Children's Books

[Lilitu]

What do you think about children's literature, have you read any recently?

I specifically remember a 2 year period from 2006-8 where all the picture books we were read in class got really profound and some got very frightening.

They were all Australian or New Zealand children's literature though: The one I remember most is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Watertower

This and the sequel freaked me out, and still does to this day. It was about a watertower, and two boys go swimming in it, but when one comes out, he's changed. In the sequel, you see the entire world branded with this 'change' and a disturbing motif runs throughout the illustrations.

I also remember this one picture book about clinical depression called the red tree, and another one 'The Rabbits', about the destruction of Australian Aborigines, that our teacher told us got banned in Australia for a while.

The New Zealand books that I remember were these two I cant remember the names of. One of them was about a girl who went to her grandfather's creepy old house. She had a nightmare about a fog, on the beach. The next day they made clam chowder. The other one was about an astronaut who finds his ship invaded by a pyramid-shaped alien vessel, which got really unsettling towards the end.

Australia make really good children's literature...

[partis]

I've got Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-tikki-tavi"

Its a wonderful little book about "the great war Rikki fought single-handed, through the bathrooms of the big bungalow in Segowlee Cantonment"

Rikki tikki is a mongoose.

[MisterTinkles]

It depends on what you mean by "childrens books".

To me, childrens books are like Mother Goose, Dr. Suess, Babar, Curious George, and stories like that.

I have read a few Dr. Suess and some Mother Goose. I have also read more "teenage" books like the Nancy Drew series.

[stu]

I read The Outsiders after seeing the film with the same name. More of a teenagers book than a childs book though. I can't explain why it's any good (I'm an engineer) so if your interested read about it on wiki.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsiders_(novel)

[Jovial]

Everything Robert Munsch, otherwise, the closest I get at my age are old original fairytales - I collect them by the volume. :p

[davearoo]

A number of children's stories have been sanitized - and used to be very disturbing in their original forms.

For instance, Cinderella's stepsisters amputated parts of their feet to try to fit into the glass slipper.

[Pix]

I read a series that was new and put in the children's section. I personally thought it should've gone in the Young Adult section given the issues and references to pop culture but I guess it being Scholastic author Applegate (and each book being short rather than a true novel) got it shunted to the children. It not only included issues like white supremacy and extramarital affairs (and dysfunctional families galore) but also mental illness (particularly one character with OCD who washed his hands until they bled, and later on spurred on by magic did the same to his face), threatened rape & castration, one who was wrestling with the damage caused by a camp counselor that molested him a child, and more more. It got graphic at times and even as an adult I shuddered more than once reading the series.

I suppose of interest here would be that they met a minor deity who was was a gay man and the homophobic character got to like him a bit and then question his homophobia when the last act of the gay god before he was ritually murdered by alien gods was to save him (I forget the details).

Nevertheless, it was a popular series even among preteens. I never heard of a library that could keep certain books in the series from getting stolen.

[Vigilias]

You can't beat the Brothers Grimm when it comes to scaring the bejesus out of kids!

[partis]

I loved the "Goosebumps" books as an older kid. The one i remember best (though still quite vaugely) is " A Shocker on Shock Street" oh and "The Scarecrow walks at midnight"

I sometimes see a Goosebumbs and i get an urge to pick it up, they so colourful :p

[trywait]

shel silverstein and the giving tree