Classic children’s books

[Oldbaglady46]

I remember loving all these books when I was a kid in the 80s:
Narnia
Borrowers
Little House on the Prairie
Swallows and Amazons
Little Women
Katy Did
Children of Green Knowe
Tom’s Midnight Garden
Secret Garden
Around the World in 80 Days

My kids just have no interest in reading these types of books, too slow, too much detail, too boring, can’t understand what’s going on etc. They were old fashioned when I read them but I understood that they were written in a different time and it didn’t stop me from enjoying them at all! Does anyone have kids that enjoy classic books or are they too inaccessible now?

Might they respond to audio book format?

Also, some if not all of the books on your list have film and TV adaptations - that could be a way into the books that would make them more accessible.

What kind of books do they usually enjoy?

I like many of those on your list too.

Owl who was afraid of the dark

Same issue. I was reading these for fun... At a time when we didn't have Netflix so cartoons weren't on demand. The only books mine like are kiddie humour. Even Harry potter is too slow.

Most kids do seem to read these, but a famous author recently said too many kids have no attention span now.

I remember literally reading the whole day sometimes, especially rainy Sundays when all the shops were closed and there was nothing on tv. My eldest does read but only newer books.

Are you me OP! One son is a book worm but never read any of them.

Yes, same here. Children's TV was so much more limited back in my 70s/80s childhood and with only one TV, it was my parents' choice what was on in the evenings.

I spent most of my time reading, sewing, drawing, taping music off the radio and writing long letters to my grandma who was my favourite person in the whole world.

There are so many brilliant books out there that are more contemporary - I don’t think there is a necessity for children to read ‘classics’ if they don’t find them engaging. Katherine Rundell, for example, is an outstanding author whose books may well be the classics of the future.

Yes of course there are, but classic literature provides a different reading experience, and I’m just a little disappointed my kids seem to be missing out on it!

Clever Polly and the stupid wolf

The thing is, a lot of the children’s ‘classics’ people think of today weren’t actually classics when they read them.

Obviously things like The SecretGarden and Jules Verne and stuff written in the Victorian / Edwardian era were! And it depends how old you are of course. But when people my age (50) were reading things like, eg, Tom’s Midnight Garden and The Borrowers and the Green Knowe series, they were as recent then as the first Harry Potter book is today! A lot of those kinds of books were written from the 50s to the 70s and weren’t actually that distant from kids reading them in the 80s and 90s. I think maybe there’s just a bit more of a gulf between them and today’s kids now than there was 20 or 30 years ago when people my age were reading them.

However, bear in mind that a lot of the books published now will become classics in the future. It’s not a case of old = good and new = bad. If a child likes reading at all, that’s what matters most.

I can understand that. Reading from a wide range of eras enhances general knowledge - it's surprising how much you can learn from references in older books about historical events, ways of life that are now obsolete - and children now have the huge advantage of being able to use the internet to explain anything they don't understand. In our young day, if your parents didn't know and it wasn't in whatever encyclopaedia you had at home, the library or school, you were stuck!

I read all of these as an 80s child. However, they were only a generation out of date - I understood they were of their time and had a link to that time through parents and grandparents.

I‘ve tried some of these with DS(9). He loved Narnia from when we started reading it together at age 6. However, he was able to accept the children being sent away from home as it was wartime, and the rest of the series takes place in a fantasy world which has different rules anyway.

Swallows and Amazons was too removed from his reality, as was Enid Blyton and Bedknobs and Broomsticks.

I think Little Women and Katy would also be too removed as they were written as girls‘ series.

We‘re just finishing up Stig of the Dump (1963) which he loved. The Phantom Tollbooth (1950?) also went down well.

He also loves the das Sams series, a German children’s series of the 1950s (we live in Germany and German is his everyday and school language).

Planning on trying him on Just William next.

I‘m actually surprised how much some of the 80s modern classics have aged, more through attitudes having changed. DS likes very little Roald Dahl. Mr Majeika also didn’t work, but more because DS isn’t at a British school so couldn’t relate.

They were more than a generation out of date. The Katy books, Little Women, 80 Days, and Secret Garden are all from the 1800s. Little House books 1930s but set in 1800s. Swallows and Amazons 1930s, the others are from the 40s and 50s but weren’t considered contemporary when I was reading them (late 80s).

I think I enjoyed the historical details and slow moving pace of the stories, it doesn’t seem to appeal to my kids though!

I grew up in the Netherlands, so most of your list doesn't resonate with me. Most of the books I read before becoming bilingual were Dutch language novels, and they were definitely not slow paced, nor were they dumbed down. Once I started reading in English, in the late 70s, I didn't really touch on your list either; I was reading Diana Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper, Lloyd Alexander and the like. I did read and enjoy the Narnia books, but preferred 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea to Around the World in 80 Days. Did you read the unabridged version of that as a child?

Each generation has its classics. The range just gets bigger. I don't view older books as inherently more worthy.

I read aloud to my 6 yo. We've just finished Anne of Green Gables. She loved A Little Princess. They both made her cry though! We've also read The Borrowers, 5 children and It, Tom's Midnight Garden, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It's lovely to share them with her.