In very Narnian fashion, two children, Anne and Patrick, go to spend the holidays with a professor who lives in an old house in the country, where they stumble into a magical medieval land. (The impression of Narnia is heightened by the drawings by Pauline Baynes.) The premise is that the children break a stained… Read more The Unicorn Window (1961)
In 1967, newcomer E. L. Konigsburg published two of the best books of the 1960’s (and, astonishingly, both got Newbery awards/honors in the same year). The better-known of the two is From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but here we will consider the equally excellent, and completely different, Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth,… Read more Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth (1967)
– Part I – – Part II – – Part III – There are three basic problems with this kind of book. The first is their distorted moral vision: that life is gruesome and boys need to toughen up. These books may be beautifully written and of high literary quality (Bambi and The… Read more The Dog Dies, Part IV: Conclusions
A class of French fifth-graders during the German occupation have been evacuated to the countryside, where a nun runs a school in an old house. The story begins with a stunningly good bit of action: the children are playing make-believe, and this being a Catholic culture and just past Christmas, the flight of Jesus’s family… Read more Twenty and Ten (1952)
– Part I – – Part II – Oh look, there’s more. In today’s post we’ll cover Dead Dog books from the mid-’50’s through the ’70’s. In the final post I’ll have some general comments about WHAT THE HELL WERE THESE ADULTS THINKING. Hurry Home Candy (1954, Meindert De Jong) Puppy is abused by humans,… Read more The Dog Dies, Part III
Nathaniel lives in small Massachussetts village in 1785. He does his lessons in the Horn book, longs to go to sea, and is being raised by a puritanical uncle. Period details abound, and the first chapter feels like we’re in Johnny Tremain or Carry On Mr. Bowdich. But after a long detour about Nathaniel wanting… Read more Nathaniel’s Witch (1941)
City-bred Elizabeth Ann (later styled “Besty”) lives with her nervous, overprotective aunts, until circumstances require her to go live with Vermont relatives. The relatives expect her to be capable and self-reliant, and little by little she proves them right. This could easily be mistaken for a knock-off of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) or Anne… Read more Understood Betsy (1916)
There is something amounting to a trend of adult literary authors who put out a single book for children. It’s a bit like a ballet dancer getting on a unicycle; the results can be hard to watch. Let’s start with The Little Prince. * * * * * * * Saint-Exupery was a French aristocrat… Read more The Little Prince (1943)
– Part I – Charlotte’s Web (1952, E. B. White) Fern, daughter of Maine farmers, won’t let her father kill the smallest piglet. Instead she adopts it, names it Wilbur, and feeds it from a baby bottle. But Fern doesn’t get to keep Wilbur; instead he goes to her uncle’s farm to be raised for… Read more The Dog Dies, Part II: Charlotte’s Web
What a lovely, sun-drenched, quirky book this is. The Moomins and their extended family (including Sniff, Snufkin, two Snorks, a Hemulin, and a Muskrat) spend an enchanted spring and summer having adventures, complicated by a magician’s hat that changes things into other things. No description of those adventures could do them justice. I will just… Read more Finn Family Moomintroll (1948)