It comes up all the time. I pull out a classic that I loved to share it with my kids and find myself shocked by racism that I forgot about or just hadn’t noticed at the time.
The racism doesn’t erase the positive traits that made the book a classic, but sometimes as a parent I just don’t have a teachable moment in me at bedtime
It’s nice you found a series that both kids enjoy!
What a great list! Love the annotations by the TPM staff members. I found several I want to read (“Hatchet,” “The Thief Lord”) and others I’ll reread (Nancy Drew, “A Wrinkle in Time”). Keep these coming, TPM, and thank you
Kate’s books for young kids- my granddaughters (4 and 7 at the time) LOVE each and every one. And these kids are raised in a very insular environment (think amish like but Jewish). We do bookies every visit. Those visits used be 2x a month. But Kate’s books were, by far, the biggest, longest hits
I recently read these to my granddaughter. Most of it has stood up great but she was puzzled by… spanking and what is an Indian? In reading them outloud I was struck by how much I had learned from these books…self manipulation was possible and all kids go through bad stages.
Love the Nancy Drew AV!!
Addendum for the older kids—
Huckleberry Finn—the greatest American Novel ever written—and Tom Sawyer, by Twain.
Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates, with illustrations by the author. He also wrote a good version of the Robin Hood myth.
There are also a number of classics with illustrations by Arthur Rackham and N.C. Wyeth that are made better by the illustrations.
If you have access to the old Childcraft series of books, there are loads of stories and poems for kids of assorted ages.
And R.L. Stevenson’s A child’s Garden Of Verses remains a good way to introduce kids to good poetry.
It makes me smile - so glad you enjoy it, too!
I’ve read the whole series a couple of times. Those are always on the top of my list, but I’m reading some of the lesser ones these days. Only because I’ve only read them two or three times compared to the others.
Literally every book that Mo Willems writes is a delight. My kids loved his books so much that we kept them for reading to their younger cousins. The Knuffle Bunny and Elephant & Piggie series are particular favorites, in addition to the Pigeon, of course.
I’d add From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E Frankweiler by EL Konigsburg and The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin to the list.
My older daughter also really enjoyed books by Rick Riordan (his Percy Jackson series is the most popular, but he has series based on Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Scandinavian mythology - they’re all fun, adventure stories) and Michael Buckley (Sisters Grimm and N.E.R.D.S. - the first is a series based on fairytales and the second is about a 5th grade superspy).
Agreed! “A Big Guy Took My Ball” and “There’s a Bird on Your Head” are two favorites.
I just remembered, too, the “Walter the Farting Dog” series. First discovered it in the veterinary waiting room with my grandson, waiting for Frank-the-dog’s appointment. We ended up buying that one as soon as we got home, and have bought the subsequent tales as they are published.
I recommend Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki, illustrated by Dom Lee. It’s a picture book written at about the second grade level about a Japanese American family taken to a desert relocation camp during World War II. It examines the rage of the family teenager, the despair of the parents, and the ingenuity of the adult who organizes a rag-tag baseball team for the camps’ kids.
It is sensitively written and may give food for thought to kids today chafing at the SIP orders.
The book is available new everywhere and used very cheaply on Amazon.
One question - what book is the starting/entry point for Pratchett? I would really like to delve into his books! Every novel I pick up (primarily relating to Discworld) seems to have a different focus and most seem to assume some familiarity with the characters and the world. Any suggestions welcomed…
Here a few series in the YA/Teen age range that I really enjoyed:
The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud. Parallel universe (how I love those!!!) where magic is “real” as magicians summon and control demons/djinn to do their magic.
Boneshaker series (seven books) by Cherie Priest. Steampunk and zombies in an alternative history America during and after an inconclusive Civil War.
The Books of Ember series (four books) by Jeanne DuPrau Post-apocalyptic underground living!
Artemis Fowl series (eight books) by Eoin Colfer Fairies are real and they also live underground out of our sight, but the scion of a family criminal syndicate stumbles on their world and hijinks begin. Love this series!
And, of course, the granddaddy of all of these - the trilogy of five books in the Hitchhikers’s Guide to the Universe series by Douglas Adams. Soooooooo good.
Oooh. Tough question. The disc world books aren’t a series, so much as a set of stand-alone books that share the same world, with some recurring characters and a great many recurring inside jokes.
The first book is “the color of magic” I loved it as a teenager, but I re-read it a couple of years ago and I don’t think it would have hooked me on pratchett if I had first read it as an adult.
Having been hooked early, I will read any pratchett book I can find. However, the books that have maintained a permanent spot on my shelves are Mort (book 4), guards! Guards! (Book 8), Small gods, lords and ladies, men at arms, interesting times, feet of clay, going postal and, of course the Tiffany aching books which are explicitly children’s books, which the others are definitely not.
I started with the Tiffany Aching trilogy for Discworld. Nation is a goo non-discworld novel.
There are maps to themes and characters you find on line that can help you guide your interests.
maps? you say. Yes. maps.
Just don’t read his last one until you have read all of the ones involving the witches.
The books on this list are great and many are classics of children’s literature. I get it, that’s what my generation (Baby Boomer) was raised on. Most of you there at TPM are younger and probably have children of your own. So here’s something to think about: Where are the books by people of color that represent their lives?
I’m a retired school librarian, a white southerner, in fact, with a doctorate in language and literacy education with a research interest in children’s literature. For decades the Cooperative Children’s Book Center out of the University of Wisconsin-Madison has documented as carefully as they can the books by and about people of color. Some years are better than others, but progress is way too slow and some years, there is no progress at all.
The organization We Need Diverse Books is working to encourage under-represented writers and artists to seek publication of their work in children’s books.
In the meantime, I hope you will look for children’s books that portray the rich variety of cultures and ethnicities that make up our country. Now more than ever, we need this kind of understanding and in-depth appreciation for America’s diversity. Read Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, Matt de la Peña, Nic Stone, Nicola Yoon, Pamela Muñoz Ryan, all authors for the current generation. There are so many more, and they are well worth seeking out.