The good ones are great, the bad ones will drive you nuts, but you find some way to work with them, to meet them where they are and bring them forward a little. But the true joys, the ones who make it all worth while, are the awful ones who just never had it explained in a way that they got it before, the ones who put their noses to the grindstone and really show an improvement and thank you for making them work through it. They're fairly rare, but they're what make me love this job.
Elizabeth
Since I got hauled off once for telling the teacher, I read that story, it was boring and couldn't we move a little faster....
Thank you
I remember Cherry Ames - I read the whole series. "Student Nurse", "Flight Nurse", "School Nurse," etc. The days when nurses couldn't wear makeup - remember her constantly being told to wipe off her rouge? (I could identify, because I have cheeks like that, too.) And I'll always remember the first lesson she learned: "Never stand when you can sit, nor sit when you can lay down." Still seems like good advice to anyone, not just nurses!
Sue
Surely it was "lie down?" And I thought only modern proof readers were crazy-making.
Elizabeth
I have painstakingly assembled the whole original Cherry Ames series (the newer ones are OOP and frightfully expensive).
Come on out, Sue, and we'll sit in the backyard reading them. :)
They're very present here in Brooklyn. If you want to read the original Nancy Drew, Applewood Books has been reissuing some of the titles. WHen I say original, I don't mean the 1950s or 1970s either - these go way back.
Alison
Hurrah.
I told a friend her son might like the Hardy Boys (we were at the library) and the librarian told us why they were missing, I wanted to scream. I understand a few are back, but not the original series from the 30's.
So to change the thread slightly - what are your favourite children's' books? (Not in an special order, or by any age grouping and definitely not exhaustive - just what I could think of in a couple of minutes.
Where the Wild Things Are - Maurice Sendak Goodnight Moon - Margaret Wise Brown The Root Cellar - Janet Lunn - young adult - history/fantasy Paperbag Princess - Robert Munsch The Railway Children - E.E. Nesbitt The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents - Terry Pratchett The Black Stallion books - Walter Farley Swallows and Amazons (and the sequels) - Arthur Ransome Alligator Pie (poems and Rhymes) - Dennis Lee Legion of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliffe A Wizard of Earth Sea - Ursula Le Guin Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good,Very Bad Day - Judith Vorst
and many, many more
What are yours?
MargW
Black Beauty, Biggles books
The books of Ethel Turner (Australian children's author from the 1880s and onward) Snugglepot and Cuddlepie by May Gibb Asterix the Gaul Series by Goscinny and Uderzo The Tomorrow Series by John Marsden The Dark is Rising Series by Susan Cooper Little House Series by Laura Ingalls Wilder The Guardians of Ga'hoole Series by Kathryn Lasky The Belgariad Series by David Eddings The Harry Potter Series by JK Rowling Everything by AA Milne Heidi by Johnanna Spyri Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Around the World in Eighty Days by Jules Verne King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard Bring 'Em Back Alive by Frank Buck Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Tales from Shakespeare by Charles and Mary Lamb Superfudge by Judy Blume Rowan of Rin Series by Emily Rodda The Meg and Mog Stories by Jan Pienkowski Mary Poppins by PL Travers Nurse Matilda by Edward Ardizzone The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green The Witches by Roald Dahl
and that's without stopping to think!
Mine would have to be The Grimm's Fairy Books, The Secret Garden, anything by Louisa Mae Alcott and Black Beauty.
I still have my original copies of all but The Secret Garden on the soffit on top of my kitchen cabinets. My mother knew how much I loved them and kept them for me.
Lucille
I don't know the Biggles books. Were they only popular in Great Britain?
Ah, Biggles! One reason why I joined the RAF in 1959. However, being colour blind I was unable to become a steely-eyed pilot and ended up being a telegraphist!
Likely. He was a pilot in leather gear dog fighting everywhere - they really belonged to my brother but I read them.
The other curious book I remember quite well (might have been left over from one of my uncles childhood, very Victorian) was all about jungles in Africa and Zulus. We loved it and constructed a pit one weekend in the veggie garden, as they did, to catch tigers and elephants. Big pit with stakes in the bottom then sticks layered over the top, leaves on top of that so the animal would not suspect a trap. We hoped to catch the gardener on Monday but he was no fool. There he would go with his wheelbarrow heading right for the trap then suddenly turn away !! He was a lovely man and must have heaved a sigh to have us around his gardens for the duration lol The title etc is gone in the mists of time and the book would likely not be pc these days. I would love to see a copy though.
Another book I liked was Strewel Peter, also the Cautionary Tales.
Moorland Mousie ( & Golden Gorse) All the Swallows and Amazons books ( Arthur Ransome). Enid Blyton detective stories ...can't remember the kids
These leap to the 70 year old mind!!
Gillian
Biggles consisted of ripping yarns for boys (and tomboys). Biggles was a young pilot during WWI and got up to all sorts of adventures. You can imagine the ultra-British military vernacular used in such a story? My DH has an infuriating habit of putting my bra on his head (flying helmet) and pooncing around the kitchen doing Biggles voices at me! Hnnnh!
I remember having a passion for books about American Indian culture.
Oh yeah, UK and I loved them too. They are about a pilot, and his adventures. Lt Bigglesworth. Sheena, my cousin has the originals, and has been selling them on Ebay for ridiculous prices.
Gill
I know A.A. Milne should have been on my list. However I was older when I read the other books.
If you want to start real young.....Beatrix Potter, of course!
Also all the Louisa May Alcott books. I was amazed when we were in Concord, MA this year to realise how long ago she wrote!! I loved them all, and Little Women was hidden behind the toilet, so I could have a tummyache, and not help with the dishes!! Definitely younger than 9 in that house.
Gill
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