Read it again (Top Ten Childrens Books)

Member Name: duncantorr

Product:	Top Ten Childrens Books
Date:	24/10/08 (622 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Steaming mugs of duck oil

Disadvantages: That's not right

My home is shared with my wife, our cats, the occasional visiting vestiges of our two sons, and about four thousand books.

Clearly, the books are in the majority. They are all over the place, literally and figuratively. They are not sorted by author, title or subject matter. Here in my lair, for example, Kurt Vonnegut sits next to A J P Taylor, Camus next to the Beano book, Bramah next to Chekhov, McGonagall next to Kinky Friedman, Osgood next to O Henry (no relation to Thierry, so far as I know), and so on. What's more, they tend to swap places and mingle among themselves, like guests at a big dinner when the liqueurs start to flow.

This arrangement - or absence of arrangement - is, I feel, good for the books, ensuring that they meet other books from different backgrounds, thus broadening their minds. It also has the merit of making it almost impossible to find a specific title, so that I end up browsing around and chancing upon neglected treasures. I am frequently found hours after setting out in search of one volume deeply buried in another, the original quest long since forgotten, my trail marked by partly-read books along the way. And never more happily so than when the treasure in question is one of the books I owned as a child, or read to my boys when they were young, which is often the same thing.

Children's books have two huge advantages over those aimed at an older audience. They don't have to be credible to a mature intelligence, enabling their characters to be more extravagant and colourful than their adult equivalents, and their readers' imaginations are unfettered by experience, enabling their perception of the characters to be more vivid still. As a result, they make a deep impression, and stay with us for a long time.

Here are ten that have stayed with me. They have been selected with a specific theme in mind, which will become apparent. It is an arbitrary theme - based on the characters rather than strictly on the books - but gave me a means of winnowing out a final ten from the dozens of eager contenders. And, of course, where there's a character there's a book, so I feel this review fits the "10 best children's books" topic heading well enough.

*

~ The Fierce Bad Rabbit ~

The Fierce Bad Rabbit is the only one of Beatrix Potter's characters I found at all sympathetic. The FBR as much a contrast to the wet, insipid Peter Rabbit from the same stable, or hutch, as Flashman (in the irresistible MacDonald Fraser version) is to Tom Brown. Unfortunately, I can't remember what becomes of the FBR in the denouement, and daren't disrupt my elder son's room any further digging to find out. Is the FBR called to account for his wrong-doing, or perhaps reformed? I hope not; his stalwart show of counter-stereotypical individuality deserves a better fate. In any case, the FBR has to rate a mention, if only because the "fierce bad" formula has entered into our family argot, in which it roughly translates as "egregious".

~ Downy Duckling ~

Possibly not really the pick of the Ladybird book protagonists (try Jeremy Mouse or Pen and Gwen the motorcycle joyriders), but the most memorable in our household, because the boys used to interject their own version of the words. If you don't know the story, it concerns the rescue of Downy and his mate Monty Mouse from beneath the ice of a frozen river. They end up back at his cottage home recovering over steaming mugs of cocoa ("duck oil" my elder son would insist, adding, if I persisted with cocoa, "that's not right"). As with most of the Ladybird series, the story can be sung to the tune of Deutschland uber Alles, which suits it very well.

~ The Wolf ~

The big bad one in Little Red Riding Hood, that is. Yes, I know, they're all big and bad, or, at least, the small good ones are denied any of the limelight, anti-wolf propaganda being what it is. Moreover, this one has an array of dazzling talents: tactical ingenuity, a mastery of mimicry that would put Rory Bremner to shame, and the priceless gift of repartee. It is a travesty of justice that this noble creature is not permitted by narrators to benefit from these talents, not even in the Roald Dahl version, in which he suffers the indignity of being turned into a wolfskin coat.

~ Sam-I-Am ~

Here's a salesman any marketing man would want on his team. Unprepossessing in appearance (it's not even clear from Dr Seuss's drawings what kind of animal he's meant to be) and with the least inviting of products to sell, he perseveres against all objections and obstacles. He never takes anything for an answer, least of all "no", and he's an artist at applying the alternative close. You can bet that sales of Green Eggs and Ham have been at an all-time high ever since he's been around to peddle them.

~ Little Billy Goat Gruff ~

Trip, trap, trip, trap - over the rickety bridge goes Little Billy Goat Gruff in the defiance of the fierce bad ugly troll, who is several times his size and hungry for goat-meat. He accomplishes this feat by an admirable mixture of inventiveness and eloquence, persuading the troll to wait to waylay his bigger, meatier brothers until the biggest, meatiest one finally proves more than a match for the importunate monster. It's Little, not Big, that wins selection here because he does the planning, takes the initiative in seeing it through, and, incidentally, is first to enjoy the sweet green grass on the far side of the river without even having to fight for it. The principle of brains over brawn doesn't always work in real life, so let's give it some recognition in this fictional version.

~ Balou the Bear ~

I'm cheating a bit with Balou, because it is many years since I read The Jungle Book and my memory of the character in the original is hazy. I dare not go off in search of it for fear of being waylaid by other fierce bad troll-like tomes en route and never completing the review. So I am relying on fresher memories from the film - by far the best thing ever to come out of the Walt Disney studios - and its delightful representation of Balou with voice by Phil Harris. An easy-going amiable layabout, a hippie with a heart of gold, and an admirable role-model for any man-cub.

~ Wol ~

Just ahead of Tigger and Eyeore from the Dramatis Personae of Winnie the Pooh. Another admirable role-model, although of a contrasting kind, a byword for dignity and self-possession, as are so many of his species. And so what if he can't spell his name? The ability to do so is not necessarily a sign of wisdom, still less of virtue. Although, as A A Milne himself once said: "You have to admire anyone who can spell Tuesday, even if they can't spell it right."

~ Toad ~

Of Toad Hall fame, of course, from The Wind in the Willows. Headstrong, careless/carefree, irresponsible - but by far the most engaging and memorable character in that entrancing work of art. It's unjust, of course, that worthy upright citizens like Ratty, Mole and Badger are in his shadow, but life's like that. The lion's share of the fatted calf always seem to go to the feckless but charming prodigal.

~ The Walrus ~

I would have chosen the Snark/Boojum as my Lewis Carroll character, had I not decided to adhere strictly to the "storybook" stipulation in the category title. So it has to be someone from the Alice books, and there are many candidates: the March Hare, the Jabberwock and the Monstrous Crow to name but a few. But I think the Walrus just noses ahead in the photo, despite (or because of) his lugubrious hypocrisy, which adds an extra dimension to his personality.

"Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed....
I weep for you," the Walrus said:
"I deeply sympathise,"
With sobs and tears he sorted out
Those of the largest size,
Holding his pocket handkerchief
Before his streaming eyes."

~ The Enormous Crocodile ~

Are you acquainted with this seminal and salutary story by Roald Dahl? If not, I beseech you to proceed at once to your nearest bookshop or library and sneak a read in the Children's section. It is nothing short of a classic. It relates the endeavours of the eponymous creature to secure a nice juicy child for his lunch by means of "secret plans and clever tricks". On his way to do so, he encounters doubts and opposition where he could reasonably expect support and encouragement, from his fellow-animals - the Notsobig croc (soul-brother to the small good wolf you never hear about), the hippo, the elephant and the jungle bird.

Undaunted he proceeds to the village playground, where he attempts to put his secret plans and clever tricks into practice, only to be thwarted at every turn by the other animals who have followed him thither. Ultimately, the elephant intervenes to grab him by the tail with its trunk, swing him round, and hurl him like a slingshot into the sun, where he is "sizzled up like a sausage".

An old friend of mine well-versed in literature takes the view that the EC is simply "betrayed by lesser minds", but it seems to me that his tragedy is of a more classical variety, with hubris bringing about his nemesis. Had he gone about his hunting in a sneaky and underhand way, he might have proved successful, but this would have ill-fitted his self-image as a proto-hero. His braggartry does not come from indiscretion, but is intended almost as a rallying-cry to his jungle-fellows to assert themselves against the thrall in which they are held by humans, while their failure to respond reflects not just their cravenness but also their resentment of his superiority, without which he would have been unable to lead the way in the first place. His fatal weakness is an intrinsic component of his heroic strength, an essential element of all great tragedy.

*

So there are the chosen ten. But do I hear the sound of head-scratching? Yes, you have noticed that, whilst selecting specimens of ten inferior species, I have failed to include a single cat.

The reason is simple. Once I had opened the flood-gates, the cats - like the saints - would have come marching in, to the exclusion of all others, and I did want to retain some variety. Even as it is, the cats could put up a team of ten on their own to more than rival the above. For example: the Cat who thought he was a Tiger, Orlando the Marmalade, Mog the Forgetful, Gobbolino the Witch's, the Cheshire, Dick Whittington's, Korky, Felix, Postman Pat's black and white, Fat Puss. And this is without trespassing onto the animated turf of such admirable animals such as Fritz and Top Cat. So, for fear of being overwhelmed, I have resisted all the cats, for now at least.
Meanwhile, I shall leave you with the chorus that always echoed around the bedroom when the line "and he was sizzled up like a sausage" was finally reached:

"READ IT AGAIN"


© First published in its original version under the name torr on Ciao UK, April 2003.

Summary: 10 classic children's books chosen for their animal heroes