I've always loved a library. Thus I started taking Eli to the library when he was just a baby. We love story time, special programs, and our weekly trove of everything from picture books to DVDs to audio books. The library is an exciting spot for new ideas.
Lately, we've taken to using the library in a new way. During the heat of the afternoons this summer, we were always looking for something to do indoors. (And although school has started back, the weather hasn't broken, so we still need something to do in the afternoons.) At least once a week, Eli begs to use his 30 minutes of daily screen time at the library computers.
The Children's Department has a set just for kids that are full of educational software. Parents have to stay with their kids, which put me off at first. Sitting there in a chair while my child absorbed himself in a screen sounded boring. Sure, I could read a novel. But I realized what sounded really good was to take time to look at the sort of slow-savor books I usually don't get a chance to read. Now when we arrive at the library we first wander through the adult nonfiction section upstairs. There is a visual feast to be found up there. I gather up an armload of books about art, travel, cooking, or crafts. Sometimes I haul down a weighty pile of coffee table type books. Then while Eli plays, I take an inspiring armchair journey visiting faraway places, lovely rooms, and fantastic studios page by slow page. When his computer session times out, I find myself relaxed, happy, and inspired.
A rich, bitter smell hangs through the house. To my senses, it is distinctively old fashioned, which pleases me very much.
We woke up this morning to a still, chilly world (21 degrees) dusted with snow. The gray clouds overhead are already starting to thin.
If the fluff on our porch railing is to be trusted, we got just over an inch.
This morning Eli and I read Sugar Snow, a picture book from the "My First Little House Books" series. This one is based on Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House in the Big Woods. We then picked up Barbara M. Walker's The Little House Cookbook. On page 192 there is a recipe for Molasses-On-Snow Candy -- our morning's culinary adventure.
"One morning [Ma] boiled molasses and sugar together until they made a thick syrup, and Pa brought in two pans of clean, white snow from outdoors. Laura and Mary each had a pan, and Pa and Ma showed them how to pour the dark syrup in little streams on to the snow. They made circles, and curlicues, and squiggledy things, and these hardened at once and were candy." --Little House in the Big Woods
Walker's recipe calls for 1 cup of dark molasses and 1/2 cup brown sugar boiled in a two-quart saucepan until it reaches 245 degrees. You then pour this syrup over clean snow.
I was a little nervous about this project. Molten sugar plus a young child is a dangerous combination. But Eli and I discussed the dangers and I figured out a safe work flow before we got started. I found a small but thick pitcher that I could put some syrup in for Eli and placed it in the sink where I could safely fill it. I had him put on some gloves so that it wouldn't get too hot but the gloves were thin enough not to be fumbly.
We gathered clean snow from our deck into my grandpa's old dishpan. (I think he would have been pleased to be part of the morning's fun.) We made a separate pan of snow for Eli; it seemed safer not to be trying to work right next to each other.
Then we got our mixture ready.
I poured my candy first and found it difficult to make a thin stream out of the pot. The hot syrup was fairly thick and still bubbly, so I should have held it higher over the snow pan to get a thin stream. (Over a foot would have been good.) I was worried our snow would melt away almost instantly, but in reality the snow in the pan sank down only a half inch or so. That was enough to instantly cool the syrup.
The result? If you like molasses, horehound candy, or dark licorice, this stuff has the flavor for you. The first taste was like Cracker Jacks only a lot deeper and darker.
And chewy? Yeah. This stuff sticks to the teeth. "It's kinda yucky," Eli confessed. He was a much bigger fan of yesterday's Snow Cream. (Click HERE for that recipe.)
I'm so glad we made this old fashioned treat and making candy with snow is awesome, but I think we'll modify next time. Molasses is a bitter flavor that our modern palates just don't fully embrace anymore. Next time we will try using maple syrup or make regular hard candy. Both would work well poured into snow yet have a lighter flavor.
Below: Trumpet flower-like icicles hanging under a rock mid-stream in Smoky Mountain National Park (Alum Cave Trail)
It has been a very cold January in parts of the United States. Around this house we've been trying to embrace it and savor the good parts of it, hopefully wooing it to stay around long enough that it will give in and grant us a snow day. Here's what we've been up to lately...
But sometimes the best way to appreciate a cold winter's night is to curl up on a warm sofa (preferably near a fire) and read about somebody else's winter adventures. Here are five chapter book favorites (which are still perfect for adults)...
1. The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobeby C.S. Lewis (1950) This book (and its accompanying series) has been popular so long that it is hard to imagine anybody who loves children's literature (or fantasy novels) who hasn't read it already. But it is such a magical adventure in a wintry world that I can't resist adding it to this list if only just to remind myself that it is well worth a re-read. Staying in a huge old country house during World War II, Lucy ducks into a wardrobe during a game of hide-and-seek with her siblings only to discover a doorway to another realm. High adventures and battles for Good over Evil soon follow.
2. The Long Winterby Laura Ingalls Wilder (1940) Blizzards, white-outs, and daring rescues! But also sledding parties and family gathered around the fire on long, dark evenings. This is one of those books that makes you appreciate the bravery and tenacity of the American pioneers. I didn't discover Laura Ingalls Wilder until late in life. Because the television series during my childhood, I think I thought I knew the stories and characters well enough. In reality, the books are oh-so-much better. The Long Winter is a fictionalized account of the 1880-1881 winter that thirteen year-old Laura and her family spent in DeSmet, South Dakota. Another great winter one by Laura is Little House in the Big Woods. (Click HERE for links to blog entries about our visit to DeSmet and other Laura Ingalls Wilder locations. There are many photos including an image of the type of prairie grass "log" that Laura twisted all winter long as fireplace fuel to keep her family from freezing.)
3. Moominland Midwinter by Tove Jansson (1957) I recently wrote about this charming book on the blog, but I'm happy to do so again. I often reach for this little volume when winter comes, enjoying it anew each time. Finland's Tove Jansson was a painter and writer who found there were things she could only properly say through children's literature and imaginary creatures with very human souls. I deeply love the Moomin series with its funny, warm characters and wry truths about life. When I first discovered these books as a child, I was astounded to find characters that thought about the same things I did. Moominland Midwinter is an adept exploration of the bleakest season, finding bravery and warmth in the process. Suddenly awake when the rest of his family is hibernating as usual, Moomintroll sets out to discover snow, ice, and all the creatures that hide away during warmer months. (Click HERE for the previous post about this book.)
4. Snow Treasure by Marie McSwigan (1942) During World War II, the Nazis invaded Norway and soon took over its resources. Supposedly based on a true story, this is the tale of how schoolchildren helped their elders smuggle gold out of the country, gliding past the invading soldiers with ingots hidden on their sleds. My mom had this book as a child and later read it to my brother and me. We both found the story memorable and inspiring. I look forward to reading it to Eli someday.
5. Winter Holiday by Arthur Ransome (1933) A group of children from three families enjoy the Christmas break from school, trying to make the most of snowy days and the winter landscape while they have their freedom. Just when boarding school is looming, the nearby lake begins to miraculously freeze over and they agonize that they are going to miss all the fun it will bring -- until one member gets sick and the rest are quarantined from school. The joy of stolen days! From wind-powered ice sleds to nighttime ice skating parties to make believe polar expeditions, the book opens a world full of old-fashioned North England winter fun. (Click HERE for a previous post about Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series.)
Anybody have favorites they'd like to share? I got a cup of tea and a fire at the ready...
I know! I know! It has been a while since I've written a post in the British Reading Adventure series. Thankfully, it was a break in blogging rather than a lack of reading. The big move this summer and settling in thereafter soaked up much of my writing time, but during that period I still usually ended the day by drifting away onto heather-covered moors or the long-ago streets of London.
In case anyone is new to the series, the idea is to read through many of the wonderful book offerings for children that have come out of Great Britain in the last 150 years or so. Some are famous like the Narnia stories and Tolkien, but there are many great books that are largely forgotten. (Click here for a rationale and a list of the books I've highlighted so far.) I want to be able to share these books with Eli during his childhood, but our family also hopes to take Eli to see the locations of the various stories when he's older.
Although the project began in earnest last year, it was travel reading during our 2007 honeymoon to London that provided the first spark. I enjoyed Melanie Wentz's Once Upon a Time in Great Britain, a guide to the sites linked to children's literature. She touched on one author I wasn't familiar with -- Arthur Ransome -- so I picked up the first book of his children's series and read it on jet-lagged nights once we got home.
Although Ransome first published Swallows and Amazons in 1930, the adventures of his young heroes still captivate. The kids are turned loose during summer vacation to set up an island camp and explore a lake in their own small sailboats. The mixture of the kids' make-believe with their real scrapes and hardships keeps the reader page after page. I liked the book and was glad I bought it as a hardback "keeper" edition. That might have been all, but thankfully this reading project coaxed me into moving deeper into the twelve-book series. Swallows is good, but there are some in the series that I put on my all time favorite books list.
After doing some reading online, I get the impression that the Swallows and Amazons series is still fairly popular in England and many other countries. This reading project has taught me that there are actually quite a few British authors that made a big splash both at home and abroad but made barely a ripple in the United States. I'm not sure why that is. (For Ransome's books perhaps publishers here were put off by the name of one of his main characters. No American author would have chosen 'Titty'!) Regardless of why some authors aren't as well known here, it means that there are some great books for Americans to discover.
So why is Ransome still popular in Britain eight decades after his first children's book came out? Hmmm. My immediate answer is the characters. These kids have a strong moral compass and don't waste much time fussing at each other, yet they are likable and real. Each one has a clearly defined personality and something special to offer the series. When I hit the last few pages of book twelve, I felt a sharp sense of loss that there would be no new adventures with these young people who had become my friends.
Beloved characters aside, I also think Ransome had a strong feel for what makes for a good adventure. I know nothing about sailing, but easily gave myself over to the challenges of riding the winds. In addition, across the series I foiled robbers, found my way out of deep fogs, discovered a valuable mine, met interesting local characters, battled a forest fire, survived a shipwreck, and got attacked by pirates more than once. The stories are good in themselves but also as a sort of time machine so that you can experience life in the 1930s. I'm only sorry that there aren't twice as many books. Eli isn't quite old enough for them yet, but I can't wait to read them aloud on vacations!
The Books:
Swallows and Amazons -- The Walker family (siblings John, Susan, Titty, and Roger) go to the Lake District for the holidays. They can't believe their luck that their parents let them camp out on Wildcat Island -- even when they begin to see signs that they aren't the only ones frequenting their camp.
Swallowdale -- When John accidentally wrecks their sailboat, the Walker kids and the Blackett sisters (Nancy and Peggy) take to the forests and high hills above the lake.
Peter Duck -- Although the author never lets on if this is a "real story" or one of Titty's tales, the reader ventures with the Walkers and Blacketts from England to the Caribbean while being chased by greedy pirates eager to race them to hidden treasure.
Winter Holiday -- Happy sigh. I love this one. The Walkers and Blacketts befriend visitors Dick and Dorothea Callum over the winter holiday, finding a whole new set of adventures when the temperatures plunge and the lake freezes over. (This would be a great read over the Christmas holidays.)
Coot Club -- The Callums get a chance to vacation in the Norfolk Broads river region and learn how to sail. They soon befriend a group of kids who know the area intimately and defend it from heartless tourists who care nothing for the wildlife.
Pigeon Post -- The Walkers, Blacketts, and Callums search for gold in the hills above the lake despite the fact that a summer drought makes camping rougher, there is a strong threat of forest fires, and a mysterious stranger is trying to muscle in on their discoveries.
We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea -- While vacationing on a river northeast of London, the Walker kids were only visiting a new friend's sailboat when they accidentally get swept into the North Sea.
Secret Water -- When the Walkers' vacation was ruined by their Navy father being called back to duty, it is decided that the children will be purposefully stranded on a river island to explore and map it. When local kids jump in to defend their island from these new strangers, the story heats up.
The Big Six -- The Callums return to the river area called The Broads, teaming up with local friends to foil thieves.
Missee Lee -- The Walkers and Blacketts sail to Asia with "Captain Flint," the Blacketts' uncle. When the ship breaks apart in a storm, they accidentally fall in with warlords.
The Picts and the Martyrs -- Another huge favorite. Back at their home lake, the Blacketts gear up for an exciting holiday with the Callums. When it looks like all their plans will be foiled by their stodgy and controlling great aunt, the kids decide to create a secret camp. Will Great Aunt find out and ruin everything?
Great Northern? -- While sailing around the wild and mysterious Hebrides islands off of Scotland, the kids accidentally tip off a fanatic egg collector that there is a pair of rare birds in the area. Now they have to save the birds -- no easy feat when the rich egg-collector has henchmen and the local shepherding community misunderstands their intentions.
Click on the book cover below to learn about Christina Hardyment's recent image-rich book combining a biography of Ransome with in-depth peeks at the places he wrote about.
Arthur Ransome's Children's Books and Related Reading:
P.S. I didn't have a decent camera while I was on my honeymoon and thus only have a few dozen snapshots of my trip to England. I'll be throwing in spare photos from everyday life just to give the British Reading Adventure posts a little more visual appeal.
Our town has a lovely little independent book store and this week they hosted an author's event for J. J. Ferrer's new non-fiction title, The Art of Stone Skipping and Other Fun Old-Time Games. Ms. Ferrer took a small group of kids to the sidewalk in back of the store so they could learn a game or two.
"Wheelbarrow" relays...
Finger Jousting...
Crab races...
Watching Eli reminded me of how great some of these old-fashioned games really are. I happily bought the book and think it will give us a good bit of summer fun. In fact, I wish I'd had this book back when I was doing programs for kids and hanging out with a passel of nieces/nephews on the weekends. The book offers games divided into sections, so it is easy to find something for kids to do solo, with a partner, or in a group. Ferrer gathered quiet puzzles and card games as well as romping outdoor fun. There is even a chapter on games for car trips. I feel like I have an arsenal now for birthday parties and playdates but also things I can teach Eli to ward off hot summer afternoon laments of "Mama, there's nothing to do!" In addition, I think the simple layout and appealing drawings in the book will mean that someday when Eli is reading well, he can pick it up and find fun things to do himself.
(Pssst! Jane Brocket is another wonderful author to know about if you're looking for fun things to do with kids. Click HERE for a post about her books.)
I can't quite leave author L. M. Boston yet. There are still two beloved books to share and both have the ability to almost suspend time by absorbing the reader in the setting. No matter how old I am, I still get caught up in the beauty of nature woven into these adventures! Also, I'm always a little in awe of how vividly Boston portrays children's inner thoughts and feelings when she was at least a half century past her own childhood as she wrote. While I read, I get jolts of remembrance on how it felt to be small.
The Sea Egg, written in 1967, takes us to the Cornish coast to enjoy summer holidays with brothers Toby and Joe. The magic begins when they find an egg-shaped stone -- that soon hatches. Before long, they are learning some of the secrets of the sea. Less than a hundred pages, this is a perfect story for a summer trip to the beach.
Nothing Said was written in 1971 and is set in a riverside house based on Boston's ancient 1130 A.D. manor house, Hemingford Grey. Young Libby's parents need to attend a conference, so a family friend named Julia offers Libby a temporary place to stay. Julia is an artist as well as a home gardener and amateur naturalist. With Julia as an ally and sometimes-guide, Libby finds herself leaving London behind for fields, hills, forests, and waterways. Although there is enough plot to pull the reader forward, it is the setting that lifts and propels this story. The old house and its gardens as well as the river and its upland tributaries are practically characters in their own right. (And if I live to be a hundred, I'll never stop hoping for a chance to swim in the still, crystal-clear waters of a flooded flower garden just like Libby!)
Although not preachy in any way, this small novella is a spiritual book about awakenings. I think of it often even if several years have gone by since I read it and Nothing Said always pops into my mind if someone asks about my favorite books. In fact, I have given a copy of this book many times to people going through hard times because there is something quietly profound and balm-like about it. It is a joy to read, a tale with a peaceful afterglow.
Happy reading!
I often thought of The Sea Egg when we lived in Northern California and visited the Pacific beaches. Here's Eli last spring with his buddies Garrett and Rosie. Rodeo Beach north of San Francisco felt like the sort of place where a magical egg might wash up...
Yesterday's post was about L.M. Boston's Green Knowe book series. In 2009, a movie came out called From Time to Time that is based on The Treasure of Green Knowe. (This is the American title for the book. In England it is known as The Chimneys of Green Knowe.) This adaptation was written and directed by Julian Fellowes, the writer of Downton Abbey. Not surprisingly, the cast is full of familiar faces if you're a Downton follower. Maggie Smith (Violet Crawley) plays Mrs. Oldknow. You'll also find Hugh Bonneville (Robert Crawley), Allen Leech (Tom Branson), David Robb (Dr. Clarkson), and Christine Lohr (Mrs. Bird, Isobel Crawley's cook). The rest of the Time to Time cast is also a who's who of British period/costume actors including Timothy Spall (Wormtail in the Harry Potter films) and Harriet Bird (Fanny in Sense and Sensibility).
The reviews were a bit harsh for From Time to Time, but I love the book so much I decided to chance it. Knowing movies are hardly ever as good as the book and learning from the reviews that it doesn't follow the book closely, I didn't have high expectations. Here is the bad news (as I see it)... To say the movie doesn't follow the book is an understatement. Some of the acting is a little stiff. The setting is portrayed during midwinter and comes across as a bit bleak.
Here's the good news... I still enjoyed the movie and am glad to have it in my DVD library. It has a delicious sense of mystery and moves past tidy endings to explore important ideas. The main character, Tolly, is much older than in the book and thus has a teenager's shell about him. The result is that while in the book Mrs. Oldknow and her young relative have an instant understanding and camaraderie, the film builds this relationship across the story with the stresses of late World War II for a backdrop. Many reviewers strongly protested this change in the story, yet I felt it did not betray Boston's ideas or beliefs. Of course, I can't really speak for Boston, but I am fresh from rereading her autobiography, Perverse and Foolish: A Memoir of Childhood and Youth. If Tolly is a more complex character now rather than a young "everyman," I doubt it would faze her after her own headstrong choices as a teenager. Indeed, one of the greatest joys of the book series is that even though the main characters are not sugary-perfect, they are loving and strong enough to weather challenges.
In a way, this movie is more akin to a fan fiction "what if" than a true retelling. What if Tolly was older? What if the war impacted Green Knowe to a greater degree? What if we learn more about Mrs. Oldknow's family life? In the end, the deeper message of the Green Knowe series is preserved, so I am satisfied. I only hope anybody who likes the movie will move on to the books!
We woke up to find our rental house is now riverfront property...
What could be a better breakfast for a four year-old than a peanut butter sandwich eaten while exploring backyard puddles?
Our little river puts me in mind of the British Reading Adventure. After several months of book-after-book, I'm a little stunned by how much the British love their small watercraft. I'm having a hard time thinking of a children's author from England who doesn't at some point pen an adventure involving a small boat. Exploring the Thames is now on my bucket list. I, too, want to spend long afternoons drifting quietly along with dear company and a burgeoning picnic basket.
The Avon near Stratford in 2007
One of the best books I've read lately is Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome. Admittedly for adults rather than kiddos, it nevertheless explained a good deal to me about what this English love of small boats is all about. The hero of the story, along with a couple of buddies and one rambunctious dog, take to the Thames for adventure and to embrace nature. The result is a cross between Mark Twain and Bill Bryson with a twist of Dave Barry. The book accomplishes the work of a true comedian -- seeing common experiences with a clear eye and developing them into a wry story that has a fine sense of timing. The finishing touch is that Jerome obviously loved history, and he sprinkles his stories with the flavor of long ago. Jerome never forgets that in the days of rough overland travel, rivers were the superhighways of the past and many historic sites rest along them.
Yes, this story is what my husband and I call a "snickernudger" -- one of those books that turns you into an annoying spouse. There we are in bed at the end of the day, peacefully reading side by side except that I keep snickering (occasionally accompanied with what I am sure is a ladylike guffaw) and then nudging Brian so I can read him a passage.
Here's the kicker, though... Jerome K. Jerome was born before the American Civil War and he wrote Three Men in a Boat when my great-grandmother was a tiny girl. You'd think that a book published in 1889 would be dull and dry. In this case, you'd be wrong. This book showcases what fiction can beautifully accomplish -- bringing a place and time to life. We see photos of unsmiling people from the Victorian era and think they were all stodgy, but a book like this dispels the notion. And Jerome's comments on history give the modern-day reader the tingly sensation of Déjà vu.
Would you like to hear the best news of all? Three Men in a Boat is out of copyright, so many print-on-demand companies offer it cheaply. There's even a free Kindle ebook version. Don't miss this story!
Introduction, links to the series, and the booklist.. (Bookmark this page to check for new posts and updates)
Above is the Oxford pub where writers C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien used to meet up to discuss writing and life. They dubbed it "The Bird and Baby."
I adore reading, and few books are as dear as the ones I fell in love with during childhood. Upon learning to make characters, setting, and plot come to life in one's own head -- the magic of imagination kicking in -- a kid is never quite the same again. Children's stories give us our first peeks into others' inner lives, teaching us lessons we never had to suffer through and helping us develop empathy.
I'd like to argue that the children's stories we loved shouldn't be left behind when we grow up. It is a lovely thing to be able to share old favorites with the kids who come into our lives, but those books have value for us too. It is a joy to get to take those fun journeys with beloved characters all over again. We remember our beginnings. And a well-written children's book reminds us that we are coming of age in varied ways throughout our lives.
So why British books? Many of the books near the top of my childhood favorites list hail from British authors, which has admittedly turned me into an Anglophile. Also, almost all of my ancestors are from the British Isles; a literary time-line doesn't have to go back very far before I'm essentially reading family history. But those reasons aren't the most compelling. What truly draws me in is the gifts that come with reading original works from a long-lived people, tracing history and culture but also a literary tradition. I would argue that the children's literary tradition in the British Isles is just as rich and valuable as the larger tradition that brought us Chaucer, Shakespeare, Austen, Dickens, Woolf, Browning, the Bronte sisters, Eliot, Kipling, Forster, Lawrence, and Auden, to name a few. And for those who love a good fantasy story, there is a lovely path to follow from ancient Beowulf to Harry Potter and beyond. Writers such as Sir Thomas Malory, John Bunyan, George McDonald, Edith Nesbit, J.R.R. Tolkien, Lucy Boston, and C.S. Lewis dipped into British history and folklore to create stories that fire the imagination while exploring the human soul.
As much as I love C.S. Lewis' Narnia books and similar still-popular books, I won't explore those in this series -- at least not yet. What fascinates me is that there are older books that are slowly falling deeper into obscurity, yet they are wonderful reading adventures. These were often the books that the great writers of the last century read when they were growing up and they still have the power to delight, inform, and inspire. And what fun it is to sniff them out and share them here!
Enjoy!
Above is a detail from the Peter Pan sculpture in Kensington Gardens (London). Author James Barrie commissioned it. When it was done, he then had workers install it in the Gardens in the dark so it would seem to the children of London that the artwork appeared magically overnight.
Boston, The Green Knowe Series -- In these six novels, children living in an English manor house almost a millennium old travel up and down in time to meet each other and have adventures. Genres: Action/Adventure, Low Fantasy.
Boston, The Sea Egg -- Brothers Toby and Joe are on holiday on the Cornish coast when they come across a mysterious rock that looks like an oversized egg. Sure enough, it hatches! Genres: Action/Adventure, Low Fantasy
Boston, Nothing Said -- Libby leaves the city behind to stay with a family friend in the countryside and soon finds herself in a beautiful, compelling world of meadows, woods, gardens, and rivers. Genres: Nature Fiction
Hull and Whitlock, The Far-Distant Oxus – Three English school children have adventures in the Exmoor countryside while their parents are away. They ride horses across windswept moors, camp out under the stars, and build a raft to journey to the sea, but there are many other adventures to be had too. (This is a wonderful gift book if you have a horse-loving kid in your life.) Genre: Action/Adventure.
Jerome, Three Men in a Boat – In this humor story for adults, three young men and a rambunctious dog set off to explore the Thames between London and Oxford -- often with disastrous results. Genres: Action/Adventure, Humor, Travelogue.
Lucas, The Slowcoach – An anonymous stranger sends a family a horse-drawn Gypsy caravan. Off the kids go to explore the historic spots and back roads of their native England… Genres: Action/Adventure, Travelogue.
Ransome, Swallows & Amazons Series -- This series of twelve adventure books take place in the 1930s and offer everything from shipwrecks and pirates to ice sleds and gold mines. Genres: Action/Adventure.
Uttley, A Traveller in Time – A visit to her ancestors’ Derbyshire farm turns into a time travel adventure for Penelope. Soon she learns secrets that may just be her family’s undoing. Genres: Low Fantasy.
Companion Posts:
How the Heather Looks – This is the book that inspired the British Reading Adventure project. Come along for the ride as a family in the 1950s goes looking for traces of children’s stories of yesteryear. (The blog post about this book also explains more about our family project to read classic children's books and then someday explore the settings in person.)
Children’s Literature Cookbooks – Read classic children’s books and then head to the kitchen to whip up the same treats you read about. This is a great way to bring books alive for kids!
Cherry Cake and Ginger Beer – Jane Brocket’s books peep into British children’s literature, giving ideas for fun things to do and cook.
The British Reading Adventure List:
If your library doesn't have these books, try interlibrary loan or online used booksellers.
Fiction for the Very Young Edith Blyton -- The Noddy series L. Leslie Brooke -- Ring o’ Roses, Johnny Crow’s Garden, Golden Goose Book, The Roundabout Turn Randolph Caldecott John Cunliffe – The Postman Pat stories Joseph Jacobs – English Fairy Tales A. A. Milne – The Winnie the Pooh books Beatrix Potter – The Fairy Caravan, etc. Robert Louis Stevenson – A Child’s Garden of Verses
Children’s Fiction (Also see the list of Carnegie Medal winners and the New York Review Children's Collection.) Eleanor Atkinson – Greyfriars Bobby Reverend W. Awdry – Thomas the Tank Engine James Barrie – Peter Pan Enid Blyton – The Circus of Adventure, The Folk of the Faraway Tree, etc. Mr Galliano’s Circus, The Secret of Spriggy Holes, The Treasure Hunters Famous Five series, Malory Tower series, Twins at St Clare’s series Michael Bond – Paddington Bear stories L. M. Boston – The Children of Green Knowe series, Nothing Said Pamela Brown -- A Swish of the Curtain Frances Hodgson Burnett – Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, The Secret Garden Lewis Carroll – Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass Pauline Clarke – The Return of the Twelves Roald Dahl – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, etc. Mrs. (Juliana) Ewing – The Story of a Short Life, Jackanapes Ruby Ferguson – Children at the Shop, Jill books, Lady Rose and Mrs. Memmary Eve Garnett – The Family from One End Street Kenneth Grahame – Wind in the Willows, Reluctant Dragon, etc. Elizabeth Janet Gray – Adam of the Road Katherine Hull and Pamela Whitlock – The Far-Distant Oxus, Escape to Persia, The Oxus in Summer, and Crowns Rudyard Kipling – Stalky & Co, Puck of Pook’s Hill, Rewards and Fairies, etc. C. S. Lewis – Narnia series, etc. Hilda Lewis – The Ship that Flew E. V. Lucas – The Slowcoach Hugh Lofting – Dr. Doolittle series Captain Marryat – Children of the New Forest George Macdonald – The Princess and the Goblin Gavin Maxwell – Ring of Bright Water, The Otter’s Tale E. Nesbit – The Railway Children, etc. Mary Norton – The Magic Bedknob, the Borrowers series Philippa Pearce – Tom’s Midnight Garden M. Pardoe – The Far Island, Bunkle series, Argle’s Mist (Celtic Britain), Argle’s Causeway (Norman England) Howard Pyle – Robin Hood, Otto of the Silver Hand Arthur Ransome – Swallows & Amazons, Swallowdale, The Child’s Book of the Seasons, etc. J. K. Rowling – The Harry Potter stories Margery Sharp – The Rescuers, etc. Robert Louis Stevenson – Treasure Island, Kidnapped, etc. Noel Streatfeild -- Circus Shoes, Tennis Shoes, Ballet Shoes, Traveling Shoes, etc. Rosemary Sutcliffe – The Shield Ring, etc. P. L. Travers – Mary Poppins series, Gingerbread Shop, etc. Alison Uttley – A Traveler in Time, Little Grey Rabbit Henry Williamson – Tarka the Otter
Young Adult and Adult Fiction Alfred, Lord Tennyson – Idylls of the King Richard Adams – Watership Down Jane Austen – Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Persuasion Richard Doddridge Blackmore – Lorna Doone Charlotte Bronte – Jane Eyre, Villette Emily Bronte – Wuthering Heights John Bunyan – Pilgrim’s Progress Geoffrey Chaucer – The Canterbury Tales Daniel Dafoe – Moll Flanders Charles Dickens – The Pickwick Papers, David Copperfield, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Great Expectations, etc. Daphne du Maurier – Rebecca, Jamaica Inn, etc. Robert Browning – “Childe Rowland to the Dark Tower Came” George Eliot – Adam Bede, The Mill on the Floss, Silas Marner, Middlemarch Eric Ennion – House on the Shore E. M. Forster – A Passage to India, Where Angels Fear to Tread, A Room with a View, Howard’s End, Maurice, The Longest Journey Elizabeth Gaskell – Cranford, North and South, Mary Barton, etc. Thomas Hardy – Tess of the d’Urbervilles, Far from the Maddening Crowd Christina Hole – English Folk Heroes Robert Hunt – Popular Romances of the West of England Jerome K. Jerome – Three Men in a Boat Eleanore Jewett – The Hidden Treasure of Glaston Charles Kingsley – Westward Ho!, The Water Babies, Hypatia, Hereward the Wake D. H. Lawrence – Sons and Lovers, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, etc. Laurie Lee – Cider with Rosie, The Edge of Day John Milton – Paradise Lost Hope Muntz – The Golden Warrior Barbara Picard – Tales of the British People Rosamund Pilcher – The Shell Seekers Sir Walter Scott – Ivanhoe, Rob Roy, etc. Caroline Dale Snedeker – The White Isle Rosemary Sutcliffe – Warrior Scarlet, The Lantern Bearers, etc. J. R. R. Tolkien – The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings Sir Thomas Malory – Le Morte d’Arthur Robert Smith Surtees – Jorrocks’ Jaunts and Jollities Unknown -- Beowulf T. H. White – The Once and Future King, Mistress Masham’s Repose, etc. P. G. Wodehouse – Jeeves and Wooster stories, etc. Virginia Woolf – A Room of One’s Own, Mrs Dalloway, To the Lighthouse, Orlando
History Leonard Cottrell – Seeing Roman Britain Jacquetta Hawkes – Early Britain Geoffrey of Monmouth – Historia
Travelogues and Guides 1851 -- Lavengro by George Henry Borrow (also The Romany Rye and Wild Wales) 1880s (fiction) – Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome 1904 – A Wanderer in London – E. V. Lucas 1908 (fiction) -- The Slowcoach by E. V. Lucas 1933 – English Journey by J.B. Priestley 1958 – How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger 1968 – Journey Through Britain by John Hillaby 1982 – Kingdom by the Sea by Paul Theroux 1984 – A Matter of Wales by Jan Morris 1994 – Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson 2002 – Once Upon a Time in Great Britain: A Travel Guide to the Sights and Settings of your Favorite Children’s Stories by Melanie Wentz
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I'd like to thank my mother for always taking us to the library. Even if we were living somewhere just for the summer, she'd take us to get a temporary local card. And thanks, too, to her friend Ms. Elaine who knew an awful lot about children's books and shared lists with our family.
For our British reading adventures, we've ridden ponies across wild valleys, camped out on moors, floated down to the sea aboard a homemade raft, and explored England in a horse-drawn wagon. Our next adventure is less about plot than it is a celebration of time and place. If vanishing into a beautiful Derbyshire farm in both the early nineteenth and mid-sixteenth centuries sounds lovely, this is the book for you. Alison Uttley (1884-1976) welcomes the reader with such vivid details that you swear you can taste the batter cakes, feel the sunshine, and hear the bees buzzing in the lavender. There's a reason for that. Uttley was born in Derbyshire into a tenant farming family that had lived on the same land for centuries. Her story taps into lifetimes of experience.
When A Traveller in Time opens, we meet young Penelope, the youngest of three siblings. She has always been sickly and dreamy, but then begins to see ghosts in her London house. Her parents are quick to send her to elderly relatives back on the family farm for some fresh air. Little do her parents know, however, that it was just the beginning of ghosts. Penelope begins to drift back and forth between her own time and that of the Tudors. Just as she begins to get close to her distant ancestors, she realizes they are endangering their lives in a plot to free Mary, Queen of Scots.
If you're a history buff, you'll love witnessing everyday life in both time periods but also how language, culture, and technology developed over the centuries. Uttley seems to realize that her readers may be young and are not history scholars; even if you don't know every vocabulary word, it doesn't break a reader's stride. When I got done with the book, though, I had great fun sifting back through it to look up this and that. Although perhaps too complex for younger readers, I love this book and gave copies at Christmas to some of the older elementary school kids in my life.
The print version...
Or the Kindle version...
A Traveler in Time might have gone out of print, largely lost to future generations, but for the intervention of The New York Review of Books Children's Collection. This publication series began in 2003 "in an attempt to reward readers who have long wished for the return of their favorite titles and to introduce those books to a new generation of readers." If you have kids in your life that you'd like to buy quality books for yet want something they probably haven't read yet, this is a great series to know about. (Click on the photo below.)
The photo at the top of this post is of a pond on the grounds of Warwick Castle in central England, taken late on a cloudy afternoon during my autumn 2007 honeymoon.
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S U P P O R T J O U R N E Y L E A F Kindly click on the link below whenever you make purchases at Amazon. A small percentage returns to JourneyLeaf to help purchase more books, craft supplies, etc. to be featured on the blog. Thank you!