Thought provoking kids fiction

[Telperion]

A Wrinkle In Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Subject: The main theme is two children rescuing (by resisting mental manipulation) their father, who has been captured by an oppressive entity that has complete control of a planet that he travelled to via 'tesseract': a form of instantaneous hyperdimensional travel. (I think this book is banned in the USA!)

Madeline L'Engle is amazing. 'A Wind In the Door' and 'A Swiftly Tilting Planet' are also good picks from this author.

Another book that is aimed at young adults/kids but which should be mandatory reading for everyone is 'The Giver' by Lois Lowry.

[bedower]

An alternative and thought-provoking look at fairy tales can be found in these Terry Pratchett books:

'Lords and Ladies'    -  Elves, Fairy Folk (and Quantum physics)
'Witches Abroad'      -  Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty and others
'The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents'   -  The Pied Piper of Hamlyn
'The Wee Free Men'   -  Fairyland and the Queen (who is a shapeshifter)
'Hogfather'     -   the origin of Father Christmas (book only, not the film)

That was an enlightening interpretation of 'Little Red Hat'; it's so obvious when it's explained that we wonder how we could have missed it the first time round. Although the wolf misdirecting LRH does not appear in the British version of this tale.

[Hildegarda]

"A Wrinkle in Time" is our all time favorite, and "The Little Prince" too!

Also: Gail Carson Levine's take on traditional fairy tale themes is very rich psychologically.  "Ella Enchanted", "Fairest", "The Fairy Dust and the Quest for the Egg", etc., here is an example:

http://www.amazon.com/Enchanted-Trophy-Newbery-Carson-Levine/dp/0064407055/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1218954360&sr=1-2

At birth, Ella is inadvertently cursed by an imprudent fairy named Lucinda, who bestows on her the "gift" of obedience. Anything anyone tells her to do, Ella must obey. Another girl might have been cowed by this affliction, but not feisty Ella: "Instead of making me docile, Lucinda's curse made a rebel of me. Or perhaps I was that way naturally." When her beloved mother dies, leaving her in the care of a mostly absent and avaricious father, and later, a loathsome stepmother and two treacherous stepsisters, Ella's life and well-being seem in grave peril. But her intelligence and saucy nature keep her in good stead as she sets out on a quest for freedom and self-discovery, trying to track down Lucinda to undo the curse, fending off ogres, befriending elves, and falling in love with a prince along the way. Yes, there is a pumpkin coach, a glass slipper, and a happily ever after, but this is the most remarkable, delightful, and profound version of Cinderella you've ever read.

[Alana]

"A Wrinkle in Time" is our all time favorite, and "The Little Prince" too!

The Little Prince was always a favorite of my brother and me, and so was Jonathan Livingston Seagull.

Stories and myths, all have esoteric meanings, and i find it very interesting how the storyline changes according to culture and geography of the people.

I saw Little Red Cap being mentioned, and recently i heard a story from Central/Eastern Europe (might have been Poland, not sure) where the story's ending is quite different than the mainstream one. There is no hunter at the end to kill the wolf, and once the grandma is eaten, well... she's gone for good. But when the wolf lies in bed dressed as grandma, and convinces the little Red Cap to lie in bed with him, the girl begins to observe how different his features are from those of an old woman. She asks questions, to verify her uneasy feelings, and the wolf's answers make her all the more worried. At a moment of courage, and after some thought, all the while pretending that she believes the wolf is her grandma, she tells the wolf that she needs to use the restroom. She assures him that she will be back, and so he does not worry, she unfixes  her woven red cap, and ties one end of the red thread on her leg and the other she gives to the wolf. The wolf agrees, but the little girl once out, unties the thread and runs away, for good.

And i think after that, she lived not bad, having learned how to recognize wolves, listen to her instincts, and plan escapes 

[Pantalaimon]

His Dark Materials was great - I really enjoyed them.

One of my favourites are the 'Enderverse' books by Orson Scott Card.  _http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enderverse_

There are some amazingy deep insights into human nature good and bad and I was constantly surprised at just how great these books were for children to read.  Gosh - I remember I even cried unexpectedly when a character I didn't even like died and her last words were just so moving that you just couldn't help feel sorry for her when earlier you were thinking how stupid and arrogant she was.  I really highly recommend reading all the Enderverse books in their original order, starting with Enders Game.

A friend recommended The Little Prince years ago thanks for reminding me to look it up.

[Hildegarda]

I am ecstatic over the Newberry award winner for this year:   " 'Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!' - Voices from a Medieval Village" by Laura Amy Schlitz
\\\http://www.amazon.com/Masters-Ladies-Voices-Medieval-Village/dp/0763615781/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1222583238&sr=8-1

from a review on the Amazon page:

Schlitz [..] wrote these 22 brief monologues to be performed by students at the school where she is a librarian; here, bolstered by lively asides and unobtrusive notes, and illuminated by Byrd's (Leonardo, Beautiful Dreamer) stunningly atmospheric watercolors, they bring to life a prototypical English village in 1255. Adopting both prose and verse, the speakers, all young, range from the half-wit to the lord's daughter, who explains her privileged status as the will of God. [..] Byrd, basing his work on a 13th-century German manuscript, supplies the first page of each speaker's text with a tone-on-tone patterned border overset with a square miniature. Larger watercolors, some with more intricate borders, accompany explanatory text for added verve. The artist does not channel a medieval style; rather, he mutes his palette and angles some lines to hint at the period, but his use of cross-hatching and his mostly realistic renderings specifically welcome a contemporary readership.[..] Ages 10 and up. [..]

Using a series of interconnected monologues and dialogues featuring young people living in and around an English manor in 1255, she offers first-person character sketches that build upon each other to create a finer understanding of medieval life. [..]Each of the 23 characters (between 10 and 15 years old) has a distinct personality and a societal role revealed not by recitation of facts but by revelation of memories, intentions, and attitudes. Sometimes in prose and more often in one of several verse forms, the writing varies nicely from one entry to the next. Historical notes appear in the vertical margins, and some double-page spreads carry short essays on topics related to individual narratives, such as falconry, the Crusades, and Jews in medieval society. Although often the characters' specific concerns are very much of their time, their outlooks and emotional states will be familiar to young people today. [..]

The book is masterfully written, authentic through and through, but most importantly, it is pure genius when it comes to emotional depth and universal understanding.  My favorite monologue is that on the part of Otho, the miller's son.  With its multi-layered thoughts, some of them as if coming directly from a Work-related book -- it just blew my mind.   

OTHO
The Miller’s Son


Father is the miller
As his father was of old,
And I shall be the miller
When my father’s flesh is cold. 
I know the family business –
It’s been drummed into my head:
Hoe to cheat the hungry customer
And earn my daily bread. 

Oh, God makes the water, and the water makes the river,
And the river turns the mill wheel
 and the wheel goes on forever.
Every man’s a cheater and so every man is fed,
For we feed upon each other,
when we seek our daily bread.

My father is a hard man,
Muscular and stout.
He swings a heavy cudgel
Whenever her walks out. 
My grandfather was like him
A man if gain and sin:
They found him in the millpond
With his skull bashed in. 

Oh, God made the water, and the water makes the river,
And the river turns the mill wheel
  and the wheel goes on forever.
I used to wonder why the peasants hated us so strong.
They think we pick their pockets –
  and they’re not far wrong. 

Flour in the flour sack,
Vermin in the flour.
Peasants waiting by the mill,
Hour after hour –
They curse us as they stand in line,
Enjoy their little talk.
My father grinds their flour
And replaces it with chalk.

Oh, God makes the water, and the water makes the river,
And the river turns the mill wheel
 and the wheel goes on forever.
When you think about the matter,
 it’s as good as any sermon,
For the villain feed the miller,
 and the miller feeds the vermin.

When I was only four years old,
Still babyish and unsteady,
I tried to play with common folk –
They hated me already.
They knew I was my father’s son –
My father serves the lord.
One day I’ll show them hating me
‘S a thing they can’t afford. 

Oh, God makes the water, and the water makes the river,
And the river turns the mill wheel
 and the wheel goes on forever.
There’s no use in looking back,
 for here’s the truth I’ve found:
It’s hunger, want, and wickedness
 that makes the world go ‘round. 

For every man’s a sinner,
And he wants his neighbor’s grain.
The peasant moves the boundary stone
And steals the lord’s demesne. 
The miller steals the flour,
And the baker steals the bread.
We’re hypocrits and liars –
And we all get fed. 

And half the world’s a-thieving,
 and the other half’s a-crawling.
The Mouth of Hell is gaping wide,
and all of us are falling.   
The Judgment Day is close at hand,
the hellfires are burning.
There’s no way to retrace our steps,
the mill wheel’s turning --   

For God makes the water, and the water makes the river,
And the river turns the mill wheel
 and the wheel goes on forever.
My father used to beat me sore –
I’ve learned that life is grim. 
And someday I will have a son – and God help him!

[rrraven]

another great author for children is IMO  Michael Ende  best known for The Neverending Story  but my favorite book is Momo
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momo_(novel)

An article by philosopher David Loy and literature professor Linda Goodhew called Momo "one of the most remarkable novels of the late twentieth century".[2] They further state that: "One of the most amazing things about Momo is that it was published in 1973. Since then, the temporal nightmare it depicts has become our reality."

Ende himself has said that "Momo is a tribute of gratitude to Italy and also a declaration of love,"[3] indicating that the author idealized the Italian way of life. Loy and Goodhew suggested that Ende's perspective on time coincided with his interest in Buddhism and that for example the deliberately slow character of Beppo might be regarded as a Zen master, even though Ende wrote the book long before his visits to Japan.[4]

When the book was published in the U.S. in 1985, Natalie Babbit from the Washington Post commented: "Is it a children's book? Not here in America."[5] Momo has not been reprinted in the U.S. after its first run in 1985 and thus has been deemed a "lost book" for Americans.[

there is even a wise old turtle called Cassiopea in there
RRR

[Hildegarda]

another gem  --  "Coraline" by Neil Gaiman. 

I bought this book on the recommendation of a friend.  It is said to be for ages 8 and up, but I don't see my 8-year-old reading this for couple of years at least.  The book is scary as all get out (Gaiman is a horror novelist and a graphic book writer, so no wonder) but man oh man, what a story. 

a review from Publishers Weekly:

[..]After Coraline and her parents move into an old house, Coraline asks her mother about a mysterious locked door. Her mother unlocks it to reveal that it leads nowhere: "When they turned the house into flats, they simply bricked it up," her mother explains. But something about the door attracts the girl, and when she later unlocks it herself, the bricks have disappeared. Through the door, she travels a dark corridor (which smells "like something very old and very slow") into a world that eerily mimics her own, but with sinister differences. "I'm your other mother," announces a woman who looks like Coraline's mother, except "her eyes were big black buttons." Coraline eventually makes it back to her real home only to find that her parents are missing--they're trapped in the shadowy other world, of course, and it's up to their scrappy daughter to save them. Gaiman twines his taut tale with a menacing tone and crisp prose fraught with memorable imagery ("Her other mother's hand scuttled off Coraline's shoulder like a frightened spider"), yet keeps the narrative just this side of terrifying. The imagery adds layers of psychological complexity (the button eyes of the characters in the other world vs. the heroine's increasing ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not; elements of Coraline's dreams that inform her waking decisions). McKean's scratchy, angular drawings, reminiscent of Victorian etchings, add an ominous edge that helps ensure this book will be a real bedtime-buster.

What this review doesn't pick up -- and  neither do the readers' reviews on Amazon -- is that the story is incredibly profound psychologically.  It is really all about narcissist's love.  "The other mother" is an archetypal creature that represents a desire to possess another person, to "give everything to her" on one's own terms, to create a fake world around a person.  To feed on her, to  manipulate and change her, to play games with her, to enlist others' help -- and and finally to destroy her and move on to the next victim.  This is what a  narcissist does.  It's the ultimate trickery, and the only was to save yourself is to protect yourself with knowledge, remember what is true, and think of others.  The accompanying imagery, both verbal and artistic, is making the message even more powerful. 

[Heimdallr]

Yeah, Coraline is a great little book.  If you're kid likes it, some of Gaiman's other works are pretty cool as well, especially the Sandman series and Stardust.  Also, Coraline will soon be out on film - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coraline_(film)

[Megan]

A Wrinkle In Time - Madeleine L'Engle
Subject: The main theme is two children rescuing (by resisting mental manipulation) their father, who has been captured by an oppressive entity that has complete control of a planet that he travelled to via 'tesseract': a form of instantaneous hyperdimensional travel. (I think this book is banned in the USA!)

I just watched A Wrinkle In Time the other night. Amazing! A tesseract is, specifically, a four dimensional object, the 4-D extension of a cube, so there is a direct reference here to the 4th dimension if not 4th density. This entity was not only in control of the other planet, but it had its designs on Earth and was causing Earth to be the way it was, if I followed the story correctly.

I wasn't too sure about the ending, and I don't want to give it away, but viewed from the right perspective (e.g. Lost Christianity) it might make some sense.

[Jedi Zippy]

I'm not a Tolle-fan, but i found this book for younger kids a good intro for discussion on how to deal with difficulties, more specifically bullies aka psychopaths. It's not enough of course (it's Tolle ), and needs further discussion with your kids. Nevertheless: Basic, but a worthwhile first step for really young kids. And let's be fair: conveying these kind of concepts to small children is not easy for any of us.

http://www.inner-growth.info/power_of_now_tolle/miltons_secret.htm

[obyvatel]

Interesting Sott article on the Grimm's fairy tales
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/244502-Fairy-Tales-of-Yore-and-the-Anti-Grimm