Book Report

Books I Would Recommend For Children; or, Stuff I Read as a Kid

Inspired by my children’s literature class, out of sheer boredom I recently decided to compile a list of books that I personally read as a child, or had read to me (or read to others...). Note: These are not necessarily children’s books. I was quite precocious in my reading habits, and had ascended to chapter books by age four. I read quite a few things that would be considered “adult” in material (not necessarily sexual or violent, but sophisticated), so I’ll try to list the suggested appropriate age groups for each book. Also, I was quite an animal nut as a kid, and my reading habits heavily reflected this interest. Thus the preponderance of animal-focused books. In addition, I have included specific parental advisory warnings on some titles when needed, as material may be graphic. To get extra-super benefits from these books, read them to kids of any age! (Excepting the more graphic books.)

Anne of Green Gables and series (eight years and up)
Anything by Dave Barry (eight years and up, or according to maturity of child; language). I would frequently read his columns to my grandparents when we went on vacation, skipping over swear words and anything unpronounceable. :)
Anything by Judy Blume (varies according to book; parental discretion advised depending on individual book)
Anything by Lewis Carroll (fourth grade and up). For the snark was a boojum, you see. :)
Anything by James Herriot (fourth grade and up; some graphic depictions of medical procedures)
Anything by L.M. Montgomery (fourth grade and up; some books have dated references)
Anything by Richard Peck (especially the Blossom Culp series)
Anything by Beatrix Potter (birth on up...I still love these books!)
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (four to ten years)
Bunnicula and series (second grade and up)
The Catcher In The Rye (age twelve and up; strong language, parental descretion advised)
The Cat Who Came For Christmas (eight and up). Also the sequels The Cat and the Curmudgeon and The Best Cat Ever.
Charlotte’s Web (four to twelve years)
The Clan of the Cave Bear (although I read it at age twelve, it is decidedly fourteen and up, and only if the child is mature enough for the content--it is very graphic. Parental discretion highly advised.)
The Complete Dog Book (all ages!)
A Cricket In Times Square
French textbooks. Mom spoke French to me when I was little, and I still have retained a lot of it.
Garfield comic books (four years and up)
Gone With The Wind (twelve and up; sexual innuendo, language, disturbing concepts--slavery, war, rape, etc). Highly sophisticated with controversial themes, this is nevertheless a masterpiece, if only to convince young girls to abandon juvenile romances for good stuff.
Goodnight Moon (birth to four years old). This should be in every home in the world.
A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me. (two and up) A wonderful collection of limericks and nonsense poetry for children, to read by themselves or have read to them.
Harriet The Spy
Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone and series (four to 104). Of course!
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Universe and series. Yes, they’re quite abstruse and sophisticated, but intelligent fourteen year olds (they do exist, I’ve met a couple) could pick it up with little effort.
The Hobbit (probably third grade and up). A wonderful little book that will open them into a larger world.
A House Is A House For Me (to be honest, I haven’t read this in so long, I don’t remember the age demographic...since reading it is my sister’s first memory, however, I’ll just say two years and up)
I, Houdini. This book undoubtably inspired the Great Hamster Population in our house.
The Incredible Journey (third grade and up)
The Indian in the Cupboard and series (second grade and up)
It’s Like This, Cat (fourth to eighth grade)
Jerome (two to eight years)
Jurassic Park (age twelve and up; graphic violence)
The Little Engine That Could (two to six)
The Little House (two to six)
The Little House on the Prairie series (six and up)
The Little Red Hen (one to five years)
Mary Poppins
Matilda (six years and up)
Misty of Chincoteague (six years and up)
The Mouse and the Motorcycle (second to sixth grade). Also the sequel Runaway Ralph
One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish (two to six years)
Peter Pan (fourth grade and up)
Pippi Longstocking (four to ten years). My favorite book for years.
Pretzel (two to six years)
Pride and Prejudice (fourteen and up; sophisticated wording and themes)
Psychological textbooks. Trust me on this: They will help make the world seem more manageable and less frightening to understand. When life seems sliced into decided traits and disorders, and when the stages of life are mapped out in front of you, everything gets a little bit easier, because you know what to expect.
Ramona The Pest and series (four to twelve years)
Ranger Rick magazine subscription
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi
The Secret Garden (third grade and up)
Stuart Little (second grade and up)
Swimmy (two to six years)
The Trumpet of the Swan (second grade and up)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and series (first grade and up; the book is surprisingly violent compared to the movie)
The World Treasury of Children’s Literature, volumes I, II, and III. Buy these books. They will inspire a love of reading in children like nothing else.
Zoobooks magazine subscription

Books I Read That Are Considered Trash But Devoured Anyway
The Baby-Sitter’s Club series. I was heavily into this from age six to fourteen, then lost interest. I haven’t read one of those books since we gave our massive collection to a public library, at Mom’s behest. I sorta miss those books...
The Fear Street series. I only technically owned less than a half-dozen of these books (all of which drifted to friends of friends, and I gradually lost contact with), but constantly borrowed them from school and public libraries. Predictably, while reading them I experienced constant nightmares that only abetted after I stopped when I was about fifteen. Author's Note: I re-read the first book in this series (which apparently has blossomed to over 130 books), and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that it is actually quite a nice, well-written little book. Not utterly compelling or mind-blowingly brilliant, but it’s cute and funny and goes down easily (I finished it in about a half-hour), and makes for pleasant light reading. It’s not as vapid or poisonous as a lot of teachers claim it to be, and it’s certainly a boatload of improvement over comic books or romance novels...I’d rather see a kid reading The Truth About Stacey or the like before I saw them with a copy of something from the Silhouette oeuvre.
The Sweet Valley High series. From age twelve to sixteen, I collected these in earnest. Then I discovered good “romance” novels like Gone With The Wind and the Earth’s Children series, and dropped them like hot coals.

The Flip Side: Books That Are Often Heavily Recommended By Adults, But Should Never Be Given To Children
A lot of these books fall under “medicine”: It’s for your own good, dammit, so you better read it. Thus they’re issued as required reading in schools across the country, with the result being that millions of children are being taught to hate them. A few of these books would be excellent if marketed to adults, but they are far too sophisticated for kids. And a final handful are just damned unpleasant to read, either because they’re depressing or overly violent and/or frightening.
Anything by Charles Dickens. I hate Dickens. His books are depressing, maudlin, and preachy.
The Giver. Orwell’s 1984...for kids! I hate this book. It is guaranteed to traumatize at least one child per classroom.
The Giving Tree. Along the same lines, this book gradually depresses you like few others can.
The House With a Clock In Its Walls. This falls under the category of “horrendously creepy and will potentially scar you for life”. A book that gave me nightmares for years.
To Kill A Mockingbird. A good example of an excellent book thoroughly ruined by our public school systems.
Lord of the Flies. Ten-year olds killing each other with sticks? Ew.
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Generally depressing, uncomfortable science fiction marketed as a cute animal tale.
A Wrinkle In Time and series. Wonderful book for adults. Way too sophisticated for children, and yet is consistently crammed down the throats of our youth.

Stuff I Didn't Have As a Kid, But Now Wish I Did
Note: Some of this is stuff that I didn’t experience as a kid, not necessarily because they weren’t available at the time, but because I had no interest in them, and chose to ignore them (fantasy movies and the like).
Boy’s toys (action figures). We had toy trucks and dinosaurs, but being girls we had them interacting in a socially-conscious manner (sharing, having involved discussions, recycling etc). Although we did have TONS of She-Ras...hmm...). Besides which, the 80s had GREAT toys. To hell with Power Rangers...we had Popples, and Little Pretties, and Thundercats (say it with me: “Thunder...thunder...THUNDERcats, HO!”), and of course Teddy Ruxpin, the original animatronic toy. Any time kids of the 80s get together, the first thing they reminisce about is the toys and the television programs (Square One! Reading Rainbow! Today’s Special! 3-2-1 Contact! You Can’t Do That On Television!) available back then. Compared to what we got, kids today are served dreck.
Harry Potter series. On the other hand, there’s plenty of stuff available to modern children that I woulda given my eyeteeth and a back molar for. Harry is about six of them.
DC! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wished I’d grown up with DC next door. Her presence in my life has materially changed it for the better.
Labyrinth, Legend, The Princess Bride et al. I didn’t discover these until age 19, although apparently Mom tried her damndest for years to interest me and my sister in fantasy films. The one I clearly remember was The Neverending Story, which I HATED. It scared the hell out of me...remember that creepy talking wolf? My sister had nighmares for YEARS about that wolf. I also saw Return to Oz, which was incredibly dark and depressing (Dorothy ends up in an asylum? Ugh!). I didn’t bite the bug until DC shoved Labyrinth down my willing throat (mixed metaphors much?), and my adoration escalated into a mild obsession.
Star Trek. I saw these, I really did. And I liked the old series, with the colorful environments and huge doe-eyed females...for years that was my model for physical beauty, the weird sixties galactic styles of Star Trek. They were living Barbie dolls! Unfortunately, we didn’t have anything but extreme basic cable when I was growing up (we had one channel for the first twelve years of my life), so I didn’t get the chance to see it very often. And Next Generation was something my grandparents watched, along with Murder, She Wrote and Wheel of Fortune. Frankly, it seemed very talky and complicated for my six-year old mind to comprehend, especially with all the technobabble (technology has never been a strong point with me).
Star Wars. I saw the Star Wars movies like every other human being growing up on Planet Earth, but they alternately bored and frightened me, so I didn’t pay them much attention. I WAS exposed to them, however...I remember in 1983 when all the Ewok crap came out and they were hyped in breakfast cereal and fast-food establishments. I believe we even had an Ewok toy from Wendy’s or some such, that would be worth a mint today, except we lost it.

My Theory On How to Increase Literacy In Schools
Two words: Fan fiction. I know, I know...sounds like I’m just trying to force my own interests down the innocent throats of unwilling youth, right? This idea has actual merit, though.
Think about it. Kids watch a ton of television and movies nowadays. They probably invest, on average, more hours each day staring at a screen than at pieces of actual typed-up paper. My idea is, you go to a classroom and ask the kids what are their favorite movies and TV shows. Then you assign them to write their own adventures about said favorite movies and shows. They don’t necessarily have to be high-quality works...the point is to make the connection between reading and writing, and the pleasure center of the brain. They could churn out the most hackneyed plots and obvious Mary Sues ever created, and be cheered on every step of the way. They wouldn’t be graded on literary merit or technical ability. As long as the stories are obviously original (not plagarized from another source, be it outside influence or directly from their fellow students), and some effort is made on their behalf, then the assignment is successful. They would be writing about their favorite characters in a familiar setting, with no pressure to come up with new stuff right cracking off, so they'd think they're getting away with something. In the meantime, they would make a connection that writing is fun! I would only ask that they attempt to remain as true to the characters in their story as they are portrayed in the genre, which would be admittedly difficult to arrange and supervise.
Lest anyone say that assigning fan fiction discourages creative thinking and originality (creating original characters and plots on their own), I must point out that I have read fan fics that are far superior in quality to the vast amount of pap churned out every year by alledged “authors” under psuedonyms. I would far rather know that a child is not only taking the time and effort to write a story, but is interested in what they are writing, because they are interested and invested in the characters right off the bat, than forcing them to hurredly dash off a lackluster piece of work. Enthusiasm in a project shines through, and you can’t recreate that via technical acheivement alone.