Ray Bradbury once said that 11 is the best age of all, because that is when you can most completely disappear into a book and live most fully in its world.
This came to mind because the British Education Secretary recently said that an 11-year-old should be reading 50 books a year, and this inspired Richard Davies to produce a list of 50 great books for 11-year-olds. The whole list is here. There is a lot on Davies list that I have read and loved: The Hobbit, Charlotte's Web, A Wrinkle in Time, Little House on the Prairie, Coraline, Harry Potter, Narnia, His Dark Materials, and more.
There are several books I think are over-rated: Treasure Island, The Dark is Rising, Bridge to Terabithia, Percy Jackson, the Borrowers, and especially A Series of Unfortunate Events, which I hated.
But also several things I have never even heard of: Stig of the Dump, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen, The Lantern Bearers, The Mozart Question, The Talking Parcel. Hmmm.
The favorite books of my 11-year-old self are missing, the Prydain Chronicles, and I don't see any of the girl fantasies (Dealing with Dragons, especially) that my elder daughter loved. But given the number of good books in the world, any such list is going to be idiosyncratic, and I pass this one along for interested parties.
It's a weird list, no doubt, ludicrously fantasy-heavy and very evidently compiled by an English person.
ReplyDeleteWhy two books by Neil Gaiman? Really? Of course he's done some brilliant work, but two slots for him seems a waste.
That said, a fun exercise, and tempting to think what 50 I'd choose!