Regression
With the appearance of the last Harry Potter instalment, and seeing how my girls have grown up with those books as a sort of kiddielit theme running intermittently through their lives, I started thinking about which books I'd read as a child that I would now regard as real favourites - books I would not have missed for quids, and which I would still happily nibble on alongside my more grown-up literary diet. Books that taught me not to write ridiculously long sentences too. (Obviously didn't dip into too many of those).
Winnie the Pooh? Yes, and the Wind in the Willows, Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, Little Women and its sequels, the Narnia books of course ... Seven Little Australians, Picnic at Hanging Rock (gave me nightmares for months), the Molesworth stories I pinched from my brother - and the terribly un-PC Famous Five as a sort of comfort-food collection when I was feeling low. I still have all of these books and many others from that part of my childhood (7 to 12 perhaps?), but I've settled on one special one as a favourite.
Norton Juster's "The Phantom Tollbooth" is still a wonderful book. A modern fairy tale (written in the early sixties I think), it's the magical journey of a disenfranchised, bored little boy called Milo who discovers the power of words, numbers, concepts and friends, and learns the value of getting off his bottom and actually doing something.
Seek it out and read it, and go back to a time of innocence, wonder and adventure, where wordplay becomes fun and fantasy leaps happily from page to page. It's not Hogwarts, but sometimes one book says enough.
posted by MargieCM at 9:20 pm
31 Comments:
Margie, what a lovely post! I can so well remember the books that I used to wallow in as a child. I'm with you on Winnie the Pooh, don't think I did the Famous Five and wasn't allowed to read Enid Blyton (can't remember why now), but I did love Swallows and Amazons (so adventurous - and with boats too), E. Nebitt's books and an all-time childhood favourite was The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, which I must have read so many times, it disintegrated in the end.
I tended to go for historical settings as my favoured fantasy world, and was never that keen on schoolroom scenarios, but of course even earlier, I read Thomas the Tank Engine, and another special favourite from the librabry was Orlando the Marmalade Cat (think he was Orlando anyway). Ooooh such good memories of endless days stretched out on my bed just reading. It was definitely my escape! Thanks for reminding me Margie
And now - off to find Tollbooth! xx
Hello Vally! I'd forgotten Swallows and Amazons - they were favourites of Colin's too, and might explain a lot about his fondness for boats. Orlando I remember well, although I didn't really catch up with Thomas until I had my own girls. I will look for the Little White Horse. Burgler Bill is my favourite children's picture book of more recent times. Still makes me smile.
Enid Blyton was never quality lit. Parents and teachers hated her. Stereotypes, sexism, class-ism, and frankly lousy writing. However, I did love the ridiculously impossible adventures the FF got up to.
I remember some outrageous content though. "I say, George(ina) - honestly, you're almost as good as a boy!" And the importance of being downwind of dirty and dishonest gypsies. Say no more!
Hi Margie, you know I just never got into Harry Potter, I tried, I don't know. I think that they are wonderful, the book, the movies.
Winnie the pooh,wind in the willows, Alice etc. now that is what I remember, I used to think how cool would that be to walk the the lookinglass. Like the Lion, the Witch and The Wardrobe, that was my favourite, I still have the book I used to read over and over.
Oh yes, Grace, I'm with you and Margie on the others too: Little Women and especially the Narnia books, Wind in the Willows etc. I was a voracious reader as a child, and had finished with nearly all of the 'children's' books by the time I was about twelve, so had to go one to other things, such as Jane Austen (loved the unbelievable industry of doing nothing) and George Elliot, but one author I do remember loving and finding in droves in my very thirties-focused parents' books (my mum was over forty when I was born) was Dornford Yates!
Horribly 'Hooray Henry,' but at the same time hilarious and I soaked up their driving adventures on their perpetual holidays in France. PC or non PC wasn't an issue then and I had free access to my parents' books, which were all rather pre-war anyway. That's why I was always puzzled about the ban on Enid Blyton - I could read almost anything else I wanted!
OH, I used to read The Beano, The Broons, Beryl The Peryl and I loved Stig Of the Dump and The Singing Ringing Tree..
I bought Chantal books from being a baby and kept every single one as I believe you should never throw out books..now they will be wonderful for Harvey to read..theres hundreds..all books are timeless..
And I absolutely love that film Picnic At Hanging Rock, it's one of the most haunting yet visually stunning films I've ever seen..
Hi Margie,
I read Enid Blyton, but in French. Noddy was "Oui-Oui", and I loved them. I was also big into Nancy Drew (again, Alice Roy in French, though I read those in both languages). I was also big into French comics like Tintin, Boule et Bill, and Asterix.
Wonderful post!
xx
AM
Margie, thank you for this jaunt down memory lane...haven't thought about this in years!
Historical fiction was my favorite and one of those was entitled The Witch of Blackbird Pond. About a young lady from Barbados who moved to Puritan New England in the 1600's. I'm a sucker for a 'fish out of water' story.
Then of course, there was Nancy Drew - always in trouble with The Mystery of Some Such Thing or Other, Little Women and The Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
It's funny, but I didn't read any Winnie the Pooh until later in life. There is a lot of wisdom in those stories.
What a great post that helps bring back stories we read in our youth. I just loved the Narnia books and Little Women, Men etc.... I also was a big fan of Dr. Seuss. I don't know if anyone ever came across Wonder Books, but they were great books that explained much of why things were the way they were, which my curious mind was totally absorbed with.
A wonderful post indeed! I would definitely list the Narnia books. My parents bought them all, and I loved them all. However, I don't think I've re-read any of the books I loved as a child, perhaps for the fear that I'd become disillusioned, or because in the end none of them mattered for me as much as what I found in the "grown ups" section of the library. I sneaked there quite early, at around 12, and oh what treasures I found there!
How lovely to have all your memories and see how many we have in common! Thank you all so much for commenting.
Vally and Maria, I agree that the "grown-up" sections of libraries and our parents' collections were always very alluring. I remember discovering the short stories of H E Bates, James Thurber, P G Wodehouse and others at home, as well as a highly illuminating book of Anais Nin's which educated me beyond my immediate needs for a while. I still remember the pride I felt as a child in reading books without pictures and which were written for grown-ups. (Probably just as well there weren't any pictures in that last one).
Grace - Narnia for you too? They are wonderful books, and quite powerful allegories. Like Alice, they were written as more than just simple fables for children.
Gypsy - I agree with you about not throwing books out. We've given a couple of boxfuls of children's books away over the years, but never favourites, of which I still have eight or nine boxes as well as the ones still on the girls' shelves. They include books which Colin and I had as children too. In my next life I'm going to have a huge library so no book ever has to languish in storage.
Anne Marie - I would love to see Noddy in French "Oui-Oui" is of course hilarious to scatalogical English speakers. Tin Tin I did read in French, although I was so terrible at it I think I got more from the pictures than the text.
Hi Rache! I do know the Nancy Drew books, but couldn't feel close to the character or identify with the very American lifestyle, so they weren't big for me, although I enjoyed the mystery aspect. I love what you said about the "fish out of water" stories. Maybe that's something we can all identify with a bit. Glad you found Winnie the Pooh too. I know A A Milne's son grew to hate those stories and poems, but I love them, and think they hold an innocence and wonder that's missing from many children's lives these days.
Lannio - I didn't think about the non-fiction, although of course those "Big Book of ...' "The Wonder Book of ..." titles were fabulous. Some of them are so funny now, especially the technology-based ones. We have a lot of Colin's - his Dad was a research scientist at one point, and education in the sciences was considered vital. As for Dr Seuss - I think I had those from the mobile library - a big bus that came to our street every three weeks when I was about four or five. Wonderful, mad stories.
Off now to feed my inner child some jam muffins and ovaltine.
shnwyoh yes yes yes...
Little Women and Little Men, Jo's Boys, All the Narnia books, A wrinkle in Time (there IS such a thing as a teseract), on called The Fur Person that was a story about a cat's life, Let the Lion Eat Straw, Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew, all the Anne of Green Gables books and Little House in the Prairie, and my parents had the Reader's Digest condensed books including the ones for young readers, all in god awful pastel colours, but with tons of stories and adventures... a little later I became enamoured with scince fiction and fantasy, and the Xanth novels and Shannara books were devoured nightly... there was never a time I was not in the middle of at least one book, and there were so many Idon't think I could ever begin to list them all.
Winnie the Pooh, though, was most loved by me through my trusty old red Viewmaster, one of those binocular deals that you put the circular disk with a photo story on it. I loved most of all the one when Pooh gets stuck in the honey tree... it was a golden and lovely warm looking photo of his front half as he is inside the tree with his paws dripping with honey and looking ever so Poohhappy!
What a fabulous post Margie...
Stevie, thank you for your lovely response. Another reader of the Little Women books, Narnia and Pooh! I remember the Viewmasters too, although I suspect the pics on the Pooh ones would have been the Disney ones rather than E H Shepard's originals. If so, shhh ... don't tell Vally. There was blood on the walls last time classic Pooh went up against Disney on pages not far from here!
Obviously though my own education is lacking - what in heaven's name is "shnwyoh"? Did you type your word verification in the wrong place? Or is it another LOL or IMHO? Thinks hard: "see how nice we yar over here?" Well I won't argue with that.
Disney images for Pooh? Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! *Vally rumbles disagreeably*
Told you.
I can't stand Winnie the Poo!...he would make a fine hearth rug though..;0)
Hi Margie
That's an inspiring post, especially where "The Phantom Tollbooth" comes into view. I'll look if I can get my hands on a copy.
Funny thing is the tollbooth reminds me of a picture I took in Wroclaw last week, which is not a tollbooth at all but a station kiosk
Oh and then my childhood books! Put on your seatbelts. Very protestant books, especially written for the christian education of the wee ones. Dutch originals. Highly moralistic stories where the hero (boy) gets his character strengthened through his belief and his parents' example.
The girls, lacking the physical power, were a bit more inclined to prayer, but morally they weren't as vulnerable as the boys.
These stories were just as dear to me as anyone's, so I don't look back in anger. I find their genre neither superior nor inferior to the great British classics. However, the writing style has become hopelessly obsolete - the spelling too - as opposed to the timelessness of Winnie the Pooh. Or am I now being a biased anglophile?
Oh yes, Winnie the Pooh!
I have none of those books anymore, but when I was pregnant with Beth, there was a certain gas station that gave a Pooh book away with every tankfull...
By the time she was born, I had the entire collection - and many miles added to the odometer on my truck.
I still have the same collection and my 2 other children have read (or been read) each book cover to cover.
Reading is something that is so very important for everyone!
I am a veritable plethora of trivia as a result...
Oh Disney images...our first wobbly steps into the world of mass marketing...
My recent collection has the original images!
I do like the Canadian connection to Winnie the Pooh. She was the mascot of a WW1 Canadian regiment, named Winnie because she was from Winnipeg (or the solider who kept her was). She ended up at the London Zoo when the war ended and the soldier couldn't keep her, and was a favourite among children because she was so tame and friendly. A little boy called Christopher saw her when he visited with his father and the rest, as they say, is history...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg_bear
xx
AM (practising for teaching, which starts tomorrow!)
Gypsy, you have something else besides a sharp and fabulous wit in common with the late, great Dorothy Parker. I've told this before on these blogs, but when she reviewed for a paper under the name "Constant Reader", she wrote one sentence for "The House at Pooh Corner": "Tonstant Weader frowed up".
Koos, lovely to see you - I had a quick naughty look at your new posts and pics at work today, and they look wonderful. I'm just snatching a quick minute here now, but I will get back to yours in the next day or so and talk properly. I think your forebearing attitude to your childhood books is excellent. If truth be told, our first books are always chosen by our parents for their own reasons. Plenty of time to sort out our own choices down the line.
Dale, Pooh for you too! Lovely story about the fuel-stop instalments. I am glad you have the original pictures - they are really special.
And Anne Marie - thank you! I honestly didn't know that, so you are off to a flying start for your term's teaching - and by distance education too! hope the floorboards are nailed down by now.
PS: Koos, Vally and anyone else who's inclined - I really am serious about you trying to get hold of a copy of Tollbooth. It is still available I'm sure, and is such a wonderful story. Please let me know if you do read it - I'd love to hear a new adult reader's perspective.
Goodness, Anne Marie, I never knew that was where the inspiration for Winnie the Pooh came from! And even worse, that the original Winnie was female! Winnie the Pooh is most definitely a he-pooh, so Christopher must have been beautifully and innocently guileless and oblivious to such nuisances as gender.
Margie, I am serious too about getting a copy of Tollbooth, but haven't tracked it down through the local sources yet. Will have to spread out a bit further...and see, I'm almost back to regular habits now..chuckle...makes it sound a bit lavatorial doesn't it?
Gypsy..you're meant to lie down with Winnie the Pooh...not stand...silly girl!
My favourite as a chile was The Call of The Wild by Jack London. That and Alfred Hitchcock and The Three Investigators - I always thought that Pete Crenshaw was a cool name and my wee Nothern Irish cheeky face would always animate when I pronounced the name with an American twang when I read the books.
Back from France and Ireland, and I drank several years of wine to your health. I also felt the need to tag you on my blog, for at worst, to find out 8 wines that trip your tongue.
keep well - p
Margie!! You've been tagged by our Paul! Ah yes, I see he's been here too..but I did laugh at your comment on his last post..I admit.....je suis un rat!!
And well, if I was showing off, I was rather publicly showing off my dreadful French grammar!! But I do love to have a go at it again now and then. I should do a lot better since it was one of my degree subjects, and I mourn the fact that every time I open my mouth to speak French, nothing but Dutch seems to come out.
I remember years ago I used to help out at Chantals first school, sort of sit with the children and help them read. Holding up a Winnie the Poo book, I asked one little girl if she could read the title for me. "Yes" she replied "It's Winnie the Shit"..
I couldn't help but laugh!..
The original Pooh is more endearing... but you have to forgive my dreadful parents for introducing me to the Disney bastardization first Val!
Margie: shnwyoh was the verification word... didn't realize what I had done until after I posted! Obviously I didn't check much seeing all the mistakes in my typing!
YOIKS!
I forgot to add Farley Mowat to my list, and W.O. Mitchell.
I did an obituary for W.O. when he died, early on in my first year at J-school.
I recall one anecdote about him writing letters, usually of the complaint variety, to the federal government on a fairly regular basis. He always signed them,
"Love, W.O. Mitchell."
He was pretty cool, he was. So was Peter Gzowski.
Oh Margie, I just read the first page of The Phantom Tollbooth, and now I have to buy it! I got to read the first page for free... but what a hook!
G'day Margie! How are you?
I love the way that when anyone posts a piece on these blogs about an aspect of childhood it receives such an overwhelmingly positive, heartfelt response. Worth a post in itself, that.
Paul, I will certainly do my bit and respond to your tag, though I doubt I have enough bloggy friends to tag in my turn! As I said on yours though, it will have to be tomorrow. it's too late for me to sound intelligent now. Oh, and I will go back and read The Call of the Wild again too. I loved that one - thank you for reminding me!
Vally, I am in awe of your multiple linguistic skills. My own are truly pathethic, with the possible exception of English, which I'm still hoping to master some day.
Gypsy how brilliant! I'd have wet myself. Out of the mouths of babes, eh? And with you in sympathy too - perfect.
Stevie, I'm going to have to look up those last ones you mentioned. And I'm glad about the word verification - I really thought I was missing something deeper! W. O. Mitchell sounds an interesting bloke - is / was he a bit like the fictional Henry Root? He used to write hilarious letters to anyone vaguely in authority. Must look him up again too. Glad you've got a taste for the Tollbooth - yes yes please do look it up!
And finally, Grace, I am fine thanks, (and your "g'day" is very good!), but I have been stupidly busy. I will do my precious rounds tomorrow and say hello properly.
Thank you all again for your lovely comments.
Margie!! I've found Tollbooth and have ordered it!! And by the way, my linguistic skills are fairly abysmal when compared to Koos's. Hw manages to switch from Dutch to English to French and then to German without so much as a hiccup...or hiccough, whichever you prefer...I blunder along shamefully and get things hopelessly wrong much of the time!
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