Customer Reviews

1001 Children's Books You Must Read Before You Grow Up

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
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As a children's book collecter (fiction, not picture books), I snapped this book up the moment I saw it.

The good - it reviews many wonderful children's books, including quite a number that are in danger of disappearing from memory. The 8+ section of the book contains many of the best children's books ever written, including The Phantom Tollbooth, Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Charlotte Sometimes, Tom's Midnight Garden, The Neverending Story (the REAL story, not the dreadful movie),and many others. Thank you to the authors - I hadn't realised my copy of From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E Frankweiler was missing and have now replaced it, just as my 8 year old daughter is old enough to love it.

The somewhat disappointing - there are books reveiewed that I would LOVE to read, but as I don't read in French, Swedish, Japanese or Finnish that pleasure is unlikely to come my way. Other reviewers may bemoan the anglo-bias of this collection, but I bemoan the inclusion of books in an English publication that can't be read in English!

The not so good - the omissions. A Candle in her Room, When Marnie was There, Summer of my German Soldier, The Great Gilly Hopkins, People Might Hear You ... just looking through one of the first shelves of books near me I can see some glaring omissions. (Yes, I know, there is a whole history of children's literature and only 1001 books that can be included!)

Then, too, there are some books that are not really children's books at all. When Hitler stole Pink Rabbit is a children's book and an excellent example of a book to introduce a dark period of history to an older child (say, 10 or so). However, Watership Down is not a children's book - as I can attest vigorously, having read it to terrifying effect as a child. It is in the 8+ section ... I would give it to my 13 year old, but not my 8 year old. And When the Wind Blows (about a nuclear war) - for an 8+ audience?? From the review, "The couple survive the blast (represented by a truly terrifying white and pink double-page spread), emerge to a world of withered lettuces and melted buildings, run out of food and water, and die from ratiation sickness."

Overall, a fantastic resource and one that I am glad to own.

This book is beautiful! I love children's literature and this seems to be an excellent collection. It has many of my favorites growing up( "Goodnight Moon", " Where The Wild Things Are" etc) and many books I have loved reading with my kids ( "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive The Bus", "Harry Potter" "Skippyjon Jones" etc). We have a new family goal of reading all of these books with our kids. I personally love that it has books from all over the world because I like seeing other cultures through the lens of their children's books. I think it will take a long time to find and read all of the books, but I think that will be part of the fun.

I have always loved children's literature and have been collecting editions of favorite titles for some years now. Since I have a five-year-old child, I find myself enjoying children's literature even more, as I get to share favorite classics with her whilst also discovering new authors.

I like the quote attributed to Children's Laureate Michael Rosen in the Introduction, "I think of children's books as not so much for children, but as the filling that goes between the child world and the adult world. One way or another, all children's books have to negotiate that space." I think this beautifully sums up the essence of children's literature, and of the blurry lines between the adult world and the children's world, and how these lines change over time. For example, some works deemed inappropriate for children years ago, may be considered quite tame by today's standards.

The book itself has an index of titles at the beginning, which is arranged alphabetically. This is then followed with the 1001 list of children's books, organized in terms of age appropriateness (suggested age group, really), beginning with 0-3, 3+, 5+, 8+, and finally, 12+. At the end of the book there is an index by author/illustrator and a compilation of featured reviewers and picture credits (as far as possible, an attempt has been made to feature the first edition covers in the original language of publication).

The book does not only contain chidlren's books written in English, but a host of titles written in foreign languages such as French, Danish, German, and the Asian languages. This gives the book a universal appeal, though I imagine some of the foreign titles may be difficult to procure, especially if one is looking for English translations of these works. For example, "Tatu and Patu in Helsinki" by Aino Havukainen and Sami Toivonen is a Finnish work, and the title of the English translation is not provided. I had to do some research before I found it, under the title This is Finland.

There might also be some misgivings about the omission of certain titles in this book. I for one, was disappointed to find the Noddy books missing (though I realize these books did have racial stereotypes I loved the creative stories and adventures of Noddy). I was also disheartened to find the Malory Towers series missing, also by one of my favorite children's authors Enid Blyton - books which I devoured over and over again as a child. Many of my favorites are mentioned though, which made me feel happy, especially that of Asterix the Gaul and Tintin, though specific titles are mentioned instead of the entire series. I shuddered a little at seeing "Twilight" listed here, but I suppose there's a certain sense of inevitability about its inclusion given its massive appeal amongst adolescents.

It would have been nice if the author had listed sources where some of the foreign language titles could be obtained, or the availability of the English translation of these works. It is left to the reader to do the research on these titles. Final verdict - a wonderful resource to guide and inform children and adults alike on the great diversity in children's literature, whilst motivating readers to go out and look up some of the interesting yet obscure titles!

This gigantic book contains a wealth of suggestions, but it is very heavily weighted towards European children's books. There is an enormous diversity of European authors, from France to the Czech republic, with a few South American authors also included. However, (contrary to the product description) there really are not many authors or books with a theme representing African Americans or US residents of Latino descent (as opposed to current citizens of and conditions in Argentina), only a few such as "Snowy Day" appear on their list. There were a few Asian folktale collections representing ancient Chinese and Japanese cultures, but there was very little I saw in the book about the Indian subcontinent, the Middle East, or Africa. Additionally, there were many books that genuinely looked interesting to me, because I'd never heard of them before, but I discovered that many of the books (about half of those in the book) are not *at all* available in the US, and several that I tried to locate did not seem available in the UK either (even in used bookstores), so I found this book quite frustrating. It's not that useful to have a list of books that cannot be found.

Before heading out on our month-long vacation driving through the Southwest USA, I checked out 1001 Children's Books and browsed through it with my 11-year-old and 14-year-old. I asked them to note books that they thought would be good read-aloud books on our journey, and they did so with enthusiasm. Three weeks into the vacation, we have devoured four of the five books in their age range, and so far, so good. They found Anne Fine's _Alias Madame Doubtfire_ to be good enough to read again on their own; they howled with laughter and empathy when we read Sue Townsend's _The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Age 13 3/4_; Garth Nix's first volume in his series, _Mister Monday_ resulted in them checking our local library remotely to reserve the next two volumes in the series once we return home; and David Almond's _The Fire-Eaters_ had them absorbed on the long stretches of desert that we are now driving though as we head home. We are going to finish the trip with Celia Rees's _Witch Child_. While it is true that we have only tackled five books of the massive number included in this volume, I am impressed with the quality of the plot synopses and how thorough the editors have been in choosing the books that will appeal to children. True, some books have not been translated into English, and some are hard to obtain, but most certainly what books are available to us in the USA will keep us going well past my children's childhood. I urge readers to add this gem to their collections.

This book is great. It does have an anglo- and European bias and I wish there were more African and Asian books listed. However I scratch my head over the criticism posted by other customers: a) if there are 200 books listed that can't be bought on amazon.com, .uk, or .au, that still leaves 800 great books. And b) many of the foreign authors are available in English, either in (online) book stores or in libraries: for example Lagerlof and Lindgren (Swedish), Wyss, Ende and Funke (German), Seredy and Gárdonyi (Hungarian). Finally c) widening one's horizon beyond ethnocentric literature is paramount - even if that means just being able to read a blurb about these foreign books in this compendium; with the little French I know (very little indeed), I'm even interested to order a couple, 'Apoutsiak le petit flocon de neige' by Paul-Emile Victor and 'La belle lisse poire du prince Motordu' by Pef (both with a number of illustrations).
Of course with any list, a number of books had to be excluded. Among my favorite omissions are Linda Buckley-Archer's first two books of the Gideon trilogy and no mention of Michael Ende's Momo.

I think that any parent who values good, quality, time-tested literature should own this book. As a mother of six children, ranging in age from 2 to 9, I use this book weekly to organize our library selections. Some of the books are ones we've all heard of and many of us have grown up with (Goodnight Moon, Nancy Drew), and some are treasures that I personally would've never known about. But all of the books have been winners in our house. This book has been a very good investment for our family.

This book is awesome. I wish I had known about it when my kids were little. Now grand kids will benefit. Starting from birth to age 12 it gives reviews and recommendations on books that every child should read and at what age they benefit most from reading each book

This is a really good compilation until you reach the 12+ section. It gets especially weak in the 1980s, where there seem to be too many "Ban the Bomb" books. I remember what a huge subject this was at the time, but I doubt most of them have aged well.

It is a great book, but I don't like all of the foreign books listed. My library doesn't have access to a lot of those books, and my family is not bilingual.

Overall great book if you are a mom like me and we have read almost everything appropriate for his age in the library and my son just turned 3!