CGC (Christian Girls Chat) discussion

Which 'children's classics' have you read, and what are your favourites?

The lion the witch and the wardrobe is a great Christian classic :)

I loved the Narnia series!

My favourites are A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, the Anne of Green Gables series, and Emily of New Moon.

I just read Five Children and It, and I plan on reading the other two books of the series.

Cari wrote: "I loved the Narnia series!

My favourites are A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, the Anne of Green Gables series, and Emily of New Moon.

I just read Five Children and It, and I plan on reading..."

I read The Secret Garden and Anne of Green Gables for school :)

The Anne of Green Gables series is my favorite, although in my opinion the first book is the best.

Christal wrote: "The Anne of Green Gables series is my favorite, although in my opinion the first book is the best."

How long of a series is it?

7 books, I think.

I agree that the first book is the best!

Narnian525♥♪ wrote: "Christal wrote: "The Anne of Green Gables series is my favorite, although in my opinion the first book is the best."

How long of a series is it?"

8 books. :)

Do any of yous have any recommendations? I'm trying to read more children's classics that I may have missed out on.

All the Little House books I've read. (Along with the ones about Martha, Charlotte, and Rose!)

Cari wrote: "Which 'children's classics' have you read, and what are your favourites?"
This is an interesting list. I wouldn't have thought some of the titles on here were meant for children.

Edited from:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_...

Before 18th century:
Panchatantra by Vishnu Sharma, c. 800 BC: Ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. Similar stories are found in later works including Aesop's Fables and the Sindbad tales in Arabian Nights.

Aesop's Fables by Aesop, c. 600 BC: Read

Kathasaritsagara by Somadeva, 11th Century AD: Collection of Indian legends, fairy tales and folk tales as retold by a Saivite Brahmin named Somadeva. Generally believed to derive from Gunadhya's Brhat-katha, written in Paisachi dialect from the south of India.

Arabian Nights by unknown, before 8th century AD: Read

Orbis Pictus by John Amos Comenius, 1658: Earliest picture book specifically for children.

A Token for Children. Being An Exact Account of the Conversion, Holy and Exemplary Lives, and Joyful Deaths of several Young Children by James Janeway, 1672: One of the first books specifically written for children which shaped much eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century writing for children.

18th century
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, 1719: Read
Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 1726: Read an abridged children's edition :)
Tales of Mother Goose by Charles Perrault, 1729 (English: I don't know if I've read the original..there's so many remakes
Little Pretty Pocket-book by John Newbery, 1744
Little Goody Two Shoes by Oliver Goldsmith, 1765
Lessons for Children by Anna Laetitia Barbauld, 1778-9: The first series of age-adapted reading primers for children printed with large text and wide margins; in print for over a century.
The History of Sandford and Merton by Thomas Day, 1783-9: A bestseller for over a century, it embodied Rousseau's educational ideals.

19th century[
The Swiss Family Robinson by Johann Rudolf Wyss, 1812-3: Read
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E. T. A. Hoffman, 1816: I know I read a version of the Nutcracker, but I don't know that it was this one
Ivanhoe by Walter Scott,1819: Read
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, 1819
Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving,1820: Read
Grimm's Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,1823 (English): Read some of them
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens,1838: Read
Nicholas Nickelby by Charles Dickens,1839: Read
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843: Read
The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas, père, 1844: Read
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, père, 1845: Read
Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Andersen, 1846 (English): Read some
The Children of the New Forest by Frederick Marryat, 1847
Slovenly Peter by Heinrich Hoffmann, 1848 (English)
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, 1850: Read
Little Eva: The Flower of the South by Philip J. Cozans, 1853: First known children's novel to feature racial (i.e. pro-slavery) bias.
The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin,1851
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, 1853: Read
The Coral Island by R. M. Ballantyne, 1857
Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes,1857
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens,1861: Read
The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley, 1863
A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, 1864
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, 1865: Read
Max and Moritz by Wilhelm Busch,1865
Hans Brinker or the Silver Skates by Mary Mapes Dodge, 1865:Read
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, 1868: Read
Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore, 1869
Twenty Thousand Leagues under the Sea by Jules Verne, 1870: Read, unfortunately...
At the Back of the North Wind by George MacDonald, 1871
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald, 1871
Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, 1871: Read
A Dog of Flanders by Ouida, 1872
What Katy Did by Susan Coolidge, 1873
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain, 1876: Read
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell, 1877: I think I read this
The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi,1883
The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle, 1883
Nights with Uncle Remus by Joel Chandler Harris, 1883
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1883: Read
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 1884: Read
Heidi by Johanna Spyri, 1884 (English): Read
King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard, 1885
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, 1886
Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1886
The Happy Prince and Other Tales by Oscar Wilde, 1888
The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, 1889
The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, 1894
Seven Little Australians by Ethel Turner, 1894
The Second Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling, 1895
Moonfleet by J. Meade Falkner, 1898
The Story of the Treasure Seekers by E. Nesbit, 1899

20th century
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum, 1900
Five Children and It by E. Nesbit, 1902
Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling, 1902
The Tale of Peter Rabbit by Beatrix Potter, 1902: Read
King Arthur and His Knights by Howard Pyle, 1902-3
The Call of the Wild by Jack London, 1903
Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm by Kate Douglas Wiggin, 1903: Read
Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie, 1904
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1905: Read
The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, 1906
White Fang by Jack London, 1906: Read
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, 1908: Read
The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame,1908: Read
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett,1909/1911: Read
The Lost World by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1912
Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter, 1913: Read
The Magic Pudding by Norman Lindsay, 1918
The Story of Doctor Dolittle by Hugh Lofting,1920
Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne, 1926: Read
The House at Pooh Corner by A. A. Milne, 1927: Read
Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner, 1929
Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome,1930–1931
Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1932: Read
The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937: Read
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, 1938
Curious George by H. A. Rey, 1941: Read
Five on a Treasure Island by Enid Blyton, 1942
Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes, 1943: Read
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, 1943
Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren, 1945: Read
The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, 1946
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown, 1947: Read
Finn Family Moomintroll by Tove Jansson, 1949
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, 1950: Read
Charlotte's Web by E. B. White, 1952: Read
The Cat in the Hat by Dr. Seuss, 1957: First high quality limited-vocabulary book, written for early readers: Read
Tom's Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce, 1958
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl, 1961
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster, 1961
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, 1962:Pulitzer for book market to children; also seminal work on race.: Read
Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak, 1963
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, 1964
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin, 1968 and sequels broke ground for epic fantasy in several ways: the first book had a non-white hero, the later books explored the role of gender in fantasy and power, and the quest structure is not good vs. evil but balance.

Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume, 1970: approached puberty more openly than children's books had in the past.: Read
A Taste of Blackberries by Doris Buchanan Smith, 1973: Taboo-breaking children's book (Grades 4-6) concerning a child's first grief experience. HarperCollins. 19th edition published 2005.

Cari wrote: "All the Little House books I've read. (Along with the ones about Martha, Charlotte, and Rose!)"

I loved the Little House books :) I read them from the library.

Fantastic list! I have read a lot of the books on there - from 18t, 19th, and 20th century, and I'm going to tackle the rest.

... Arabian Nights - children's?? I have not read Arabian Nights in its entirety, only the first five or six chapters.

well, Cari, Arabian Nights is no worse than all the fairy tale collections :) I was most surprised by the Charles Dickens' books being considered children's. I would never have understood those had I read them before high school.

Yeah, true. Thought of that after. It's just a collection of stories.

Mmyeah, Charles Dickens... The only book by him I've ever read all the way through is The Christmas Carol. My little sister has read Oliver Twist, but the abridged version. I guess the abridged ones can pass off as children's.

Yes, I had an extremely abridged illustrated David Copperfield as a child, and I rather wish I still had that one instead of the unabridged, vastly verbose, and depressing edition I dragged myself through a couple years ago.

Narnian525♥♪ wrote: "Christal wrote: "The Anne of Green Gables series is my favorite, although in my opinion the first book is the best."

How long of a series is it?"

8 books. Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne's House of Dreams, Anne of Ingleside, Rainbow Valley, and Rilla of Ingleside.

Rachel wrote: "Yes, I had an extremely abridged illustrated David Copperfield as a child, and I rather wish I still had that one instead of the unabridged, vastly verbose, and depressing edition I dragged myself ..."

Haha. Dickens is so long-winded. I like his sense of humour, but even so I could not finish Oliver Twist. I got just over halfway then I quit. *wince*

A Christmas Carol was a good length and I enjoyed that. But I haven't attempted anything else after Oliver.

Cari wrote: "Rachel wrote: "Yes, I had an extremely abridged illustrated David Copperfield as a child, and I rather wish I still had that one instead of the unabridged, vastly verbose, and depressing edition I ..."

:) A Christmas Carol is good, of course. I really love A Tale of Two Cities, and Nicholas Nickleby is my second favorite after that. The aren't as wordy as the others, and the themes of returning to life in A Tale of Two Cities are amazing. :) I think I keep the others on the shelf to be impressive rather than because I'll ever read them again... that might be a bit conceited..

Lol, I do that too. Just to have bragging rights. :P We book nerds do get rather conceited at times...

I have A Tale of Two Cities. I'll try to read that next month and see how I like it. :)

Cari wrote: "A Christmas Carol was a good length and I enjoyed that. But I haven't attempted anything else after Oliver."

I haven't read A Christmas Carol. I have seen movie and play adaptions of it though.

It's really a good book! I read it last year at Christmastime. You should read it. :) I've seen various adaptions of it too. I never get tired of the story.

I am so disappointed right now. I get one general elective this semester for my college course, and I was really wanting to take Children's Lit, but it doesn't fit into my schedule. :(

Has anyone read The Polar Express? Thats one of my Christmas favorites.

I haven't. I've only seen the movie a couple of times.

I love the Narnia books, and used to read the Boxcar Children quite often.

I haven't read much of the Boxcar Children. There was another series I was into, can't recall what it's called at the moment. Ah! The Bobbsey Twins. XD

And Nancy Drew. The older ones, where it's almost always about hidden treasure and counterfeit money.

Oh! I loved Nancy Drew. I have so many of the original 56. I also used to read the Hardy Boys.

I couldn't get into the Bobbsey Twins.
I also used to read Encyclopedia Brown and Cam Jansen.

I've read some Encyclopedia Brown and The Hardy Boys. I also like some of the Hardy boys and Nancy Drew collaboration.

You mean they were both in one story? I don't know that I've ever read a book with both of them...Sounds cool though!

Yep! is the first of 36 of them.

Oh cool! I might have to check them out...

I have a question. Do you only consider it to be classic if it's older than 1997 or do you still consider it to be classic if it's modern, but still written like a classic?

ohhh nancy Drew got bleh

Narnian525♥♪ wrote: "I have a question. Do you only consider it to be classic if it's older than 1997 or do you still consider it to be classic if it's modern, but still written like a classic?"

For me it's older then 1997 usually. But there are some books that are written just like an older author, so then it's like a "modern classic."

Usually older books.

Elizabeth wrote: "Narnian525♥♪ wrote: "I have a question. Do you only consider it to be classic if it's older than 1997 or do you still consider it to be classic if it's modern, but still written like a classic?"

F..."

The The Thirteenth Tale is a good example, the writing is so like Withering Heights you think it was written in the same era.

Cari wrote: "Usually older books."

Ok

I loved "a little princess" but my favorite children book is The giving tree