouse Paint;