"Outside a dog a book is man's best friend, inside a dog it is too dark to read!" -Groucho Marx========="The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid." -Jane Austen========="I don’t believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."-JK Rowling========"I spend a lot of time reading." -Bill Gates=========“Ahhh. Bed, book, kitten, sandwich. All one needed in life, really.” -Jacqueline Kelly=========

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Classics Club: Question of the month

I missed the opportunity to blog about the Classics Club question of the month in December.

Question:
Let’s talk about children’s classics! Did you read any classic works as a child? What were your favorites? If not, have you or will you try any classic children’s literature in the future? (We’re aware children often read at an adult level. Please feel free to share adult OR children’s classics that you treasured in childhood OR children’s works that you’ve recently fallen for.)
Answer:
When I was eleven or twelve I went through a jag of reading lots of classics: David Copperfield; Pride and Prejudice; White Fang;  The Legend of Sleepy Hollow; and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer are a few I remember reading specifically. Now, as an adult, I look back in amazement that I was capable of reading these books so easily and happily. Then a month ago, as I wandered around a used bookstore, I came upon a cache of children's books in the Great Illustrated Classics series. The books looked suspiciously familiar. Now I am fairly sure the classics I read as a kid were these highly abridged versions of classics that include illustrations.
I am sure I didn't read all of these Great Illustrated Classics, but I read many of these abridged classics.
In addition to The Great Illustrated Classics, I remember reading the Chronicles of Narnia; 1001 Arabian Nights; Heidi; The Secret Garden; and Little Women (in fact, I read the whole series by Alcott.) Somewhere a long the line I read Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights. I don't recall if they were abridged or not. As a teenager I read the Lord of the Rings series, but by then no one should be shocked that I was reading them. My favorites, then and now, are the romances: Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and of course, Pride and Prejudice.
What classics did you read as a child?

See responses by others at The Classics Club.


3 comments:

  1. Aw, The Secret Garden was probably my first classic as a child. Jane Eyre is my favorite classic as well, and wow, reading Pride and Prejudice as a child! :D

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  2. Oh, wow - I was such an avid reader as a child! I devoured everything from Nancy Drew to Judy Blume to classics. Let's see...I remember reading and loving The Secret Garden (about time for a re-read). My 2nd grade teacher (awesome!) read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to us aloud which led me to the library to read the entire Narnia series for myself!

    I definitely read Heidi and Little Women and an older one maybe people won't remember - The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew. Oh, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm! Loved that one.

    I'm sure there were others but those are the ones that come to mind.

    One I never read that is currently on my TBR shelf - Anne of Green Gables - hope to get to it this year.

    Sue

    Book By Book

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  3. Did my comment get lost or did it go through, Anne? It was a long one!

    Sue

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