Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Which other authors do you enjoy? Discuss them here.
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Anita Bensoussane
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Maybe children learning to write stories are told not to end them with "and it was all a dream" because that device was overused in the past by authors like John Masefield and Lewis Carroll? It's certainly a most frustrating way for a story to finish!

I'd forgotten about the film of The Dark is Rising, but yes, it was a massive disappointment and bore very little resemblance to the book.
burlingtonbertram wrote:I will give E Nesbit's 'Amulet' a try - I was after a pre-decimal copy on E-Bay a couple of months back and think I must have forgotten to keep looking.
I think you'd enjoy it, BurlingtonBertram. That's the third title in the trilogy, the second being The Phoenix and the Carpet. For me, the series gets better with each installment.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

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- E. Nesbit, The Wonderful Garden.


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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Deej »

Katharine wrote:I bought Stig of the Dump a couple of days ago. My daughter studied it at school last term and enjoyed it, but I've never read it before.
It's fantastic. They've made a DVD series of it also.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Courtenay »

Yes, my dad - a now-retired primary school teacher - also drummed it into children (as did my mum, who's not a teacher!) that "and then I woke up and it was all a dream" is the lamest possible ending for a story!! Well, I now know not to read The Box of Delights. :evil:

Wasn't there also a TV drama once - I forget what it was, but I think it was from the US - where one of the main actors decided to leave, so they killed off his character, but then he asked to come back... so they made it that the whole preceding season (in which he was dead) was all a dream, dreamed by one of the other main characters?? :shock:

A variation on that theme, incidentally, is to end a story with the characters being made to forget (through magic or hypnosis or whatever) the incredible things that have happened to them, so they return to their ordinary lives and no-one, including themselves, is any the wiser. The Tintin adventure Flight 714 to Sydney is a classic example. :roll: I'm glad Enid Blyton never stooped to either of those devices!
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Anita Bensoussane »

Courtenay wrote:Wasn't there also a TV drama once - I forget what it was, but I think it was from the US - where one of the main actors decided to leave, so they killed off his character, but then he asked to come back... so they made it that the whole preceding season (in which he was dead) was all a dream, dreamed by one of the other main characters?? :shock:
I think that was Dallas, and the character was Bobby Ewing. I wasn't watching Dallas by then but I remember reading about it.
"Heyho for a starry night and a heathery bed!" - Jack, The Secret Island.

"There is no bond like the bond of having read and liked the same books."
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Courtenay »

Oh, sounds about right. :roll: Not something I've ever watched either, but I saw it mentioned somewhere once.

Back on topic, I'd love to watch the DVD of Stig of the Dump some time too, but would prefer to re-read the book first. Another on my ever-growing books-I-must-get-around-to-reading list! :wink:

The problem with doing a "top 10 favourites" list, for me, would be that I couldn't pick just one of C. S. Lewis's Narnia series for a start, so that's seven places gone already! :lol: Plus I was also recently reminded of Brian Jacques' Redwall series in another discussion, and that too has so many excellent instalments - I haven't read the later books, but the ones I have read were all extremely good.

Is it permissible to do a "top 10" with a whole series, collectively, as one entry, do you think? :mrgreen:
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

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Anita Bensoussane wrote:
burlingtonbertram wrote:I will give E Nesbit's 'Amulet' a try - I was after a pre-decimal copy on E-Bay a couple of months back and think I must have forgotten to keep looking.
I think you'd enjoy it, BurlingtonBertram. That's the third title in the trilogy, the second being The Phoenix and the Carpet. For me, the series gets better with each installment.
I'd forgotten about The Phoenix and the Carpet, although I have a copy. I'd better have a top 11 not top 10. I will get onto Ebay for a copy of 'Amulet' very soon.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

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Courtenay wrote:The problem with doing a "top 10 favourites" list, for me, would be that I couldn't pick just one of C. S. Lewis's Narnia series for a start, so that's seven places gone already! :lol: Plus I was also recently reminded of Brian Jacques' Redwall series in another discussion, and that too has so many excellent instalments - I haven't read the later books, but the ones I have read were all extremely good.

Is it permissible to do a "top 10" with a whole series, collectively, as one entry, do you think? :mrgreen:
I have a similar problem in that Enid Blyton and RIchmal Crompton should be in there collectively but not perhaps in relation to individual books. I really like William Brown as a character without being able to single out any particular book. With regard to CS Lewis, although I enjoyed the rest of the Narnia trilogy, I find the Magician's Nephew has a different feel to it somehow which, for me, sets it above the rest. Each to their own I suppose.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

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Courtenay wrote:Is it permissible to do a "top 10" with a whole series, collectively, as one entry, do you think? :mrgreen:
Nope, absolutely not! :P

Two Stig of the Dump TV serials were made, one in 1981 and the other in 2002, but only the later one is available on DVD (the earlier one was released on video at some point but I've never been able to get a copy). The 1981 version sticks closely to the book whereas there are some quite major changes and additions to the plot in the 2002 version. Nevertheless, both are sensitive adaptations and I love them. The boy who plays Barney in the 2002 serial (Thomas Sangster) is particularly good in the part, I think. Incidentally, "Stig of the Dump" must surely rank as one of the greatest ever titles for a book!
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by burlingtonbertram »

The title was a bit unfortunate for my closest mate - Stig Of The Dump was one of his nicknames at school. I suppose he got the last laugh as he went into archaeology; getting paid for digging into the midden pit of history.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Courtenay »

Anita Bensoussane wrote:Incidentally, "Stig of the Dump" must surely rank as one of the greatest ever titles for a book!
It does make him sound up there with Scott of the Antarctic or Flynn of the Inland... well, sort of! :lol: No, really, I agree, it's a very evocative and memorable title that at once gets the reader intrigued.
burlingtonbertram wrote:With regard to CS Lewis, although I enjoyed the rest of the Narnia trilogy, I find the Magician's Nephew has a different feel to it somehow which, for me, sets it above the rest. Each to their own I suppose.
Bertram, I'd love to hear more of what it is about The Magician's Nephew that makes it stand out for you... perhaps you'd like to share more on the Narnia discussion thread? :D
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Francis »

Interesting to see 'Stalky and Co' on one of the lists - an excellent introduction into what motivated
boys into joining the old imperial army. As a boy I loved 'Coral island', 'Psmith', ,Treasure Island, the first five
Blyton Adventure series books, 'William the Gangster' 'Tom Sawyer' and 'Huckleberry Finn'.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

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Francis wrote:Interesting to see 'Stalky and Co' on one of the lists - an excellent introduction into what motivated boys into joining the old imperial army.
George Sampson (quote) "an unpleasant book about unpleasant boys at an unpleasant school".

I love Stalky and Co but you really do have to leave the modern world behind. It is horrendously un-PC. It is a world of certainties: of duty, class and empire which must be wholly alien to modern children. The bullying in it is probably pretty awful to modern eyes too although the main protagonists do actually act as a check to it; sorting out the problem with their own brand of rough justice (which today would get them expelled and probably sent to a Young Offenders' Institute).

This isn't the Frank Richards 'Bunter' world of Greyfriars; manicured cricket pitches, well tended quads and a healthy taste for sport and toffee. The school is a limited company; the buildings are a terrace of town houses. The boys are not rich enough for the great public schools. The main characters are to be seen taking pot-shots with saloon pistols or smoking cheroots. Respect for the masters and sixth formers has to be earned; and few do earn it. Patriotism is a deeply private affair; flag waving is crass and vulgar. These aren't really boys but unformed men with all the best and worst aspects of tribalism, aggression, honour and courage welling up inside them.

I read a review somewhere that pointed out that Stalky became one of that last generation of imperial adventurers that, in the real world, ended with Lawrence and the war in Arabia. Kipling's casual references to the forthcoming deaths of minor characters are almost chilling; boys of their type probably could expect to die one day under a foreign sky. The books is very much a product of it's period. A good thing that it was over but kind of magnificent whilst it lasted.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by burlingtonbertram »

Courtenay wrote:
burlingtonbertram wrote:With regard to CS Lewis, although I enjoyed the rest of the Narnia trilogy, I find the Magician's Nephew has a different feel to it somehow which, for me, sets it above the rest. Each to their own I suppose.
Bertram, I'd love to hear more of what it is about The Magician's Nephew that makes it stand out for you... perhaps you'd like to share more on the Narnia discussion thread? :D
Good idea; I will re-read it and take you up on that.
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by Francis »

Great review of 'Stalky', burlingtonbertram. I certainly didn't find it unpleasant as I automatically
put books into the context in which they were written. The physical mistreatment of
the bullies is tantamount to torture but I suspect it is an accurate depiction of what took place
in Public / Private Schools. it's interesting that Kipling seemed au fait with the various techniques involved!
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Re: Top 10 favourite children's books in Britain

Post by burlingtonbertram »

Funnily enough, being a bit 'Geeky', Kipling could have been the outsider (the fictionalised 'Beetle') but he seems to have been a bit of a ringleader. You may know that Stalky is based on the young General Lionel Dunsterville whose memories of Kipling were, I think, rather hazier.
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