Howling Frog Books

For ease of reference in future, here is a complete list of January's articles about children's literature: John Newbery 19th-century Illustrators Hans Christian Andersen E. Nesbit Sydney Taylor Padraic Colum Walter de la Mare P. L. Travers L. M. Boston Tove Jansson Roger Lancelyn Green Rosemary Sutcliff Edward Eager Elizabeth Goudge Homer Price Eleanor Farjeon Meindert DeJong Wrapup and Post-1960 Bonus Amanda's overviews: first and second Arenel at Slightly Cultural, Most Thoughtful and Inevitably Irrelevant 's list of Russian classics 

It's pretty embarrassing that I didn't get around to doing the Classics Club's January meme until the last day of January, but in my defense, I was busy!  Writing posts that will benefit Classics Clubbers for generations to come!  (Yeah, that's the ticket...)  So now I'm going to do it, only there are these tree-trimmers across the street making the most horrible noise.... What is the best book you’ve read so far for The Classics Club — and why? Be sure to link to the post where you discussed the book! (Or, if you prefer, what is your least favorite read so far for the club, and why?) Oh wow.  That's a toughie.  I have loved a whole bunch of these books.  I've read 24 so far (out of probably 150 on my list now, which is completely out of control). Two of them are waiting for me to write them up.  And my favorite is one of them!  So... My first pick is Anna Karenina .  I just read it this month and finished it maybe two weeks ago....

It's the end of January and sadly, the end of our celebration of classic children's literature.  I hope you read The Princess and the Goblin , or read some other children's classic and blogged about it, or maybe put some titles on your TBR list.  I've had a lot of fun digging through my memory for favorite books and authors, and I've learned a lot about those authors while I was researching.    Our rules stated that we would keep to books pre-1960, but I do want to include two    three   four last authors for you to make sure to read.  They are a little more recent, but not by much! Joan Aiken--well, everybody's read The Wolves of Willoughby Chase , but there are 12 books in the series and they're all pretty fantastic (in both senses of the word).  Aiken's alternate history for Britain includes Jacobean kings and Hanoverian plotters who want to take over the throne with improbable schemes.  (I often have to think hard to remembe...

Meindert DeJong (1906 - 1991) was born in the Netherlands (in Friesland).  (BTW you pronounce it DeYoung, which I didn't know until just now.)  He emigrated with his family to the US when he was about 8.  His family was poor, and he was often lonely, as the other children at school bullied him.  Despite his family's circumstances, he earned a college degree from Calvin College in Michigan.  The Great Depression made it difficult for him to get steady work, though, and he changed jobs often.  The New Netherland Institute's biographical sketch says: The term “variety of jobs” may not be sufficient or descriptive. De Jong worked as a college professor, probably as an adjunct professor, as a grave digger, as a mason, as a tin smith, as a sexton in a church, and as a bricklayer. In 1938, DeJong was 32, and a librarian encouraged him to try writing.  He soon published his first book, The Big Goose and the Little White Duck .   World War I...

I've kind of saved Eleanor Farjeon until the end, and now I'm wondering if I'll have time to write all the posts I want to, so I'm going to do this one now because she's one of my very favorites. Eleanor Farjeon (1881 –  1965) lived in London.  She had 3 brothers who went to school, but she herself was short-sighted, shy, and suffered chronic ill-health, so she was educated at home.  This education consisted largely of her spending all her time reading books in the dusty attic (between this and the London air, it's no wonder she got sick all the time!).  Here is her description of her home: In the home of my childhood there was a room we called "The Little Bookroom". True, every room in the house could have been called a bookroom. Our nurseries upstairs were full of books. Downstairs my father's study was full of them. They lined the dining room walls, and overflowed into my mother's sitting-room, and up into the bedrooms. It would have...

Homer Price isn't an author, he's a character.  You'll already know the author, Robert McCloskey (1914 - 2003), as the author of Make Way for Ducklings and Blueberries for Sal.   McCloskey's two books for older children aren't seen as much any more.  They are really fun, though, so let's look at them. Homer is a kid who likes to tinker and fix radios.  He does odd jobs around the neighborhood.  And he just inexplicably winds up in crazy situations.  His uncle's new doughnut-making machine goes haywire and won't stop making doughnuts, robbers hold up a radio station, snake-oil salesmen get their comeuppances.  It's  very fun, very American and happy in style, like a tall tale.  (If you've read Henry Huggins , it's a bit like that, only turned up to 11.) Homer Price was published in 1943, and a sequel, Centerburg Tales or More Homer Price , came along in 1951.  Give them a try!

Elizabeth Goudge is one of my more recent finds, and I would really like to see her books back in circulation.  She wrote many books, both for adults and children.  Here of course we will only talk about the children's books. Elizabeth de Beauchamp Goudge (1900 - 1984) was born in Wells and her father was the vice-principal of the Theological College there (which explains why she wrote so often about cathedral cities).  Her mother was from Guernsey and Elizabeth visited it often as a child.  Goudge studied at Reading and then went on to teach design and handicrafts.  Her first successful book , Island Magic (about Guernsey), was published in 1934 and she had a long and successful career as a writer. Goudge's most famous book--and her own favorite--is The Little White Horse , and it's currently pretty easy to get in paperback, though sadly without the original illustrations.*  It's a lovely fairy tale of a story, and won the Carnegie Medal in 1946....

I have a favor to ask all of you.  In my hometown, there is a wonderful used bookstore .  It is large, it is quirky, and it is full of great books waiting to be read.  It's especially strong on children's books.  There are narrow nooks to hide in and comfy chairs to sit in.  It is, in short, a pretty ideal used bookstore--the kind that you don't see much of anymore.  My city is very lucky to have it. Recently the owner--who is largely absent--decided to retire, and the manager decided to purchase the store and take it over.  A wonderful idea!  But the owner has some rather stringent conditions:  $35,000 in cash on a short deadline.  Rather than let our city lose a wonderful and unique resource, the manager decided to take it to the people.  An Indiegogo fundraiser has done very well so far, but we are now 9 days away from the deadline and still several thousand dollars short. So please visit the Indiegogo website and watch t...

Amanda at Simpler Pastimes has a discussion post up for her readalong of George MacDonald's The Princess and the Goblin.  Pop over and take a look!

Edward Eager (1911-1964) is still fairly popular, especially since his books were re-issued a few years back with new Quentin Blake covers.  But I'm still going to talk about him! He was born in Toledo, Ohio, went to Harvard, and dropped out before finishing.  But while he was there, he wrote a successful play and that led to his career as a lyricist and playwright, living in New York and Connecticut.  All of these elements show up in his stories, which he started writing when he wanted books to read to his son Fritz. It's always easy to see from his books that he must have admired E. Nesbit very much, and indeed Oxford UP's page on him says that "In each of his books Edward Eager carefully acknowledges his indebtedness to E Nesbit, whom he considered the best children's writer of all time." Original and current covers Eager's seven books are very much like mid-century American versions of Nesbit's stories; they would be shameless ripoffs ...

I would call Rosemary Sutcliff the best historical fiction children's writer of the 20th century.  I don't think she can be beaten.  I'm not sure she really qualifies as "lesser-known," since there was a movie made of her most famous book just last year, but as far as I've been able to see she is not nearly as appreciated as she ought to be, and many people are unfamiliar with her work--which is too bad, because in a day where we fuss a lot about getting boys to read, she is just what is needed.  There is even an entire blog dedicated to Sutcliff and her work, so go check it out!  There are some great stories and quotations there. Rosemary Sutcliff (1920 - 1992) was born in Surrey, but as her father was an officer in the Navy, she spent much of her childhood in Malta and moving around to various naval bases.  She suffered from Still's disease, a form of juvenile arthritis, and spent a lot of time in hospitals having painful operations.  Sutcliff spent...

Reached , by Ally Condie How many people have been waiting to get their hands on the third book in the Matched trilogy?  Me, for one.  I've enjoyed this YA dystopian drama. In the final volume, Cassia is working in Central City and trading poetry on the side.  Xander is working as a medical official, and Ky is a pilot for the Rising.  All three are waiting for the moment when the Rising will really start.  Will they ever get to see each other again?  And of course, who will Cassia choose? This was a really long book, right into Chunkster territory.  A lot happens, and the story doesn't stall.  If you've read a whole lot of YA and dystopia, the storyline won't be terribly surprising (love triangle, loyalty in the rebellion, etc.), but it is well-done and a good read for any teen.  You can give it to your 12-year-old, but there's enough depth for anyone.  Free will and the ability to choose (and have consequences) are the central...

Roger Lancelyn Green (1918 – 1987) was an Oxford scholar, an Inkling, a biographer, a librarian, and a teller of tales.  My kind of guy, really.  He only barely scrapes in under our pre-1960 limbo stick, since he wrote in the 1950s--and 60s, and 70s.  But I've just got to include him. Lancelyn Green studied literature at Oxford under C. S. Lewis and they became good friends.  He joined the Inklings * and was in fact the one to suggest the title "Chronicles of Narnia."  Lewis Carroll was Lancelyn Green's big interest and he wrote a biography and edited Carroll's diaries.  He also did biographical work on our old friend HCA and on J. M. Barrie, who he admired greatly.  Lancelyn Green worked as Deputy Librarian of Merton College for five years (you just know I had to get that in there!), and later on served at the University of Liverpool, which was close to his ancestral home. My favorite edition of King Arthur This ancestral home was Poulton Ha...

Five Billion Vodka Bottles to the Moon: Tales of a Soviet Scientist , by Iosif Shklovsky Look!  It's my first book of 2013, and it only took me 3 weeks into the new year!  I found this book at Dwight's excellent A Common Reader blog, and I knew I had to have it.  Unlike many books I have to have, the library owns a copy of this one, so I got to read it almost right away. Iosif Shklovsky was a Soviet astronomer who made great strides in radio astronomy, became a leader in the space program, and helped to start the group SETI, which searches for life in the universe.   Because he was Jewish, and because he was an outspoken sort of person who did not always go along with the Soviet regime, he was never really accepted into the inner circle of Soviet science.  In 1981, about 4 years before he died, Shklovsky thought he ought to write down some stories from his life--personal anecdotes, his thoughts about science in Russia, all sorts of things.  He didn...

This is another challenge I've been looking at for a while--it fits right in with my plans for this year.  So I'm going to join Rose City Reader's European Challenge.  For one thing, I love the button!  The rules: Welcome to the 2013 European Reading Challenge – where participants tour Europe through books.  And have a chance to win a prize.  Please join me for the Grand Tour! The gist: The idea is to read books by European authors or books set in European countries (no matter where the author comes from). The books can be anything – novels, short stories, memoirs, travel guides, cookbooks, biography, poetry, or any other genre. You can participate at different levels, but each book must be by a different author and set in a different country – it's supposed to be a tour. (See note about the UK, below) What counts as "Europe"? For this challenge, we will use the list of 50 sovereign states that fall (at least partially) w...

If you're European or Japanese, you may well have heard of the Moomintroll books, but Americans are woefully underinformed about the amazingness that is Tove Jansson and her Moomintrolls.  I came across them when I was 13 or so, which is a bit late, but I was lucky to have them at all.  I'm not sure how it happened, but I found some old battered paperbacks.  For anyone wishing to find copies in the US, you're in luck: new paperback editions were published just a couple of years ago! Tove Marika Jansson (1914 - 2001) was born in Helsinki, to a family belonging to the Swedish-speaking minority in Finland.  They were a bohemian and artistic family (today they would be unschoolers!) and Tove started writing stories and producing artwork as a teen.   She continued to paint and write all her life and produced commissioned works of art for various clients.  She also ometimes worked in collaboration with her life partner Tuulikki Pietilä, a graphic artist. The...

Lucy M. Boston (1892–1990) was born Lucy Marie Wood.  She wrote the Green Knowe series of books, plus many others which we will also mention.  I grew up reading them and I love them to bits, but some folks disagree.  My husband read one to the kids and he thought it was creepy and weird.  I guess I like creepy and weird. Boston had what sounds to me like quite an interesting childhood.  Her family was middle-class and Victorian, with six children, but her father was a zealous Methodist and decorated the whole house accordingly, with a rather strange drawing room filled with items from the Holy Land.  Her mother, according to Boston, was more suited to be a nun than a mother.  After her father died, they moved around a bit and spent a year in the countryside, which was wonderful for the young Lucy.  She had a lifelong love of nature and gardening.  She attended school and then a finishing school in Paris, and then went to Oxford instead o...

P. L. Travers was born Helen Lyndon Goff in Australia, in 1899.  She grew up in Queensland and New South Wales, and started writing poetry as a teenager.  She trained as an actress and adopted the name Pamela Lyndon Travers as a stage name.  After some years with a Shakespearean company in Australia, she emigrated to England in 1924.  There she focused more on her writing (she particularly admired and emulated J. M. Barrie) and continued to use her stage name. In 1933 Travers wrote Mary Poppins , a story about some naughty children who get a new nurse.  Mary Poppins is grumpy, vain, and impatient, but the children love her all the more.  They have magic adventures, which Mary Poppins always angrily denies afterwards.  This series became very popular and was eventually adapted into a Disney film, which Travers quite disliked.  She felt she was badly treated (which she was, though it also sounds like she tried to demand some pretty unreasonable th...

Adam is a demanding challenge host.  It's January 15th and he's already asking for an update!  Now you may have noticed that while I've been posting incredibly fascinating introductions to classic children's authors, I haven't actually produced any book reviews yet this year (oh, I guess I did--but they were for books finished before the New Year).  It must be some sort of record for me not to have finished a single book in the last two weeks!  I have two excuses: things have been very busy indeed, and also I've been reading several really long books at the same time. Last year at this time I was polishing off an average of a book a day.  I must have had a very quiet vacation, because so far this month I've barely had a chance to sit down with a book!  We've had family visiting from far away, we spent a day doing historical re-enactment at Sutter's Fort (which requires a lot of preparation, and I honestly had a rotten attitude about the whole thi...

Wal ter de la Mare ( 1873 – 1956), first of all, hated being named Walter.  Everyone called him Jack.  (Maybe that was the default name for Brits saddled with overly posh names?)  Also, his last name always looks to me like it should be pronounced Mar, I don't know why, but it's not--it's Mare with a long A. Anyway, he was one of the very influential poetic types for children right around the turn of the century and into the 1920s.  E. Nesbit was writing stories about really ordinary children, but de la Mare was more of a dreamy type, it seems to me.  He produced collections of folktales and poetry, and wrote plenty of stories and poetry of his own too.  In our house we have several collections, one of animal tales, one of his own stories called A Penny a Day , and a couple of poetry he wrote-- Rhymes and Verses was released in an inexpensive hardback a few years back, so we have that. I think the 1923 book called Come Hither is the best known.  ...

We're going to go back a bit in time again, to the early 20th century.  Padraig Colum (1881 - 1972) was born in a workhouse (!), but that was where his father actually worked.  After Mr. Colum lost that job, he  emigrated temporarily to Colorado while his large family stayed in Ireland.  Padraig was educated in Dublin and got a job there, but started writing on his own time.  He got involved with the Gaelic League, became friendly with Irish literary people like Yeats and Joyce, and collected folk songs.  Colum wrote plays, poetry, and founded a literary magazine too. In 1914, he and his wife went on a visit to the US, and it turned into a years-long stay. While in the US, Colum started writing for children, which is why we have this post now.  He started with The King of Ireland's Son in 1916, a long re-telling of an Irish folktale (if you're lucky you might find it in the children's room of your library--it's a good read-aloud).  Then he did...