#ChildrensClassicRead2023
In 2019 I decided to read a new to me,
or long forgotten by me,
children’s classic daily.
One story per month every morning with my coffee.
I read a few pages, or a chapter, depending on which book I am reading and how long it is so that I have it with me every day.
It has been pure zen.
A much bigger joy than I ever anticipated!
Lovely book people on Litsy have joined in with me
as well as a few folks on IG.
Of course with any read I do,
feel free to use my list or schedule
and join in on the fun,
you will be changed from it.
The following is the schedule for 2023.
January
BAMBI
Bambi, a Life in the Woods
German title:
Bambi: Eine Lebensgeschichte aus dem Walde
A 1923 Austrian coming-of-age novel written by Felix Salten and originally published in Berlin by Ullstein Verlag. The novel traces the life of Bambi, a male roe deer, from his birth through childhood, the loss of his mother, the finding of a mate, the lessons he learns from his father, and the experience he gains about the dangers posed by human hunters in the forest.
I imagine this is totally NOT DISNEY BAMBI.
February
BABAR
The classic story of literature’s most beloved elephant. After his mother is killed by a hunter, Babar avoids capture by escaping to the city, where he is befriended by the kindly Old Lady. Later, with cousins Celeste and Arthur, he returns to the great forest to be crowned King of the Elephants. With the original illustrations from Jean de Brunhoff’s 1931 classic, this first Babar story has enchanted generations.
March
The Black Stallion
In the series’ first book, teenaged Alec Ramsay, returning from India and a visit to his missionary uncle, and an untamed, apparently wild black stallion, meet when the Black Stallion is loaded onto the ship at an Arabian port. A violent storm causes the vessel to sink, and Alec and The Black are stranded together on a desert island. Dependent on each other for survival, the boy and horse learn to trust and love each other as they establish an amazingly strong and close lifelong emotional bond. After their rescue, Alec befriends retired racehorse trainer Henry Dailey, who lives near Alec in Flushing, New York. Henry recognizes the Black’s superior breeding, and he and Alec secretly begin training the Black to race. But without a documented pedigree, Alec and Henry can only compete the Black as a mystery horse in a match race between two champions, Cyclone and Sun Raider.
April
ROLLER SKATES
Growing up in a well-to-do family with strict rules and routines can be tough for a ten-year-old girl who only wants to roller skate. But when Lucinda Wyman’s parents go overseas on a trip to Italy and leave her behind in the care of Miss Peters and Miss Nettie in New York City, she suddenly gets all the freedom she wants! Lucinda zips around New York on her roller skates, meeting tons of new friends and having new adventures every day. But Lucinda has no idea what new experiences the city will show her…. Some of which will change her life forever.
May
Under the Lilacs
Published in 1878, is a classic novel that centers around two young girls who are having a tea party with their dolls when they stumble upon a young boy and his dog who have run away from the circus.
June
STRAWBERRY GIRL
Strawberries—big, ripe, and juicy. Ten-year-old Birdie Boyer can hardly wait to start picking them. But her family has just moved to the Florida backwoods, and they haven’t even begun their planting. “Don’t count your biddies ‘fore they’re hatched, gal young un!” her father tells her.
Making the new farm prosper is not easy. There is heat to suffer through, and droughts, and cold snaps. And, perhaps most worrisome of all for the Boyers, there are rowdy neighbors, just itching to start a feud. The land was theirs, but so were its hardships.
Teachers, grandparents, and homeschooling families continue to reach for Lois Lenski’s Strawberry Girl. As one fan commented, a reason for its continued success is that it’s “a touching, realistic tale of the power of neighborly love and kindness.”
July
Thimble Summer
A silver thimble and a new friend make a girl’s summer magical in Elizabeth Enright’s Thimble Summer.
A few hours after nine-year-old Garnet Linden finds a silver thimble in the dried-up riverbed, the rains come and end the long drought on the farm. The rains bring safety for the crops and the livestock, and money for Garnet’s father. Garnet can’t help feeling that the thimble is a magic talisman, for the summer proves to be interesting and exciting in so many different ways.
There is the arrival of Eric, an orphan who becomes a member of the Linden family; the building of a new barn; and the county fair at which Garnet’s carefully tended pig, Timmy, wins a blue ribbon. Every day brings adventure of some kind to Garnet and her best friend, Citronella. As far as Garnet is concerned, the thimble is responsible for each good thing that happens during this magic summer―her thimble summer.
August
The Hundred and One Dalmatians
A 1956 children’s novel by Dodie Smith about the kidnapping of a family of Dalmatian puppies. It was originally serialized in Woman’s Day as The Great Dog Robbery, and details the adventures of two Dalmatians named Pongo and Missis as they rescue their puppies from a fur farm. A 1967 sequel, The Starlight Barking, continues from the end of the novel.
September
The Peterkin Papers
Meet the Peterkins, a lovable crew with a notable lack of common sense. These comic tales chronicle their roundabout attempts to solve simple, everyday problems. Cheerful and energetic, the close-knit family of eight resides in a village near Boston. They play their piano from the front porch because the movers left it with the keyboard facing the parlor window, and they’re ready to raise the ceiling to make way for a towering Christmas tree. Only the timely intervention of “the wise old lady from Philadelphia” keeps them from acting on their more elaborate madcap schemes.
Author Lucretia Hale, sister to writer and cleric Edward Everett Hale, helped break new ground in children’s literature by writing stories to amuse young people rather than instruct or uplift them. These tales first appeared in 1867 in a popular children’s magazine of the era, and in the course of a decade, the Peterkins became a household word. “The years pass them along to every new generation,” noted Harper’s Bazaar, “with the hint that human nature is about the same everywhere and all the time.” Hailed by The New York Times as “a masterpiece” and graced with 153 delightful black-and-white illustrations, this book offers a glimpse of nineteenth-century New England life that charms readers of all ages
October
Hansel and Gretel
Hansel and Gretel are a brother and sister abandoned in a forest, where they fall into the hands of a witch who lives in a house made of gingerbread, cake, and candy. The cannibalistic witch intends to fatten the children before eventually eating them, but Gretel outwits the witch and kills her. The two children then escape with their lives and return home with the witch’s treasure.
November
The Secret of the Old Clock
The mystery that began it all for America’s favorite teenaged sleuth. The accidental rescue of a little girl who lives with her two great-aunts leads to an adventurous search for a missing will.
December
THE BIG SNOW
When the geese begin to fly south, the leaves flutter down from the trees and the cold winds begin to blow from the north, the animals of the woods and meadows, big and small, prepare for the long, cold winter ahead when the countryside is hidden under a deep blanket of snow. They gather food and look for warm, snug places in the ground, trees, caves or thickets, where they can find protection against the icy winds.
It might have been hard for the birds and animals of the hillside to survive when the Big Snow came if their good friends, who lived in the little stone house, had not remembered to put food out for them.
Here, in many beautiful pictures, the Haders show how winter comes to the woodland as the busy animals make their preparations.
2023 is going to be so much fun!!
The following links, posted below, will take you to our previous and current 2021 reading schedules.
