The other day I posted about comfort food perfect for fireside reading. But if you're balancing a plate of cheese and jalepeno nachos or a bowl of mashed 'taters on your knees in front of a winter's fire, you probably won't be up for reading Proust, either.So, let's talk "comfort reading." More specifically, comfort reading in the form of kiddie books that made you feel all flannel-y inside, back when you were only worried about putting your clothes on right-side-out and getting your shoes on the proper foot.
My list would be too, too long, but I will start with ten of my favorites:
- The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame - especially the "Dulce Domum" chapter.
- The Five Little Firemen, Margaret Wise Brown - ooh, save that jolly fat cook!
- Goodnight, Moon, Margaret Wise Brown - except that it'll take me to dreamland before I finish my 'taters.
- Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers - she's soooo fabulously snarky and vain!
- The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein - but only if I need a good, comforting cry.
- The Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams - makin' it real.
- All of a Kind Family, Sydney Taylor - ah, to be a poor immigrant family on the lower east side!
- The Little House in the Big Woods, Laura Ingalls Wilder - ah, to be a poor frontier family living in a forest, or a sod house, or on a prairie, or . . .
- Beezus and Ramona, Beverly Cleary - 'way back when little sisters were pesty
- Miss Piggle Wiggle, Betty MacDonald - how I learned to be the adorable person I am now.
Start meltin' the cheese, and crack open a comfort book or two. Ahhhhh. Burp! ('scuse me.)
10 comments:
Hm. Well I read a lot of kids' books now but I'll list my favorites when I was actually a kid:
- Chronicles of Narnia, most specifically The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, the Magician's Nephew, and The Horse and His Boy (I didn't get that it was racist when I was seven, OK?)
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit
- All the Mary Poppins books except for Mary Poppins in the Park, which let's be honest, kind of sucks
- The Paddington books
- Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising series, most especially The Dark is Rising
- Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea, and a little bit Anne of the Island
- Caddie Woodlawn
Forgot Pippi Longstocking!
As It seems you spent some time in Blighty, perhaps you may have read The Swallows and the Amazons (by Arthur Ransome, I believe)? Childrens books about a bunch of kids in the lake district, who have adventures around their sail boats (as I am on a sailing kick, the memory of reading these as a child resonates).
It was a long, long time ago since I was a child but here goes with the most remembered:
- All Enid Blyton's Famous Five books
- The Wind in the Willows
- Just William books by Richmal Crompton
- Little Women
Currently I spend Thursday afternoons helping out in the library at Thomas's school (ages 5-11). It's wonderful!! In the many spare moments I can read whatever children's books I like!!!
I just wish Thomas would abandon Star Wars, Action Man, etc. and give some of the classics a try.
The Wind in the Willows is excellent I agree. Also the Adventures of Winnie the Pooh was a lovely read, in fact I have reread these both within the last year. I would strongly recomment the adventure and imagination thats in 'The Hobbit' too which i have read twice in the last 18 months alone. Hmm yummy and warms feelings
Oh my....um..some of them wouldn't make any sense to you since they were Swedish...but I was reading a lot of Enid Blyton when I was a kid. "Famous Five" was a series of books I read more than once and I had all of them.
Oh yea...and Pippi Longstocking..and Mio My Mio...but in Swedish ;) Forgot that the books by Astrid Lindgren were translated into loads of other languages :p
I read children's books now for fun and comfort. Some old favorites that I turn to again and again include:
- The Anne of Green Gables series
- The Maida books by Inez Haynes Irwin (mostly out of print, but wonderful!)
- Zilpha Keatley Snyder's books, especially The Velvet Room and the Changeling.
- Enid Blyton's Adventure series (Castle of..., Sea of..., etc.).
- Gone Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright.
- The Narnia books
- Noel Streatfield's "Shoe" books (especially Ballet Shoes)
- The Oz books (not so much the Wizard of Oz, but the others in the series)
- The Forgotten Door by Alexander Key
- Flight of the Doves by Walter Macken
- Pippi Longstocking and sequels. I especially like Pippi in the South Seas.
- Meet the Austins and A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle.
- The Diamond in the Window, by Jane Langton.
Sorry for listing so many! I have more listed on my website at http://jkrbooks.typepad.com.
Such a great buncha additions to my list! I'm already stacking them next to my cozy chair in anticipation of the next cold snap and the chance to read by the fire.
A Little Princess, by Frances Hodgson Burnett. A "comfort" book even though it makes me cry.
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