Recommended Books

 

It seemed to me that a booklist might be useful to readers. Here's one, consisting of a hundred books. In compiling it, I've tried to keep largely to titles in print and to the cheapest editions available. It's divided into three age-groups though, of course, there are often startling individual difl'erences, amongst children of the same age, in reading ability and emotional maturity. The books on the list are largely free from sex, class and race bias and their authors take a positive attitude towards their fellow human beings. Their work, I hope, will help children to enter into a meaningful relationship with the world around them. I've left readers to select for themselves individual titles from series of early readers such as Sparks (Blackie) and Little Nippers and Nippers (Macmillan). Unless otherwise stated, the place of publication is London.

(This was the list in the books when in print when Catching Them Young was written in 1976 so some may well be out of print now.)

 

Up to Eight Years Old
Edward Ardizzone, Diana and her Rhinoceros, Bodley Head I964
Leila Berg, Little Pete Stories, Harmondsworth, Penguin I970. Petronella Breinberg, My Brother Sean, Bodley Head I973• Virginia Lee Burton, Choo Choo, Faber I967. Virginia Lee Burton, Katy and the Big Snow, Faber I94'7•
Virginia Lee Burton, Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel, Faber 1966.
Eric Carl, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1974..
Mao-chin Chang, The Little Doctor, Peking, Foreign Languages Press 1965.
Karl Craig, Emanuel Goes to Market, Oxford University Press 1971.
Michael Foreman, Dinosaurs and all that Rubbish, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1974•
Michael Foreman, Moose, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1973.
Michael Foreman, Two Giants, Leicester, Brockhampton 1967.
Wanda Gag, Gone is Gone, Harmondsworth, Penguin 19'76.
Jane Hollowood, Maggie and the Birthday Surprise, Chatto and Windus 1969.
Jane Hollowood Maggie and the Chickens, Chatto and Windus 1967.
Jane Hollowood, Maggie in the Snow, Chatto and Windus 1969.
Pat Hutchins, Titch, Bodley Head 1972.
Ezra Jack Keats, Apt 3, Hamish Hamilton 1972.
Charles Keeping, Joseph's Yard, Oxford University Press 1969.
Rolf Knutsson, Torkel, Burke 1970
Phyllis Krasilovsky, The Shy Little Girl, World's Work 1979.
Astrid Lindgren, Lotta's Bike, Methuen 1973.
Astrid Lindgren, Pippi Longstocking, Oxford University Press  1979.
Margaret Mahy, The Man whose Mother was a Pirate, Dent 1979.
Margaret Mahy, Stepmother, Franklin Watts 19'74..
Margaret Mahy, The Witch in the Cherry Tree, Dent 1974•
Evaline Ness, Do You Have the Time, Lydia? Bodley Head 
Evaline Ness, Sam, Bangs and Moonshine, Bodley Head 1967.
John Ruskin, The King o f the Golden River, Kaye and Ward 1979
Binette Schroeder, Florian and Tractor Max, Collins
Maurice Sendak, Pierre, Collins
Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things are, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1970.
John Steptoe, Stevie, Harmondsworth, Penguin Young 1970. 
Jane Thayer, Quiet on Account o f Dinosaur, World's Work 1974..
Joanna Troughton, Why Flies Buzx, Blackie 1974•
Judith Viorst, The Tenth Good Thing about Barney, Collins 1974•
Wendy Wharam, ASow Called Soda, Abelard-Schuman 1974. 
William Wiesner, Turnabout,
 World's Work 1972. 
Gunilla Wolde, Thomas and Sara Dress Up, Leicester, Brockhampton 1972.
Gunilla Wolde, Thomas Bakes a Cake, Leicester, Brockhampton 1974,.
Gunilla Wolde, Thomas Goes to the Doctor, Leicester, Brockhampton 1972.
Gunilla Wolde, Thomas Has a Bath, Leicester, Brockhampton 1971.
Gene Zion and Margaret Bloy Graham, Harry the Dirty Dog, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1970.

From Eight to Twelve Years Old
Leila Berg, A Box f or Benny, Leicester, Brockhampton 1970. 
Leila Berg, The Hidden Road, Hamish Hamilton
Lelia Berg, My Dog Sunday, Hamish Hamilton 1968. 
Jgrgen Bisch, Jungle Hunters, Blackie 1969. 
Phyllis M. Cousins, Queen of the Mountain, Ginn 1967. 
Nicholas Fisk, Trillions, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1973. 
Paula Fox, How Many Miles to Babylon?, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1972.
Paula Fox, The Stone-faced Boy, Macmillan 1969. 
Ted Hughes, The Iron Man, Faber 1972
Geraldine Kaye, Tawno, Gypsy Boy, Leicester, Brockhampton  1968.
E.L.Konigsburg, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler, Hazmondsworth, Penguin 1974• 
Robert Leeson, The Third Class Genie, Collins I975• 
A.A.Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, Methuen 1969.
Bill Naughton, The Goalkeeper's Revenge, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1968.
Mary Norton, The Borrowers, Harmondsworth, Penguin I970.
Scott O'Dell, Sing Down the Moon, Hamish Hamilton 1972. 
V.S.Reid, Sixty-Five, Harlow, Longman 1960.
V.S.Reid, The Young Warriors, Harlow, Longmans, Green 1967.
Andrew Salkey, Hurricane, Oxford University Press . 
Chris Searle, Ferndale Fires, Reality Press 1974. 
Sylvia Sherry, A Pair o f Jesus-Boots, Cape 1969. 
Anne-Cath. Vestly, Aurora and the Little Blue Car, Harmondsworth, Longman Young I974•
Anne-Cath. Vestly, Hello Aurora!, Harmondsworth, Longman Young 1973.

From Twelve Years Old Onwards

Eric Allen, The Latchkey Children, Oxford University Press 1974•
Prudence Andrew, Goodbye to the Rat, Heinemann 1974.. 
Martin Ballard, Benjie's Portion, Harmondsworth, Longman Young 1969.
Gunnel Beckman, The Loneliness of Mia, Bodley Head I975• 
Gunnel Beckman, Mia, Bodley Head 1974..
Peter Carter, The Black Lamp, Oxford University Press 1973. 
Dick Cate, On the Run, Macmillan 1973• 
Vera and Bill Cleaver, Grover, Collins I975•
Vera and Bill Cleaver, The Whys and Wheref ores of Littabelle Lee, Hamish Hamilton I974•
Audrey Coppard, Nancy of Nottingham, Heinemann I973
J.Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, Harmondsworth, Penguin I970.
Louise Fitzhugh, Nobody's Family is Going to Change, Gollancz 1976.
Paula Fox, The Slave Dancer, Macmillan I974•
Jean Craighead George, Julie of the Wolves, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1976.
Frederick Grice, The Bonnie Pit Laddie, Oxford University Press 1966.
Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea, Cape 1952. 
Mollie Hunter, A Pistol in Greenyards, Hamish Hamilton 1975
Robert Leeson, Bess, Collins 1975
Robert Leeson, Maroon Boy, Collins I974
Jack Lindsay, Runaway, Oxford University Press I935• 
Jack London, White Fang, New English Library I974 
Jean MacGibbon, Hal, Heinemann 1974^.
Allan Campbell McLean, Ribbon of Fire, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1968.
Allan Campbell McLean, A Sound of Trumpets, Collins 1974. 
Allan Campbell McLean, The Year o f the Stranger,. Collins I973
Naomi Mitchison, The Rib of the Green Umbrella, Collins 1960.
Susan Price, Twopence a Tub, Faber 1975
Sylvia Sherry, The Loss of the `Night Wind', Harmondsworth, Penguin 1974
Geraldine Symons, Miss Rivers and Miss Bridges, Harmondsworth, Penguin 1975
Mark Twain, Huckleberry Finn, Harmondsworth, Penguin I970.
Mark Twain, Tom Sawyer, Harmondsworth, Penguin I970. 
H.G.Wells, The First Men in the Moon, Harlow, Longman undated.
H.G.Wells, The Invisible Man, Fontana 1971
Viola Wahlstedt, Aslak Where are You?, Macmillan t971

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