Sunday , June 13, 2010
nogoodforme superlatives: Favorite Children's Books
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery / Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
I am torn between The Little Prince and Little Women being my favorite children's book of all time, so I'm just going to give them both accolades and love here because choosing between them is too much like deciding who I think is hotter: Viktor or Rolf? Gael Garcia Bernal or Diego Luna? Chuck Bass or Nate Archibald? Why choose? I refuse to fall into false dichotomies! The Little Prince has my heart because it's one of the most heart-felt books of all time. It is intensely philosophical, decidedly melancholy and has taught me more about life and people and shaped my worldview, politically, emotionally and spiritually. It may be one of the most spiritual books I've ever read, teaching everyone the wisdom of seeing with the heart and not just with the eyes and the importance of relationships and love and constancy. Every time I lose sight of what's important in life, I read this and put myself on the right path. Plus, the Little Prince himself is kind of a fashion icon, no? He was a dapper little dude, with his scarf and his rose and his fear of baobab trees. No wonder I went through a metrosexual phase a few years ago.
Little Women is nearly not so sophisticatedly existential and sometimes it's drearily Victorian, but the story of four sisters is ultimately girl culture at its best. One of the most resonant statements in the book happens early on, when oldest sister Meg declares, "We make our own fun." (If that's not nogoodforme.com, I don't know what is!) I've written whole papers in college on Little Women where I deconstructed Jo March's sexuality or the gift economies circulating within the story -- but everyt ime I read it, I still get caught up in the March sisters' little triumphs and woes on a visceral emotional level. Plus, very few books get the complexities, rivalries and intense love between sisters, right, and it's a sentimental favorite of mine for this reason. (I have three sisters myself and there is definitely a Meg, an Amy, a Jo and a Beth in our little dynamic. I'll leave you to guess who is who.) Even the preachiness touches me because Little Women, besides being pro-girl in its way and intensely democratic and American in character, wants you to be a good person -- to work hard, enjoy life, love your friends and family, find meaning and a place in the world and contribute to your community. Maybe that's the appeal of reading children's books as an adult -- sometimes life gets so confusing and complex and overwhelming, but then you read a book like Little Women or The Little Prince and it all becomes so much simpler and true. (Kat)
Selected Works by E.L. Konigsburg
E.L. Konigsburg is such a fricking-fracking genius; it is complete and utter nuttiness. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (or, The Ultimate Art History Mystery) has long since been my favorite book of all-time; whenever I tell people this, they always freak out and claim that it's their favorite book of all-time too, when it quite obviously isn't. Yes, I get it: it's amazing, cool, classic, charming, perfect and basically a really killer favorite book to have, but before you go and run all over town hollering about how it's your number one fave, I have some questions to ask you:
1. Is your love for this book so intense that you have read every single book E.L. Konigsburg ever wrote, hoping and often succeeding in re-capturing its literary magic?
2. Are you planning to name your first-born daughter Claudia Kincaid Faulds-Showalter?
3. Have you seriously grappled with whether or not you should get an upper-arm tattoo of the scratchy cover drawing of Claudia & Jamie Kincaid standing out front of the Met?
No, no, and no, I'm sure. But that's fine. I just get a little defensive about this subject. From FTMUFOMBEF's very first sentence, quite possibly the best stringing-together of fifteen words there ever was ("Claudia knew that she could never pull off the old-fashioned kind of running away"), this book shaped about 80% of my entire identity as a scrappy little seven-year-old Laura, forever implanting in me the desire to rebel, hide, seek, scheme, caper, and escape (but with sense, sensibility and tact, no less). Some of my favorite memories from all life happened during my freshman year of college, when my roommates and I would get stoned out of a gimcrack "gravity bong" fashioned from a Tupperware trashcan and two-liter soda bottle, and I would read chapters aloud to them from this book while listening to Forever Changes by Love. That's the life, yo.
Since I have at this point consumed the entirety of E.L. Konigsburg's catalogue, I will take this opportunity to recommend two lesser-known works of hers:
1. Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley and Me, Elizabeth:
Jennifer is one of the most tragic and hilarious literary heroines I've ever had the pleasure to meet. She's a flawlessly-crafted fourth-grade weirdo type- frankly, the similarities between brazen, space cadettish Jennifer and nine-year-old LJ hit a little too close to home when I re-read this book last year after a ten-odd year gap. Jennifer is the only fictional character I relate to more than Chandler Bing, or maybe they're tied. Maybe when people ask me to describe myself from now on I'll just say, "Jennifer meets Chandler," and if they don't know what I mean, that's their own stupid fault. I especially love how Jennifer compulsively lies to her new friend Elizabeth (who narrates the book) about how she is a real live witch. When I was nine, I would sit at back of my classroom with my friend Felicity, scribble frantically in my notebook, and tell her that I was transmitting messages from aliens in outer-space who used me as a medium to communicate with Earthlings.
2. My Father's Arcane Daughter:
For some stupid reason, the recent reissue of this novel has been renamed My Father's Daughter, perhaps because the word "arcane" is simply too arcane of a vocab word for bratty, hyper-stimulated 2008-brand loser-kids to digest. I hate them all. This book is poignant and elegantly written; I read the whole thing in one afternoon last winter and pretty much had my mind blown. My favorite thing about E.L. Konigsburg is how she never dumbs down her prose for a grade-school audience: she uses two-dollar adjectives, hella metaphors, and nontraditional sentence-structure as she pleases, never condescending to her single-digit reader. The balance between the necessary simplicity of kid-lit and Konigsburg's ability to write creatively within those limitations is what makes her work so endlessly striking.
And some other Konigsburg Killers for the road:
(George) (this one's about LSD! And schizophrenia!)
Altogether, One at a Time (short stories to cry by)
The Second Mrs. Giocanda (like the The DaVinci Code if it wasn't totally lame and lowest common denominator; actually, I barely even know if this is true, since I've never read The DaVinci Code. Alls I mean is that this book is a fictionalized account of some stuff that happened to Leonardo DaVinci)
The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place (I will spend the rest of my life trying to figure out if Margaret Rose's "uncles" are actually "lovers"; this novel also features an Airedale terrier named Tartufo, which is THE CUTEST DOG NAME EVER!!!) (Laura)
Bread and Jam for Frances by Russell & Lillian Hoban
Here's a fun little fact about Liz Barker: Unless I'm on holiday or dining out, I eat the same stuff every single day. Like, every morning I eat the same breakfast, every afternoon I eat the same lunch, and every night I eat the same dinner. Which maybe makes me sound either insane or insanely boring, but I'm completely comfortable with being a creature of foodie habit.
You know who else is a creature of foodie habit? Frances, the bibbed-dress-wearing badger created by Russell and Lillian Hoban, whose books include A Bargain for Frances, Bedtime for Frances, and - my favorite of all favorites - Bread and Jam for Frances. But while my big weird eating-the-same-stuff-all-the-time involves lots of good things like kale and Greek yogurt and chili garlic sauce and farmers market nectarines, all Frances wants to eat is bread and jam, meal after meal after meal. Not very health-smart, Frances! I hope at least Mother's giving you whole-grain bread and a jam made without high-fructose corn syrup!
Although I adore Frances, especially when she makes up funny little fashion-oriented songs about veal cutlets ("What do cutlets wear before they're breaded? / Flannel nightgowns? Cowboy boots? / Furry jackets? Sailor suits?"), my favorite character in Bread and Jam has to be Albert, Frances's schoolmate, best friend, and daily lunch partner. Albert's a man (or man-badger) who's totally passionate about food, as evidenced by his borderline-obsessive approach to lunch preparation:
Albert took two napkins from his lunch box.
He tucked one napkin under his chin.
He spread the other one on his desk like a tablecloth.
He arranged his lunch neatly on the napkin.
With his spoon he cracked the shell of the hard-boiled egg.
He peeled away the shell and bit off the end of the egg.
He sprinkled salt on the yolk and set the egg down again.
He unscrewed his thermos-bottle cup and filled it with milk.
Then he was ready to eat his lunch.
He took a bite of sandwich, a bite of pickle, a bite of hard-boiled egg, and a drink of milk.
Then he sprinkled more salt on the egg and went around again.
Albert made the sandwich, the pickle, the egg, and the milk come out even.
Seriously, dudes, when it gets to the part with Albert tucking his napkin under his chin, I practically start sobbing from the over-the-top cuteness. I mean, look at him, for Pete's sake!
Not to give away the ending or anything, but you'll be relieved to know that ultimately Frances does come around to trying other foods:
The next day when the bell rang for lunch, Albert said, "What do you have today?"
"Well," said Frances, laying a paper doily on her desk and setting a tiny vase of violets in the middle of it, "let me see." She arranged her lunch on the doily.
"I have a thermos bottle with cream of tomato soup," she said.
"And a lobster-salad sandwich on thin slices of white bread.
I have celery, carrot sticks, and black olives, and a little cardboard shaker of salt for the celery.
And two plums and a tiny basket of cherries.
And vanilla pudding with chocolate sprinkles and a spoon to eat it with."
"That's a good lunch," said Albert. "I think it's nice that there are all different kinds of lunches and breakfasts and dinners and snacks. I think eating is nice."
I think eating is nice too, Albert! God, we're so psychically in tune. And I appreciate Frances's attention to detail in her lunch set-up, with that sweet little vase of violets and all. (Was that a tip from Real Simple, Frances?) But even more than that, I love Albert's purple plaid pants and matching cup, which I bet he totally planned the night before. (Liz)
Tags: Albert the Badger is my dream man, archetypal girl culture, archetypal metrosexuals, art history mysteries, books, Bread and Jam for Frances, capering, creatures of habit, EL Konigsburg, food obsessions, kid-lit, Little Prince, Little Women, LSD, Tartufo
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Posted by Kat, Liz and Laura in Superlatives |
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I L-O-V-E this post, and would like to mention that "From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler" has been mentioned directly and indirectly to me exactly 1 million x in the past week. Maybe I should read it.
By Liina on August 5, 2008 7:14 PM
omg, makeshift bongs+FTMUFOMBEF+forever changes= the best time i never had
By cmn on August 5, 2008 9:48 PM
All the Frances books are some of my favorite books from childhood, I just love the pictures. Seeing them makes me immediately want toast and jam. Thanks!
By Anna Boone on August 7, 2008 10:31 AM
Thanks for the book suggestions. But I want to say something about the first two books that you've mentioned. I know the story of Little Women, but unfortunately I haven't read Little Prince. I love to read books that has lessons about life, love, etc., so I am going to read that book soon.
By Solar Garden Lights on August 7, 2008 11:58 AM