' classic' children's books

trolleyrun

Books I loved as a kid:
Black beauty
Uncle Tom's cabin
Secret garden
Nancy Drew
The Bobbsey Twins
HC Andersen
Pippi Longstocking (and other books by Astrid Lindgren)

That's only a few that I can think of just now. I learned to read when I was three and read bible stories to the other kids in kindergarden - and my head rarely leaves a book to this day

Richard53

kittybangbang wrote: »

Ha, even an Argos catalogue would entertain me!

That's me you're talking about. I learned to read early and have been reading ever since. I'm not a fast reader, and the older I get the choosier I am, but the act of reading is essential. Thrillers, technical manuals, poetry and drama, whatever, but there is always something on the go. And if I sit down to eat or drink on my own, I have to be reading something. The Argos catalogue would do nicely, although I am also pretty clued up on Cornflakes packets, gardening magazines (I hate gardening) and instruction booklets for devices we no longer own.

dizziblonde

bylromarha wrote: »

Don't know about you, but I have real issues with Rainbow Fish.

I was Key Stage 1 leader years ago and I changed the curriculum in order that we didn't use that story. So many teachers use it as it's a "pretty" book that you can do lots with display wise.

It's awful inside. Rainbow Fish has no friends, one fish asks for one of his pretty scales, Rainbow Fish says no (stroppily I grant you, but still...he'd just been asked to self mutilate). So no one wants to be his mate as he's selfish! The "wise" octopus tells him to give away his scales to make friends. He gives away all his scales and the fish are all now his friends.

Moral of the story: Supposed to be "sharing is good". The actual moral is "When no one is your friend because you're prettier than them, buy friendship instead with stuff which you consider precious"

Similar thoughts to my own on that wretched book - but since it's one of those prevalent through most of the infant schools I put it on there.

Mind you - if you think about most traditional fairy tales they're fairly gruesome really - things like child abandonment in the woods (Hansel and Gretel), abusive step mothers, evil siblings and the like!

bylromarha

dizziblonde wrote: »

Similar thoughts to my own on that wretched book - but since it's one of those prevalent through most of the infant schools I put it on there.

Mind you - if you think about most traditional fairy tales they're fairly gruesome really - things like child abandonment in the woods (Hansel and Gretel), abusive step mothers, evil siblings and the like!

Gruesome in fairy tales is good for little kids - they love it!

You expect and want the sisters and stepmother to be evil and know they'll get their comeupance at the end of the story.

The thing which makes Rainbow Fish stand out for me is that there is no baddy doing the gruesome bits. Rainbow Fish is made out to be the baddy because he doesn't want to give his scales away. The wisdom of the Octopus is buy your friends with your precious things.

Bit like Hansel's the baddy as he won't share his body with the witch in the cottage - she is hungry after all.

Chris25

Mine loved
Allan Arhlberg (sp?) books from the series of Mrs. Wobble the Waitress, Mr. Biff the Boxer, Mrs. Plug the Plumber, Master Salt the Sailor's Son etc and Peepo, Each Peach Pear Plum, Burglar Bill.
Hairy Maclairy
The Jolly Postman/Christmas Postman
Topsy & Tim
Red is Best by Kathy Stinson - don't think this one's been mentioned. The little girl in the story loves the colour and all things red but her mum doesn't understand why some things are just better in red!
They also loved books with a repetitive story like Henny Penny.
The Richard Scarry books were very good - a bit like Where's Wally for littl'uns.
We also had The Polar Express and The Snowman in animated-with-no-words form and they were brilliant for getting them to describe what's happening by following the pictures.

Richard53

dizziblonde wrote: »

Mind you - if you think about most traditional fairy tales they're fairly gruesome really - things like child abandonment in the woods (Hansel and Gretel), abusive step mothers, evil siblings and the like!

Yes, and a good thing too.

Telling gruesome tales to children has been going on for thousands of years. The Grimm brothers didn't get their ideas from nowhere; they were experts in ancient Germanic folk tales and myths before they were storytellers. There is a theory that gruesome tales are actually good for children, as they allow them to confront difficult and frightening situations in a safe environment, and thus increase their ability to handle bad things in adult life. 'Protecting' them from such material by censoring the nasty bits and making everything ickle pwetty stowies does the children no favours.

BlueSky1

My mum taught me to read with a book called 'Emily's Moo'

Emily was a cow and all the farm animals showed her how to make a noise. I have no idea where it is now - I looked on eBay and saw a couple of copies for something ridiculous like £150

I loved that book - everyone thought I could read because I knew all the words. Happy days.

lindseylocket

My 2 loved

owl babies
the tiger who came to tea
mog the cat
the old woman who lived in a shoe