Obscure Children's Fiction

[Tobias March]

While I'm patiently waiting for Philip Pullman's arrival on the cinema screen, I thought I'd go over some of the books that first sparked me off. For years after I first read Lord of the Rings I spent a lot of time trying to find something as good. So I remembered some fairly decent book series that staved off the cold turkey pangs :p

Windlord was the first in a series of fantasy novels by Irish author Michael Scott, which was left incompleted. I was thinking of this book again recently after I began playing City of Heroes and created my first hero - a Fomorii named Baby Balor :D That stems from this book, which features two modern teens (you can tell it's modern, because the male lead insists on ripping his jeans ;) ) been transported back to the Hyperborean age in Ireland, when the Fomorii ruled the Tuatha de Danann under the oppressive rule of Balor of the Evil Eye. As the title suggests the protagonists, a brother and sister, fall in with a young magician who can control the winds seeking to overthrow Balor. The Fomorii were described as giant lizardmen and there were great descriptions of the various cities and the strange creatures therein.

I'd actually recommend it well enough. So any suggestions of your own?

[Jonathan Bogart]

Most of the books I remember fondly from childhood are either widely acknowledged as classic or so obscure that only vague impressions remain in my memory; nothing so firm as titles or authors. I was a library junkie, usually checking out the then-maximum of ten books per week, so I plowed through an awful lot of books as a kid. (Wish I could keep up that pace now.)

However, the books of Sid Fleischmann hold an appeal across the years. Not that I've picked it up since my voice changed, but By the Great Horn Spoon was a rollicking story, as I recall.

Oh, and Mordecai Richler's Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang was a pretty seminal book in my childish imagination. From what I remember, it's a great comic-adventure story. Even though I was an oldest child, I remember identifying with the youngest-child Jacob who looked up to his superhero brother and sister. (Er. That's from memory; possibly all wrong.)

And I can't pass this up without mentioning the gentle, warm, human books of Meindert DeJong. One of the many ways in which Kids These Days have a poorer childhood than mine is that his books are no longer as readily available.

[Rampaging Rabbit]

When I was at primary school our head teacher was an American draft dodger (true!) and he introduced us to these books about little kid called Treehorn who goes green among other adventures, brilliant stuff. I've no idea who they were by but they were American.

[Buzz Dixon]

There was a series of books about Freddy the Pig that started in the late 30s/early 40s and predated Orwell's ANIMAL FARM. It was the same basic concept -- the animals take over a farm -- only played more benignly in the Freddy the Pig books. The series continued through the 50s, maybe into the early 60s. The characters were interesting and fun, and there was a lot of social satire woven into the books. The local sheriff kept crime low by making his jail a resort, so criminals would commit a crime then stand around and wait to be caught in hopes of being sentenced there, thus keeping them off the streets and not committing more crimes...

[sun tzu]

One of the classics of my childhood was "Odysseey from River Bend", by Tom McGowen. In a small village (with medieval-level tech at the very most) populated by various woodland animals, two raccoon children find a mysterious artefact belonging to "Those Who Were And Are No More", the mysterious beings who once ruled the world. An elder badger, upon studying the artefact, manages to pinpoint the location of the ancient city of Those Who Were And Are No More, and mounts an expedition there in the hope of gaining an understanding of their powers to help the village. As a child, I think the book had the combined effect of making me love reading and starting the development of my rationalistic mindset.

[Shem the Penman]

When I was at primary school our head teacher was an American draft dodger (true!) and he introduced us to these books about little kid called Treehorn who goes green among other adventures, brilliant stuff. I've no idea who they were by but they were American.

Florence Parry Heide wrote three books about Treehorn, with illos by Edward Gorey.

And Mordecai Richler did a sequel to Jacob Two-Two Meets the Hooded Fang, called Jacob Two-Two and the Dinosaur. Not nearly as good, I thought, but then it's a sequel.

As for me ... I always enjoyed The Pushcart War by Jean Merrill (IIRC), a funny novel about a battle for space between pushcart owners and truck drivers in the crowded streets of lower Manhattan.

(edited to add a few more I thought of after driving to work ... )

Natalie Babbitt is probably best known for Tuck Everlasting, but I always liked her The Search for Delicious, a gentle little fantasy, better -- as well as the somewhat twisted fun of The Devil's Storybook and The Devil's Other Storybook.

Ellen Raskin has only four books to her credit that I know of, but they're all worth seeking out. Her specialty is weird, trippy mysteries filled with strange characters, twisty plots, and wordplay. I think I've praised The Westing Game here before, but The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon -- I Mean Noel, The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, and Figgs and Phantoms are equally good.

[Jonathan Bogart]

There was a series of books about Freddy the Pig that started in the late 30s/early 40s and predated Orwell's ANIMAL FARM.

By Walter R. Brooks. Yeah, those were great.

[Matthew E]

I don't know if these are obscure, necessarily, but I do think it's easy not to have heard of them:

Arthur Ransome's 'Swallows and Amazons' series, written in the '30s, about a bunch of English kids who have adventures pretending to be pirates and explorers and stuff. One of the kids, Nancy Blackett, has got to be one of the great characters in all of fiction.

Elizabeth Enright's Melendy Family books. Four of them: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, Spiderweb For Two. Written in the '40s and '50s. About a family of kids in New York City who eventually move to a house way out in the country. Both idyllic and witty.

The 'Three Investigators' series, by various authors. Originally introduced by Alfred Hitchcock. Three teenage detectives in a small town in California. The early ones in the series (written by Robert Arthur) are the best.

[Buzz Dixon]

re Freddy the Pig

By Walter R. Brooks. Yeah, those were great.

Yeah, that's right. He was an advertising man in his day job, as I recall.

Another cool thing about Freddy & Co. was that they were into cosplay at least forty years ahead of everybody else!

[Subotai]

The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher - The White Mountains, The City of Gold and Lead, and The Pool of Fire.

This needs to be filmed.

[niall mc cann]

I think the beeb did film the tripods, didn't they? Or was it ITV?

Anyway, i'd suggest anyone look out a book called "King Death's Garden" by Ann Halam. It's the brilliant story of a kid who's parents leave the country for work reasons, who gets sent to stay with an old auntie to finish out the school term before joining them. The aunt lives in a big house once owned by a visionary/madman/scientist, next door to a huge graveyard; Maurice (the kid) soon discovers that if he falls asleep on one of the graves, he would dream the memories of the person buried there... It was genuinely creepy (to an 11/12 year old), and it's really stayed with me...

I'll never forget the mysterious girl who seemed to hang around in the gravyard all the time casually warning the protaganist, "You shouldn't pick the flowers that grow in King Death's Garden, Maurice...".

Still sends shivers up and down me...

[Rob Allen]

Anyone remember The Teaspoon Tree?

[Subotai]

I think the beeb did film the tripods, didn't they? Or was it ITV?

They did the first book, I think. But it was recently re-optioned; would make a killer series.

[Matt K]

I never read it, but Sylvia Platt wrote a children's book (a friend of mine owned it). Not just obscure, but kind of odd and a little creepy.

[Solaris]

The Green Knowe series... by L.M. Boston. All about this estate in England called Green Knowe, and it's magical properties. Very nice series, rather scary and spooky at times. I think "The Children of Greene Knowe" was the first book...

The Court of the Stone Children by Elanor Cameron was also an interesting book.

Hmmm... In more modern reading, I intensely prefer Garth Nix's Sabriel books, and Tamora Pierce's books, to Phillip Pullman's series.