Many adults, including myself, still remember their first books. Noble heroes and beautiful princesses lived in them, talking animals and even trees, and good was always defeated by the most insidious evil. Do you remember how once these books made you laugh, cry and die with fear in a children's heart?
The British Independent magazine has compiled a list of 30 of the best children's books, focusing not so much on the number of sales as on the degree of contribution to world literature, originality and reader love carried through the centuries.
Alas, not all books mentioned in the rating are translated into Russian. Therefore, we decided to select from them the ten best books for children who received a lot of laudatory reviews on Russian-language book resources, and supplement our list with our domestic authors.
10. The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling
For children: 8-10 years old.
The world of Indian fairy tales and legends was so captivated by the famous English writer and Nobel laureate in literature that he presented the world with a collection of short stories called The Jungle Book. It is curious that the first illustrations for the collection were made by Rudyard's father, John Kipling.
The plot of the “Jungle Book” unfolds according to the classical scheme of the “novel of education”, but only education is special. After all, they take care of Mowgli - a human child who finds himself in the jungle - not people, but animals, and not ordinary, but talking.
The story of Mowgli from a wolf pack survived its creator for a long time, and turned out to be so popular that several films and cartoons directed at a family audience were shot on it. She is rightfully included in the list of the most interesting books for children and adolescents.
9. “Fables”, Ivan Krylov
For children: 4-5 years old.
In the first place, Ivan Andreevich conceived his works as satirical. And no wonder, because contemporaries noted his sharp and merciless mind and great observation. Krylov drew inspiration everywhere - from French authors, from the translations of which his Fables began, to politics and observations of the life of contemporaries.
The popularity of his works was also facilitated by the rare ability to tell a moralizing story in an accessible and concise language. Many of his phrases have since become winged, and entire generations of Russian children have grown up on his Fables.
8. The Hobbit, John Ronald Roel Tolkien
For children: 10-13 years old.
A cult book that has left its mark on world literature and has influenced many fantasy writers over the past half century. For the younger generation, unaccustomed to absorb large volumes of literary text, she was popularized by the film trilogy of director Peter Jackson.
A wonderful magical world, talking animals, elves, gnomes, a dragon and a pinch of the good old English epic as a seasoning - it is not surprising that this book was immediately loved by both children and adults.
7. The Harry Potter series of books by Joan Rowling
For children: 10-13 years old.
Just twenty years ago, the then-unknown Englishwoman Joan Rowling wrote the first book of the cycle, thanks to which wizards and muggles, Quidditch and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry entered our lives. And, of course, an inseparable trinity of friends, with one of whom the child can easily associate with himself.
In addition to the exciting content, the popularity of books about Harry Potter was also facilitated by the writer's ability to convey all the nuances of the existence of adolescents in private private schools. When a quarrel with a friend is an event of the same scale as the impending enslavement of the world by a dark wizard. Or even more important.
In addition, the whole "Potteriana" is an interesting literary phenomenon - it seems to grow up with the characters. The first book is the brightest and most carefree, but then, as the characters grow older, more and more problems fall upon them, and the situation becomes darker.
6. The cycle of books about Narnia, Clive Lewis
For children: 8-10 years old.
Many good works for children have one thing in common: they open the door to an alternative reality, sometimes in the literal sense of the word. For example, in the first book about Narnia (“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe”), four children from our world open the door of the old wardrobe, make their way through moth-eaten furs and fall into a magical land.
And there is a whole world - snowy forests, fauns, talking animals, as well as an evil queen whose skin is white as snow and her heart black as night. Exciting adventures await young heroes, and, of course, the fight against evil, both external and in the depths of one’s own heart.
5. “Peter Pan and Wendy,” James Barry
For children: 8-10 years old.
Well-known literary scholars argue that this book is not really a children's book. It is clearly written from the point of view of an adult, and with a large dose of irony. Whatever it is, the story of a boy who stubbornly does not want to grow up and flees to the magical land of Neverland (Netland or the country Netinebud in different translations) is very popular with readers of all ages.
It is believed that Barry invented a genre that allows both adults and children to enjoy reading together. In addition to adventures, crocodiles, pirates and a free-lance in Peter Pan and Wendy, there are more sad motives. And the main one is the conflict between the innocence and carelessness of childhood and the inevitable burden of adult responsibility.
And although Barry himself had no children, he was familiar with childhood psychology firsthand. The writer adopted five boys, the children of his dead friends.
4. “Poems and fairy tales”, Korney Chukovsky
For children: 4-5 years old.
One of the best books for preschool children is full of good humor. In it, people, animals, insects, and even the “washbasins commander and washcloth commander” communicate with each other, giving children an idea of what is right and what is not, what can be done, and how to behave with others so as not to pass for a slut and bitter.
Chukovsky’s works are easy for children to perceive, and cause only positive emotions in children. And among adults, there is also a bright feeling of nostalgia, because once their mothers and fathers read them the same poems and tales.
3. "Tales", Hans Christian Andersen
For children: 8-10 years old.
The secretive and shy Andersen created many beautiful and vibrant literary works. And although the writer himself dreamed of becoming famous as a novelist and author of plays, fairy tales brought him world fame.
Their main topics are love, self-sacrifice and nobility. Gerda is looking for her brother Kai in The Snow Queen, the Little Mermaid dreams of a handsome prince and is ready to make a huge sacrifice for him, and the Ugly Duckling despised by everyone eventually finds hope, beauty, and friends.
2. "The Tales of the Brothers Grimm", William and Jacob Grimm
For children: 8-10 years old.
A collection of more than two hundred literary processed German fairy tales, painstakingly compiled by the Grimm brothers, had a huge impact on world literature. It has withstood many editions, and some moments have even been softened to please an impressionable audience.
Nevertheless, fairy tales have retained all the best - and a fascinating plot, and depth that resonates in the hearts of both children and adults. Many read about the frog prince, Snow White, Cinderella, the Bremen Town Musicians and the journey of Hansel and Gretel to the gingerbread house. What about Hans, the hedgehog boy? Or Harlebarlebac?
Even if you have long crossed the age at which you are interested in children's fairy tales, the stories collected by the Grimm brothers may interest and surprise you.
1. “Alice in Wonderland” and “Alice Through the Looking Glass”, Lewis Carroll
For children: 8-10 years old.
According to Independent magazine, the first place in the ranking of the best children's books of all time is the dilogy about the girl Alice, who fell into a rabbit hole and ended up in a country of oddities and wonders. Alice's “Papa” was an English writer, philosopher, and prominent mathematician from Oxford.
His books are an excellent example of the rule for writing good children's literature: if you want children to like it, write for adults too. And now, 150 years after the writing of Alice, both children and adults continue to read it.
Moreover, the older the reader becomes, the more fun he gets from solving puzzles in Carroll's books. As one of the critics said: Alice is perhaps the most children's of all children's books, and her only goal is to give the child the pleasure of reading.
