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Original poster

NON-British children's classics - calling anyone who grew up (or is living) Elsewhere!

60 replies

Bink · 19/01/2009 12:11

I've just read (and adored) my son's copy of The Midnight Fox by Betsy Byars, who's American.

It came in a "classics" set that includes Ted Hughes and Marianne Storr, so obviously a proper serious level of classic. And it is definitely worthy of that company: utterly lovely book.

But because it was American, I'd known nothing of it - and having searched on here, just one poster has referred to it, ever. So I bet there are masses more books like that - ie, which are "classics" in their own country but just not well-known elsewhere.

So, if you grew up somewhere other than Britain - or had access to non-Brit-centric books as a child - what were your classics?

OP posts:
DisasterArea · 19/01/2009 21:35

the bullerby children
ramona
little house
heidi
the little prince
mrs pepperpot

Fennel · 19/01/2009 21:28

Fattypuffs and Thinifers was French, I have only just realised. "Patapoufs et Filifers", Andre Maurois. I had never connected it before.

Fennel · 19/01/2009 21:23

Mrs Pepperpot
Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Little House on the Praire series.
The Elephants of Sargabal (Rene Guillot)
Madeline books
Le petit Nicolas (little Nicholas).

Fennel · 19/01/2009 21:17

Thinking back to my childhood and books I did read and enjoy then- some of these are already mentioned:

What Katy did series
Anne of green gables series (already mentioned, LM Montgomery).
All the Astrid Lindgrens. Lotte and Jonas series (Mischevious Martens, Lotte runs away), the Bullerby Children. as well as the Pippi series.
Emil and the detectives.
Moomintroll series.
Heidi series.
The Little Prince.
I had a really nice Dutch book about a little girl called Janni who lived after the war - does anyone else know this one? I suspect it was a Dutch classic.
3 Musketeers.
I'm sure there are quite a few French ones I can't quite remember at the moment.

ten10 · 19/01/2009 21:12

For a older child, 'The colour purple' by Alice Walker is brilliant

scienceteacher · 19/01/2009 21:11

My kids have loads of Magic Treehouse books, and Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys books - from the USA. They are equivalent to reading Enid Blyton.

Marina · 19/01/2009 21:07

Bridge to Terabithia is clearly a classic in the USA, I'm sorry, I can't remember the author

I also loved Elizabeth George Speare's The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and, in translation, worth seeking out if possible:

Paul Biegel & Babs van Wely: The King of the Copper Mountains

all of Paul Berna's adventure stories published in English in the 1960s in Puffin

TotalChaos · 19/01/2009 17:50

Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kastner

Lisa and Lottie by Erich Kastner.

Ramona Quimby series by Beverley Cleary.

Various books by Lois Lowry including Anastasia series.

MissM · 19/01/2009 17:32

I read loads of Betsy Byars books as a kid so I'm surprised they're not more known. My favourite (and the most famous) was 'The Eighteenth Emergency' which is a brilliant book about bullying. There are the obvious American authors - Judy Blume, LM Montgomery (chalk and cheese!) And what about anything by Astrid Lindgren (she wrote Pippi Longstocking but also lots of others)? There was a book called 'Seven (or was it Six?) Little Australians' which I remember loving, no idea who wrote it but think it's a bit of a classic down under.

wotsits · 19/01/2009 12:24

Under The Mountain by Maurice Gee, set in NZ. I think it was shown on the BBC ages ago. I read the book first, and really loved it. It was about some children who discovered their guardians were really aliens, and... um... they had adventures trying to stop the aliens.

I don't know if it was a "classic" in NZ - I didn't grow up there, but I certainly enjoyed reading it as a girl.