Category Great Books for Children

               Do you want to get lost in a time when there were no cars to get you around, and real help came from majestic horses? Well, ‘Black Beauty’ will take you there.

               ‘Black Beauty: The Autobiography of a Horse’ is a popular children’s novel by the British author Anna Sewell. It was first published in 1877, and became an immediate success. The novel has been widely translated.

               The novel’s title character is the horse Black Beauty. The story is told from the point of view of Black Beauty, who lives in 19th century England. Over the course of the book, Black Beauty has a series of owners and caretakers, some good and some bad. Although he experiences many hardships, the gentle and intelligent Black Beauty remembers his mother’s wise advice, and always gives his best. The story was written before the invention of automobiles when society depended on horses for nearly everything.

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               ‘Harriet the Spy’ is a 1964 book by Louise Fitzhugh about a girl named Harriet who likes to spy on people. The book is considered as a classic.

               The title character of the book is Harriet, a precocious eleven-year-old who writes down everything because she wants to be a writer when she grows up. She keeps a composition book with her at all times, writing down her observations, and general thoughts that pop into her mind. After school, she goes on her spy route. One thing about Harriet, though: she’s extremely secretive about the contents of her notebook. One day Harriet loses her notebook. Her classmates find it and are appalled at her brutally honest documentation of her opinions of them. They try to trouble Harriet. Thus the story goes.

               In the US, this is ranked number 12 as the best children’s book, and number 17 all time children’s book on two lists generated in 2012. Fitzhugh wrote two sequels to the book- ‘The Long Secret’ and ‘Sport’.

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          Roald Dahl’s ‘James and the Giant Peach’ tells the tale of a young boy called James, who is packed off to live with his two really horrible aunts after his parents were killed by a rhinoceros that escaped from London Zoo. The aunts Spiker and Sponge, who treat him like a slave, keep him in the attic, and only feed him fish heads.

          One afternoon, when he is crying in the woods, James stumbles across a friendly wizard, who mysteriously understands his situation, and gives him some magic crystals that he promises will bring happiness.

          On the way back to the house, James spills the crystals onto a peach tree, which grows a peach of a giant size. When entering into the peach James has a wild and surreal cross-world adventure with seven magically-altered garden bugs he meets. They set off on a journey to escape from James’ two mean and cruel aunts. The adventures of James thus begin.

          The book ‘James and the Giant Peach’ was a great success. It was adapted into a film of the same name in 1996.

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               ‘Goodnight Moon’ is an American children’s novel written by Margaret Wise Brown, and illustrated by Clement Hurd. It is a classic children’s book in the form of a simple picture book which shows a small bunny getting ready for bed. It first lists the items in the bunny’s nursery, and then, he says goodnight to each in turn. By the end of the story, the bunny is asleep in the darkened nursery.

               It was published on September 3, 1947, and is a highly acclaimed bedtime story. ‘Goodnight Moon’ has sold more than 48 million copies since it was first published.

               Many parents around the world have read the book to their sleepy children. This book is the second in Brown and Hurd’s “classic series”, which also include ‘The Runaway Bunny’ and ‘My World’.

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              This wonderful story book, published by Harper in 1972, with illustrations by John Schoenherr is set on the Alaska North Slope. It features Julie or Miyax. She is a young Eskimo girl.

               After Julie’s mother’s death, she is raised by her father, Kapugen. Later, Julie is sent to live with Aunt Martha, a distant and cold woman. She attempts to escape from there, and ends up getting lost on the Arctic tundra.

               She runs into a pack of wolves, and rather than devouring her, she is adopted by them. The book deals with her struggle to learn how to communicate with wolves, and her reasons for leaving.

               ‘Julie of the Wolves’ was written by Jean Craighead George in 1972, and two sequels, ‘Julie’ and ‘Julie’s Wolf Pack’, followed. The novel ‘Julie of the Wolves’ is undoubtedly one of the all-time favourite books of children.

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               This is how the story of ‘Where the Wild Things Are’, goes. Max, a young boy, makes so much mischief in his wolf suit that his mother sends him to bed without his supper. In his room he imagines himself in a forest and he journeys to where the Wild Things live. They are fierce, but he conquers them by meeting their eyes. They make him their king. But Max is homesick, so he returns home to discover his supper waiting in his room for him.

               The story consists of just 338 words as it is basically a picture book. Written and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, the book is very popular among children. It was published in 1963.

               Since its publication, the book and author have been honoured with a number of awards. The story has been adapted as a test animation project by John Lasseter, a 1983 opera by Oliver Knussen, and has been referenced in pop culture numerous times. In October 2009, Warner Bros. Pictures released a live-action theatrical film based on the book.

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