Sunday, August 16, 2009

Favorite Kid's Fiction

Boggles the mind that we've never asked this question to The Realm at large. I suppose, for those with blogger profiles, I could go around and check out a person's favorite books, but that seems like stealing when I can just ask. Not to mention (although here I am in the middle of mentioning), all of an indvidual's favorite books holds a larger scope than the question I want to ask. Plus, we have a few Anony-miis out there who read our blog, and I wouldn't be able to find out their favs. And I'd like a list of as many who would be willing to provide.

So, the question is: what are your favorite kid's fiction books? More precisely, I'm talking novels here. For this question, I'm deleting picture books, so, in essence, Green Eggs and Ham, The Giving Tree, Goodnight Moon, Are You My Mother?, Make Way for Ducklings, they're all out. That's (what are your favorite picture books?) certainly a question for another day but not this one. The question I'm asking encompasses Young Adult fiction at the top end and probably Middle Reader books at the low end of the age range.

Feel free to embellish as to why your personal favorites are so. Moreover, only you limit the number of books you consider your all-time favorites. Also, I'd love to know, for those of you who have pre-teens or teenagers, any books through the years that your children have loved.

Lastly, we'll not hold it against anyone if the children's masterpiece, Dorkman, doesn't appear somewhere on your list of books that you deem most magnificent. No Big-Brother-like lurking Realm administrator is going to ban any of our well-respected commenters for not including the outstanding contemporary piece of American literature that Dorkman precisely is. We just aren't that small-minded.

On second thought, we may well be. You'd better include it, just in case.

7 comments:

DougALug said...

Rich,

I enjoyed Dorkman... but I wasn't a kid when I read it... still...

1) The book of three / the black cauldron / the castle of llyr : Think of them as Tolkien-lite.... Crunchings and Munchings!

2) All things Tolkien: My prescious... my prescious

3) Ann Mcaffery Dragonrider series: from mana to Pern itself, I loved Anne's new-earth and read every book at least twice.

4) Narnia books: A no-duh here.

5) Nancy Drew / Hardy Boys: personally I liked the Nancy Drew books better.

6) To Kill A Mockingbird: Harper Lee wrote a brilliant book.

7) Dorkman: I give it the nod. Great book. I really enjoyed it (all joking aside)

8) Tom Sawyer / Huck Finn : Twain was pretty awesome.

9) Marvel Comics: books is such a loose term. I loved my Marvel Comics...

10) Wuthering Heights: I don't know why, but this book struck a chord with me as a kid.

11) Ender's Game: Orson Scott Card is/was brilliant.

God Bless
Doug

Diabolical Genius said...

I'd have to say my favorites are in no particular order:
The Westing Game
The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I Mean Noel)
Green Eggs and Ham
Shiloh
Any of the Beverly Cleary Ramona or Henry Huggins books (Walden Media is about to put out a Ramona and Beezus movie BTW!!)
The Giving Tree
Where the Wild Things Are
Don't Say Goodbye, Brian Renahan--You Can Never Say Goodbye (unpublished)
Goodnight Moon
Chronicles of Narnia series
Oz series
Keys to the Kingdom series
Are You My Mother?
Where the Red Fern Grows
My Side of the Mountain
Encyclopedia Brown series
Bobbsey Twins series
The Littles series
Long Way From Chicago

Also a number of classic books which weren't originally published as kid's books like:

Swiss Family Robinson
Kidnapped and Catriona
Robinson Crusoe
Jules Verne novels
Various fairy tales, myths, and legends

Laura Leigh said...

I loved the Fudge and SuperFudge really any book by Judy Blume. Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Sheila the Great, Blubber, Are You There God It's Me, Margaret.

Harry Potter series.

PS, Why would a child be reading Wuthering Heights? No wonder it struck a cord, it was so full of hatred, bitterness, cruelty, lust, sadness.

DougALug said...

Laura,

Wuthering Heights is a very great book. Perhaps it struck a chord with me because I was looking for something I couldn't have. The book is deep and brilliant and touched my heart. Don't worry I scared my parents too... for that matter I still do.

God Bless
Doug

Anonymous said...

Doug mentioned LLoyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain, which were great adventure books.

I enjoyed the Great Brain series when I was a kid. And Encyclopedia Brown. I think both series would hold up for today's kids, though it's been years since I've read or even really thought much about either series.

Neil Gaiman writes great books for young people. Coraline was terrific. The Graveyard Book is probably the best work of fiction I've read this year.

And the Harry Potter books are great.

-BP

Rich said...

Diabolical,

Seems like you missed I Love You, Forever and Sesame Street's Shake a Leg.

Doug,

You get points for The Chronicles of Prydain. The High King may be my favorite book ever. All of them were fabulous to me, though. Also, mega-points for Dorkman.

Laura,

Yep. I think the Harry Potter series will go down as classic. it's sort of the sports equivalent of the ESPN Instant Classic now, and I'm not talking Westminster Dog Shows, either. ;)

-----

All of The Chronicles of Prydain, Lloyd Alexander
All of The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
All of The Spiderwick Chronicles, Tony Di Terlizzi and Holly Black
Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli
Love, Stargirl Jerry Spinelli
Crash, Jerry Spinelli
Feed, M.T. Anderson
Charlotte's Web, E.B. White
The Graveyard Book, Neil Gaiman
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
---
Classics for young and old alike that I cherished:
The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexander Dumas
Any Greek Mythology, but The Iliad and The Odyssey from Homer were favorites
The Last of the Mohicans, James Fennimore Cooper
Animal Farm, George Orwell
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
All of The Lord of the Rings series, J.R.R. Tolkien
Le Morte d'Arthur, Sir Thomas Mallory
The Call of the Wild, Jack London
---
Shorts I loved:
Rikki Tikki Tavi, Rudyard Kipling
A Christmas Carol, in Prose, Charles Dickens
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Washington Irving
The Brothers Grimm fairy tales
Fairy tales from Hans Christian Andersen

Anonymous said...

I like Neil Gayman too.

Neverwhere especially.