Foreword

I’m enjoying Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games. A lot. Furthermore, I was correct in anticipating what it would remind me of—that is to say, which books of my acquaintance from years past.

            And here’s the thing. Worthy books reach an enormous audience these days—and rightly so. Sadly, many equally worthy books published pre-Internet will never receive the same attention. That goes double, I suspect, for works for children and young adults. And that’s a shame.

            Classics like Charlotte’s Web, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and Alice in Wonderland won’t be quickly forgotten. Nor (I sincerely hope) will Goodnight Moon or Where the Wild Things Are.* But what about the books that haven’t ingrained themselves as classics in the popular consciousness? Who will speak for them?

            I will.

            If when reading a popular present-day book, I am reminded of one I read in a time before it might have gotten a boost from the Internet, I will write about it. This being a blog, I of course invite you to help me by adding your suggestions. I’m thinking of an approach like: “If you liked The Hunger Games, you might be interested in Alexei Panshin’s Rite of Passage.” Because that’s where we’ll start.  

*And wouldn’t you know, the very day after I wrote these sentences in my first draft of this post, Parent & Child released its “100 Greatest Books for Kids” list. Charlotte’s Web, Goodnight Moon, and Where the Wild Things Are are numbers 1, 2 ,and 5. Prescience! But where are the other two?

Alice is arguably not a children’s book (let’s talk later on about what is and is not!). But then, A Wrinkle in Time placed as number 3—which I applaud—even though the factors that rule out Alice might equally apply.

But not to list Charlie & the Chocolate Family? Were these guys never kids?