Category Great Books For Children

            If you are into sea adventure books, you will thoroughly enjoy the famous story book – ‘Moby-Dick’, written in 1851 by Herman Melville. It recounts the adventures of the narrator Ishmael, as he sails on the whaling ship, Pequod, under the command of the monomaniacal Captain Ahab.

           ‘Moby-Dick’, is a classic, not only in children’s literature but also in world literature. It is a novel first published in London as ‘The Whale’ and a month later in the United States as ‘Moby-Dick or The Whale’.

            Ishmael is the narrator in the story. Ishmael believes he has signed onto a normal whaling vessel, but he soon learns that Captain Ahab is not guiding the Pequod to hunt any whale, but is seeking one specific whale, Moby-Dick, a great white whale infamous for his ability to destroy the whalers that seek him.

            The captain’s wooden leg is the result of his first encounter with Moby-Dick. After the ship sails, it becomes clear that Captain Ahab is bent on revenge and he intends to get Moby-Dick.

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               ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ is a classic children’s book, written by Jonathan Swift. It was originally published in 1726.

               ‘Gulliver’s Travels’, comprises four books. It is an adventure story involving several voyages of the main character Lemuel Gulliver, a ship’s surgeon, who, because of a series of mishaps, ends up on unknown islands living with people and animals of unusual sizes. However, Gulliver returns to his home in England, where he recovers from these unusual experiences and then sets out again on a new voyage.

               In this creatively written work of fiction, many exciting things are included, for example- ‘remote regions of the world’, including Lilliput, where Gulliver finds himself tied to the ground by six-inch-high human figures, where he meets a man ‘as tall as an ordinary spire steeple’.

               The book became popular as soon as it was published. John Gay wrote in a 1726 letter to Swift that ‘It is universally read, from the cabinet council to the nursery’.

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            ‘Oliver Twist’ is a must read, classic children’s novel written by Charles Dickens, published serially under the  pseudonym ‘Boz’.

             It is the story of a young orphan, Oliver, and his attempts to stay good in a society that refuses to help. Oliver is born in a workhouse, to a mother not known to anyone in the town. She dies right after giving birth to him, and he is sent to an orphanage, where he and the other orphans are treated terribly, and fed very little.

            After escaping from there, little Oliver travels to London, where he meets the ‘Artful Dodger’, a member of a gang of juvenile pickpockets led by the elderly criminal, Fagin.

           In the later part of the story, Oliver meets a good man, who takes him in. But, the plot takes a turn when Oliver is again trapped by Fagin’s men.

          ‘Oliver Twist’ has been the subject of numerous adaptations for various media, including a highly successful musical play, ‘Oliver!’, and the multiple Academy Award-winning 1968 motion picture of the same name.

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            ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’, the classic children’s book by Lewis Carroll, tells the story of Alice who falls down a rabbit hole, and lands into a fantasy world that is full of weird, wonderful people and animals. Though it is a children’s book, it is one of the popular ones among adults too.

            Commonly shortened to ‘Alice in Wonderland’, the book was published in 1865. Unlike most of the other children’s books till then, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, was an imaginative fantasy work, not just bound to moral lessons.

            The book portrays many interesting characters that Alice meets during her adventure. Some of them are the Duchess, the March Hare, Mad Hatter, and the Red Queen. The book has inspired numerous film and television adaptations.

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             If you are looking for something exciting to read during your holidays, try reading the ‘Jataka Tales’. They are story books that are enjoyable, as well as filled with wisdom.

            Originally written in the Pali language, the ‘Jataka Tales’ have been translated into different languages around the world. They contain stories of the previous lives of Gautama Buddha. These include Buddha in both animal and human forms. These stories are extremely popular and are valued in all branches of Buddhism.

            ‘The Jataka Tales’ are dated between 300 BC and AD 400. Many of the tales are set in or near Benares, now called Varanasi, a city in North India on the Ganges River.

            Each tale begins by noting the occasion that prompted its telling, and ends with the Buddha identifying the lives of the people in the introductory story with those of people from the past. There is humour in some of these stories.

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          ‘Aesop’s Fables’ is a collection of tales from the Greek storyteller, Aesop.

            He was a slave who lived in ancient Greece, between 620 and 564 BC. He was a keen observer of both animals and people. Most of the characters in his stories are animals, some of which take on human characteristics, and are personified in their ways of speech and emotions. Each fable has an accompanying moral to be learned from the tale. The fables, numbering 725 totally, were all passed down orally through generations.

            Aesop loved to write stories which were mostly fables. A fable is a very short story with a moral, or a lesson to teach. Three centuries after Aesop’s death they were written down, and their author-ship was attributed to Aesop.

There are many famous fables, including the most famous ones like ‘The Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs’, ‘The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse’ etc.

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            ‘The Panchatantra Stories’ are the most popular children’s book in India. These are the oldest surviving fables from India, which are popular abroad too.

            Panchatantra is believed to be written by Vishnu Sharma, along with many other scholars. It is basically a network of interesting stories on human behaviour, depicted through animal characters that are loved by people of every age group.

            The stories were probably written originally in Sanskrit, and later translated into English, and many other languages. These stories are the best guide to teach children moral values, since each tale has a moral lesson at its end. Most of the stories are written very creatively, featuring plants and animals that can speak and converse with human beings too.

            Apart from a short introduction, these tales consist of five parts. Each part contains a main story, called the frame story, which in turn, contains several sub stories.

            The most popular Panchatantra stories are ‘The Wedge-pulling Monkey’, ‘The Blue Jackal’ etc.

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