As with last year, I have made more of an effort to read children's literature. Recently, I went through a little streak from July into August. The Trumpet of the Swan by E.B. White This was nice. I do not really remember much from Charlotte's Webb and had not heard or read anything else by White. I enjoyed that the titular character has adventures all over North America. Danny, the Champion of the World by…
Tag: childrens-lit
My first book of 2020 was graphic novel for children based on history. I really liked this graphic novel; it's heavy and well written and drawn. I like the use of water colours and images from historical times. Even though the story is not real history, it is based on it and I believe some of the elements concerning the religious aspect is true. I really enjoyed the folk and fairy stories in it as…
I finished 2019 by reading these two children's books. The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright I really liked this one. It was published in 1941. With the Agatha Christie books and this one, I was put into a real pre-war mood. The novel is quite similar to the Boxcar Children as well. I thought there was a lot of clever writing and it makes me miss this early 20th century writing style. No one writes like…
Part of my spontaneous reading challenge to read children's books. I have heard about this book growing up. I vaguely remember the 1997 movie but I never watched it. The only time I really became interested was when Studio Ghibli released Arrietty. I like the descriptions and the world building but the book did not win me over until the last third. I think the movie is better than the book in this case. I…
When I finished Voracious a few months ago, I was inspired to put a few children's books on hold. As a kid, most of my non-school book discoveries were self-initiated so I missed out on some of the books below. Home Price by Richard McClostky This was a cute one to start off with. It was published in 1943 and has all the references and illustrations from that time. Homer is an industrious young protagonist.…
This was the right spring time book for an Easter read. I've seen more than one adaptation of this book on TV and movies. I also think I read at the very least an adapted version of this as a kid. I liked the transformation of spoiled and sour Mary into a kinder and more robust one. I was less interested in Colin and the move shifts more to him in the latter half. Dickon…
I am counting this as one Classics Club entry because technically I've reread most of the books except two. The Little House in the Big Woods Farmer Boy Little House on the Prairie On the Banks of Plum Creek By the Shores of Silver Lake The Long Winter Little Town on the Prairie These Happy Golden Years The First Four Years When I started this read-along, I wanted to judge if the books were as…
The more I re-read these books, the more uncomfortable I am with Charles Ingalls. While the books have some lovely moments especially with Laura exploring the wild and the glimpses of frontier life, I get annoyed with Pa. He buys lumber for a house in the spring on credit of the wheat he will harvest later. It is a big lack of foresight because the last wheat harvest by the previous owner was poor. He…
Compared to the first book, lots of things happen in this novel. So also begins the the restlessness of Charles Ingalls. This novel had moving, travel, house building, Indians, malaria, and more. A lot of the stuff was on the scary side such as the creek crossing part, almost losing Jack the dog, and basically all the parts with wild animals. It was a bit interesting to watch them travel and build a home on…
This book in the series is known for its food, and there is lots and lots of food at the beginning stages. Almanzo's childhood is relatively stable and abundant when compared to Laura's. I think Laura wrote all the food to emphasize how much Manly had, but also how much she herself didn't have growing up. This is actually a really good standalone children's book. There are a lot of period details about farm life…
This is part of a readalong of the Little House series I am organizing on an internet forum I moderate. One of the reasons I organized the readalong was to see if they were as good as I remembered, but also to look critically for things. Rose Wilder wrote a lot of these books with her mother, and her political views are sprinkled throughout. Secondly, reading between the lines, a lot of other readers wondered…
My parents did not read to me as a child so I had to read a lot of children's classics on my own as a kid or now, later as an adult. I also remember being read to a few times in school of course, but not this classic. Most people know this story already but essentially it is about a tree who loves a boy I really liked the book as I read it,…