What you consider the 10 best books ever

I've changed the thread title since my best ten list are so well
known that no one will be too surprised reading it. You know, The
Hobbit, Pooh, The Rescuers, Borrowers, Wind in the Willows, Freddy
the Pig, Jungle Book, etc., etc.

I'd like instead to list some of the more obscure, or at least
infrequently mentioned books. Someone may hunt down something new
to them this way, and if others chime in, I'm more likely to hunt
down something I haven't heard of before, also! (The real motive
behind this post, of course ...)

So, here goes. No, many of these are not really obscure, but I
don't see them mentioned frequently, and I think they're great
books.

Alphabetical by author, so I don't appear to rate them:

Benary-Isbert, Margot: The Wicked Enchantment. All right, someone
else mentioned it in the 10 best thread, and it comes up at least
once a year, but I think it deserves more attention. A lovely,
lovely book, with one of my favorite heroines in all children's
literature: Anemone.

Dalkey, Kara: Little Sister. Oooh - what a gem! Mitsuko is another
favorite heroine, and her partnership with Goranu is priceless.
The sequel isn't quite as good, but very readable. I'm sorry to
say I haven't really liked any other Dalkey book I've tried -
maybe three or four - but this one is wonderful, and the sequel
still good.

DeJong, Meindert: The Wheel on the School. I read this when I set
out to read every Newbery winner. I was *very* dubious: it
frankly looks like one of the more boring ones to someone like
me who prefers action and adventure and comedy and animals. I
mean, give me Robert Lawson, The Dark Frigate, or Mrs. Frisby
any day. But, boy, was I ever surprised by this book - it rocks!
It's touching, funny, endearing and I even learned something.
Hunt it down - it gets my vote for the most neglected great
Newbery winner.

Ende, Michael: Momo. I've never undestood why Never-Ending Story
gets all the press. I consider Momo to be a much better story.
(Maybe it's because I'm one of the few Americans to have read it
before Neverending Story was written.) Well, it's a little long
in places, I admit, but it's still a great tale.

Gag, Wanda: Gone is Gone. Back when I was a professional
storyteller, this was the most popular story I told among young
children - maybe tied with some Coyote legends, I admit. I'm
sure it's a library staple, and many of you have read it, but no
one ever seems to mention it.

Harris, Rosemary: The Moon in the Cloud and sequels. Again, this
is a series where I like the first book the best, but still enjoy
the last two. Here it's Cefalu the cat who steals my heart.
I do have a fondness for strong characters.

Pinkwater, Daniel: The Snarkout Boys and the Baconburg Horror.
Pinkwater's best. Enough said.

Sturton, Hugh: Zomo the Rabbit. Now this is almost criminal: Zomo's
been out of print for over twenty years. There's a later, very
inferior picture book with the same name, I think, but it's really
watered down milksap compared to Sturton's version. These are
some of the best trickster tales I've ever read. Sturton admits
he tames them down from the original Nigerian, but even so they're
pretty strong. Wonderful stuff, but not for the policitally
correct. (Oh, it's a children's book, don't worry: no naughtly
language or "adult situations." It's just that Zomo's such a
rascal some people might be afraid of what such a role model
might do to a child. He makes Bart Simpson look like a goody
two shoes...)

Wrightson, Patricia: the Wirrun trilogy. A very gifted author,
it's hard to pick just one set of books from her. Like many
trilogies, one gets the feeling that the third book went beyond
the author's initial intentions, but it's still a good read. I
think my favorite is the first book in the series, The Ice Is
Coming, but all three are worth reading - as are other Wrightson
titles.

Young, Ella: The Unicorn with Silver Shoes. This is my favorite
Ella Young book, though others are also good books. But the
incredible mix of characters in this volume, Ballor's Son, Flame
of Joy, the Pooka and Eblis, make for a delightful fantasy. If
you like modern authors playing with myth and reshaping it to
their own ends, you'll enjoy this book very much.

--
-Steffan O'Sullivan |
sos RemoveThis @panix.com | "Seek Grailo, Even Better Than the True Grail"
Plymouth, NH, USA |
www.panix.com/~sos | -James Thurber sums up the 20th Century

In article <c4006t$8gt$1@reader1.panix.com>,
Steffan O'Sullivan <sos.RemoveThis@panix.com> wrote:

 >Harris, Rosemary: The Moon in the Cloud and sequels. Again, this

This would be on my list too.

Lesse...

_The Genie of Sutton Place_ by George Selden

_The Secret Language_ by Ursula Nordstrom

_The Half Brothers_ by Ann Larence

_Magic in the Alley_ by Mary Calhoun

_the Witch Family_ by Eleanor Estes

_The Mummy Market_... I forget the author

_the Changling_ by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

_The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and
Regulations_ by Ellen Conford

_Don't Care High_ by Gordon Kormon

Heavy on the fantasy, I see... but most of my favorite "realistic"
books are other people's favorites too and come up all the time.

--
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headache." -- Chris Crutcher on _To Kill a Mockingbird_
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