This week's theme in the Washington Post was "overlooked novels by great authors." I thought and thought about this theme and decided that I am not well read enough to come up with a list. I've read a lot of novels by a lot of authors, many of them great, but I don't think I'm tuned in enough to know which ones qualify as "overlooked." So instead, I'm providing you with my 5 favorite books on Garion's bookshelf:..
(1) How I Became a Pirate by Melinda Long: a young boy joins a crew of pirates for a night, learns how to speak pirate, and teaches the pirates how to play soccer.
(2) Skippy John Jones by Judy Schachner: a young siamese cat pretends, much to his mother's consternation, to be a chihuahua and has outrageous adventures.
(3) Knuffle Bunny and Knuffle Bunny Too by Mo Willems: hard to describe without giving away the plots, but these books are about Trixie and her very precious Knuffle Bunny (Stacy, if you haven't read the Knuffle Bunny books, I highly recommend them. Izzy's a little too young to really truly enjoy them, but they'll make you laugh...and really, story time is all about the mom).
(4) Edwina, the Dinosaur who Didn't Know She was Extinct, by Mo Willems: Reginald Von Hoobie-Doobie tries to prove that his town's beloved dinosaur, Edwina, is actually extinct.
(5) Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram: because this was the first book I ever read to Garion and we still pick up our dog-eared, chewed on, drooled on, run over copy every once in awhile and Garion and I have a "guess how much I love you" contest. (Garion: I love you all the way to Jupiter! Me: Oh yeah? I love you all the way to Pluto!, etc., etc.)
So, my bookish buddies, what are your favorite overlooked novels by great authors or favorite children's short stories?
Hmmm...this is hard. Not sure any of these are overlooked, exactly, but would be my recommendations.
ReplyDelete1) While The Last Unicorn is Peter S. Beagle's most well-known book (and I LOVE it!), A Fine and Private Place is just lovely. I'd highly recommend it.
2) We've already talked about L.M. Montgomery's Anne books, but I think Pat of Silver Bush and Mistress Pat are just as good, if not more so because there are only 2 of them.
3)Shirley Jackson is best known for the short story, "The Lottery", but I think the novella We Have Always Lived in the Castle is brilliant.
4)The Pern series by Anne McCaffrey are the bread and butter of her writing, but one of the first books I read was a YA one-off (though I just discovered a sequel!) called The Coelura.
5)Of course, no list is complete without J.R.R. Tolkien - no need to list the most well-known of HIS books. However, he wrote and illustrated a lovely children's book called Mr. Bliss that I think is worthy addition to any library.
Excellent list--I am impressed!(And a much better than the one posted on the Washington Post) I think that must be your inherent libraian talent shining through ; ).
ReplyDeleteI love the Knuffle Bunny books. Okay, I only read the first, but it's one of the ones I keep meaning to buy for a munchkin that I keep forgetting about or it gets supplanted by other cool kids books or cds like the Curious George soundtrack or Free to be You and Me. There are too many cool kids books out there.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Knuffle Bunny recommendation -- that sounds like the perfect gift for the Easter basket, especially given that Izzy is currently OBSESSED with bunnies! I think Easter is going to be a really beloved holiday this year. By the way, I laughed and laughed that Garion beat you at chess!
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