CHILDREN’S BOOKS TO REMEMBER AND TO PASS ON!

Here are some books that have been loved by children over the years … and perhaps time to pass them on to the children of today!

 

Outside, Over There

Maurice Sendak's classic is dark and sort of scary, but it speaks to the ambivalence children feel about their siblings. With Papa off to sea and Mama despondent, Ida must go outside over there to rescue her baby sister from goblins who steal her to be a goblin's bride.

A Little Princess

This is a classic in that love and beauty are qualities that exist outside of money and that true friendship can't be bought. A Little Princess, a 1904 children's novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett, follows the story of Sara Crewe, a young girl sent to a boarding school in London where she is to be lavishly cared for as instructed by her doting, wealthy father, Captain Crewe. When her father dies, and she is left an orphan and a pauper, Sara becomes a servant at the school, and befriends a maid with whom she shares an attic room. Her imagination keeps her alive in her destitute life, and the rich stories she invents become as real to the reader as they do for Sara and the maid. This book has delighted children and adults alike for many years, and will continue to captivate readers for years to come.

A Wrinkle in Time

Madeleine L'Engle wrote this creepy classic a long time ago, but it still stands the test of time. The book begins on a dark and stormy night. Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when a bizarre stranger comes by. "Wild nights are my glory," she says. It was a dark and stormy night; Meg Murry, her small brother Charles Wallace, and her mother had come down to the kitchen for a midnight snack when they were upset by the arrival of a most disturbing stranger.

"Wild nights are my glory," the unearthly stranger told them. "I just got caught in a downdraft and blown off course. Let me sit down for a moment, and then I'll be on my way. Speaking of ways, by the way, there is such a thing as a tesseract."

A tesseract (in case the reader doesn't know) is a wrinkle in time. To tell more would rob the reader of the enjoyment of Miss L'Engle's unusual book. A Wrinkle in Time, winner of the Newbery Medal in 1963, is the story of the adventures in space and time of Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O'Keefe (athlete, student, and one of the most popular boys in high school). They are in search of Meg's father, a scientist who disappeared while engaged in secret work for the government on the tesseract problem.

A Wrinkle in Time is the winner of the 1963 Newbery Medal.

The Westing Game

This book by Ellen Raskin - the central premise of this book is how the residents of Sunset Towers, a condo unit, are all heirs to a paper fortune left by Mr. Westing, who claims he was murdered. The prize is his fortune to the one that puzzles out the "whodunit" set out by his mysterious and cryptic last will. What follows is an engaging set of tricks and traps that call on the reader to (a) pay scrupulous attention to the text, and (b) use logical reasoning skills to solve the mystery. I think, then, this helps young people not only read, but read for comprehension, and compels them to at least try to use brain-power in their own pursuit of "Who Killed Mr. Westing?"

Betsy-Tacy books

These books are old, written by Maud Hart Lovelace in the 1940s and '50s. The issues still resonate and following the girls all the way through their childhoods is just cool.

There are lots of children on Hill Street, but no little girls Betsy’s age. So when a new family moves into the house across the street, Betsy hopes they will have a little girl she can play with. Sure enough, the moment Betsy meets Tacy, one of the most heartfelt friendships in all of children’s literature begins.

The Betsy-Tacy Treasury brings together the first four books in Maud Hart Lovelace’s classic series: Betsy-Tacy; Betsy, Tacy and Tib; Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill; and Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown. Tracing the girls’ lives from early childhood to the brink of adolescence, Lovelace illuminates their innocent, mischievous fun and their eye-opening adventures exploring the world around them—from the stories Betsy spins from their neighborhood bench and the sand stores they run in their backyards, to their first experiences at the library, the thrill of the theater, and the sight of their first automobile.

All of a Kind Family

It's about a Jewish immigrant family around the turn of the century.

Meet the All-of-a-Kind  Family -- Ella, Henny, Sarah, Charlotte, and Gertie -- who live with their parents in New York City at the turn of the century. Together they share adventures that find them searching for hidden buttons while dusting Mama's front parlor and visiting with the peddlers in Papa's shop on rainy days. The girls enjoy doing everything together, especially when it involves holidays and surprises. But no one could have prepared them for the biggest surprise of all!

The Witches

This Roald Dahl classic tells the scary, funny and imaginative tale of a seven-year-old boy who has a run-in with some real-life witches! "In fairy tales witches always wear silly black hats and black cloaks and they ride on broomsticks. But this is not a fairy tale. This is about REAL WITCHES. REAL WITCHES dress in ordinary clothes and look very much like ordinary women. They live in ordinary houses and they work in ordinary jobs. That is why they are so hard to catch." Witches, as our hero learns, hate children. With the help of a friend and his somewhat-magical grandmother, our hero tries to expose the witches before they dispose of him.

Phantom Tollbooth

This is another fantastic, imaginative, and creative story. It has been fifty years—and millions of readers—since the world was first introduced to Milo and his adventures in the Lands Beyond with Tock, the Humbug, and the captive princesses Rhyme and Reason.
Now we have a remarkable 50th anniversary edition to honor this universally adored and deeply influential novel.

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

About kids who run away to the museum. It's the fantasy all 11-year-olds secretly have and it plays it out. Plus there is a mystery.

When suburban Claudia Kincaid decides to run away, she knows she doesn't just want to run from somewhere she wants to run to somewhere--to a place that is comfortable, beautiful, and preferably elegant. She chooses the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Knowing that her younger brother, Jamie, has money and thus can help her with the serious cash flow problem she invites him along.

Once settled into the museum, Claudia and Jamie, find themselves caught up in the mystery of an angel statue that the museum purchased at an auction for a bargain price of $250. The statue is possibly an early work of the Renaissance master Michelangelo, and therefore worth millions. Is it? Or isn't it? Claudia is determined to find out. This quest leads Claudia to Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the remarkable old woman who sold the statue and to some equally remarkable discoveries about herself.

The Indian in the Cupboard

A young  man receives two presents that will change his life:  a plastic miniature Indian that magically comes to  life inside a mysterious old cupboard.