Thursday, October 13, 2011

Enid Blyton: Sharing my childhood readings with my children

I have a feeling that this day took too long to come since a lot of my favorite books as a child were written in Portuguese and my boys don't read Portuguese very well (though they can speak it mostly fine). And obviously, since I didn't grow up in the U.S. I didn't read most authors and books that people read growing up here and that my boys love, such as Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary, C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and others. I only read a few "classic" that were translated into Portuguese such as Laura I. Wilder's "Little House" books and Alcott's Little Women (I really want to try to get the boys interested in Wilder's books, but I haven't been successful so far).

One of the authors I enjoyed for a couple of years when I was growing up was Enid Blyton, particularly her Secret Seven books. I was thrilled when I found them at our city library about a month ago and I checked a few out. Kelvin started reading and he loved them, so I had to check out more and now Linton started reading them too (he's in the second book) while Kelvin is devouring two or more books a day (they had three days of break this week). Children their age love mysteries and Kelvin is already a big fan of the Box Car Children so I guess the Secret Seven books fit in well with his tastes.

This afternoon the boys and I went to the library to return the first Secret Seven book and get some more. After that, I took the boys to the children's museum and while we were there, I found out that I had read one of the books we'd checked out when I was a child. It was fun to read it again nearly three decades later -- too bad I already knew the end!

Maybe it's just me, but I am wondering... why do I take such comfort from the fact that my children are reading some of the same books I enjoyed when we were kids? Do you feel that way too? Which are some books you read growing up that your children love?

3 comments:

Anjali said...

Thanks for pointing these books out-- I've never heard of them! My 7-year old is really into the Box Car Children. I'll have to look up these books for her!

perrie said...

I t hink we've shared this before, but I adored Enid Blyton when I was a child. My absolute favorite was the Famous Five series--I just *loved* those. A few years ago I introduced Liam to them, and then was delighted to find the British Famous Five series on YouTube. We watched them together, but reading the books, of course was much better.

I also loved E. Nesbitt as well, and read all of them! My kids have both read/had read to them The Railway Children--one of my favorites.

perrie said...

Oops--"Perrie" is me, Alissa!