Some Odd Favourites

As famous authors and books will be familiar, I’m going to concentrate here on the lesser known works. I feel many are worth a read nowadays, even the really old ones.  Of course, some of these books though obscure now were once popular enough.  Some still are read, though not not as much as in the past. From time to time I will mention a modern, popular book which I was particularly impressed with.

A new item has been added.

A Rival to Lewis Carroll

George MacDonald was more than a rival, he was a mentor to Lewis Carrol (Charles Dodgson) and inspired many other writers of fantasy. He was a Scottish writer and Minister who also wrote books on theology and sermons. Today he is remembered as a pioneer of fantasy writing with books such as Phantastes, Lilith and At the Back of the North Wind.

However, I want to recommend three books he wrote which are more suitable for children: The Light Princess, The Princess and the Goblin and The Princess and Curdie. They are still in print although first published almost 150 years ago. The latter two are fine fairy-tale come adventure tales but my favourite is the first with its totally original and amusing idea of a princess who is so lacking in gravity (a pun as gravity can also mean seriousness) that she has to be tied down in case she floats away.

This book is out of copyright so I can show you a sample.

Or hear it here.

The Vikings!

Henry Treece wrote historical novels for children in the 1950s and 1960s.  Good reads mixing adventure with realistic historical background. His Viking Trilogy stuck in my mind for a long time, especially as it introduced me to history I’d been unaware of before. It was was reprinted as one book about 6 years ago and is still available. (Checking his works, I’ve found that many of his other stories are available as Kindle books. So if you like exciting historical novels, these are worth checking out).

I first read the Viking Trilogy when I was twelve. They were published as separate books then, each self contained: Viking Dawn, Road to Miklagard and Viking Sunset. The connecting factor was the character Harald Sigurdson who has adventures in Ireland, the Mediterranean and Constantinople (Miklagard), and finally in North America. I remember the wonder I felt as at that age I had never heard of the Byzantine Empire or their dealings with Vikings or the Varangian Guard. It was like I was reading the history of another world. So too was the revelation of Vikings reaching North America.

The final book in the trilogy, Viking Sunset has Harald and his men in ‘Vinland’ on the coast of America. At the time it was written, it was disputed whether there was solid evidence for Vikings in America but in recent years archaeologists have discovered proof that there were settlements. Mr Treece was proved to be right historically – though his story was always true in a literary sense. Viking Sunset is the perfect end to a fine trilogy.

Graphic novels for kids

It occurred to me that my interest in kids stories may be partly down to nostalgia. I still collect comics – though these days book compilations of comics. I collect comic strips for all ages, from all periods and from a number of countries. I even have a blog about comics I read as a kid – though it’s not been added to for a while (except for a link to this site).

I’m bringing this up because I’d like to recommend a graphic novel I read a while back: Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi.

Although self contained, it is the first of an overarching series of books which form a continuous story.    The story is engrossing and the artwork is excellent – excellent in artistic merit and in storytelling terms. Some graphic novels, even some for children have wild and confusing artwork. I’ve always felt, an artist can be as different and original as he likes but the art should always lend itself to the needs of the story. Everything meshes in this. Out of print but still available online, there are also kindle editions of each book.

In my blog I rue the loss of any real children’s comic industry these days. Many children must see few if any actual comics except for annuals. However, graphic novels have become a popular adult fiction form and there is an offshoot of this now aimed specifically at children. This isn’t completely new. When I was a kid Asterix and Tin Tin were popular graphic novels for kids (though they were never called that). These were oddities back then, coming from a French/Belgian tradition (bande dessinée) that didn’t exist in Britain. They stood out because there was nothing else like them produced here.

What the Dickens?

No, not Charles or Monica but an author with a lively, imaginative style of writing reminiscent of said Charles Dickens. Leon Garfield wrote stories that took place in the 18th and 19th centuries – mostly purely historical, though some with a supernatural element. His books are still available, though there have been no recent reprints, through online shops.

Jack Holborn (pirates and treasure) was his first and I would recommend Smith (pickpockets, highwaymen and murder), Black Jack (murderer seemingly back from the dead), Mr. Corbett’s Ghost and Devil in the Fog. But his other children’s books are all worth a read. Several of his books were filmed or made into TV series. There are Kindle editions of some of his books currently available, so there’s a good choice if you have a Kindle or Tablet.

An Old Original

Margot Pardoe was a children’s author, mostly active in the 1940s and 1950s. She was best known for her Bunkle adventure series (at least to very old readers who were children long ago). However the Bunkle stories were standard kids’ mystery/adventure stories. I want to highlight her more interesting work.

Her Argle books feature children  in three time slip adventures. In Argle’s Mist they travel through time to Celtic Britain, in Argle’s Causeway to Norman England, and in Argle’s Oracle to classical Greece. I only read Argle’s Causeway as a child, which I found hugely enjoyable and original.

There is a kind of realism in the books. The only fantasy is their timeslips to other periods. The history and the children’s reaction to it is fairly realistic. The only time (when I was a child reader) I saw a character say they needed to go to the toilet is in this book – the point being to show that the Norman Castle toilet is basically a hole in the floor. Not too unusual these days perhaps but this book was published over 60 years ago.

Some of the Bunkle books were reprinted recently enough to still be available in online shops. Unfortunately the Argle books are long out of print and difficult to obtain. However, she wrote one book, The Far Island, about two children who get a lesson in life when they have to spend their holiday on an island in Orkney. Despite the period setting the children don’t appear out of date and modern kids could identify with them. The book was reprinted a few years ago and second-hand copies can be bought online.

Worrals: Biggles for Girls

I may have to explain Biggles first. The Biggles books are still in print, most recently as Kindle editions. Though how many are read by children today as opposed to nostalgic dads? Capt. W. E. Johns was a World War I air pilot. He used his experiences as the basis of the long running Biggles adventure series. He also supported the use of women air pilots during Word War II, and encouraged recruitment through a series of adventure stories about a WAAF pilot named Joan Worralson – Worrals, a female Biggles.

Ten years ago, the first three books (taking place during World War II) were reprinted and can still be obtained – I bought copies for my then preteen nieces. The other books are difficult to obtain as they went out of print many decades ago. There’s nothing deep in them but they are good fun – ‘ripping yarns’ for girls. Originally they were contemporary adventure but now they can be read as historical novels. 

The reason I think they are notable is they have a female lead character (Worrals) doing a lot of the heroic stuff usually only done by men in the fiction of the period. Capt. W. E. Johns seems to have been ahead of his time. Late in his career he also produced Space-adventure books for children. So he was never stuck in the mould suggested by many folks’ opinion of Biggles.

Tom’s Midnight Garden

Philippa Pearce wrote this delightful little book 65 years ago and it is still reprinted every few years. When the clock in the hall strikes thirteen, time pauses and a magical door into the past opens allowing Tom to explore a garden that no longer exists. He meets a girl, Hatty who becomes a close friend and playmate – until then he is lonely, being sent away to live with an old aunt and uncle.

Tom doesn’t understand what has happened at first but then gradually realises that every time he meets Hatty, she is a little older. She is aging, slowly at first then more quickly until she is much older than him and ..

You really have to read the book yourself. The story is more than just a brief, magical adventure. It is about growing up – looking forward to it and looking back on it. It has been dramatised three times by the BBC and also filmed.

I just discovered there’s now a graphic novel version of the story.

 Clockwork Punk: Cogheart

I said I’d mention the occasional modern book and here’s one I think could be a classic. It’s what’s sometimes called steampunk (a fantastical story set in the age of steam engines) but perhaps this one could be called clockwork punk, though the clockwork seems to have magic properties – how else could her mechanical fox pet think and talk?

Lily’s mum is dead and she’s been sent to the horrible Finishing Academy for Young Ladies. Now it looks like her father has died too, and silver eyed men are stalking her in league with the Madame Verdigris the housekeeper, who has stepped in as her guardian.

They are after a mysterious something that they think Lily has – and are prepared to kill her for it. Or anyone else who gets in their way, for young Robert and his clockmaker father are drawn into danger too.

I thoroughly recommend this – and it is the first in a series of four stories by Peter Bunzl.

The mad professor

One of the hardest things to do well in fiction and especially children’s fiction is to tell stories that are genuinely funny. Richmal Crompton and Roald Dahl could do it and so too could Norman Hunter. His greatest creation was Professor Branestawm, a kind but half-mad and wildly enthusiastic inventor of the craziest machines you couldn’t possibly imagine. He was originally written for radio in the 1930s and has recently appeared on television (CBBC).

The first book of a series was The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm, still available online and in a Kindle edition. This was followed by Professor Branestawm’s Treasure Hunt, The Peculiar Triumph of Professor Branestawm, Professor Branestawm Up the Pole, Professor Branestawm’s Great Revolution, Professor Branestawm Round the Bend, Professor Branestawm’s Perilous Pudding, and another half-dozen. Look them up yourself.

Like many of the very best children’s books these can be equally enjoyed by both children and adults.

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The Lost Planet

Angus MacVicar was popular Scottish author in the 1950s and 1960s. He wrote adult crime, some memoirs of childhood and growing up, and a sci-fi series for children – the Lost Planet series. I was surprised to find this series has recently been republished in eBook format.

I read some of these books as a kid, some of the first science fiction I read (at least in book form – I got a lot of sci-fi from comics). At the time I read these, there wasn’t much sci-fi written for children, so these books seemed very exotic – spaceships, visiting other planets and meeting aliens – although nowadays they would seem a bit run of the mill. But they were good, solid adventures.

They were similar in style to Capt. W.E. Johns’ Kings of Space series, which I came across later. Another series I enjoyed.

Classics in Comic Form

Dudley Watkins (famous for the Beano and Dandy’s Desperate Dan, Lord Snooty, and others) drew adaptations of several classic novels read by children down the years. For instance, Treasure Island, Oliver Twist, Robinson Crusoe, and Kidnapped. Originally appearing in Peoples Journal the stories were later collected into book form and published in the 1950s.

They were kind of ‘graphic novels’, although all the dialogue appeared in the text beneath the pictures, not in word balloons. They were drawn in a more realistic style than his ‘comic’ characters, though instantly recognisable as by him. The one I remember reading was Robinson Crusoe. I’m amazed now that it covered the whole Robinson story, not just the shipwrecked on an island part. Not easy to get hold of now. Some are still in circulation though they will look their age.

E. Nesbit’s Psammead Trilogy

I read E Nesbit’s stories late in childhood – when I was twelve. I loved the Railway Children and Treasure Seekers but I was particularly affected by her fantasy stories. Along with the Narnia books I read at the same age, they turned me onto the fantasy genre. Interestingly, there’s a connection between Nesbit and C S Lewis. He read her books when he was a child and they influenced his stories for children.

For instance, a short story by Nesbit involves a girl travelling to another place through a magical wardrobe. In The Story of the Amulet, the children inadvertently bring back the Queen of Babylon to modern day London – in The Magician’s Nephew, Digory and Polly, inadvertently bring Jadis (who will become the White Witch) back to their own world. Both create havoc.

Her best fantasy stories form a trilogy – The Psammead Trilogy: 1) Five Children and It, 2) The Phoenix and the Carpet and 3) The Story of the Amulet. All combine Nesbit’s ability to write natural child characters who interact believably with imaginative fantasy and a dash of humour. They have exciting adventures – but the magic is always getting them into trouble,

I would have added this author earlier but thought she would be too well known – there have been films and TV serials based on her books. I realised though that most of these are well in the past so the author fits into the theme of this page.

The Big Six

 

This story, the first of the Swallows and Amazons series I ever read, is unlike the other books in one way. It has children trying to solve a mystery. All the other books (except the 2 purporting to be stories the children made up, Missee Lee and Peter Duck) have adventures, but they are relatively realistic adventures which don’t involve solving crimes or dealing with spies – regardless of what the 2nd and much poorer S&W movie tried on.

Even so, the mystery doesn’t involve tremendously serious crime or hardened villains: the seriousness comes about due to some of the children being falsely accused. They go about solving it in a typical Arthur Ransom way – with a realistic but ingenious ploy that captures the real villains on camera! All taking place naturally with a background of boats sailing in the Norfolk Broads. It’s a fine story, enjoyable by any kids who like the likes of Famous Five books, though not his very best which I’d rate to be Swallows and Amazons and We Didn’t Mean to go to Sea.