Ten Children's Books Grown-ups Should Read

"A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children 

is not a good children's story in the slightest." 

 -- C. S. Lewis

The books we read as children stay with us for a lifetime, but we don't have to quit reading children's books just because now we wear long pants and have adult cards at the library. In fact, children's books are for everybody. All of us have a child inside — a child that wants to play and laugh and learn.  

Here are ten books that will delight and nourish the child within.

The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame

It's springtime, and Mole is doing his spring cleaning. But sun and blossoms in the breeze call him to explore the great outdoors. In time, he meets new friends — Rat, Toad, and Badger. They are always ready for a roadtrip, whether on foot or by boat or carriage or motorcar. They have many whimsical adventures on the river and in the woods. Want to feel inspired to follow your own heart's dreams? This is the book.

The Little Prince, by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

"Please. . .draw me a sheep. . ." You don't expect to hear a voice when your plane has crash-landed in the Sahara. You don't expect to meet a child. And if you do, you certainly don't expect to be asked to draw him a sheep. But if you listen to his story, you will learn to love the child and to love the stars and to love this book. 

Beatrix Potter: The Complete Tales, by Beatrix Potter

Peter Rabbbit, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddleduck, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle  — these animal characters are bursting with very human personality traits. They all have serious problems to solve, villains to outwit, journeys to take — the very stuff of stories.

Hans Christian Andersen, The Complete Fairy Tales and Stories, translated [into English] by Erik Christian Haaugard 

The Ugly Duckling. The Emperor's New Clothes. The Little Mermaid. . . .so many wonderful stories compiled and shaped by a master teller of tales. This is my favorite translation of Andersen's fairy tales.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll

A rabbit hole, a Mad Hatter, a hookah-smoking caterpillar. . .colorful iconic characters, sophisticated humor and word play,  and inspired nonsense — it's all here in mathematician Lewis Carroll's whimsical masterpiece. It's brillig!

The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis

Four English children, siblings, are evacuated to the country to escape World War II. But it seems they can't escape war after all, for they stumble into another world where they meet a lordly Lion who asks them to lead a fierce battle.  In these stories, we come to know the Lion in that world, so that we can know Him better in this world.

The Book of God for Children, by Walter Wangerin Jr.

This is a great Bible-story book to share with your children and grandchildren. And it's a good overview of the whole Bible story from Creation to Apocalypse.

Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott

This charming classic story, set in Civil War era New England, chronicles the journey of four sisters from childhood into womanhood — their friendships, loves, and life lessons.

Aesop's Fables, by Aesop

These short stories with animal characters are simple enough for children to understand and profound enough to leave a lasting impression on adults. They are an important part of our world cultural heritage.

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson 

If Katherine Paterson published her grocery lists and dry cleaning receipts, I would want to read the book — she's that good of a writer. This book is fantastic, and I'm also using it to represent all the Newbery winners, such as Madeleine L'Engle, Kate diCamillo, E. L. Konigsburg — the cream of the crop of amazing children's writers. 

If you're looking for a good children's book, you can always  check the list of Newbery winners published by the American Library Association: Newbery Winners.

What was I thinking? Ten children's stories grown-ups should read? TEN? 

Actually, there are hundreds — maybe thousands — but perhaps these few will suggest the wealth of children's stories that adults can enjoy equally and appreciate more. 

Please. . .leave a comment and tell me one of your recommendations!

Image credits:
    Children reading -- Photo of painting -- The First Bible Lesson 
         -- Public Domain in the United States

City Mouse, Country Mouse

It happened a week ago. 

Richard and I were enjoying our Saturday morning pancakes, when he saw it.

A mouse. Scurrying across the kitchen floor.

A mouse in my house. The shock. The horror.

So naturally I have launched an all-out offensive that would make Sun Tzu proud. Milton (yes, I named the mouse) has met his match! I do not want a mouse in my house.

A mouse, mocking me

But mice in stories are another matter. Who wouldn't love those Einsteins of the furry-footed, The Rats of NIMH? Or brave Reepicheep in The Chronicles of Narnia? Or those shape-shifting mice that turn into horses to draw Cinderella’s carriage? Or a dashing explorer like Livingstone Mouse (Pamela Duncan Edwards)? Or Frederick (Leo Leonni), a poet mouse who stores away colors for the dreary winter months.

Arthur Rackham, illus for The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

One of my favorite mythic mice is Timmy Willie, from Beatrix Potter’s story, The Tale of Johnny Town Mouse—probably a variation on one of Aesop’s fables, The City Mouse and the Country Mouse.

As so many adventures do, it all began with a mistake. 

Timmy Willie, a country mouse, had fallen asleep in a wicker hamper someone set by the garden gate. The next thing he knew, "he awoke in a fright" as the hamper was lifted into a cart. Then he heard the cloppety-clop of horse’s hooves as the cart went up the lane and down the road to town. 

The cart was unloaded in a house where dogs barked, boys whistled, the cook cackled, and a canary trilled. Rather raucous when you are used to life in a peaceful country garden.

Fleeing from the screaming cook, Timmy Willie ducked into a hole and landed in the middle of a mouse dinner party. 

The town mice invited Timmy to join them, and he was treated to eight gourmet courses, but each course was rather small. The food was good, and the mice were polite, but the strange noises and the perils of town life put a damper on his enthusiasm. Timmy longed for his home and soon returned in the outgoing vegetable hamper.

Then Johnny Town Mouse came to visit Timmy’s country home. “Whatever is that fearful racket?” asked Johnny. 

"Only the lawnmower” replied Timmy. 

Only the lawnmower? Imagine how a lawnmower looks and sounds when you have the size and disposition of a mouse! And Johnny found other strange things in country life—like oozing mud and cud-chewing monsters called cows. Timmy was quite sure that Johnny would want to move to the country--but instead, Johnny couldn’t wait to catch the five o'clock hamper back to town.

For, as Beatrix Potter concludes, “One places suits one person, another place suits another.” Beatrix had lived in both the town and the country, but she decided that country life was more to her liking.

 

Hilltop Farm, Beatrix Potter's country home

Now here’s a simple personality test, with just one question. City mouse or country mouse—which one are you?

I loved the years we lived in the country, where if you hear honking, it's probably geese. Where a traffic jam is a cow in the road. Where you can watch the sun rise and set over open fields. Where soy fields turn to burnished bronze in the fall. Where a zillion sparkling stars come out at night. Where you can be the first to make footprints in the snow. 

But there are many delights and conveniences to living in or near the city as well. Libraries. Museums. Shopping. Movies. Restaurants. Meetings with friends. A city skyline reflected on the river. A city decked out for the holidays.

Unlike Johnny and Timmy, I have a harder time deciding between city and country--and I wonder what that says about me. Hey, I only said country-mouse/city-mouse was a good personality test. I didn't say I had any idea what it means.

If you get a chance, leave a comment and tell me what kind of mouse you are--city or country--and why.

Oh, and if you happen to see Milton, tell him he's going down. (Wait--do I hear snickering from somewhere behind the stove?)

Happy Birthday, Beatrix Potter!

This week is Beatrix Potter's birthday--her 146th!--on July 28th.


Sure, I know. I've already done two blog posts on Beatrix Potter. But she is such a remarkable lady that I can't resist doing just. . .one. . .more. 


Really. 


Maybe. 


Oh, who am I kidding?

FUN & FASCINATING FACTS 
ABOUT BEATRIX POTTER

• Beatrix started a secret diary when she was 15 years old and kept writing journals until about age 30. She invented a secret code for her diaries that wasn't cracked until about 15 years after her death in 1943.

• One of Beatrix's early interests was mycology--the study of fungi. The Potter family lived near the British Musem of Natural History in London, where Beatrix spent a lot of time studying and drawing fungi. In her late twenties, she wrote and illustrated a book on the subject. Her uncle presented the book to the Royal Botanical Gardens, but they expressed no interest in her work. Potter was one of the first people to recognize that lichens were a symbiotic relationship between fungi and algae.

• When it came time to draw up the publishing contract for Peter Rabbit, Beatrix was not allowed to sign the contract. The reason? She was a woman. Duh. Maybe the flowered hat gave her away. Her father had to make the agreement on her behalf.

• There is a curious "co-incidence" about some of the names used in Beatrix Potter stories. In Brompton Cemetery near the Potter family home, these names were found in computerized records of tombstones: Mr. Nutkin, Mr. McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Tommy Brock, and Peter Rabbett. (“Cemetery clue to Potter animals,” BBC News, 27 July 2001)

Brompton Cemetery

• Beatrix had a mind for "merchandising" as well. She created a Peter Rabbit Doll and told her publisher Norman Warne that they should sell well at Harrod's, a London department store. She also envisioned wallpaper, board games, "painting books," and china tea sets, based on her work. She was so far ahead of her time.
• As Miss Potter got older, her eyesight became poorer, and her paintings became more impressionistic. Eventually she lost interest in painting and writing.

• If you're planning a literary tour of England, you won't be able to visit the burial place of Beatrix Potter. After she died, her husband William delivered her ashes to their chief shepherd, Tom Storey. Beatrix wanted to make sure that no-one knew where her ashes were scattered. Not even her husband. Tom did tell his son, but the son died suddenly and unexpectedly. Now no-one knows the final resting place of Beatrix Potter. Mwa-ha-ha.

Hyde Chapel

• However, if you've got your heart set on a grave site, the author's parents and grandparents are buried in Hyde Chapel, east of Manchester. In 2008, the chapel held a Beatrix Potter exhibition (pictured above).

• Beatrix left nearly all her property in the Lake District to The National Trust--more than 4,000 acres, sixteen farms, many cottages, and herds of sheep and cattle. When William died 18 months later, he left the remainder to the Trust. 

A Letter from Beatrix Potter

Noel Moore

Five year old Noel Moore lay in bed staring at the patterns in the wallpaper. He could hear the other children having their lessons downstairs or playing outdoors. For in that summer of 1893, Noel had scarlet fever, a frequently fatal children's disease. 


Noel's family lived in London at the edge of a large park called Wandsworth Commons. Unfortunately, his mother Annie didn’t have a lot of time to spend with her sick child. She had other children to care for, and she was expecting again. Sometimes Noel felt sad and lonely.  Sometimes he couldn’t remember what it felt like to run and play.

One day in September, a letter arrived from a family friend. A letter for Noel. It was the very best kind of letter—big! With pictures! The letter said, “My dear Noel: I don’t know what to write to you, so I shall tell you a story about four little rabbits whose names were Flopsy, Mopsy, Cottontail and Peter.” 

1st page of letter

Beatrix Potter

Sound familiar? The Moore family had a special friend, a lady named Beatrix Potter. Though only three years older than Beatrix, Annie had been her governess, and now Beatrix liked to stay in touch with the Moores. 


Sometimes Miss Potter would come for a visit and bring her pet, a Belgian buck rabbit named Peter Piper. She had taught Peter to do tricks, but occasionally Peter was “naughty” and refused to cooperate. The children loved her visits, but it had been a long time since Miss Potter had come to see them. At least, it seemed like a long time to a five year old boy.



But this letter was almost as good as a visit—maybe better, because this letter was addressed to Noel. And it contained a story written just for him--a story about a naughty rabbit named Peter who went into his neighbor's garden and had great adventures and barely made it out again. The letter cheered Noel greatly. 


A few years later, Noel was sick again—this time with polio. And Miss Potter continued to send story-letters for Noel and the other children to read.

Noel’s mother told Miss Potter that she thought the stories ought to be published. So one day, when Noel was about twelve, Miss Potter asked to borrow the first letter she had sent. She had decided to try to publish the story about Peter the Rabbit, and she wondered if Noel had kept it.


Kept it? Of course he had kept it and treasured it. 


Miss Potter self-published the book in 1901, and it sold only a few copies. But then the publishing firm of F. Warne and Company took an interest in the "bunny book," as they called it. At the Warnes’ request, she rewrote the story, adding more scenes and more pictures. The time was right. Small picture books were just becoming popular, and the book was an instant success.


Beatrix later wrote: “It is much more satisfactory to address a real live child; I often think that that was the secret of the success of Peter Rabbit, it was written to a child - not made to order!”


Little Noel grew up to become a priest. He lived a long life and worked with children in the slums of London.

Beatrix Potter with her dog Kep

Peter's cousin, Benjamin Bunny

Beatrix Potter went on to become one of the most beloved and best-selling children’s authors of all time. Her beautiful books would bring delight to countless children around the world. And it all began because she cared deeply about one little boy named Noel.

The Garden Gate, inspiration
for Mr. McGregor's Garden

To learn more about the remarkable life of Beatrix Potter, click here.

And if you'd like to know more about how Peter Rabbit came to be written, the Stark Raving Mythopath recommends The True Story of Peter Rabbit: How a Letter from Beatrix Potter Became a Children's Classic, by Jane Johnson. A delightful picture book.

Beatrix Redux

“There is something delicious about writing the first words of 
a story. You never quite know where they'll take you.” – 
Beatrix Potter, in the movie Miss Potter

I remember my mother reading The Tale of Peter Rabbit to me when I was a small child. How tragic that Peter’s father had been made into a pie! How happy I was when Peter escaped from Farmer McGregor and his evil garden hoe. But I felt sorry for naughty Peter because he didn’t get to have blackberries and camomile tea with his saintly siblings, Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail. 

Unfair! Didn’t his mother understand that he had nearly met his doom? Besides, any dolt could see that Peter was the interesting character, taking risks and having adventures, while those good little bunnies were boring. At that age, I relished the delights of the story, but it probably never entered my mind that every picture has an artist, every story has an author. . . .

Beatrix as a child

Helen Beatrix Potter—author, artist, and naturalist—was best known for her children’s stories about animals: Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Squirrel Nutkin, Jemima Puddle-Duck—a whole managerie of characters with names that are fun to say out loud. 

As a child, she spent endless hours observing and drawing animals. She had private art lessons but preferred to develop her own style. Perhaps even then she made up stories about the animals she drew. 

Norman Warne with his nephew

Although she was born into a well-to-do family, success didn’t come to Beatrix gift-wrapped and tied with a bow. As a young woman in post-Victorian England, she fought hard to get a hearing in a business world dominated by men. 

In 1901, she privately printed The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which was published by Warne and Co. the following year. Peter Rabbit was followed by The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin and a long string of other enchanting titles. Her friendship with publisher Norman Warne blossomed into romance, and in 1905, they became engaged—unofficially. (Her parents disapproved.) But tragically, Norman died only a month later of leukemia.

Hilltop Farm

That same year Beatrix purchased Hilltop Farm, in Near Sawry in the Lake District. Perhaps as a remedy for grief, she immersed herself in country living, touring neighboring farms to learn more about fell farming and raising livestock. She kept the tenant farmers on at Hilltop to preserve it as a working farm. 

In the following years, she bought additional farms in the area in order to keep the landscape from being ravaged by greedy developers. In this endeavor, she often sought advice from the law firm of W. H. Heelis & Son in Hawkshead. That professional relationship also turned to romance, and William Heelis proposed.

Beatrix and William

In 1913, Beatrix and William were married--without the approval of her parents, who were deeply entrenched in ideas about social class. Nonetheless, the couple were happily married for thirty years, continuing their work in conservation of the land and sheep breeding. Beatrix had no children of her own, but she was actively involved in the life of William's nephews and nieces and with the Girl Guides, a sister organization of the Girl Scouts.

Another view of Hilltop Farm

Beatrix Potter Heelis died in 1943, at the age of 77, leaving a lasting legacy of over 23 children's books and other writings. Most of her estate was left to the National Trust, to preserve the Lake District. William died 18 months later.

Yes, there is “something delicious about writing the first words of a story.” It’s a leap of faith that Madeleine L’Engle likened to walking on water. For Beatrix Potter, those first words took her far, to a place of beauty and serenity at Hilltop Farm and to immortality as a children's writer.

The Stark Raving Mythopath recommends Miss Potter, a 2006 movie version of the life of Beatrix Potter, starring Renee Zellweger and Ewan McGregor. And of course, I recommend all the charming stories written and illustrated by Beatrix Potter. 


And if you'd like to know more about how The Tale of Peter Rabbit came to be written, click here. It all began with a letter to a sick little boy. . . .