Book talk
Asked by the Royal Society of Literature to nominate their top 10 books for children to read before they leave school, (read the full article here ) here's what JK Rowling, Philip Pullman and UK's poet laureate, Andrew Motion suggested.
JK Rowling
Wuthering Heights-Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe-Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
Hamlet-William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
Animal Farm-George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice-Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye-JD Salinger
Catch-22-Joseph Heller
Philip Pullman
Finn Family Moomintroll-Tove Jansson
Emil and the Detectives-Erich Kästner
The Magic Pudding-Norman Lindsay
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Where the Wild Things Are-Maurice Sendak
The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens (or other good anonymous ballads)
First Book of Samuel, Chapter 17 (the story of David and Goliath)
Romeo and Juliet-William Shakespeare
A good collection of myths and legends
A good collection of fairytales
Andrew Motion
The Odyssey-Homer
Don Quixote-Miguel de Cervantes
Hamlet-William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost-John Milton
Lyrical Ballads-Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Brontë
Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
Portrait of a Lady-Henry James
Ulysses-James Joyce
The Waste Land-TS Eliot
Presumably the quality of books is pegged to school-leaving standards, which probably explains the exclusion of most children's fiction. Still, note the absence of Lewis Carroll, R.L.Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, P.G.Wodehouse, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Laurie Lee or Louisa May Alcott (I'm sure you'll want to add a few).
Can't say I've read over 5 of JKR's or 2 of Pullman's/Motion's (or even heard of Finn Family Moomintroll, Emil and the Detectives, The Magic Pudding or Where the Wild Things Are). Not entirely sure I want to read The Odyssey, Ulysses or Romeo and Juliet. But shall give the rest a shot.
That is after I've read the biggish pile of books by my bedside: Coming up for air-George Orwell, The pursuit of love-Nancy Mitford, Moonspinners-Mary Stewart, The Sunday philosophy club-Alexander McCall Smith, Collected short stories of O'Henry, The Subtle Knife-Philip Pullman, The City of Djinns-William Dalrymple and Maximum City-Suketu Mehta. And, of course, IF I'm still in the mood.
JK Rowling
Wuthering Heights-Emily Brontë
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory-Roald Dahl
Robinson Crusoe-Daniel Defoe
David Copperfield-Charles Dickens
Hamlet-William Shakespeare
To Kill a Mockingbird-Harper Lee
Animal Farm-George Orwell
The Tale of Two Bad Mice-Beatrix Potter
The Catcher in the Rye-JD Salinger
Catch-22-Joseph Heller
Philip Pullman
Finn Family Moomintroll-Tove Jansson
Emil and the Detectives-Erich Kästner
The Magic Pudding-Norman Lindsay
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner-Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Where the Wild Things Are-Maurice Sendak
The Ballad of Sir Patrick Spens (or other good anonymous ballads)
First Book of Samuel, Chapter 17 (the story of David and Goliath)
Romeo and Juliet-William Shakespeare
A good collection of myths and legends
A good collection of fairytales
Andrew Motion
The Odyssey-Homer
Don Quixote-Miguel de Cervantes
Hamlet-William Shakespeare
Paradise Lost-John Milton
Lyrical Ballads-Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth
Jane Eyre-Charlotte Brontë
Great Expectations-Charles Dickens
Portrait of a Lady-Henry James
Ulysses-James Joyce
The Waste Land-TS Eliot
Presumably the quality of books is pegged to school-leaving standards, which probably explains the exclusion of most children's fiction. Still, note the absence of Lewis Carroll, R.L.Stevenson, Rudyard Kipling, P.G.Wodehouse, Mark Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Laurie Lee or Louisa May Alcott (I'm sure you'll want to add a few).
Can't say I've read over 5 of JKR's or 2 of Pullman's/Motion's (or even heard of Finn Family Moomintroll, Emil and the Detectives, The Magic Pudding or Where the Wild Things Are). Not entirely sure I want to read The Odyssey, Ulysses or Romeo and Juliet. But shall give the rest a shot.
That is after I've read the biggish pile of books by my bedside: Coming up for air-George Orwell, The pursuit of love-Nancy Mitford, Moonspinners-Mary Stewart, The Sunday philosophy club-Alexander McCall Smith, Collected short stories of O'Henry, The Subtle Knife-Philip Pullman, The City of Djinns-William Dalrymple and Maximum City-Suketu Mehta. And, of course, IF I'm still in the mood.
posted by Sabiha | 11:55 AM
4 Comments:
You will adore the Finn Family Moomintroll, I guarantee it. My personal Jansson favourite is 'Moominvalley in November', which is what I turn to when my brain is sore and I need a reminder of the good things in life.
I have both that and Finn Family Moomintroll to lend when you're ready... :-)
And how, how could you not have heard of Emil? The mind boggles! ;-)
Then I'll def borrow Finn Family Moomitroll off you, though in a little while.
As for Emil, my excuse is simply that I never found any in the Indian bookshops I frequented. Or come to think of it in the Univ's Waterstones bookshop.
But now that I know of these books, rest assured that I will get hold of them before too long.
hmmmmm :)
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