The Children's Book Meme

[jacey]

From lil_shepherd because I'm feeling memeish

Books selected for The Independent by Philip Pullman, Michael Morpurgo, Katy Guest, John Walsh, Michael Rosen.

Meme rules:
Bold those you read as aged 0-18.
Italicise those you read aged 19-now.
Underline those you started but didn't finish.
Strikethrough those you have never even heard of.

1843 - A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Not a children's book

1865 - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll. horrible books and I hated the movies. Even Johnny Depp couldn't improve the last one.

1868 - Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. Boring.

1883 - Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. Read the picture book version aged about 7 but that probably doesn't count, does it, especially since I hated it (and the movie).

1883 - Treasure Island by R.L. Stevenson.

1888 - The Happy Prince by Oscar Wilde.

1891 - The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Not a children's book. It's on my try again list.

1902 - The Elephant's Child From The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

1910 - The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson-Burnett. Because I felt as though I should.

1922 - Just William books by Richmal Crompton. Really not my style

1925 - Carry On, Jeeves by PG Wodehouse. Not a children's book.

1929 - Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner.

1930 - Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome. I could never bring myself to read a book with a character called Titty

1937 - The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkein.

1939 – date - Beano Annual. A few of them in the late 1950s, anyway.

1945 - Animal Farm by George Orwell. Not a children's book. Had to read it for school

1946 - Mistress Masham's Repose by TH White.

1948 - I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.

1951 - The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. This is so NOT a children's book.

1953 - The Man Who Planted Trees by Jean Giono.

1954 - How to be Topp by Geoffrey Williams and Ronald Searle. I read St Trinians, but that doesn't count, I guess.

1954 - Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson.

1956 - The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier. Can't remember much about it.

1958 - A Hundred Million Francs by Paul Berna.

1961 - The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster. Loved this!

1961 (Tr) - Finn Family Moomintroll (and the other Moomin books) by Tove Jansson. (see 1954)

1963 - The Castafiore Emerald by Hergé.

1964 - Black Hearts in Battersea by Joan Aiken.

1967 - The Owl Service by Alan Garner. This was just plain weird (but not as weird as Red Shift) The Weirdstone of Brisingmen and The Moon of Gomrath are still my favourites

1971 - When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. Brilliant book, This and all later books weren't published until after I was 19.

1979 - After the First Death by Robert Cormier.

1983 - People Might Hear You by Robin Klein.

1990 - Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett. Not a children's book, though I enjoyed it immensely.

1990 - The Singing Tree by Kate Seredy.

1992 - Greek myths by Geraldine McCaughrean.

1998 - Skellig by David Almond.

2000 - Stormbreaker by Anthony Horowitz.

2001 - Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman.

2001 - Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah.

2001- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer.

2002 - The Story of Tracy Beaker by Jacqueline Wilson.

2003 - Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.

2003 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon. Enjoyed this against my expectations, but surely not a children's book

2004 - The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson

2007 - Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney.

2007 - Red Cherry Red by Jackie Kay.

2007 - The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd.

2007 - The Tygrine Cat (and The Tygrine Cat on the Run) by Inbali Iserles.

2010 - Einstein's Underpants and How They Saved the World by Anthony McGowan.

2010 - Talkin Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah. See above.

What a random list. I wonder if Michael Morpurgo selected his own? These guys are pretty out of touch with what kids are reading. I used to read 5 books a week from the local library at the age of 7 - 12 and not one that I read is listed here. Of course it would have had to have been published before 1961, so the books I grew up with are pretty well off the radar for most of these guys. CS Lewis, Monica Edwards, Elyne Mitchell, Sheila Chapman, Primrose Cumming, Enid Blyton, Hugh Walters, the Pullein-Thompsons, Ruby Ferguson, Marguerite Henry etc... and from 12 onwards every yellow jacketed Gollancz SF book that the mobile library carried plus Peter O'Donnell, Ian Fleming, Monica Dickens, a few Jean Plaidys and others of that ilk. And too many children's books read post-19 to count (well, it was my job for a while.)

Comments

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Oh, I though Meryon was the bees knees, well, a bit whingy in Wind is Blowing, but who wouldn't be? That was a bit of an oddity anyway. Why didn't you think he was good enough for Tamzin? She obviously adored him. (Think how jealous she was when he went off skating with [name forgotten] the pretty girl.

He was a bit of a white knight, really, and very handy with a sick bucket when the sea was rough. A bit rogueish with a soft centre. What's not to like?

Yes Tamzin was a genuinely good person but managed to remain interesting. She never really thought of herself as a good person, so it stopped her getting smug. They were all pretty 'good' really, though Roger never seemed to develop much. (Perhaps he had more of a change in the Punchbowl crossovers. I don't know them as well.)

It is truly difficult to make a good person interesting. And I do like ME's collection of rogues. Old Jim and Hookey Galley being my favourites. I shamelessly stole Hookey Galley and turned him into Hookey Garrity in the Magic Pirate novel. He's younger and not quite as morose, but ever-ready to sink his hook into someone's throat if necessary and happy to humbug the excise men whenever he can. He's also got a girl in every port, but he's quiet about it and equally happy in a whorehouse. Actually, since he's pretty well devoted to my cross-dressing pirate captain he's a bit of a cross between Hookey Galley and Willie Garvin. (I should get him to throw knives as well. he's got one good hand.)

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I found Meryon too good to be true, to be honest. Everything came far too easily to him. He was that very, vary annoying elder sibling - rather like Julian of the Famous Five or Guy in the Marjorie books. He was also bloody condescending at times.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

You may be right, things do come easily to him, but I wouldn't necessarily have held that against him when I was 8/9/10. I think my opinion of him was set when I didn't notice that kind of thing. Even recent re-reading hasn't flagged it up. Of course I didn't _have_ an elder sibling, annoying or otherwise, so perhaps he didn't push my buttons in that way. I also didn't read Famous Five or the Marjorie books, so any similarity to annoying characters will have gone right over my head. (Note I did eventually read _a few_ FF books and some Secret Sevens, but sporadically, and probably not until after meeting Meryon. If Meryon was based on a real person it may well be that the real person was one of those people who things came to easily. I haven't got the Companion to hand at the moment but I think the real M died while at Oxford University, so I guess he was at the front of the queue when brains were handed out.

All this is making me want to go back and re-read the whole lot.