August 5, 2005 6:38 PM
Favorite reads: a child's point of view
Mostly, I read nonfiction. Reality is quite the adventure for me!
I enjoy autobiographies, especially those which begin from a child's point of view. Like Richard Wright's Black Boy . Or Yoko Kawashawa's So Far From the Bamboo Grove. Or Jeannette Walls' The Glass Castle..
The child's point of view is the bridge that carries me into the territory of fiction (which I am making a special effort to read this summer to improve my writing). I don't know what it is, but give me anything first person from a child's eyes, and I am captivated. To Kill a Mockingbird, Yann Martel's The Life of Pi, Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the NightTime (written from the simple and straightforward point of view of an autistic boy, a style imitated and complicated by Jonathan Safran Foer in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the story of a boy who loses his father in the Twin Towers).
And my love of child's viewpoint even extends to movies - like Spielberg's The Empire of the Sun , which was Christian Bale's first movie and definitely showed what a fine actor he was destined to be. (Anyone know his second movie? It's quite a classic.)
So I have two questions: does anyone else share this fondness? And if so, what books do you recommend?
Comments
Have you read "A Child Called It" by David Pelzer? It is a sad book, but it has a happy ending.
Posted by: Rachel | August 5, 2005 10:22 PM
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is great fiction startiong from a child's point of view, Totto-Chan: The little girl at the window by Kuroyanagi is excellent.
The Cape Ann by Sullivan was pretty good.
Liar's Club by Karr.
Kite Runner.
Boy by Roald Dahl is great, as is Beverly Cleary's A Girl from Yamhill.
I used to have a thing for that kind of writing as well.
Posted by: Gen | August 5, 2005 11:54 PM
They're not exactly written from a child's point of view, but you might enjoy the books by Torey Hayden about her work as a teacher with autistic and mentally disturbed children.
As for fiction, one of the best books I read this year was Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. It's written from the viewpoint of a boy whose older brother becomes a fugitive from the law. Very good.
Posted by: Sherry | August 6, 2005 1:50 AM
North to Freedom which they made a movie out of called I am David is excellent.
And another book called "Just David" is also excellent.
Sorry I don't have the authors handy but they are both excellent and written from a child's point of view.
Posted by: Spunky | August 6, 2005 5:56 PM
Rachel - I did read David Pelzer's book. I see you are into reading about people who transcend messed-up childhoods too :) - like The Glass Castle.
Thanks to everyone else for all the suggestions - my To Read pile will grow another few feet now!
Posted by: barbaracurtis | August 8, 2005 3:03 PM
Yeah, they give me hope for myself. ;)
Posted by: Rachel | August 8, 2005 7:01 PM
When I wanted to introduce my daughter to Shakespeare without the difficulty of the language and the play format, I found "Shakespeare Stories" by Leon Garfield. There are two volumes. We read Hamlet before seeing the play in New York and Othello before seeing the opera in Florence. Her uncle sang the role of Othello and it was great to know the complete story as the opera was in Italian. They are wonderful books especially for middle age readers.
Posted by: srp | August 8, 2005 7:37 PM
