Children's Book Meme
17 Apr 2009 07:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisbluespiritI nicked this off daibhid_c- how could I, a children's librarian, pass up on this one? Of course, it's odd for me, as this meme assumes one has stopped reading children's books. Heh.
Bear with me if I start waffling a lot.
1: What is your favourite children's book?
This is almost as difficult as 'what's your favourite book'? On it goes my professional reputation. I would say Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, which is one of the most amazing books I know, but it is teenage - should I choose my favourite children's book here? And what is that? I suppose if you'd asked me, aged 10, I'd have said Lloyd Alexander's The High King (and the rest of the Prydain chronicles) and Pat O'Shea's The Hound of the Morrigan.
2: What book scared / scarred you as a child?
Hmm. Roald Dahl The Magic Finger. The idea of the family getting changed into birds and hunted down scared me stiff. (I was also scared in the good and proper way by The Witches). Also The Open Door, a Sunday school prize. I can't remember who it was by, but ... no I'm not even going to describe it.
3: Name a recent children's author who you wish had been writing when you were a child.
Cornelia Funke! How I would have lost myself forever in the Inkheart trilogy when I was 10. It might even have beaten the two above. It reads like how I imagine children's books should be, without being deliberately old-fashioned or anything but what it is. I'd have loved Harry Potter completely as well.
4: If you could pair an illustrator and children's author, who would they be?
Hmm. Good question. In fact, we're so lucky at the moment; we've seen some wonderful pairings. Helen Oxenbury's version of Alice; Chris Riddell doing just about anything, Lauren Child illustrating Pippi Longstocking. No, I'm stuck for that one.
5: Your [hypothetical] children reach puberty and don't really like reading but are willing to try something at your suggestion; what do you pick and why?
Sorry. Why don't they like reading? What's WRONG with me that this has happened? What's wrong with them? (Only joking. Probably I hypothetically bored them silly about books from their hypothetical birth.) This is impossible to answer: what book they read depends on the child. This is why you don't go saying things like 'ooh, age-banding, what a good idea' to me. The whole business of being a children's librarian is this: the right book to the right child at the right time. And it might be Arthur Ransome being read to a three year old, or Anthony Browne at 14. There is no book that everyone should read. (Well, except maybe Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli).
Parents: do NOT panic. Your child will read what he/she wants to read and if they like anything, encourage it. Never ever stand there telling them to get a proper book. It does not have to be in the specific reading scheme they are doing at school. These are not things you will find outside of schools. Think about things they like and sneakily tempt them, or hand them over to a librarian, if they automatically think your choice is boring.
6: What's the first book you bought with your own money?
Ummmm. I think probably something i can't recall, but I do remember buying The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith from a school book club and it being a big deal, so that could have been. Of course, it got chewed by my baby sister and I bled all over it with my wobbly tooth, but books aren't there to be kept neat forever. Or Danny Fox by David Thompson perhaps.
7: Did you sneakily read books that would have been disapproved of by your family? What did you think of them?
Er. I didn't read anything my Mum bought or recommended for me unless it was by Enid Blyton. But something that they'd have disapproved of? I don't recall either of them ever inspecting my reading. And I was mainly interested in Enid Blyton and fantasy, so I wasn't likely to come across something really dodgy. My aunt disapproved of me borrowing Tolkien from my uncle ("Wouldn't you prefer a nice romance?" as I borrowed them off him for the Xth time. Me; "No.").
(My main rebellion later, as a student was to borrow classical music from the library. That really bothered my poor Dad. "Why would she want to listen to that?" Heh.) I did look at my Granny's books in her spare room and they included Lady Chatterly's Lover, but that didn't look at all interesting to me and nobody made the stupid mistake of telling me not to read it. What I did read that way, aged about 14 or 15 was Sense and Sensibility. It was about three sisters, so I identified immediately and loved it forever. And decided that meant all classics must be good and embarked on a mission to read them all, a decision I never regretted.
daibhid_c- how could I, a children's librarian, pass up on this one? Of course, it's odd for me, as this meme assumes one has stopped reading children's books. Heh. Bear with me if I start waffling a lot.
1: What is your favourite children's book?
This is almost as difficult as 'what's your favourite book'? On it goes my professional reputation. I would say Fire and Hemlock by Diana Wynne Jones, which is one of the most amazing books I know, but it is teenage - should I choose my favourite children's book here? And what is that? I suppose if you'd asked me, aged 10, I'd have said Lloyd Alexander's The High King (and the rest of the Prydain chronicles) and Pat O'Shea's The Hound of the Morrigan.
2: What book scared / scarred you as a child?
Hmm. Roald Dahl The Magic Finger. The idea of the family getting changed into birds and hunted down scared me stiff. (I was also scared in the good and proper way by The Witches). Also The Open Door, a Sunday school prize. I can't remember who it was by, but ... no I'm not even going to describe it.
3: Name a recent children's author who you wish had been writing when you were a child.
Cornelia Funke! How I would have lost myself forever in the Inkheart trilogy when I was 10. It might even have beaten the two above. It reads like how I imagine children's books should be, without being deliberately old-fashioned or anything but what it is. I'd have loved Harry Potter completely as well.
4: If you could pair an illustrator and children's author, who would they be?
Hmm. Good question. In fact, we're so lucky at the moment; we've seen some wonderful pairings. Helen Oxenbury's version of Alice; Chris Riddell doing just about anything, Lauren Child illustrating Pippi Longstocking. No, I'm stuck for that one.
5: Your [hypothetical] children reach puberty and don't really like reading but are willing to try something at your suggestion; what do you pick and why?
Sorry. Why don't they like reading? What's WRONG with me that this has happened? What's wrong with them? (Only joking. Probably I hypothetically bored them silly about books from their hypothetical birth.) This is impossible to answer: what book they read depends on the child. This is why you don't go saying things like 'ooh, age-banding, what a good idea' to me. The whole business of being a children's librarian is this: the right book to the right child at the right time. And it might be Arthur Ransome being read to a three year old, or Anthony Browne at 14. There is no book that everyone should read. (Well, except maybe Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli).
Parents: do NOT panic. Your child will read what he/she wants to read and if they like anything, encourage it. Never ever stand there telling them to get a proper book. It does not have to be in the specific reading scheme they are doing at school. These are not things you will find outside of schools. Think about things they like and sneakily tempt them, or hand them over to a librarian, if they automatically think your choice is boring.
6: What's the first book you bought with your own money?
Ummmm. I think probably something i can't recall, but I do remember buying The Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith from a school book club and it being a big deal, so that could have been. Of course, it got chewed by my baby sister and I bled all over it with my wobbly tooth, but books aren't there to be kept neat forever. Or Danny Fox by David Thompson perhaps.
7: Did you sneakily read books that would have been disapproved of by your family? What did you think of them?
Er. I didn't read anything my Mum bought or recommended for me unless it was by Enid Blyton. But something that they'd have disapproved of? I don't recall either of them ever inspecting my reading. And I was mainly interested in Enid Blyton and fantasy, so I wasn't likely to come across something really dodgy. My aunt disapproved of me borrowing Tolkien from my uncle ("Wouldn't you prefer a nice romance?" as I borrowed them off him for the Xth time. Me; "No.").
(My main rebellion later, as a student was to borrow classical music from the library. That really bothered my poor Dad. "Why would she want to listen to that?" Heh.) I did look at my Granny's books in her spare room and they included Lady Chatterly's Lover, but that didn't look at all interesting to me and nobody made the stupid mistake of telling me not to read it. What I did read that way, aged about 14 or 15 was Sense and Sensibility. It was about three sisters, so I identified immediately and loved it forever. And decided that meant all classics must be good and embarked on a mission to read them all, a decision I never regretted.
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Date: 17 Apr 2009 07:52 pm (UTC)I didn't enjoy Inkheart - don't hate me, I do like The Thief Lord and the dragon one (Dragon Rider?) by Funke. I think the translation lets it down, to be honest. I certainly found the English clunkier than in the other two I mentioned.
And the idea of you borrowing classical music and it bothering your dad made me giggle! I rebelled in a similar way - preferring classical to Cliff, The Shadows, ELO, Procul Harum, Queen, et al. (That said, I still know all the words to all of Queen's hits - and Cliff's too!)
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Date: 17 Apr 2009 08:03 pm (UTC)I found Inkheart wonderful, but hard going (whereas The Thief Lord was such a romp, like the best kind of live-action Disney film), but I fell for Inkspell hook, line and sinker. Maybe it was Fenoglio tinkering with his own world and the consequences, Mo's existential worries and the book-related quotes for each chapter, I don't know, but I adored it. I know I would have loved the first and third parts more as a child. So I do wish I'd read it then.
My parents also listened to Cliff. And country music and the Stones and the BEatles. What else do you do?
Stargirl is so beautifully written in places that even if you don't take to it, you might still want to take paragraphs out and frame them. Pat O'Shea's book, i used to borrow from the library when I was 10, read it three times in the week, take it back, borrow it again. (It's 460 pages long - I used to read so quickly!!! What happened?) I dared re-read it a few years ago and it was still impressive. It's a fantasy built around Irish myths. I don't know whether it's worth a rec or not! It is definitely a children's book, but a good one.
no subject
Date: 17 Apr 2009 08:10 pm (UTC)I just feel bad, because it's a fabulous idea, but I just didn't enjoy it that much...
I found Inkheart wonderful, but hard going (whereas The Thief Lord was such a romp, like the best kind of live-action Disney film), but I fell for Inkspell hook, line and sinker. Maybe it was Fenoglio tinkering with his own world and the consequences, Mo's existential worries and the book-related quotes for each chapter, I don't know, but I adored it. I know I would have loved the first and third parts more as a child. So I do wish I'd read it then.
I didn't even try to read Inkspell, having been so disappointed in Inkheart. I want to watch the movie of The Thief Lord, but don't know if I dare to!
My parents also listened to Cliff. And country music and the Stones and the BEatles. What else do you do?
Exactly!
Stargirl is so beautifully written in places that even if you don't take to it, you might still want to take paragraphs out and frame them.
Sounds lovely!
Pat O'Shea's book, i used to borrow from the library when I was 10, read it three times in the week, take it back, borrow it again. (It's 460 pages long - I used to read so quickly!!! What happened?) I dared re-read it a few years ago and it was still impressive. It's a fantasy built around Irish myths. I don't know whether it's worth a rec or not! It is definitely a children's book, but a good one.
Provided no one gets to the library before I can tomorrow, I'll be able to grab Hounds when I'm in picking up the next Edmund Crispin. Stargirl's out on loan across half the county's branch libraries so I'll have to request that - but I'll hang fire for the moment since I've got 6 items on request at the moment (including the first two Anne Perry's!) - and at 85p an item, that soon builds up!
no subject
Date: 19 Apr 2009 08:16 am (UTC)But I also didn't dare watch the film of The Thief Lord - after all, it didn't have Bob Hoskins in it!! (I'm rather amused by Cornelia Funke's evident habit of casting her novels - she meant Brendan Fraser to be Mo all along, which makes so much more sense of Inkspell. I wish I'd known that when I started it!)
no subject
Date: 19 Apr 2009 08:22 am (UTC)I knew that about Brendan Fraser. I was in a children's lit email discussion group for ages and remember the conversation about that. Who was Bob Hoskins cast as (in the book)? It's been a while since I read it.
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Date: 21 Apr 2009 03:48 pm (UTC)(Victor is the detective, if it's been long enough that you don't remember names.)
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Date: 21 Apr 2009 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 21 Apr 2009 05:54 pm (UTC)And I think you said something along the lines of "Don't vene mention books to me." :-p
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Date: 21 Apr 2009 06:26 pm (UTC)Indeed!
And I think you said something along the lines of "Don't vene mention books to me." :-p
"vene"? Or "even", even! :D
Actually I probably did 'cos I was a cranky bear the other day. I'm not now, though!
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Date: 19 Apr 2009 12:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 19 Apr 2009 08:14 am (UTC)I think a lot of people have found Inkheart not quite what they expected and it is a long book, after all. Someone commented the same thing to me on seeing the film. It's something more complicated than 'characters come to life', more about loving books and stories in different ways and the dangers and rewards involved in that. I'm going to have to re-read them and decide on that myself some time!
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Date: 19 Apr 2009 08:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 18 Apr 2009 12:31 am (UTC)I am so glad you still read children's books. I always feel a little bit sad when someone says that they're just for children.
I might have to do this meme when I eventually get around to posting my childhood-novel-crossover fic, which yes, I will do, soon.
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Date: 18 Apr 2009 09:00 am (UTC)And, yes, I loved Prydain to pieces and wept who knows how many tears over The High King every time I read it.
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Date: 18 Apr 2009 10:00 am (UTC)I will have to dig up those books again, I think.
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Date: 18 Apr 2009 02:33 pm (UTC)Chris Riddell on anything, yes!
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Date: 18 Apr 2009 03:41 pm (UTC)Absolutely, with my favourite probably being his first Kate Greenaway winner, Pirate Diary just for the use of perspective and full page colour spreads. :-)