18 books like Written for children: an outline of English children's literature

What to read after Written for children: an outline of English children's literature — books similar to it, matched on shared themes.

The poetics of childhood Roni Natov · 2002 · 296p · ≈ 9h · Moderate The Poetics of Childhood investigates the sensibility of childhood and the ways writers try to recapture it. It explores the earliest conceptions of innocence and the development of literature about children through contemporary times. It encompasses the pastoral, the dark pastoral, the anti-pastoral; it addresses picture books, fantasy, and realism. It looks with originality at the literature… Shares: Littérature de jeunesse anglaise, Children's literature, Books and Reading, Histoire et critique

The Pooh Perplex Frederick C. Crews · 1963 · ★ 4.0 · 150p · ≈ 5h · Moderate In this devastatingly funny classic, Frederick Crews skewers the ego-inflated pretensions of the schools and practitioners of literary criticism popular in the 1960s, including Freudians, Aristotelians, and New Critics. Modeled on the "casebooks" often used in freshman English classes at the time, The Pooh Perplex contains twelve essays written in different critical voices, complete with… Shares: Children's literature, Books and Reading, Children, History and criticism

Regendering the school story Beverly Lyon Clark · 1996 · 297p · ≈ 9h · Moderate In 18th through 20th-century British and American literature, school stories always play out the power relationships between adult and child. They also play out gender relationships, especially when females are excluded, although most histories of the genre ignore the unusual novels that probe the gendering of school stories. When the occasional man wrote about girls schools-as Charles Lamb and… Shares: Children's literature, Books and Reading, Children, History and criticism

Dream days Kenneth Grahame · 1898 · 129p · ≈ 4h · Challenging Kenneth Grahame's unjustly neglected collections of vignettes, reminiscences, and inventions capture the ingenuities of a family of children--three boys and two girls--who live magnanimous lives nourished by the secret expeditions and private games they share. Written in the last few years of the 19th century, as Grahame looked back fondly at his own childhood, these sketches of growing up are… Shares: Children's literature, Children, Short Stories

Coraline Neil Gaiman · 2001 · ★ 4.1 · 180p · ≈ 6h · Moderate When Coraline steps through a door to find another house strangely similar to her own (only better), things seem marvelous. But there's another mother there, and another father, and they want her to stay and be their little girl. They want to change her and never let her go. Coraline will have to fight with all her wit and courage if she is to save herself and return to her ordinary life. Shares: Children's literature, Books and Reading

Aunt Jo's scrap-bag Louisa May Alcott · 1871 Preface As grandmothers rummage their piece-bags and bundles in search of gay odds and ends to make gifts with which to fill the little stockings that hand all in a row on Christmas Eve, so I have gathers together some stories, old and new, to amuse the large family that has to rapidly and beautifully grown up about me. I hope that when they pomenade in nightcaps and gowns to rifle the plump… Shares: Children's literature, Children, Short Stories

Sylvie and Bruno Lewis Carroll · 1889 · ★ 4.0 · 188p · ≈ 6h · Challenging Two little children meet adventure in such places as Dogland, Outland, and Elfland. Shares: Children's literature, Children

Running Out of Time Margaret Peterson Haddix · 1995 · ★ 4.2 · 184p · ≈ 6h · Moderate Jessie lives with her family in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana, in 1840 -- or so she believes. When diphtheria strikes the village and the children of Clifton start dying, Jessie's mother reveals a shocking secret -- it's actually 1996, and they are living in a reconstructed village that serves as a tourist site. In the world outside, medicine exists that can cure the dread disease, and… Shares: Children's literature, Children

Mother West Wind's children Thornton W. Burgess · 1911 · 82p · ≈ 2h · Challenging Fifteen tales that explain why Danny Meadow Mouse has a short tail, the reason Reddy Fox has no friends, and other mysteries about the residents of the Green Meadow. Shares: Children, Short Stories

Tanglewood Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne · 1853 · ★ 3.8 · 256p · ≈ 8h · Challenging Tanglewood Tales uses the Greek classics as its source. Nathaniel Hawthorne has taken the most striking and exciting ones and adapted them for children. From the original stories he has selected episodes that illustrate conceptions held by the original authors. Titles include: "The Minotaur," "The Pygmies," "The Dragon's Teeth," "Circe's Palace," "The Pomegranate Seeds" and "The Golden Fleece." Shares: Children's literature, Children

The little bookroom Eleanor Farjeon · 1955 · 308p · ≈ 10h · Moderate Collects twenty-seven of Eleanor Farjeon's stories, which include kings, princesses, servants, a mysterious flower, orphans, enchanted woods, an organ-grinder, giants, a little dressmaker, fairies, and a kindly farmer. Shares: Short Stories

You read to me, I'll read to you Mary Ann Hoberman · 2001 · ★ 4.3 · 32p · ≈ 1h · Moderate Here's a book With something new - You read to me! I'll read to you! We'll read each page To one another - You'll read one side, I the other. But who will read - Now guess this riddle - When the words are In the middle? The answer's easy! Plain as pie! We'll read together, You and I. Shares: Books and Reading, Short Stories

The flunking of Joshua T. Bates Susan Shreve · 1984 · ★ 3.6 · 82p · ≈ 2h · Moderate Driving home from the beach on Labor Day, Joshua receives some shocking news from his mother: he must repeat third grade. Shares: Books and Reading, Children

A Pack of Lies Geraldine McCaughrean · 1988 · ★ 3.0 · 172p · ≈ 5h · Moderate As MCC Berkshire, the mysterious, book-obsessed man helping in Ailsa's mother's antique shop, tells wild stories that persuade customers to buy various items, teenaged Ailsa believes he is a liar but fears that he is not. Shares: Books and Reading, Short Stories

Mrs. Overtheway's Remembrances Juliana Horatia Gatty Ewing · 1800 · 148p · ≈ 4h · Challenging The reminiscences of a young girl growing up in early nineteenth-century England. Shares: Short Stories

The Yellow Fairy Book Andrew Lang · 1894 · ★ 4.1 · 287p · ≈ 9h · Challenging First published in 1894, this extensive fairy tale anthology was edited by Andrew Lang, a pioneering author and critic. By bringing together folk tales from all over the world and having them translated into English, many for the first time, he was able to create rich and varied collections of stories, opening readers' eyes to a whole world of magical possibility overseas. Shares: Children, Short Stories

9 From the Nine Worlds Rick Riordan · 2018 · ★ 4.4 · 176p · ≈ 5h · Moderate Beloved characters from the Magnus Chase series star in these short stories, each set in a different one of the Nine Worlds from Norse mythology. The Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard trilogy may have concluded, but we haven't heard the last of our favorite peeps from the Nine Worlds. Join Hearthstone, Blitzen, Samirah, Alex, Jack, T.J., Mallory, Halfborn, and more on a hilarious and… Shares: Short Stories

A Dog of Flanders Ouida · 1800 · ★ 4.1 · 123p · ≈ 4h · Challenging Marie Louise de la Ramée (1839-1908) wrote many popular novels of adventure and romance in the 1870s and 80s under the pen name of Ouida. She also produced a number of captivating stories for youngsters. One of the best, A Dog of Flanders,. First published in 1872, A Dog of Flanders tells the moving story of Nello, a gentle boy with aspirations of becoming a painter, and Patrasche — his devoted… Shares: Children, Short Stories

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