Librarian D.O.A.: Books for an Adventurous Childhood from Flashlight Worthy

Monday, March 4, 2013

Books for an Adventurous Childhood from Flashlight Worthy

Book blog Flashlight Worthy has a fun list books that they found to be quite adventurous tales as a child. Stephanie Hubbard recommends:

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Graham

Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome

Call of the Wild by Jack London

Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson

Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

Biggles Big Adventures by Captain W. E. Johns

Hornblower: beat to quarters by C. S. Forester

It is hard to say what Stephanie is defining as her childhood for purposes of the list, so I'm going to freely cover a long span of time for my own favorite book adventures. I'm thinking of books that really had characters going fantastic places or doing amazing things. These characters and stories left a deep impression on me, and made me wish I were brave and adventurous and gave me the lifelong desire to internally be the heroine or hero that I found in these books.

Peter Pan by James M. Barrie

The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

All of Edward Eager's Books, but particularly Knight's Castle, Seven Day Magic and Half Magic.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell

Robert Heinlein's "juveniles" particularly Tunnel in the Sky and Citizen of the Galaxy.

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L' Engle

A String in the Harp and Another Shore by Nancy Bond

Playing Beatie Bow by Ruth Park

Carbonel King of the Cats by Barbara Sleigh

Escape from Warsaw (The Silver sword) by Ian Serraillier

Heidi by Johann Spyri

Trixie Belden by Kathryn Kenny

Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare

The Magic Bedknob or How to become a Witch in Ten Easy Lessons by Mary Norton

The Thirteenth is Magic by Joan Howard

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren

The Story of Doctor Dolittle: Being the History of His Peculiar Life at Home and Astonishing Adventures in Foreign Parts Never Before Printed by Hugh Lofting (and all the series)