Never too Late to Read Classics discussion

I'm reading Ballet Shoes also. It is so heart-warming and humorous.

I’m reading by

I've just finished Party Shoes, which is not as good as Ballet Shoes. Next up is Theatre Shoes when my hold comes to the library.

Bruce wrote: "I’m reading by "

I hope you are enjoy this one. I have not read it as of yet. I really liked Little Women

For those who enjoy children's classics, I recommend Understood Betsy.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

The Keeper of the Bees by Gene Stratton-Porter is good. I don't usually read YA books and even I liked it.

My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

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Nice review, Chrissie!

Thank you, Rosemarie.

There are YA books that are equally suitable for both lids and adults. These are my favorites. Guessing which these is impossible. The only solution is to test new authors.

Chrissie wrote: "Thank you, Rosemarie.

There are YA books that are equally suitable for both lids and adults. These are my favorites. Guessing which these is impossible. The only solution is to test new authors."

Gene Stratton Porter is best known for A Girl of the Limberlost (which I have had on my to read list for ages).

Freckles is a companion book to A Girl of the Limberlost. Both are good, but I did enjoy Freckles more. It precedes The Girl of the Limberlost.

Manybooks wrote: "Chrissie wrote: "Thank you, Rosemarie.

There are YA books that are equally suitable for both lids and adults. These are my favorites. Guessing which these is impossible. The only solution is to t..."

I loved A Girl of the Limberlost when I was a kid. I wonder how it will hold up now that I'm an adult? I still have to read Freckles

Recently finished The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively

Norman Lindsay’s The Magic Pudding (1918) is one of the most robustly masculine of all children’s classics, full of fussin’ and fightin’ and foodin’ and feudin’. It is perhaps that as well as its intense Australian-ness that has kept it from the global popularity that it deserves (it is scarcely known at all in the United States). There is tutting disapproval of its rambunctious, knockabout Gestalt even to be found in some current Goodreads reviews. SMDH.

The pudding of the title, which is a steak-and-kidney type pudding rather than a smooth dessert pudding, can be eaten over and over by its sailor, penguin, and koala owners without ever diminishing. The pudding doesn’t MIND being eaten, but is grumpy about everything else. He is the perpetual target of two rascally pudding thieves, a possum and a wombat.

The book romps along at a rollicking pace, interspersed with some really funny nonsense verse. I love these two legal bits:

Obey the mandate of our chosen lawyer,

Remove that hat, or else we’ll do it faw yer.

———-

To win your case, and save your pelf,

Why, try the blooming case yourself!

I'm reading Heidi by Johanna Spyri.

Patrick
I really enjoyed Seven Little Australians
by Ethel Turner it really felt like some of the things that happened were just like me and my younger Sister in our childhood.
Sounds like I need to check this one out too!

^ I have seen that title in literary histories, need to check it out. Thanks!

I just ordered The Magic Pudding! Thank you Patrick for the suggestion.

^ Great! The illustrations (by Lindsay himself) are really fun, too.

Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie and Bruno / Sylvie and Bruno Concluded is not exactly a work you recommend so much as point out, because honestly, one in 500 people is going to care for this level of extreme eccentricity. Melville’s Mardi: and a Voyage Thither and Robert Browning’s Sordello are two other productions in this same WTF? class. However, it should go without saying by now that I am very fond of all these and similar demented creations. 😏

Sylvie and Bruno uneasily combines a daft fantasy with a realistic late Victorian novel, and ladles on the sentimentality in a way that many now find unappealing. But all that said, it is QUITE an experience. I even find Bruno’s oft-criticized baby talk very funny. ("I never talks to nobody when he isn't here! It isn't good manners. Oo should always wait till he comes, before oo talks to him!")

I have issues with baby talk, but I do like weird books.

^ None weirder than these, trust me!

I read the The Magic Pudding in 2021 for another challenge. It was goofy!

Several o you recommended My Sweet Orange Tree. I agree with you all, it's very good. It's one f those children's books that works as well or adults as kids! I found it available free at Audible, if you are a Plus member, which I am.

Thanks all of you for telling me to read it!

I'm so glad you enjoyed it, Chrissie. It's a very moving book.

Yup, it certainly is.

I'm about to embark on Eight Cousins by Louisa May Alcott. Looking forward to it!

I enjoyed that one, Karen.

I would like to read My Sweet Orange Tree but can’t find it anywhere. I’ll have to try ILL or order it. Thanks for the recommendation!

I’m reading Four and Twenty Fairy Tales: Selected from Those of Perrault and Other Popular Writers by J. R. Planché Charlotte Rose de Caumont de La James Robinson Planché, Edward Henry Corbould, James Godwin , Willia

Hello
I’ve just come across this group which is perfect for me.
I’ll be reading three books for my children’s literature book group in October.
The set book is ‘Katy’ by Jacqueline Wilson. We will be comparing it to ‘What Katy Did’.
As I haven’t read any Jacqueline Wilson before, I’ll be reading ‘Hetty Feather’. I actually bought my copy at The Foundling Museum.

I’ve also just reread ‘Ballet Shoes’.

Welcome to the thread. I've only read one book by Jacqueline Wilson. I can see why she's popular.

I've finished earlier Davy Crockett. It was a fun read.

I am starting Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Road Dahl today!

I’ve been slowing getting through Wizard of Oz - listening to it - but I keep falling asleep haha…

I’m reading Milky Way Railroad, a classic Japanese fantasy novel by Kenji Miyazawa written around 1927. It’s been translated under several different titles but this is the only one I could find. I found it in Hoopla. Some one mentioned the book in another thread but I can’t find the thread now!

It's in Recommended Children's Books to Read, Pam.

Thanks Rosemarie!

I’m thirteen and love classic books I have read all of these so if you have more classic books I would love to hear of them
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
The Little White Horse
Heidi
The Secret Garden
A Little Princess
The Wind in the Willows
The Call of the Wild
The Neverending Story
Ballet Shoes
Caddie Woodlawn
The Bronze Bow
Miracles on Maple Hill
Carry on Mr. Bowditch
My Father's Dragon,
The Frog and Toad Treasury:
Frog and Toad are Friends/Frog and Toad Together/Frog and Toad All Year
Pippi Longstocking.
The Twenty-One Balloons
Adam of the Road
Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze:
The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle
Amazon’s and swallows
The Red fairy book
Treasure Island
Where the red fern grows
Alice in wonderland
Anne of green gables
All of the Narnia books
They learned to laugh ( so sexist but the story was good)
I rode a horse of milk white jade
A single shard
Murder for her majesty
The three. Musketeers.
The tale of two city’s
By the Grate horned spoon
The murder at the vicarage
Most of Ronald Dahl books
Peter and the star catchers
When Marnie was there
Gail Carson Levine books
Diana Wayne Jones books
Katherine called birdie
The breadwinner
Margaret Peterson Haddix books
Serafina series
The hobbit
Homeless bird
Patricia C wrede
Enders game
All of the Oz books
Red wall
Johnny Tremain
Because of Winn-Dixie
The boxcar children
Freckles
And probably like 50 I’ve forgot

I've recently finished Miracles on Maple Hill and really enjoyed it.
Also Caddie Woodlawn, another good one.

Our group is reading the works of Roald Dahl in one of our other threads, focussing mainly on his children's books.
You'll find under Science Fiction and Fantasy, called Reading Roald Dahl in 2023.

Thanks

Great! It's a lot different than the Disney movie, in a good way!

I finished reading Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Highly recommended if you're in the mood for a "feel good" book.

Jonathan wrote: "Yes! It's grim, darkly humorous and even terrifying. Pinocchio is an amazing character, I'm loving how messed u..."

Jonathan I was surprised by the actual book! Pinocchio was totally different than what I have ever read about him! He is dark!

I was born in Germany and heard the original fairy tales, blood and all. They were good!

Anything by the Grimms!

Jonathan wrote: "I grew up listening to some of the classic tales on its unaltered versions because my mother judge the originals were better and use to scare the hell out of my brothers and me before bedtime.
Reading Pinocchio has been a blast and a beautiful reminder of those creepy stories...."

Jonathan that is really wonderful having the read bringing back such great memories!

I am reading C.S. Lewis Narnia Chronicles.

Those are good!

I am reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, the Newbery Award winner in 1977.