Children's Books discussion

And yeah, you can only pick one. I pick The Giving Tree by Silverstein. Love it.

How Tom beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen: words by Russell Hoban, pictures by Quentin Blake. 'He plays hard games and He plays them very hard' Funny, intelligent, offbeat and perfectly matched by Blake's spiky inventive pictures.

Wow Leigh you picked a controversial one. And Tig, I've never heard of yours - I'll have to look. Off the top of my head I'd say but I reserve the right to think about it. :)

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Wow Leigh you picked a controversial one. And Tig, I've never heard of yours - I'll have to look. Off the top of my head I'd say but I reserve the righ..."

I would agree with you, Cheryl, I love Where the Wild Things Are, although I have a huge number of picture books I love. And, sorry Leigh, but I absolutely despise The Giving Tree (probably one of my least favourite picture books, although I know that many people love it).

Chandra wrote: "I think Maurice Sendak is one of the best picture book artists of all time, but I'd probably pick In the Night Kitchen over Where the Wild Things Are.

I have really mix..."

I never actually read The Giving Tree as a child. I read it for the first time as an adult, and I really did not like it at all (but maybe I would have liked it more, had I read it as a child).

I loved In the Night Kitchen as well, but it is another picture book I only discovered as an adult. Where the Wild Things Are was one of my favourite picture books when I was a child, I wanted a wolf suit just like Max ...

Great idea for a thread Leah.

My pick is We're Going on a Bear Hunt. Despite the repetitive text, I never got tired of reading it aloud to my kids. We wore out two copies. The words have a sing-song folk rhyme quality that I find soothing. The illustrations are wonderful -- one can read a lot into the dynamics of the family and the personalities without anything being said (who is taking care of the baby, who's the most upset about having muddy feet, etc.). The bear chase at the end is exciting, and the last picture enigmatic (the bear looks so sad and disappointed -- did it actually want to be friends?). Hmm...time to check it out the library again!

Tig, I've heard good things about How Tom Beat Captain Najork and His Hired Sportsmen, but for some reason have never sought it out. Perhaps I thought it couldn't possibly live up to that amazing title? I'll see if I can rectify this, although it doesn't seem readily available here in the US. ( Ah, online searching has revealed that a library near my mother's house has a copy.)

Chandra wrote: The thing about The Giving Tree is that I think kids see through the B.S

Not in my case...when I was a kid, The Giving Tree was presented to me a beautiful fable about generosity, and I accepted that unquestioningly. My impression is that that is what Silverstein meant it to be, although I'd be interested if I were proven wrong.

I think Sendak is a choice it's hard to argue with - all three of his trilogy are absolutely brilliant books. I have a weakness for Outside Over There, (the ending makes me cry) for being so enigmatic and making such demands on the reader, and I think Where the Wild Things Are is about as perfect as a picture book can be, but of the three my children have responded more to In the Night Kitchen. We're Going on a Bear Chase is quite superb - the illustrator grew up in my landscape (coastal Suffolk) and I recognise the mudflats her children walk over. The author has taken the traditonal repetitive pattern of a children's picture book but keeps it fresh by having a very strong, musical and at times arrythmic beat (he's a well-known poet over here and knows how to work with sounds and rhythm) and by adding twists to the ending. Upstairs! Oh no - forgot to close the door - downstairs, close the door, upstairs. (quoting from memory). The beat is so strong there's only one way to say it and it's just profoundly satisfying. I agree about the mysterious last picture. And every time I read I have a private wonder: does it show a father with his children or two parents with their children? The oldest female at times looks about ten and at times looks like an adult - when she's under the covers for example. I don't think that was intended, and I think she's meant to be a child, but it's just something I puzzle over every time. Has anyone else ever had this reaction?

I don't know the Giving Tree at all, but the minute I read the title my hackles rose as I imagined it (perhaps wrongly) as one of those didactic books where a small child (or often an animal) learns a Useful Lesson which the reader is expected to take on board. Brrr!

How Tom Beat Captain Najork....is gloriously unmessagey. or if it has a message it's not to mess with boys who know how to mess. Tom lives with his Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong who tries to get him to lead a useful and fulfilling life and with healthy food ('eat your mutton and your cabbage-and-potato sog'). Tom is cheerfully compliant and good natured but what he likes best is to fool around 'He fooled around with sticks and stone and crumpled paper, with mewses and passages abd dustbins, with bent nails abnd broken glass and holes in fences...'. His Aunt fails to reform him and sends for Captain Najork and his Hired Sportsmen to teach Tom a lesson. I unforgivably misquoted his description. It should be 'He plays hard games and he plays them jo0lly hard' - the whole book has an Englishness about it which is surprising considering its author, Hoban, is American. It's probably a book for older readers of picture books, and, of course, their parents, but all ages can enjoy the glorious pictures of Tom fooling around and playing Womble, Muck and Sneedball.

Picture books last such a long time in children's lives - I still read them to my seven year old, in between him reading books to himself, and my ten year old was reading Harry the Dirty Dog earlier today. I know the rules were strictly one book only, but if I were to subdivide into categories, I'd have Goodnight Moon for the very youngest readers (2-3 year olds), Night Kitchen for middling picture book readers (maybe 3-5) and Captain Najork for older ones (5-7).

Sorry to go on so long - picture books are a big passion of mine.

I've now looked up The Giving Tree and read the reviews on Amazon. It sounds very controversial and challenging and definitely something I'd like to read and consider, though I suspect I might be in the camp that dislikes it. I'll order it from the library and find out.

Typing error in my previous post: 'plays them *jolly* hard', not joolly. I just can;t get that quote right!

Chandra: intense is just the word for Outside Over There. I heard Sendak being interviewed saying it was about post-natal depression, and you could see it as suggesting that children sometimes have to carry the burden of care. I know a therapist who thinks the ending is a terrible one to present to a child: the pressure of expectation that they will rise to any challenge, even one which an adult can't meet. But I still think it works.

Cheryl in CC NV wrote: "Wow Leigh you picked a controversial one. And Tig, I've never heard of yours - I'll have to look. Off the top of my head I'd say but I reserve the righ..."

Am I missing something? Why is The Giving Tree Controversial? I love that book.

Tuesday by David Wiesner and all of Eric Carl and Dr. Seuss' books.

When I was little, and for many years after, for me it was The Little Engine That Could. It would have been impossible for me to pick just one the last couple decades, and because of my nearly four years at Goodreads it would be difficult to choose a top 100.

I detest The Giving Tree. For anyone who feels as I do, you might enjoy The Taking Tree: A Selfish Parody; I thought it was very funny.

Tig said: I have a private wonder: does it show a father with his children or two parents with their children? [snip] Has anyone else ever had this reaction?

No, never! Don't have the book at hand, but to me she has always looked liked the oldest child, but no more than 12 or so. She seems to me to have a kind of bossy, but not unlikeable, older sister vibe. I do wonder where the mother is in the story. Hopefully having a nice day alone or meeting friends for coffee and browsing quietly in a bookstore -- just the sort of day off I like!

Another mother I know says that she doesn't like the book because it reminds her of the way her husband will sometimes go off with the kids without really thinking things through, and making no preparations (no change of clothes, no snacks, no diaper bag for the baby), and perhaps leading them into danger ("You took them into a snowstorm -- what were you thinking!!???), but I myself love the carefree let's go have an adventure feeling.

One book that stands out in my mind for it's beauty is An Egg Is Quiet. I don't know if it's the best picture book ever but the illustrations were outstanding.

Lee wrote: "One book that stands out in my mind for it's beauty is An Egg Is Quiet. I don't know if it's the best picture book ever but the illustrations were outstanding."

And I loved A Seed Is Sleepy too. Both have outstanding illustrations and interesting information.

Oh I too loved We're Going on a Bear Hunt and my sons and I played it in the yard often!

The Giving Tree is controversial because, to oversimplify, the tree gives and gives and the boy takes and takes and takes for granted, and what kind of lesson is that for our children, that they should be doormats?

Ok, today my number one favorite is a boxed set of Ruth Heller's grammar books, for example, . Tomorrow it would be a boxed set of her science books, for example, . She covers things so thoroughly, and with such clarity, that I learn new stuff with every new book of hers that I read, despite being trained as a teacher and being a grammar snob.

I love Ruth Heller's books. The mother of a close friend of mine is/was friends with her, so my friend's kids had a bunch of her books and then I got a bunch of her books as well, and very recently have borrowed some from the library I'd never known about/newer ones.

This is an impossible task! But, OK, Owl Moon.

I cannot possibly choose only one! When I was younger, I loved The Sneetches and Other Stories so that's a nostalgic favorite and one I still love today so I guess that if I HAVE to pick just one ;-p A favorite from recent years is The Curious Garden, though.