Lost and Found: Children's Books We Miss (from the Worldcon panel of the same name)

[lady_schrapnell]

From Farah Mendlesohn's Inter-Galactic Playground.

Is it a meme if only I play (or really a me-me!)? This is a panel I missed, as I was (aging) fangirling at a Connie Willis signing - time well spent, for all I'd love to have been at this one too.
I've bolded books I've read, with a question mark beside if I'm not entirely sure about having read, and a X beside if I have a Thought about the book of one sort or another.

Greer Gilman

Mary Poppins Comes Back, Mary Poppins in the Park, Mary Poppins Opens the Door,Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane, PL Travers. X
The Princess and The Goblin, George MacDonald (1872).
Lion, William Pène Dubois, (a picture book).
Peter Graves, William Pène du Bois, (1950).
The Little White Horse, Elizabeth Goudge, (1946). X
The Amazing Vacation, Dan Wickenden (1956).
The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, Norman Hunter, (1933).
The Nine Questions, Edward Fenton, Doubleday, illustrations by C. Walter Hodges (1959).

Francis Spufford

The Blue Hawk, Peter Dickinson (1976).
Charlotte Sometimes, Penelope Farmer (1969).? X
The Magic City, E. Nesbit, (1910).X
The Guardians, John Christopher (1970).
The Heritage of the Star, Sylvia Engdahl, (1973).

Terry Pratchett

Moomintroll series, Tove Jansson, Fin Family Moomintroll and others.X
Mistress Masham’s Repose, TH White, (1947).
The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, Daniel Pinkwater.
Midnight Folk (1927) and The Box of Delights, (1935) John Masefield.
Star in the Hand, Elizabeth Stucley (1954).
The Little Grey Men, (1988) "BB," 1905- (D. J. Watkins-Pitchford).?
The Wizard of Boland, "BB," 1905- (D. J. Watkins-Pitchford).
The Griffin and the Minor Canon, Frank Stockton (1963).
Brendon Chase, "BB," 1905- (D. J. Watkins-Pitchford), (1979).


Janet McNaughton

The Live-Forever Machine, Kenneth Oppel, HarperCollins Canada, (1990; 2001).
Dead Water Zone, Kenneth Oppel, HarperCollins Canada, (1992; 2001).

Dust, Arthur Slade, HarperCollins Canada (2001).
Acceleration, Graham McNamee, Random House, (2003).
The Prince of Tarn, Hazel Hutchins, 1997. (A junior novel).
The Marmawell Trilogy: The Dragon’s Tapestry, Red Deer Press, The Prism Moon, (1993),
The Taker’s Key, Red Deer Press, (1998), Martine Leavitt [Martine Bates].

Other Suggested Titles

Space Cat, Ruthven Todd (1957).
George MacDonald, The Princess and Curdy (1877), Back of the North Wind (1871).
The Church Mice, a series beginning in 1972, Graham Oakley.
Alexander and the Magic Mouse by Martha Sanders, (1969).

I really, really wish I'd heard Greer Gilman talking about the Mary Poppins books. I loved them when I was young, but had the strangest feeling when I tried reading them to the girls: a vivid, even visceral, response from the wonder I'd felt when first reading, and a kind of disappointment, which amounted almost to distaste running alongside. Very odd. Now that time has passed, I might try again and see how I feel. Or find out how other people feel and see if that helps!

Not sure my Thought about Elizabeth Goudge amounts to much - I reread The Little White Horse recently-ish, and found it just about at the border of my sentimental/precious limits, though there were still things I really liked a lot about it.

Charlotte Sometimes is a book I've read so much about I'm not at all sure any longer that I haven't read. Or perhaps that's backwards. Anyway, it's a need to read/reread book, I think.

The 'X' beside the E. Nesbit is just a sort of gulp equivalent, as I'd read most of the children's books Francis Spufford talked about in his book and on panels where I heard him! And most E. Nesbit too...

Moomintroll 'X' is for most enthusiastic agreement of all my enthusiastic agreements (probably - to hedge my decisiveness a bit, in my usual way).

I'd never heard of Star in the Hand, and no time to look it up now - anyone else read it? JMcN seems to have been on a slightly different track than the others - now that I think of it, she seemed less prone to giving her own childhood reads on panels I heard too. Maybe that's inaccurate though... I'd like to have heard hers anyway.

Comments

[generalblossom.livejournal.com]

I don´t have a hope. The only ones I read were Moomin books and that thanks for myntti. I guess what I read as a kid were totally different things, tons of Enid Blyton, but also other things, I remember reading some LM Montgomery ( Rainbow Valley strangely), that french so famous Bracelet book by Serge Dalens, some scandinavian books by Greta Stvns, this french yacht race book with a mexican villainess and an azorean volcano. Oh, and so many books by the Comtesse de Segur, most of them on comics adaptations. Some soviet novel with this girl which slept on an oven and was named Valentina like comrade whatever, first woman in space. I wish I knew the names of some of those books!

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

Isn't it awful when you've lost the name and author of a book? I was just talking about that today w.r.t. one of my great quests for a book (and one I'm sure I owned too - somebody was to blame for that having been lost!): The Queen Elizabeth Story, by Rosemary Sutcliff. The parts I remembered most vividly had nothing to do with Queen Elizabeth, which seems odd, so I'd little clue from the title - and it's probably the rarest of Rosemary Sutcliffs too. I think I've already rambled on about this before to you though...

I love the sound of some of those books - a french yacht race book with a mexican villainess and an azorean volcano - doesn't sound like it's your standard plot anyway! ;)

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

Wow, I haven't read lots of these books. None of Janet McNaughton's choices, although I do love the Leavitt book I have read, The dollmage.

I only read a Mary Poppins book as an adult, and really disliked it. I don't think I even finished it. I found it annoying, although I can't remember what I specifically didn't like. On the other hand, I loved The little white horse as a child and still enjoy it as an adult. I remember it took me ages to read it as it had a horrible pink girly cover, but once I read it I was hooked. I wanted Maria's room so much! I've got it next to the Greenknowe books on my shelf because they both have that magic old house feel.

And strangely enough, I too can't remember if I've read Charlotte sometimes for the same reason as you. I'm glad other people have this problem as well :-) I'll borrow it out of the library sometime soon to check.

[lady-schrapnell.livejournal.com]

And strangely enough, I too can't remember if I've read Charlotte sometimes for the same reason as you. I'm glad other people have this problem as well :-)

I'm glad other people younger than me have this problem as well! ;)

Elizabeth Goudge is often very good on magic old houses, isn't she? My favourite was Towers in the Mist, and it was a bit of a surprise to discover (shortly after rereading) that a relative of mine was a Canon of Christ Church College in Oxford, and lived in the very building described in the book (if somewhat changed now!).