Children's and young adult literature

[Teshi]

So, when I was a kid, my dad was engaged in this attempt to make me into a lil' genius. Unfortunately for the both of us, the raw materials just weren't there to work with, but one of the side effect what that I never really read a lot of kids' books...I was started on Real Literature almost from the time I learned to read. I did have a couple of kids' classics, like Black Beauty, the Little House series, and The Chronicles of Narnia, but that was about it.

Flash forward to adulthood - my first year teaching, I was assigned the 6th grade remedial reading class, which led to me searching out as many good kids' books as I could to read with my monsters. And I what I found out was that a lot of children's books are just superb. The best of them, in my judgement, anyway, are actually better in many ways than comparable adult fiction, because they're, like, distilled. All the awesomeness, condensed and packed into easily accessable packages. So I've been buying a lot of books to give to my nieces (after reading them myself, of course :mrgreen: ).

I have to say, I have particularly mad love for:
Duck for President, which is a fine piece of political satire :mrgreen:
The Stinky Cheese Manand The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, by Jon Scieszka
Coraline, by Neil Gaiman, although it's sufficiently creepy that I'm not sure I can in good conscience reccomend it to actual children
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle, by Avi. Mutiny, hurrah!
The Watsons Go to Birmingham, 1968 by Christopher Paul Curtis. This one is great to read out loud, because the narrator's voice is amazing.
The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper
And about a zillion others.

Do you all have any favorites?

[Joykins]

Naomi Kritzer (who writes, but not for children) says children don't--or at least her 6-yo didn't-- find _Coraline_ half as scary as adults do. Apparently most adults read it as horror, child-in-peril, but kids read it as an adventure story.

On the straight fiction front, I always like Carolyn Haywood, Carol Ryrie Brink, and Beverly Cleary. Nearly anything by them is pure gold.

Lloyd Alexander is excellent.

I think it was Russel Hoban who wrote _How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsman_. Great stuff.

The Great Brain books. I forget who wrote 'em.

Heinlein juveniles :D

Oh yeah! Tom Sawyer!

[Teshi]

The Great Brain books! LOVE!

Some of my 12-year-olds were pretty wigged by Coraline. Come to think of it, it was the more mature kids that were freaked out when they read it. I think maybe it requires that switchover to abstract thought in order to be really unnerving.

[ravenscape]

I second Lloyd Alexander. I loved Time Cat as a kid. So did the Things.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is especially poignant to geeky kids that don't fit in either a child's world nor an adult's world.

Smoky was a Cow Horse by Will James.

Ditto Heinlein's Juveniles. Some of Andre Norton's Juveniles are awesome, too.

[seebs]

The Great Brain books! LOVE!

I was very confused by their use of the term "Gentiles". I loved those books, though.

I remember seeing on the cover of one a claim that it was "now a major motion picture from the Osmonds". That was the experience that led me to realize that nothing ever claims to have been made into a minor motion picture. Anyway, anyone know whether these are still in print, and who wrote them? I'd buy the set to re-read, certainly.

Second the recommendation for Lloyd Alexander; I like nearly everything he does.

Diane Duane's So you want to be a Wizard? is fun, and starts a series (7 books last I checked), all of which I've liked. She also did a 3-part scifi trilogy set in the universe of an unsuccessful roleplaying game, but the books were pretty fun and I enjoyed them. Actually, the Wizard books are interesting in no small part in that she reads like a young adult Walter Wink; her description of the "Lone Power" (a man of wealth and taste) is absolutely eerie.

[Kaonashi]

Some of the major book series that I read when I was younger were the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children.
I also read the Sweet Valley High series.

[cas07]

Some of the major book series that I read when I was younger were the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew and the Boxcar Children.
I also read the Sweet Valley High series.hardy boys, nancy drew, cherry ames (i wanted to be a nurse...), bobbsey twins (always thought it would be cool to have twins, then got to find out - IT IS COOL :) )

one of my boys and i have been reading "the magic treehouse books" - brother and sister travel back in time to various big events or times in history - great series.

my mom was bound and determined that we would be well-rounded readers, and when we lived in the PI, we didn't have television so we read a lot. every time we checked out books from the library, we were allowed one fiction and one non-fiction book. in choosing the non-fiction, we had to use the dewey decimal system and had to pick each time from the next section (100s, 200s, etc) so we didn't get stuck on one subject. one of my favorite memories of that was when i was around 10, my mom brought me a copy of anna and the king of siam. i read it, fascinated, cover to cover. about a week after i had finished it, my folks told us they were taking us to thailand - i was going to see all the things i had read about! it was wonderful, and that book has remained a favorite of mine ever since.

[Kassiana]

Gordon Korman's books in general are fantastic and incredibly funny, especially his books set in a Canadian boarding school (starts with This Can't Be Happening at McDonald Hall!). I also really loved Don't Care High.

Ellen Rankin's (?I think) The Westing Game is also a good book.

Albert Terhune's dog books are all worth a read.

I wouldn't recommend Johnny Gruelle's Raggedy Ann books to any but very, very young children. They're extraordinarily preachy.

Of course, L. Frank Baum's Oz books (fourteen in all) are wonderful. There are a very few racist comments, unfortunately, in one of the books.

[Joykins]

Anything by L.M. Montgomery, especially for the girls.

[Kaonashi]

Anything by L.M. Montgomery, especially for the girls.
The Anne of Avonlea series was one of my favorites when I was growing up.

[Loki]

Children and Young Adult books I recall reading and enjoying:

Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

A Wrinkle in Time

A Taste of Blackberries

The Giver

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry

Ramona Quimby books. Henry Huggins to a lesser extent. I still read a Ramona book about once every two months or so. Ramona Forever "I go on forever." How profound in a simple children's book.

[Chajara]

I still read the Redwall series, although the more I read them the more I realize how incredibly violent they actually are. Still, the dialogue is pretty good and the descriptions of the food they have at their feasts is awesome.

[Mrs.Sidhe]

The Sidhes recommends "Wee Free Men" by Terry Pratchett. Its part of the Discworld series but more written for a younger audience. It would help to have read the other parts of the series but its not necessary. Its only helpful because they mention other characters from other books (but not in anyway that would detract from the reading of the story)

[seebs]

I still read the Redwall series, although the more I read them the more I realize how incredibly violent they actually are. Still, the dialogue is pretty good and the descriptions of the food they have at their feasts is awesome.

I liked about the first two, after that, they stopped seeming like new books to me. I wish the guy would have an evil that WASN'T destroyed by short-sighted internal squabbling, just for once.

[Abiel]

Oldest son is currently very keen on Antony Horowitz Alex Rider series, and has every Redwall book, fortunately from local secind hand bookshop

As a young girl (8ish) couldnt get me away from Alison Uttley's Little grey rabbit series. Also flower fairies series.

Enid Blyton was cool too. Naughty Amelia Jane and the Wishing Chair.

The best picture books are out of this world. Where the wild things are. THe mole who knew it was none of his business (I exhort you to go get a copy right now- you will laugh like a 6 year old) THe gruffalo, Little Rabbit FooFoo. The list is endless

[Loki]

Oh, how can a thread on children's lit go without the obligatory Narnia/Harry Potter nod? I love them both dearly

[pdudgeon]

sounds like a lot of us read the same great books! ;-)
i'll also put in a plug for Shel Silverstein, e e cummings, Dr. Seus books, The Little Prince, and books by Louisa M. Alcott, Mark Twain, and of course Mother Goose.