KIDS’ BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: I love recommending kids’ books. So I was thrilled when an acquaintance asked for some thoughts on favorite books. First off, here’s my Crisis magazine piece about Christianity and children’s fantasy; you’ll find many of my favorites there. Here are a passel more, chosen more or less at random, that I hope will bring someone many, many happy hours. My tastes skew dark, so be forewarned, but some of these are very sunny:

Diana Wynne Jones, esp. Dogsbody, Power of Three, Witch’s Business (published in UK as Own Back Ltd. I think), The Ogre Downstairs, Cart and Cwidder, Howl’s Moving Castle–heck, they’re all good. Jones has a stellar sense of intrafamilial dynamics (especially between siblings). Her characters always have distinct, realistic personalities. And she remembers the characteristic awfulnesses of childhood–the despairs, fears, and miseries of people who have very little past, and therefore no realistic sense of the future.

Arabel and Mortimer series by Joan Aiken. Mortimer is Arabel’s pet raven. The two of them make a hilarious pair–sort of Paddington-esque, but slyer. Aiken’s Is Underground and Cold Shoulder Road are dark and terrific, and her short story collection The Faithless Lollybird is very good.

Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes. Deserves its classic status. Beautifully written. A great book about fatherhood, sonhood, aging, evil, and wonder.

Helen Cresswell’s Bagthorpes series. SO MUCH FUN! Hilarious adventures of backbiting family of geniuses and their one ordinary son.

Michael de Larrabeiti, The Borribles and The Borribles Go for Broke (there’s a third one, Borribles Across the Dark Metropolis, but it’s not as good). Very dark, but I really loved these–feral, kind of elfin children leading secret life in ’70s-’80s-ish London, and battling giant intelligent rats.

Zilpha Keatley Snyder. The Egypt Game is her most famous book, and it’s great; The Headless Cupid, Blair’s Nightmare (I think that’s what it’s called), The Witches of Worm (very dark), and The Changeling are also good. Oh and her “Below the Root” series–Until the Celebration, Below the Root, And All Between. Maybe not in that order.

E.L. Konigsburg–another classic writer. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler; A Proud Taste for Scarlet and Miniver (about Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II!); Father’s Arcane Daughter; more.

Stanley Kiesel, The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids and Skinny Malinky Leads the War for Kidness. Awesome.

Gordon Korman is generally a VERY funny writer, although not all of his stuff is up to snuff. I loved the Bruno and Boots series (This Can’t Be Happening at MacDonald Hall!, Beware the Fish, Go Jump in the Pool, The War with Mr. Wizzle) and Son of Interflux.

The Henry Reed books by Keith Robertson, esp. Henry Reed’s Journey and Henry Reed’s Babysitting Service.

All the Ramona books (Beverly Cleary) except the most recent one completely rock.

Roald Dahl of course.

The famous trilogy by Madeleine L’Engle–A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and A Wind in the Door. Excellent, very smart stuff. (Special treat for readers of this site: AWIT includes a way to explain the difference between our perspective, in time, and God’s perspective in infinity, using a skirt! Very helpful for free will vs. foreknowledge-type discussions….) Other classics that deserve their status include Edward Eager’s books (Half Magic etc., I loved them all), E. Nesbit, Lewis Carroll, and–more than the others–the amazing Wind in the Willows. If you haven’t read TWITW already, you’re in for a real treat.

I loved The Count of Monte Cristo despite its vast length.

The Rescue of Ranor by Wilanne Schneider Belden–sense of humor and also sense of duty–very fun quest book with some dark currents.

Willo Davis Roberts’s The Girl with the Silver Eyes is great; everyone else seems to love her View from the Cherry Tree, which I can’t remember if I’ve read. TGw/TSE is a vibrant, sophisticated example of the “child with bizarre, alienating abilities learns that she is actually part of a secret group of children who must discover their destiny w/the help of some cool adults and the opposition of many lame adults” genre. Thus, tons of fun for bookworm kids.

Jean Merrill’s Pushcart War and The Toothpaste Millionaire are fun, sweet paeans to the little guys. I wrote a bit about TTM here.

Ellen Conford is good–Me and the Terrible Two for younger kids, The Alfred G. Graebner Memorial High School Handbook of Rules and Regulations for preteens.

I read an amazing amount of drek as a kid (my parents very wisely let me read whatever I wanted, figuring there was enough wheat mixed in with the chaff…) but these are some of the books that I still love.