Figure 1.--This illustration appaered in a 1930s edition of "Peter and Wendy". I'm not sure who the illustraor was. |
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Increasingly the children's book market today is becoming dominated by individual stories. Here the variety is as wide as the imagination can conceive. A great many authors wrote these stories. One of the best loved in Roland Dahl who wrote imaginative stories like James anmd the Magic Peach. Today it is J.R. Rollings' Harry Potter that has captured the childhood fancy. Some of the first real children's books were written by English authors. Lewis Carol's Allice in Wonderland was one of the first and created a tradition of fantasy. J.M. Barie followed that tradition in Peter Pan. Some believe that Edith Nesbit was the first modern English children's author for her more realistic stories. Her best-loved book is The Railway Children.
HBC has developed some information on specific children's books. Hopefully our British readers will provide us some insights on books that they enjoyed as children. Here we are primarily interested in books about children or with child characters.
Lewis Carol's Allice in Wonderland was one of the first and created a tradition of fantasy.
A British reader remembers a book he enjoyed as a boy, Children of
the Air. A Prep school headmaster who is also a pilot has a commercial airline equip as a school. The boys travel to other countries for their lessons. They
have all kinds of adventures along the way. I mentioned this book to a colleague who remembers reading it when he was about 10. The book was published in the 1950's and reprinted in the 1960's. The author only wrote the one book about this school
of the air.
Today it is J.R. Rollings' Harry Potter that has captured the childhood fancy. Some of the first real children's books were written by English authors.
One of the best loved in Roland Dahl who wrote imaginative stories like James anmd the Magic Peach.
A HBC reader reports, "I've never read "Kim" but this reminded me of a book I read in my first year at secondary school. Each term we would read a
book as a class and discuss it. This was the first one we read Old Mali and the Boy by D.R. Sherman. It's a powerful story about an English boy in India. The book starts in his school but most of it is set in the forest. There is some description of clothing but mostly the idea comes from the cover illustrations. I still have a copy.The next book we read was Lord of the Flies which I also liked. At least my secondary school tried to get us to read books that were more relevant to our lives than the established "Classics" like Dickens, at least in the first couple of years in the school. I still have a copy of the book. I think it would make a good film."
J.M. Barie followed that tradition in Peter Pan. Peter Pan is the enchanting story of the boy who never wants to grow up! As Barrie explains: "
All children, except one, grow up. They soon know that they will grow up, and the way Wendy knew was this. One day when she was 2 years old she was
playing in a garden, and she plucked another flower and ran with it to her mother. I suppose she must have looked rather delightful, for Mrs. Darling put
her hand to her heart and cried, "Oh, why can't you remain like this for ever!" This was all that passed between them on the subject, but henceforth Wendy knew that she must grow up. You always know after you are two. Two is the beginning of the end." Peter and Tinkerbell take the nursery-bound Darling children on their magical journey off to Neverland where the innocence of childhood never grows old. The encounter and outsmarts Captain Hook and his pirate band. They rescues an Indian Princess (Tiger Lily) and brings the lost boys home.
Some believe that Edith Nesbit was the first modern English children's author for her more realistic stories. Her best-loved book is The Railway Children. Peter, Phyllis and Roberta are brother and sisters and the three main characters of The Railway Children. The book is set in southern and northern England. Initially they were "ordinary suburban childern" as the novel puts it, their father accused of a crime he did not commit is jailed at the beginning of the story. The loss of income from this causes the family to
have to dismiss the maid and move into the country side in the north. They have to scrimp and make do when their father is accused of a crime and locked up. They move to a home near the railroad tracks and ger to know the railroad workers. This if course leads to many splendid adventures. The Railway Children is the best loved of E. Nesbit's many children's books.
The Water Babies is another English children's classic. The full title is, The Water-Babies: A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. It was written for children by the Reverend Charles Kingsley. He published it during 1862-63 in serial form for Macmillan's Magazine. Serialization was a common form of publishing novels in the 19th century. Dickens published his novel in this wat. Kingly published the first book in 1863 after the magazine run. The book was extremely popular during its day, and especially appealing after lithography made printed illustrations more effective. It was particularly popular in the 1920s when it was published with beautiful color illustrations. Several different illustrators have prepared drawing for various editions. A reader writes, "I found an old book from that I remember with some fondness from ny my childhood . It is a classic English Victorian children's novel with a beautiful colour illustrtions about a young chimney sweep in England during the early Victorian period. He is rescued from his miserable life by being magically turned into a water baby, a child leaving beneath the sea."
This web page is an extensive list of British Children's fiction from 1890-1960. This site contains lists of books written by many school story authors, dj scans and any other details I can find out about the authors. This site also includes general British children's authors like Arthur Ransome, and also a section on Australian authors. This website aims to provide information on the boys' and girls' authors of Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. Girls' authors are divided into pages for surnames. All authors with a surname beginning with A are on the A page. Most of the authors wrote stories that had school-ages characters in, if not an actual school story. For each author a list of all books published is provided and the list of titles are arranged
alphabetically.
There is also a free e-book site for classical stories about children.
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