Euro-centric children's books

[lioness]

Why don't we create a go-to list here?

1. Anything by Beatrix Potter.

2. This version of the story is unabashedly Swiss and the illustrations are simply wonderful: http://www.amazon.com/Gingerbread-Baby-Jan-Brett/dp/B0006H0HBE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289709132&sr=8-1

[Debaser11]

The Wind In The Willows is my favorite.

Actually, I started a thread about this a few months back in the "culture" or the "arts" section, I think.

[Curtis24]

How is Wind in the Willows Euro-centric?

[Debaser11]

It's English. The anthropromorphic characters are have English mannerisms and sensibilities.

[Aramis]

It's English. The anthropromorphic characters are have English mannerisms and sensibilities.

If that is to be considered an euro-centric book, then Emil i Lönneberga, booth book and series, is my all time favorit.

http://www.barnbokhandeln.com/160-96-large/nya-hyss-av-emil-i-lonneberga.jpg

http://www.rixfm.com/images/upload/bloggar/christian-hedlund/Emil.jpg

[Brynhild]

I could also recommend the Brothers Grimm and C S Lewis, Jonothan Swift's Gulliver's Travels and Jules Verne.

[Turkophagos]

http://everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/iliadZZZZZ_.jpg



First european campaign against Asia.

[Äike]

Books by Astrid Lindgren featuring the Six Bullerby Children (In the US released as The Children of Noisy Village):

* All About the Bullerby Children
* Cherry Time at Bullerby
* Six Bullerby Children
* Springtime at Bullerby

It was originally published in 1947 in Sweden. It has since been translated into 39 languages[1] and published in many countries including the U.S. and the United Kingdom.

These books are about six children living in a tiny, remote village in Sweden.

The story-teller is a little girl named Lisa; she tells us about her life and adventures in the small and neat Swedish village Bullerby (Bullerbyn in Swedish). The village consists of three lined up houses where live seven children with their parents and housekeepers: Lisa with her older brothers Lasse and Bosse, the siblings Britta and Anna, as well as Ole with his little sister Kerstin. Astrid Lindgren not only depicts a village with a special charm, but she also creates a perfect children's world; it touches the reader especially by its simplicity which holds the deep wisdom of true human values and a great amount of fine humour.

Bullerbyn is identical with a part of a Swedish area known as Sevedstorp (not far from Vimmerby in the district of Näs -- the birthplace of Astrid Lindgren). Even today the three houses that set up the stage for the story do stand in Sevedstorp where Astrid Lindgren's family moved shortly after her birth.

I grew up with my mother reading me those books before I went to sleep and the teachers also in kindergarten did read the Bullerby children books us. Later I did read themselves. They're quite interesting.

By the way, all of Astrid Lindgren's books are illustrated by an Estonian, Ilon Wikland.

[The Journeyman]

When I was really young, my parents would read The Children's Book of Verse to me. Classic poems and stories with beautiful illustrations. I still have some of them memorized.


http://pics.librarything.com/picsizes/39/69/39692e38d1091df597973745077434d414f4541.jpg

[Magister Eckhart]

Not a children's book, per se, but a good primer for any heathens here who want to get their kids familiar with the old myths:

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/7182/valhalla2dvdpk5.jpg

Apparently feminists and leftists protest Thomas the Tank Engine, so there's some value there.

As children's books go, it's difficult to say, really. The age of children's books began deep in the heart of the liberal age. When I was a young boy, but too old for children's books of the Dr. Seuss variety, I remember reading this one:

http://img1.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n10/n51167.jpg

It's still one of my favourite books. I re-read it often. I think it influenced my decision to become a teacher.

Also, perhaps this little travesty (http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00086056/00001) might catch the fancy of some people here. :P

[Psychonaut]

Let's see, here're a few we bought for our kids:


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61YCE0DDfWL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Beowulf-James-Rumford/dp/061875637X/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpi_4)

Beowulf by James Rumford: a wonderfully illustrated retelling of Beowulf that does so intentionally using a vocabulary derived from Anglo-Saxon, and even throws in AS words when appropriate.


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51C6KDOEqiL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Norse-Myths-Ingri-DAulaire/dp/159017125X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1289742257&sr=8-1)

D'Aulaires' Book of Norse Myths by Ingri D'Aulaire: probably the best kid-centered retelling of the Norse mythos; lavishly illustrated.


http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51diOnCTBnL._SL500_AA300_.jpg (http://www.amazon.com/Robin-Hood-His-Life-Legend/dp/002689324X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1289742362&sr=8-1)

Robing Hood by Bernard Miles: the illustrated telling of this tale that I grew up with.

[Grumpy Cat]

Yeah buy these books up before they are banned.

[Groenewolf]

Yeah buy these books up before they are banned.

Or can only be found in old book stores or on old book markets.

[Wyn]

Would The Hobbit count?

[Pallantides]

How are 'Norse myths' Eurocentric?

[Comte Arnau]

Aren't most well-known children stories up to the 20th century Euro-centric in a way?

I'd say the main exceptions would be some well-known ones from the Arabian Nights and the Indian Panchatantra.

[la bombe]

Like Ibex said, most well-known children's stories are European in origin.

This isn't European, but in an American context, I always loved the Little House on the Prairie series. I still read through the entire series every one or two years. They're good, child-appropriate historical fiction with a lot of focus on family and family values

http://littlehousewiki.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/books.png

[Psychonaut]

How are 'Norse myths' Eurocentric?

What could possibly be more Eurocentric than European folklore and mythology? :confused:

[Pallantides]

What could possibly be more Eurocentric than European folklore and mythology? :confused:

You mean Norse folklore and mythology.

[Psychonaut]

You mean Norse folklore and mythology.

I have no idea what you're getting at. :confused:

[Ibericus]

I have no idea what you're getting at. :confused:
He means they are Nordic-centric, not Euro-centric.

[Psychonaut]

He means they are Nordic-centric, not Euro-centric.

Because the Norse were somehow not European? No sense has been made.

[Pallantides]

It's the folklore and mythology of Norse people, I believer other Europeans have their own folklore.

[la bombe]

It's the folklore and mythology of Norse people, I believer other Europeans have their own folklore.

I'm pretty sure when the OP said "Euro-centric" they meant of or related to one or more European cultures, not pan-European.

[Psychonaut]

It's the folklore and mythology of Norse people, I believer other Europeans have their own folklore.

No shit, Sherlock! Your mastery of the astoundingly obvious is beyond belief! What myths, folklore or literature of European origin are not the product of a particular people? Not many apart from those who are self-consciously and intentionally so.

[Pallantides]

Sure it is 'European', but you still didn't explain how it's euro-centric.

[Psychonaut]

What connection do you have to Nordic people?

LOLWUT? I don't particularly feel like justifying my choice in children's literature by means of expounding on my or my wife's ancestry to someone with an obvious chip on his shoulder. G'day. :yo:

[Pallantides]

someone with an obvious chip on his shoulder. G'day. :yo:

You get me wrong...:icon_ask:

Everyone should be able to read and enjoy it, I just don't see how Norse mythology is particularly Euro-centric, but maybe 'pan-European' was the word I was thinking off, now that I have looked up the word definitions.

[Osweo]

At the present moment in time, enemies of nation and tradition are busy cooking up new fiction to give your children, with messages - more blatant and less so - that suit their socio-political agenda. To help our children, we have to look for alternatives. The opening post called the alternative 'euro-centric'. If you would have chosen a different wording, you are free to say so here, but you KNOW what is meant.

(And Norse myths were told here in Britain anyway. We have some superb sculpture illustrating them indeed, better than anything in Scandinavia. Look up the Gosforth Crosses in Cumberland, or the Thor and World Serpent carving inside the same church. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosforth_cross ;) Other European mythologies were more or less related.)

*******************

On Topic; ENID BLYTON.
I loved her books when I was little, and am STILL a bit annoyed that my Mam gave all of them to our ungrateful young cousins! :p

She was a prolific writer.
There's the 'Pip' the Brownie series, full of facts about our nature and countryside that I still remember (often couched in fable-like stories - blackbirds getting their beaks painted gold and lambs' tails being hung on hazel trees! :p). Very sweet stuff. :)

There was the 'Faraway Tree' series, which was approaching fantasy, and curiously reflecting mythology and even shamanism (!), though I don't know if this was intended, or subconscious or what...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magic_Faraway_Tree_series
The stories take place in an enchanted forest in which a gigantic magical tree - the eponymous "Faraway Tree" - grows. The tree is so tall that its topmost branches reach into the clouds and it is wide enough to contain small houses carved into its trunk. The forest and the tree are discovered by three children named Joe, Beth, and Frannie, who move into a house nearby. ...
At the very top of the tree they discover a ladder which leads them to a magical land. This land is different on each visit, because each place "moves on" from the top of the tree to make way for a new land. The children are free to come and go, but they must leave before the land "moves on" or they will be stuck there until the land returns to the Faraway Tree.

:eek:

For older kids with a taste for adventure, there was the 'Adventurous Four', full of survival style stories, boating, exploring...

For problem solving lovers, there was the 'Famous Five' and 'Secret Seven' series, with detective stories in which kids found the answers.

And naturally there was 'Brer Rabbit' with timeless Aesop-style fables with Brer Wolf and Brer Fox and so on.

There was more, but those are what came to mind. Great stuff, all round! :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enid_Blyton
753 titles credited to her over a 45 year career with an average of 16 titles published per year

[Wyn]

(And Norse myths were told here in Britain anyway. We have some superb sculpture illustrating them indeed, better than anything in Scandinavia. Look up the Gosforth Crosses in Cumberland, or the Thor and World Serpent carving inside the same church. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gosforth_cross ;) Other European mythologies were more or less related.)


England is the place for Norse artifacts. Another good is example which no one in England has ever heard of is the Loki Stone.

[Osweo]

England is the place for Norse artifacts. Another good is example which no one in England has ever heard of is the Loki Stone.
... and Scotland is the place for English ones - see the Ruthwell Cross. :D

Another superb example is the Sigurd and Sigmund hogsback at Heysham in Lancashire. Two superb panels of the Volsung saga.

***********************

Oh, I should have added this above too;

Enid Blyton is the fifth most translated author worldwide: over 3544 translations of her books were available in 2007 according to UNESCO's Index Translationum.[1] she overtook Vladimir Lenin to get the fifth place behind Shakespeare.

:thumb001:

[Electronic God-Man]

This may seem totally off-the-wall, but it may be possible that I gained more of a world-view from our fairy tales and legends than anything I learned in Christian church. I really do think so. And that may be why Heathenry has seemed like such an obvious choice with me. It simply fits.
----------------------------------------------------------

Anything by J.R.R. Tolkien is a must.

But I wonder if anyone here has heard of the Redwall (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redwall) series by Brian Jacques? Really great stuff.

Lord Brocktree (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Brocktree) was the one I remember the most.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/3/32/Lord_Brocktree_US.jpg

The books are very English, btw.

[Electronic God-Man]

^ Ugh. This series has already received quite a bit of multiculti criticism:


The books have been criticized in some quarters for allegedly promoting an overly simplistic view of race and ethnicity. Critics point out that the good and bad characters are drawn almost exclusively along species lines, with a few rare exceptions. These criticisms have been advanced as a concern, as the books are primarily read by children and young adults. There is also a class element involved in these criticisms, with the denizens of Redwall being either educated, aristocratic animals such as badgers, or rustic, simple creatures such as moles. This contrasts with the vermin, who are almost exclusively portrayed as a greedy, stupid, and violent rabble commanded by a charismatic evil leader. These narrative structures do resemble in many ways the British class system, with the upper class animals governing the working class ones, and the Abbey remaining an ever present and strong symbol of religious authority.

[Osweo]

^ Ugh. This series has already received quite a bit of multiculti criticism:

Ah now, I'm converted already!

It reminds me of a rather different story (http://www.badgerland.co.uk/pictures/book_covers/fiction/coldmoons.html)I read;
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41h1yONTOsL._SL500_AA300_.jpg

A bit like Watership Down (to my shame I have only seen the animated film of that, which itself is a true masterpiece), but with badgers instead of rabbits. :p


Here's one that fostered my interest in the mythology of my Irish side as a kid; (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hounds_of_the_Morrigan)http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51MQA98CB9L._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg
That's what my copy looks like.

... to my HORROR, I see that it's being sold in THIS cover now;
http://www.okanagan.bc.ca/Assets/Departments+(Administration)/Library/Images/deakin/Hounds+of+Morrigan+-+YES+YES.jpg
I wouldn't even have picked it up! :eek:

and this;
http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166573863l/13843.jpg
(I winced at the recommendation on the cover!)

The German one isn't very imaginative;
http://beyondthepaleblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/41jiyckai3l-_ss500_.jpg?w=420&h=420

While this is a little TOO dark;
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PHCjXkzAL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU02_.jpg

Wiki shows this original 1985 cover, and I realise it's a hard task designing something to fit a story, but they've not progressed much;
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/80/Hw7.jpg

I appreciate that even a picture that does show the Great Queen in all her glory might put off boys, so I wonder why they didn't choose a more abstract design.... All in all, the one I have seems most suitable. :ohwell:

[Wyn]

... and Scotland is the place for English ones - see the Ruthwell Cross. :D

Yep. I was reading about the Ruthwell Cross just the other day actually.



Another superb example is the Sigurd and Sigmund hogsback at Heysham in Lancashire. Two superb panels of the Volsung saga.


Must confess to not having known of it prior to this conversation. Thanks. :D

[The Lawspeaker]

Anything Dik Trom and Pietje Bell. It's a bit out of touch with the modern world though since it was written in the late 19th/ early 20th century. Try Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek (by Thea Beckman) as well.

[PetiteParisienne]

The Hobbit!