Late in 2011, after writing a posting about re-reading nine children's classics, I promised to re-read the other six I still owned and write about them. When a friend sent me two of her favorites, I read those as well for the first time. Here they all are.
1. Margaret Sidney: Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. This is a late 19th century children's classic--the story of the five Pepper children, all of whom (nowadays) seem way older than they are, more imaginative, responsible, and creative in their activities. In fact, for a modern audience, I found it a bit goody-goody. But sweet.
2. Robert Louis Stevenson: Treasure Island. I had read this as a child but admit to totally forgetting much of it. I found it a highly rousing tale, rightfully a classic.
3. Eric Knight: Lassie Come Home. This still made me weep, even as it did when I read it years ago. It's the tale of faithful Lassie who can no longer be kept because the family finances won't allow it. So she is sold and eventually taken up to northern Scotland where she manages to escape and make her way home, crawling back, barely alive, to be at her old 4:00 post when her young master gets out of school. Hurrah!
4. The Brothers Grimm: Grimms' Fairy Tales. Unlike the H. C. Andersen tales, I found these much more rousing and generally engaging.
5. Lewis Carroll: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. This, of course, is his writing down of the tale he told the real Alice and her sisters on a day's boating trip together. It's made up of a lot of literary nonsense, word plays, puns, etc. I felt it should have held up for me now as an adult but found it simply too silly for the most part. Though I did love the poems, such as Soup of the Evening, and the wonderful assortment of strange characters. But I also found it deeply nonsensical and rambling. In Through the Looking Glass, things, of course, are backwards, as they would appear in a mirror, a looking glass. The characters are all a bunch of scolds. And the theme and setting are that of a chess board. Sorry to say, I found it very tedious to re-read.
6. Howard Pyle: The Wonder Clock, or four & twenty marvelous Tales, being one for each hour of the day. Twenty-four tales, each with several beautifully executed drawings by the author. About tomfoolery, good luck, greed, three of everything (mostly brothers, the youngest always being the cleverest) and, of course, the most beautiful princess with a father who puts strict conditions on the man who marries her. Since he's writer and illustrator both, you know that the drawings absolutely represent the author's vision.
7. Frances Hodgson Burnett: The Secret Garden. This was my first reading of this classic which I had viewed at least twice as a film. It's a splendid book which incorporates the power of positive thinking, aka "the Magic" which heals the bed-ridden lad and opens his father (and the house) to health instead of grief.
8. Elizabeth Enright: The Saturdays. This, too, was my first reading. In 1939, faced with their usual Saturday boredom, four New York City siblings come up with interesting activities. A trip to the opera, the ballet, a museum. By pooling their allowance, each goes alone, seeking out that special activity that matches his/her particular interest. Imaginative and fun.
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