Many adults, including myself, still remember their first books. In them lived noble heroes and beautiful princesses, talking animals and even trees, and good always defeated the most insidious evil. Do you remember how once these books made a child's heart laugh, cry and sigh with fear?
The British magazine The Independent has compiled a list of the 30 best children's books, focusing not so much on the number of sales, but on the degree of contribution to world literature, originality and the reader's love carried through the centuries.
Alas, not all the books mentioned in the rating have been translated into Russian. Therefore, we decided to select from them the ten best books for children that have received many laudatory reviews on Russian-language book resources, and add our domestic authors to the list.
10. The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
For children: 8-10 years old.
The famous English writer and Nobel laureate in literature was so captured by the exotic and wonderful world of Indian fairy tales and legends that he presented the world with a collection of 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 classic scheme of the "parenting novel", but education is special. After all, it is not people, but animals, who are taking care of Mowgli, a human child in the jungle, and not simple ones, but talking ones.
The story of Mowgli from the wolf pack has outlived its creator for a long time, and turned out to be so popular that several films and cartoons were shot based on it, designed for a family audience. 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.
Ivan Andreevich conceived his works primarily as satirical. And it is not surprising, because contemporaries noted his sharp and ruthless mind and great observation. Drew inspiration from Krylov everywhere - from French authors, from whose translations his "Fables" began, to politics and observations of the life of his contemporaries.
The popularity of his works was also facilitated by the rare ability to tell a moralizing story in an accessible and laconic language. Many of his phrases have since become winged, and entire generations of Russian children have grown up on his Fables.
8. The Hobbit by John Ronald Ruel Tolkien
For children: 10-13 years old.
A cult book that has left its mark on world literature and influenced many fantasy writers over the past half century. For the younger generation, unaccustomed to the absorption of large volumes of literary text, it was popularized by the film trilogy directed by Peter Jackson.
A wonderful magical world, talking beasts, elves, gnomes, a dragon and a pinch of good old English epic as a seasoning - it's no wonder that this book was immediately loved by both children and adults.
7.Harry Potter Book Series, J.K. Rowling
For children: 10-13 years old.
Just twenty years ago, the then unknown Englishwoman J.K. 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, the inseparable trinity of friends, with one of whom the child can easily associate himself with.
In addition to the exciting content, the popularity of the Harry Potter books was also facilitated by the writer's ability to convey all the nuances of the existence of teenagers in closed private schools. When a quarrel with a friend is an event on the same scale as the impending enslavement of the world by a dark wizard. Or even more important.
In addition, the entire "Potteriana" is an interesting literary phenomenon - it seems to grow up with the characters. The first book is the brightest and most light-hearted, but then, as the characters grow up, more and more problems fall on them, and the situation becomes gloomier.
6. Series 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 alternate 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 an old closet, make their way through moth-eaten furs and enter a magical land.
And there is a whole world - snow-covered forests, fauns, talking animals, as well as an evil queen, whose skin is white as snow, and her heart is black as night. Exciting adventures await young heroes, and, of course, the struggle against evil, both external and in the depths of their own hearts.
5. Peter Pan and Wendy by James Barry
For children: 8-10 years old.
Veteran literary scholars argue that this book is not really for children. It is clearly written from the point of view of an adult, and with a great dose of irony. Be that as it may, the story of a boy who stubbornly refuses to grow up and escapes to the magical land of Neverland (Neverland or the land of Netine will be in different translations) is very popular with readers of all ages.
Barry is believed to have invented a genre that allows both adults and children to enjoy reading together. In addition to adventure, crocodiles, pirates, and a child's freeman, Peter Pan and Wendy has more sad motives. And the main one is the conflict between the innocence and carelessness of childhood and the inevitable burden of responsibility of adulthood.
And although Barry himself did not have children, he was familiar with child psychology firsthand. The writer adopted five boys, the children of his deceased friends.
4. "Poems and 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 "washbasin chief and the commander of the washcloths" 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 be branded a slob and angry.
Chukovsky's works are easy for children to perceive, and cause only positive emotions in children. And adults also have a bright feeling of nostalgia, because once their mothers and fathers read them the same poems and fairy tales.
3. "Fairy 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, it was fairy tales that brought him world fame.
Their main themes 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 all, eventually finds hope, beauty, and friends.
2. "Tales of the Brothers Grimm", Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm
For children: 8-10 years old.
A collection of more than two hundred literary processed German fairy tales, painstakingly collected by the brothers Grimm, has had a huge impact on world literature.It has withstood many editions, and some moments had to even be softened to please an impressionable audience.
Nevertheless, fairy tales have preserved all the best - both a fascinating plot and a depth that resonates in the hearts of both children and adults. Many have read about the Frog Prince, Snow White, Cinderella, the Bremen Town Musicians, and Hansel and Gretel's journey to the gingerbread house. What about Hans, the hedgehog boy? Or Harlebarlebats?
Even if you have long passed the age at which you are interested in children's fairy tales, the stories collected by the Brothers Grimm may interest and surprise you.
1. "Alice in Wonderland" and "Alice Through the Looking Glass" by Lewis Carroll
For children: 8-10 years old.
In the first place in the rating of the best children's books of all time, according to the Independent magazine, there is a dilogy about the girl Alice, who fell into a rabbit hole and found herself in a land of oddities and wonders. Alice's "dad" 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 kids to like it, write for adults too. And now, 150 years after Alice was written, both children and adults continue to read it.
Moreover, the older the reader becomes, the more pleasure he gets from solving puzzles in Carroll's books. As one critic said: Alice is perhaps the most childish of all children's books, and her only goal is to give the child the pleasure of reading.