October TIOLI: An old-fashioned type of children's story

I meant to take more time and create a good introductory post, but I figure it's better to start the thread now so that other people can use it! So, here's the thread for discussing old-fashioned type children's stories. There's already been a lot of good discussion in the main TIOLI thread that I'll add in here when I have a chance.

Edit: here's a link to the relevant wiki page.

This challenge was inspired by The Willoughbys, and you can get ideas for it from the recommendations lists for that book.

Thanks to Kerry for actually picking up a copy of The Willoughbys and finding the description of these books along with a list! Books of the past that are heavy on piteous but appealing orphans, ill-tempered and stingy relatives, magnanimous benefactors, and transformations wrought by winsome children. (Note that you don't actually have to read books written in the past, just books with that sort of feeling.)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (1884)
Anne of Green Gables by Lucy M Montgomery (1908)
The Bobbsey Twins and Baby May by Laura Lee Hope (1924)
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens (1843)
Heidi by Johanna Spyri (1872)
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl (1961)
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (1847)
Little Women by Louisa M Alcott (1868)
Mary Poppins by PL Travers (1934
Pollyanna by Eleanor H Porter (1913)
Ragged Dick by Horatio Alger Jr. (1867)
The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1909)
Toby Tyler; or ten weeks with the circus by James Otis (1923)

and thanks to Jenn for offering a whole suggestion list of her own creation:

Little Women
Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom
Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost
Five Children and It
Little House in the Big Woods
Five Little Peppers and How They Grew
Betsy-Tacy books
The Secret Garden and A Little Princess
Paintbox Summer
Alice in Wonderland
The Wizard of Oz
Treasure Island
Kidnapped
Where the Red Fern Grows
A Tale of Two Cities

Just dropping by to say I love this challenge: I read kids' books all the time (perhaps not all the time) and I'm glad to find others who don't feel demeaned, silly, insert unkind adjective here, about doing that. I read Five Children and It last month, as I wanted to get a better feel for The Children's Book.

I see some old favorites here; I thought no one but myself remembered A Girl of the Limberlost and Freckles.

I'm afraid I'm not participating in this challenge this month, but I'd like to provide a few more recommendations:

The Magic Books series by Edward Eager (1950s):
http://www.librarything.com/series/Magic+Books+Reading+Order
Very Nesbit-esque. Children find something magical and make wishes on it, but somehow things always go wrong.

The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series by Betty MacDonald (1940s & 50s):
http://www.librarything.com/series/Mrs.+Piggle-Wiggle
Children have behavioral problems (back-talking, selfishness, tattle-telling, etc). Stay-at-home mothers fret. Fathers shake their heads and go back to reading the paper. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle saves the day.

The All-of-a-Kind Family Series by Sydney Taylor (1950s):
http://www.librarything.com/series/All-Of-A-Kind+Family
A family with far too many children lives in New York City.

Ok, I've added a couple to the wiki and as they are children's books I hope to get to them this month. I've had The Penderwicks home from the library a few times but never got round to reading it, so hopefully this time I will, and I've been admiring the cover of The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place for a few months now, so hope to read that as well.
I'd love to read a Sydney Taylor book, and another classic book that I should read is The Family from One End Street but I've already listed too many TIOLI challenge books for the month!

Another good source of old-fashioned children's books worth reading is the New York Review Children's Collection.

Lots of good ones here, I'll add more:

I reread Ruth Sawyer's Roller Skates last month for the "controversial" challenge, and think it would fit well here - a 10 year old stays with family friends while her parents are away for a year and explores 1890s New York City on her roller skates - it was first published in the 1930s.

I want to try and fit in Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess this month, another orphan story (it would have fitted my challenge last month as it's also a school story!)

If anyone didn't get to Daddy-Long-Legs last month, there's that, and there's also Dear Enemy in which her college friend starts taking over running the orphanage where Judy was brought up.

Gillian Avery started publishing her books in the 1950s, many have a Victorian setting - Maria in The Warden's Niece is another orphan but not all her characters are.

I am going to participate in this challenge - I am going to re-read my mostest favourite child's book - The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge.

I can also see that my list of want-to-read is going to get longer!!!

I'm reading The Pembertons...but I renew my suggestion of Elizabeth Enright as a wonderful old-fashioned storyteller for the youth of America.

#8: I loved The Four Story Mistake by Enright, so I second Richard's recommendation.

I am going to read both The Enchanted Castle and Five Children and It for this challenge.

So you're joining in after all, Stasia.

#10: Yes, I have been sucked into the madness once again :)

I'm glad we sucked you in, Stasia :). It seems appropriate since this challenge was inspired by comments on your thread, after all!

Oh, and I had forgotten about The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place! It had appeared on my wishlist recently, probably thanks to someone in this group, so I'll see if I can fit it in as well.

And I'd like to read all the books in #6 too... One month is just too short for this challenge!

>4 norabelle414:: I loved Mrs. Piggle Wiggle when I was a kid!!! I still remember the stories.

I'm planning to read Anne of Green Gables which I have never read before! I KNOW! Hard to believe. Also have never read any of the Little House on the Prairie books. I was deprived as a child! ;o)

At a yard sale this morning I happened to see a copy of Roller Skates for 75 cents... so of course I bought it immediately, especially since the lovely people running the yard sale had given me a free cup of lemonade!

Terri, I hadn't read Anne of Green Gables until last year. Better late than never!

Was it worth the wait Zoe?

Oh, it was definitely worth reading!

Terri, you get the joy of reading them all now.

#12: Yes, I seem to have been somewhat inspirational as far as this month's challenges go :)

Okay. The Penderwicks was really, really old-fashioned, and wow was it hard to stay awake. I don't think there's any reason to review it fully, since I'm not a kids' librarian, and I surely would NOT recommend it to the adult audience I speak to unless they need help drifting off. It's world-class at the gentle aufgedriften into das schleepies, though!

#20 - I've had it home from the library a few times but have never felt much like reading past the first page. I will make an effort this month though as it does receive a lot of praise. Though I do wonder with some children's books that adults rave about, do today's children get as excited by them or are the adults reliving their own childhood reading?
Anyway a children's book with a great fantasy setting for you to try, Richard, has to be D.M. Cornish's Foundling. There's this orphan, Rossamünd, a boy with a girl's name who is chosen to train as a lamplighter.

#20: Sorry you did not like that one more, Richard. I enjoyed it myself. I agree with Kerry's recommendation of Foundling too.

I'm going to try and read The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston which was originally published in 1954 for this challenge. I also have The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights by John Masefield in my TBR pile which I may get to this month.

#23 The Greene Knowe books are wonderful - and the John Masefield: I do hope you enjoy them.

My wishlist keeps growing and growing. There are far too many books I want to get through this month!

25: I so know that feeling, but that's always the way for me.

There's an interesting article in today's Guardian on girls' fiction, and particularly on ballet stories old and new:

http://bit.ly/aaWlSw

Thought provoking for me as an old fashioned socialist feminist with a love of old fashioned girls' books.... though I can't get excited by a lot of the new ones.

#26 Interesting article. Of the older books mentioned, I only read Ballet Shoes, which I loved - but I seem to recall only one of the three orphaned sisters was into ballet, and I rather preferred the other sisters. I agree re the apparently very limited range of subjects which publishers seem to think girls are interested in. And I have tried hard to avoid buying any of those pink glittery ones for my various god-daughters.

Hi! New to TIOLI and wondered if The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe qualifies in here?

#26 & 27 I can't remember if I ever read Ballet Shoes (perhaps I should address that) but I loved the Sadlers Wells series by Lorna Hill.

#28 The children in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe aren't orphans but they're sent away from home, the housekeeper is stingy, the professor could be a magnanimous benefactor and there is a transformation of one character (mustn't give spoilers) so I'd say yes. What do others think?

I realise now you mention it that I'd missed the bit in Zoe's post (#2) where she says "Books of the past that are heavy on piteous but appealing orphans, ill-tempered and stingy relatives, magnanimous benefactors, and transformations wrought by winsome children." and I have no idea whether the books I listed in post #23 above actually fit the challenge properly rather than just being old. Anyone got any ideas? I guess I could read them and find out!

Oh, that's just to give a general idea; I'm not actually being picky at all about what books people include.

Hi, Apolline,

Welcome to the TIOLI challenges. I hope you find them fun!

I started The Penderwicks as a subway read earlier today, and I enjoyed the first chapter despite Richard's comments, so that's encouraging. It will be interesting to see what other people think.

After we've read some more books, I'd also like to consider which ones "feel" like old-fashioned children's books and why. Do the elements listed by Lowry ("piteous but appealing orphans, ill-tempered and stingy relatives, magnanimous benefactors, and transformations wrought by winsome children") seem key? Are there other important elements that she left out? Etc.

I'm sure The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe fits - being an orphan isn't necessary, it's about making the children more independent/interesting. Lucinda in Roller Skates is freed from conventional family life by her parents going away for a year, and declares herself a temporary orphan.

#27> Ballet Shoes - one sister is interested in mechanics or something, one in drama and one in ballet. I read Streatfield when I was young but not the others.

Nowadays publishers love giving multi-book deals to these themed-based writers to churn out series because they're huge sellers and make lots of money. There is a lot of great lit out there for children and girls in particular that doesn't revolve round fairies, horses and dance but these books don't rake in the big $$$ that publishers love/need. One excellent UK publisher to follow is David Fickling Books, almost everything they do is exemplary.

I'm not involved in this challenge, but this category caught my attention. I offer two titles not mentioned so far, one old and one new. Rosemary by Josephine Lawrence, if you can find it, is a delightful old fashioned story of three young girls and their much older brother coping with a motherless home. There's a gruff housekeeper with a heart of gold, and a clueless auntie who comes to take care of them. It's been a favorite of mine since I was nine years old, and it has held up to adult re-readings. The newer offering is Hattie On Her Way, sequel to Hill Hawk Hattie (which would be good to read first), by my old school friend Clara Gillow Clark. Hattie Bell Basket, a 10-year-old girl who has lost her mother, is the narrator of both books. In the first, she embarks on a rafting expedition with her father on the Delaware River, disguised as a boy. In Hattie on Her Way, Hattie's father leaves her with her "high society" grandmother (who she has never met before) in a gingerbread house overlooking the Hudson River, so she can get a good education. After a rocky start, Hattie and her grandmother start to warm up to each other, but there is a mystery hanging over the house and Hattie is determined to learn the truth about her mother's past, as well as her grandfather's mysterious disappearance. Good stuff.

#31. Thanks! It's a bit overwhelming, but I will hopefully get into it.

>36 Apolline:
Once you realise it isn't compulsory to enter every challenge you'll be fine :)

I've just started my childhood favourite The little White Horse and LOVING it :)

#35: Thanks for the suggestions, Linda!

I do find the amount of rubbish published as children's books quite depressing.

I actually enjoyed quite a lot of the ballet stories, I particularly remember the Drina books, more so than Mabel Esther Allan's books under her own name which I used to also get out of the library - I didn't know Jean Estoril was a pseudonym used by MEA until I read that article.

But those tacky series covers now don't appeal. Even the old classics have some naff covers - I have a very pink looking copy of Ballet Shoes which I found in a charity shop and plan to give to my sister, as she has some of my old Noel Streatfeilds but not that one (I'm keeping my late 70s?/early 80s copy).

I just picked up another L. Frank Baum "Oz" book from the library, and I'm thinking I'm going to add it to the challenge. It's Ozma of Oz and is the third book in the series (I think).

Karen O.

#40: That is the one I am up to next too, Karen. If you are going to read it this month, so will I.

> 40, 41

Points!! :)

I need to read Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH with my daughter for her Battle of the Books. I can't find anyplace else to fit it. Would it qualify as an "old fashioned" story? It won the newbery in 1972, so it's old (we don't need to debate that since I'm already running "the Big 4-0 challenge" for my 40th birthday (a al 1970)). I really don't know the story, but the LT tags include "science fiction" so would it still count for this challenge???

Hmm. It's not exactly what I'd have considered an old-fashioned type of children's story, but I don't remember it very well. Maybe someone else can make a case for it?

>32 _Zoe_: So The Penderwicks didn't make you long for your comfy bed and a nice nap?

>45 richardderus: Nope, can't say that it did. But I had endured enough sleep deprivation over the week that my body may have forgotten what sleep was.

>46 _Zoe_: Ah, youth!

40-42: Yay! That will be so cool, Stasia, to have you reading old Ozma of Oz too! And I like points, SqueakyChu--who doesn't?!

Karen O.

> 43

Patrick, your book should fit your own challenge. Wasn't Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH published in 1970?

#48: I have already started re-reads of the first two books in the series so that I can get caught up to Ozma of Oz, Karen. I am definitely in for the points! lol

>>49 SqueakyChu: - Nope - I missed it by a year. It won the Newbery in 1972 and was published in 1971. So close...

I went ahead and listed it on the wiki for this challenge. I've listened to about an hour of it so far, and all we've had are talking mice and birds scared of a cat trying to help Timothy get well. Sounds pretty old fashioned to me - actually so far, it's been mind numbingly dull. But the Rats just showed up, and I have no idea what NIMH is, so we'll see if it takes a turn.

I don't want to dilute Zoe's challenge, but I've gotten to the point where I hate to read a book that won't count toward TIOLI, and I can't find anyplace else for it to fit - I even looked up song lyrics just in case.

I just fixed the CK, which was showing 1970.

It will be interesting to see whether you still think it fits after you get to the end.

In defense of old-fashioned children's books, I'd like to point out that "mind-numbingly dull" wasn't really one of the criteria I was thinking of, though that seems to be one of the main things people are seeing in them (see also Richard's comments about The Penderwicks. Are old-fashioned children's stories really dull? I'd personally suggest that some more modern stories are completed focused on action at the expense of everything else; Scott Westerfeld's Uglies trilogy comes to mind (certainly the third book, Specials), though that's YA rather than children's.

> 51

NIMH... I haven't read the book, but isn't that the National institute of Mental Health?

>53 SqueakyChu: Yup.

Wikipedia says: "The work was inspired by the research of Dr. John B. Calhoun on mice and rat population dynamics at the National Institute of Mental Health."

Are old-fashioned children's stories really dull?

Interesting question. I wonder if the answer is in how they are read. I remember that, as an adult when my kids were young, I read some classics that I hadn't read myself when young as bedtime stories for my children. I read them, one chapter a night, and wholeheartedly enjoyed them. I'm suspect that, had I read each as a novel purely for my own amusement, I might not have liked them as much.

Some I most enjoyed were The Yearling (which made all of us cry), The Secret Garden, Charlotte's Web, Winnie-the-Pooh, Peter Pan, and The Little Prince.

I never read Toby Tyler; or ten weeks with the circus to my kids, but it was one of my own *very* favorite childhood books.

I did not find A Year Down Yonder dull. I actually like children's books - although I evidently put out the impression that I don't. Yonder is about 10 years old, so still a contemporary read, but it is written about the 30's. Both my daughter and I enjoyed it, it fit this challenge beautifully on how it captured that time. Yes, there was some humor, but the way the story line moved kept it from being dull.

Back to whether Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH fits the challenge, I guess we've circled back to my being unclear on the definition. I just finished Clementine by Sara Pennypacker and placed it in the long name challenge because I didn't think it would fit this one. It's only 2 years old, and everytihng about it was contemporary (and annoying - not dull, but annoying - I refuse to believe an 8 year old could be that out of touch). But if Scott Westerfeld's series would fit, I guess the definition is broader than I thought. I've not read that series, but isn't it about a future where the people abide by a universal sense of beauty and force surgery upon others to meet it? That doesn't seem very old fashioned.

Oh, and what's "the CK" that was showing 1970???

Sorry, I was unclear--I don't think Westerfeld's books are "old-fashioned". I was using them as a contrast to say that, even if old-fashioned stories tend to move a bit slowly, the faster pace of modern stories isn't necessarily an improvement.

On the work page there's a section called Common Knowledge (CK), which is information about the work that anyone can edit. One of the sections there is Original Publication Date, which had been listed as 1970.

> 57

what's "the CK" that was showing 1970???

It's an easy way to find works published in 1970.

Take a peek.

Isn't LT full of surprises? :)

I just started The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling for this challenge, and am really enjoying it so far. It's definitely old-fashioned, in that key elements include a young governess fresh out of the "Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females" and an enormous estate home complete with mysterious howling, but it's self-consciously old-fashioned in a way that I'm finding very entertaining. Recommended if anyone else is looking for ideas for this challenge....

I finished The Mysterious Howling and was very happy with it overall. It's exactly the kind of book I was looking for for this challenge: governess, orphans, wealthy estate, mystery, matter-of-fact writing style, a good dose of humour.... I'd definitely recommend it to anyone who's still looking for something to read this month (or in future months, for that matter). Lots of fun.

Patrick, if we would consider The Wind in the Willows an old-fashioned children's book, then I think we could fit Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH into the challenge. I hope that you find it more engaging now that the rats are making an appearance. Although it was written after my childhood, I very much enjoyed it and found the questions it raised about very substantial matters quite powerful. More when you have finished.

So many favorites have been mentioned! The Little White Horse was my favorite book in 6th grade and is still dear to my heart. Have you read Linnets and Valerians, Sally, also by Goudge and also one I love that would qualify?

I have A Little Princess, The Secret Garden, Five Little Peppers, Anne of Green Gables, the Nesbits and many others, including Freckles and A Girl of the Limberlost. Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and Pollyanna and Elsie Dinsmore haven't been mentioned yet. The Search for Delicious is another charmer. Such fun!

I love Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. And how about Susannah of the Mounties?

#61> Zoe - I'm only one chapter in on The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling but it definitely looks like being a good read.

Wow. I think my wishlist just collapsed under its own weight. This thread is a danger zone! Now I remember why I haven't been doing all the TIOLI challenges. But this one is simply too tempting. If I may add to the dangerously large list, I suggest The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson, a modern book that has a wonderfully old-fashioned feel to it - and it has an orphan as well. I read it this summer and highly recommend it. Now, off to read similar tales for this month!

This thread is a danger zone!

Success! ;)

I think my sister has a copy of The Star of Kazan, so I'll see if I can get my hands on it--not in time for this month's challenge, though.

To be *absolutely* clear, I didn't think The Penderwicks was eye-deformingly dull *because* it was old-fashioned, but because it was eye-deformingly dull. It happened also to be old-fashioned, in the sense that the motherless kids with an absent-minded but good-natured father go to a place where the Rebel can rebel while irritating the Caregiver, the Nasty Neighbor, and allowing the Cygnet Sister to have tantalizing contact with the Butch Manual Laborer, etc etc and they all go home sadder, wiser, and completely safe from all harm.

It's a good, solid story structure, and an evergreen of chapter-book level novels. Nothing wrong with it, since the lessons that it contains are valid and valuable today, and always, at least as far as I can see. But this iteration of it caused sleep apnea in me.

I just finished The Penderwicks and have to wonder what the appeal is with this one. I feel that the highs and lows of a story were ironed out to make it a gentle but inevitably tame story. I missed the ages of the various sisters and from how Rosalind daydreamed about Cagney I thought she must be at least 14 or 15 so was surprised in the last pages to read that she was only 12. I'm not a fan of children's books that push this 'romantic' element at such a young age.
The old-fashioned style books that I enjoy usually have a magical element to them that adds to their appeal. Joan Aiken's The Serial Garden: the complete Armitage Family collection comes to mind.
It does make me want to reread What Katy Did which I loved as a child, and not much could happen once Katy has her accident.

>68 avatiakh: I had a similar reaction to Rosalind until I realized that when I was 12, I had a small crush on a kid four years older than me, too.

I have Savvy home from the library, which came up on the recommendations page for The Penderwicks, I'm just trying to polish off a couple of books before I start it...

I've bought The Serial Garden, though I'm reading the stories included in the collections published in her lifetime at the moment. The Harriet and Mark stories are lovely but so are her others.

I also love the Katy books - I recently bought new copies of all 3 because 2 had gone AWOL, and I had tatty secondhand hardback copies.

I've just discovered that NYRB Children's books have reprinted an E C Spykman, Terrible, Horrible Edie - I have 2 other books in the series and I'm sorely tempted by this one - written in the 1960s about a late 19th century American child and her family.

I finished The Wonderful Wizard of Oz yesterday and have moved on to the second book in the series.

>62 ronincats: I was aware Gouge had written other books - I read her adult book Green Dolphin Country but hadn't looked into the others - think I may have to do some chasing up :)

#62, 73 Another Gouge that I enjoyed as an older child (I think it was a slightly abridged version) was Towers in the Mist which features among other things a poor orphan who walks all the way to Oxford determined to become a scholar. Worth looking for if you enjoy Gouge - but perhaps not quite an old-fashioned children's story, despite the orphan's presence.

Yes, genny, Towers in the Mist by Goudge is NOT a children's book. Besides the two I listed, the sequels to A City of Bells, Sister of the Angels and The Blue Hills (Henrietta's House in England) are childrens, a well as some I've never been able to find over here--Smoky House and The Valley of Song.

Okay, so can a book be called "old-fashioned" when it's science fiction, features aliens and hovercraft, and is rife with futuristic technology? Because I am reading Tony DiTerlizzi's new novel The Search for WondLa right now, and other than the stuff I just mentioned, this is totally an old school orphan-searches-for-a-place-to-belong kind of story. Really!

So, maybe the spaceships might be a LITTLE out of our parameters... and the orphan does seem to be some sort of (possible spoiler, though unconfirmed!) clone, perhaps... and the mother figure is a robot...

Hmmm. Maybe this doesn't count after all. :)

I'm also mulling over my latest read, The Witch's Guide to Cooking with children is a reinvention of Hansel and Gretel, a modern setting and that old-fashioned feel to the characters.

Finished The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: The Mysterious Howling and could easily devour another book in this series right now. Loved it, a real treasure.
I'll resist adding The Witch's Guide to Cooking with Children to this challenge and add it to the almost horror challenge instead.

I'm so glad that you loved The Incorrigible Children too. I'm really looking forward to the next book.

I've just discovered that there is an omnibus edition available of all 6 Mary Poppins books. I prefer reading single book volumes, but as I only have 2 of these it seems like quite good value anyway.

Ooh! That (omnibus Mary Poppins) sounds like the way to go! I'm adding it to my TBB (to be bought) list (I just invented that)

Karen O.

I've just bought it!

I actually got Mary Poppins out from the library for this challenge, but I didn't list it because no one else had and I already have more than enough books. Maybe now I'll squeeze it in after all....

I've just started The Willoughbys and A Little Princess but hope I might be able to sneak in one or two more when I finish a couple of current reads.

I'm glad you're reading The Willoughbys; I really loved that one! And I've actually never read A Little Princess, but I don't think this will be the month for it.

I finished Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit and am now on to her The Enchanted Castle.

Just finished Savvy and enjoyed it quite a bit. Though the kids aren't orphans, it is a sort of old-fashioned adventure tale when Mibs decides she just has to get to her father at the hospital and sneaks aboard a bus as a stowaway with a few other unexpected travelers.

Finished The Willoughbys today - such a fun book, though I'm not sure it's a children's book at all - is it really aimed at adults who like reading kids' books.

I'm reading A Little Princess and Ballet Shoes, and I picked up Mary Poppins this morning, and this is such a fun challenge. Thank you.

>88 elkiedee: I'm so glad you're enjoying the challenge! I really loved your Back to School challenge last month, so we're even ;)

I agree that The Willoughbys might be aimed more at adults, but I certainly don't have a problem with that! I'm hoping to discover more similar books. So far, I'd say The Mysterious Howling comes closest.

I'm scheduled to read Ballet Shoes and still have Mary Poppins out from the library too, but the days are slipping away and I'm not sure I'll fit in either of them this month. I'd also like to read some Edith Nesbit because I haven't read any of her books, but I certainly won't have time for that. At least I can say that Savvy doesn't really appeal for some reason, despite the praise.

I finished Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH and although there are no governesses or orphans (although there is a dead parent - classic plot point) I feel comfortable keeping this as a broadly defined "old fashioned" book. It has the talking animals working together to solve a problem - think Bambi (also with a dead parent) if Thumper were genetically modified. The rats are Lab Rats (so at least there is an explanation of how the rats can read) but other than that rather modern twist (given this was written in 1971) the story itself was very traditional. It's a Newbery Winner (1972) to boot, so doubly recommended

I'm glad you enjoyed Mrs Frisby in the end.

Would LM Montgomery's The Blue Castle qualify for this? It's not about children, per se, but it's usually found in a YA/children's section of a library, being aimed at the same crowd who read all the "Anne" novels. A bit like Anne of Ingleside rather than Anne of Green Gables. I guess the question is, do the protagonists have to be children? It's certainly an old-fashioned story aimed at children.

Any input on this?? I'm likely to read it this weekend...

Sure, it has enough YA tags that I think it's fine. I'm really not being picky about this.

Cool, thanks! It's kind of a subjective category, so I wanted a ruling!!! Will add it to the wiki.

Suzanne, polls are fun to use, too, if you want input to a TIOLI question.

ETA: The informal rule for polls is that the majority rules - and the poll closes on the last day of the month.

Have just finished The Little White Horse is a re-read and as usual LOVED IT!!!!!

Have done my review.

My very loved copy has finally fallen apart - so have ordered myself a reprint of the original - fully illustrated!!

I'm trying to find something that I can read for this but it's limited to my shelves because I've only just found this (and by 'found', I mean 'got pointed in the direction of') and it has to be short enough to finish this week. My wishlist has already gone haywire from scrolling down the thread. I was thinking of The 13 Clocks but it's old-fashioned in a different way, no poorly orphans (but a great first line "Once upon a time, in a gloomy castle on a lonely hill, where there were thirteen clocks that wouldn't go, there lived a cold, aggressive Duke, and his niece, the Princess Saralinda"). So, I think I'll try and finish Anne of Green Gables instead because it occurs to me I may never have read this (how I omitted that, I don't know because I read most everything else that was classic and childhood when I was younger).

Finished The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe yesterday. My first intentional TIOLI:)

Hooray for Bente!!

Klarusu, welcome - I saw you have an E Nesbit book - if it includes Five Children and It, that's quite a short, quick read.

I read Anne of Green Gables for the first time last year, which is really unforgivable considering I'm Canadian. And it was good. I still haven't read the rest of the series, though.

#101, Thanks! And yes, I do have Five Children and It, I may have to try it too sometime even if it doesn't make it to the table this week. I haven't read it since I was a child.

#102, I thought Canadians were born reading Anne of Greengables? Is that not so? You've shattered my illusions. I'm half-way through already. It really is a little piece of magic. This is a really good category, it's throwing up all sorts of things I've either missed or forgotten about.

>103 klarusu: If it's any consolation, I did see it performed as a school play when I was in Grade 2, so I had some idea what it was about. Unfortunately I was told too many times that I just had to read it, which of course led me to do the opposite.

I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge :)

I am finally coming back to this thread...

Did anyone else read The Mysterious Benedict Society?

Unfortunately not :(. It's still on my short list of books to get to, but I even removed it from the wiki this morning because I don't think it's happening this month. I'll return to this thread when I do read it, though, even if the month is done.