h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I haven't been able to give it a good shot, so please take it with my blessing, BB.

Just to let you know, you can see my *Very* rough draft at A87762513.

First of all, a big thank you and well done to VIP, who, as far as I'm concerned, retains the right to say 'Butt out Bluebottle, you've written enough rubbish' and takeover at any point.
Her hard work and preparation has been invaluable to what I've done so far.

The main difference with what I've done differently to VIP is list all books in author order and get rid of the 'Younger Reader' and 'Older Reader' divides. This is for three reasons:

1) I'm not entirely sure what it means. From my point of view, having a 1 and 4 year old, younger reader means 1, older reader means 4, but of course this experience will vary.

2.) Deleting the section avoids arguments like, "Terry Pratchett's 'Where's My Cow?' was clearly written for younger readers - why is he in the Older Reader section?"

3.) The beauty of this article is that it's included suggestions from people from different backgrounds, nationalities, ages, genders etc. Reflecting this, I've not actually read all the books mentioned, and so it is difficult to know what age range to put books I've never actually heard of.

With that in mind, any author I've not heard of has in the header line. Books I have heard of, but never actually read, have a beneath the header. For instance - I've heard of, but never actually read, 'Little Women' and don't know what it's about. As a boy I was put off, assuming it was about midget females, almost certainly Thumbelina. Similarly Black Beauty - I know the theme tune, but as a child I have vague memories of it being about the Lloyds horse running through fields constantly, presumably looking for the bank that liked to say yes.

If you can go to the article, read through and let me know more information about the s it would be appreciated.

As 'Children's Books' is a very large topic, and every author mentioned deserves an article or university project written about them, by necessity we cannot list all the books or as much information as would be liked, and so for each author we can only mention brief highlights.
Authors mentioned without any information provided I'll delete from the list if I don't hear anything more by next Monday.

Please note - at the moment I've not added links, researcher credits, checked spelling or tidied things up - I assure you I will! (VIP, I don't suppose you could post me all the User Numbers that you've added to your article?)

<BB<

Here you are BB

Current researcher list:
Deke (U27380)
Edward the Bonob... (U803114)
Alfster (U179541)
anhaga (U215480)
Bluebottle (U43530)
broelan (U155058)
clzoomer- missing... (U200838)
deb (U238591)
Dr Anthea - Artis... (U203430)
GregPius (U13648184)
HonestIago (U215204)
Hoovooloo (U114627)
Icy North (U225620)
Just Bob aka Robe... (U187073)
kelli - running a... (U181082)
Lanzababy - Guide... (U10790805)
lil ~ ACE/Scout/C... (U551837)
loonycat (U2984809)
Magwitch - Skipping (U780990)
McKay The Disorga... (U200618)
Milla, listing bu... (U153664)
minichessemouse -... (U8131912)
Mol - on the litt... (U222463)
Mr603 (U219983)
Odo (U192764)
parrferris (U168284)
paulh (U176638)
pedro (U624130)
Pegasus ~A~ (U54754)
Solnushka (U138596)
sprout (U192568)
Storm (U14338867)
Tavaron da Quirm ... (U1314679)
The Researcher fo... (U108409)
tucuxii (U13714114)
Vip - currently o... (U188069)
Witty Moniker - ... (U15777)


and the actual numbers taken from the edit pane.

27380,803114,179541,215480,43530,155058,200838,238591,203430,13648184,
215204,114627,225620,187073,181082,10790805,551837,2984809,
780990,200618,153664,8131912,222463,219983,192764,168284,176638,
624130,54754,138596,192568,14338867,1314679,108409,13714114,188069,15777,


I've given you both versions in case there is an error in the C&P

Thanks for doing this BB. It should make a really helpful Entry for parents and others who might want an unbiased point of view about children's literature.

Lanzababy
via h2g2 GE acc

I notice one of the blanks is Artemis Fowl. I hate AF but have recently read all of the books to my son; much made up science and magic, farting dwarfs and the rest. I've written a paragraph in case it helps.

Artemis Fowl Eoin Colfer

This is a series of fantasy adventure stories. Artemis (despite the name) is a young teen boy genius who runs his fathers crime empire when his father goes missing. He becomes aware that a fairy world exists and kidnaps a fairy in order to use the randsom to fund search expeditions for his father. Fairies are not sweet loving flower creatures but represent an underground world of criminals, enforcement officers, demons and mythical beasts. In addition to magic fairy technology is far superior to human technology and has mainly been deployed to develop sophisticated weapons and other spy gear.

Thomas Brezina

Thomas Brezina is an Austrian writer of children's books (mostly crime stories) and also makes TV series for children. His most popular series of books is 'Die Knickerbockerbande' (the Knickerbocker Gang), which is about fourch children, age 8 to 13. The two boys and two girls find out about various crimes which at first usually seem spooky and in some way like ghost stories but it always turns out that normal human criminals are behind everything - which results in book titles like 'Der Ruf des Gruselkuckucks' (The Call of the Creepy Cuckoo) or 'Die Rache der Roten Mumie' (The Revenge of the Red Mummy). The series has all in all 67 books and additional books with short crime stories that the readers have to solve themselves as well as stories where the reader can decide what happens. Knickerbocker Gang books have been translated to various languages, including English. Some have even been translated to simple English for learners.


Is that enough?

Erich Kastner

Erich Kastner was a German author and poet. Amongst his more internationally well-known works are Emil & the Detectives and Lottie & Lisa (The Parent Trap), both of which were made into Walt Disney films.

Deb

Thanks everyone - good to see so many people supporting the article already!

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Johanna Spyri

Johanna Spyri was a Swiss writer of fiction for both children and adults. Her most widely known book is Heidi, first published in 1880. This is a much-loved children's story which has been made into films and TV mini-series.

Deb

Swallows and Amazons is the first in a series of books written by Arthur Ransome. These books were written in the 1930s and set in the Lake District. A gang of children are given an impossible amount of freedom one summer and spend the time messing about on boats on the lakes camping out on islands and meeting pirates. These books are have more complex language than the Enid Blyton adventures, more description of places and are aimed at slightly older readers but they are often grouped together as the same type of literature.

I read too many children's books.

I am gratified to note that a couple of quotes from me are used.
I've not read any Cornelia Funke, but I gather her best known work is Inkheart. It was made into a movie a few years ago with an all-star cast: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0494238/
The movie was reasonably well-received, I gather, although it was rather over-shadowed by the release of an Adam Sandler movie with a similar premise: when a book is read, the characters come to life and appear in the real world.
Brian Jacques is a British writer who died early last year (Feb 2011). He is most famous for the Redwall series, which sprawls across several hundred years of events, dealing mainly with the anthropomorphic animal residents of Redwall Abbey*. The main characters are mostly mice, but the series also features squirrels, badgers, rabbits and hares, rats, foxes, stoats, weasels and more.
Diana Wynne Jones is a Welsh writer, although I am most familiar with her work through Hayao Miyazaki's Japanese anime movie adaptations 'Laputa: Castle in the Sky' and 'Howl's Moving Castle'. They are absolutely wonderful films but, having read the book of "Howl", it would appear that they are very loose adaptations.
Anne McCaffrey's "Dragonriders of Pern" series are superficially high fantasy (dragons, castles, swashbuckling sword-fights, etc.), but in later books it turns out that the setting is actually a technologically regressed space colony set far from Earth. The 'Harper' sub-series are written most expressly for young adults. The main character is Menolly, a musically gifted young girl trying to succeed as a 'harper' (basically a bard) in a repressive sexist society.
I don't know for sure, but I *think* R.L. Stine should fit in with Franklin W. Dixon as a nom de plume used by a variety of writers. Ah, Wikipedia proves otherwise: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.l._stine
Anyway, I remember the output of Stine's "Goosebumps" books being remarkably prolific in my pre- and early-teens: this would be early '90s. As far as I can tell, there are no recurring characters or locations binding the "Goosebumps" series together. They are just a whole load of horror and chiller stories written for young adults. Back then, I avoided them, as they appeared from where I was sitting to be collections of cliches cobbled hastily together and packaged patronisingly for 'kids'. As I say, though, I avoided them, so it may well be that I entirely misjudged them. I could be a right snob back then, and arguably not much has changed... Anyway, the same goes for the 'Point Horror' imprint (to which it seems Stine contributed extensively) and its spin-offs such as 'Point Fantasy'. I know you didn't mention these in the entry, but they are very much linked in my mind.

* Although there is practically no mention of religious practices of any kind, in this Abbey or anywhere else.

Brian Jaques

Wrote around 30 books about Redwall Abbey, Salamandasron and the surrounding areas.

There were boxing hares, warrior mice and badger warlords. Despite all the characters being woodland animals, they all had human personalities.

I first encountered these books aged around 6 or 7 as part of a cassette tapes for blind children scheme, where they sent you out a cassette each month and you listened and sent it back. Quite apt I suppose as the Redwall series was initially intended for Children of the Royal Blind School in London.

It saddend me to hear that Brian Jaques had passed away earlier this year, I still have my collection of Redwall books, and whenever i come across one in a charity shop or book sale that I haven't read I tend to aquire it.

mini

some more on Erick Kästner:

lived 1899 - 1974

Lottie and Lisa is 'Das doppelte Lottchen' (1949) in the German original. It's a story about twin sisters who are split as babies because their parents break up and every girl stays with one of them and grows up in a very different background. The sisters meet again at the age of 9 in their holidays and decide to swap parents.
Quite a lot of Kästner's work has been made into films. (I would not mention the Disney movies at the top, I was a lot more impressed by the 1950s version I think.)

Emil and the Detectives (Emil und die Detektive) was published in 1929 and is a story about the boy Emil who gets stolen money and follows the criminal with the help of some other children.

Library Lights is Written by Megan McDonald and Illustrated by Katherine Tillotson.

She mainly writes young girls fiction, apparently. She has had one of them made into a film. I don't think I'll bother to look out for it:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1547230/

A few words about Heinlein, since you have identified him as someone you don't know about. Admittedly, I'm nto sure I've ever read any of his work, but I definitely intend to.
Robert A. Heinlein (whom I always think of as "Bob", for some reason) is one of the greats in 20th century science fiction. I tend to think of him as being in the generation of Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, and Wikipedia appears to bear this out: "Heinlein is usually identified, along with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke, as one of the three masters of science fiction to arise in the so-called Golden Age of science fiction..."
In terms of his works for adults, 'Starship Troopers' will be familiar to many. An interesting bit of trivia: he is often credited as the originator of the facetious adage 'Hanlon's Law': "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity."

Astrid Lindgren
1907-2002
Swedish writer, one of the best known children's books authors world wide

Pippi Longstockings, 3 books written in the 1940s
Pippi is a 9 year old girl who is amazingly strong and lives alone in a house with a horse and a monkey. Her father, originally a seafarer, is king on a tropical island. Pippi's best friends are the children from the house next doors, but their mother disapproves of that because Pippi does not go to school and all in all does not behave as she thinks little girls should behave.

'The Six Bullerby Children' is a series of six books written in the 1940s and 50s. They are about the children of the village Bullerby, which consists of only three farm houses. The books are told from the perspective of one of one of the girls and are about her every-day life on a farm in the 1930s, about going to school and the simple pleasures in life, like drinking lemonade from a bucket with a straw. Bullerby seems to be the perfect place for children.

I've never read Rasmus and Pontus I'm afraid, so I can't tell you anything about it.

Michael Ende
1929-1995, Germany

The book 'The Neverending Story' (Die Unendliche GEschichte) was first published in 1979 and tells the story of the boy Bastian who has stolen an old book from a shop. The book is about the world Fantastica which is endangered by The Nothing, which lets parts of the land disappear. As he reads, Bastian becomes more and more involved in the story until he finally is inside of the book, exploring the world Fantastica and searching for his own true wish and recreating Fantastica.
A few movies have been based on the book but none of them retell the story as it really is and are therefore quite disappointing if you know the book.

that seems to be the tend these days. A great book is turned into a movie but disappoints those who read the book. Only the movie treatment of Lord of the Rings came anywhere near the book. By the way, when I was in the Lakes District I went to Kirkby Lonsdale.
One thing I noticed is that the English country gardens are still dominant. J.R.R. Tolkien would have felt vindicated.

The article at A87762513 has been updated to reflect the excellent additions and suggestions - keep them coming. I wish I could go back to being 8 again so I could re-read a lot of these I missed out on first time round.

<BB<

I agree, good movies about books are very rare.

Found another one on your list that I can remember:

Moomins
The Moomins are a family of small, hippopotamus-like trolls that have been invented by the writer and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001). The Moomins live in the forest of Finland together with other rather strange but interesting characters. There are several books and picture books about the Moomins and also comic strips and a TV series and films.

Brambly Hedge

Brambly Hedge is a series of beutifully illustrated books by Jill Barklem. They are about a community of mice who live somewhere in the English countryside. They wear clothes and have tiny 19th Century homes in hollow trees and live self-sufficient lives. The first four books (Spring Story, Summer Story, Autumn Story and Winter Story) have been published in 1980.
The pictures of Brambly Hedge are featured on various items like china and miniatures. Some of the books have also been adapted as films.