Books For Keeps
  • Home
  • Reviews
  • Articles
  • Past Issues
  • Latest Issue
  • Authors and Artists
  • Latest News
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
November 1, 1991/in Editorial /by Richard Hill
This article is featured in BfK 71 November 1991
This article is in the Editorial Category

Editorial 71: November 1991

Author: Chris Powling

Ask a random sample of ten children’s book experts to name their Top Ten titles for today’s youngsters and the odds are there will be about ten percent overlap and ninety percent divergence. I can offer these figures pretty confidently because that’s what happened back in March when Radio 4’s Treasure Islands undertook just such an exercise.-Well might Victor Watson (see page 4) begin his article, `I was relieved that the question I have to consider is: what makes a children’s classic?-and not: what are the children’s classics?‘ As Victor makes clear, he sees his response very much as a preliminary, ground-clearing exercise rather than a final stake-out of the subject.

This said, the very improbability of. agreement makes any overlap all the more interesting so we make no apologies for the prominence of the Alice books and Treasure Island in this `Classics’ issue – titles that, by common consent, mark a turning-point in the history of writing for children. Of course, you can rely on BfK contributors to attempt an unusual angle even on these much-considered works. On page 24, Shirley Hughes examines the ‘look’ rather than the literary merits of Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous adventure story while, on page 27, Julia MacRae spells out why – if the book had been submitted to her publishing house–she’d have turned it down flat. Well . . . that’s nearly what she says.

Our Authorgraph (centre-spread) offers nothing less than a World Exclusive: the only interview with Lewis Carroll on record, here offered in print for the first time ever.

Readers sceptical of its authenticity are assured – hand-on-heart and broad grin firmly in place – that the piece was submitted to us by no less an authority than Naomi Lewis who is, as everyone knows, a fairy. Need we say more?

James Riordan, on pages 14-15, admits to less exotic sources in researching his impending update of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, one of those awkward narratives which achieved its reputation as a children’s book by default – the virtual absence, at the time of publication, of stories for children at all. What his piece makes clear is why the work deserves to survive in an age that’s more than corrected the omission. For the survival of classics can’t be taken for granted. Our non-fiction Editor, Eleanor von Schweinitz, was astonished to discover that almost all the books of C Walter Hodges are currently out-of-print, including his masterpiece Shakespeare’s Theatre which she celebrates on page 22. Is there a hint here for some enterprising publisher? Or perhaps for some packager of books-and-video cassette? These days, as demonstrated by Rachel Redford’s Audio reviews on page 13, we need to look at every possible vehicle for promoting the best books for children.

In the end, though, what counts is the quality of words and images on the page. Hence Margery Fisher’s annotated selection of current classics in print, on pages 28-30, where her personal enthusiasm shines through – and her confidence that, with a little help from their friends, here are titles which can and will survive. Of course, it needs to be the right kind of help. `The classics,’ she says, `should be tossed to children as interesting food to be sampled not virtuously but as sandwiches whose fillings might surprise them.’

Amen to that.

REMINDER:

BFK/BFC AUTUMN COMPETITION FOR SCHOOLS

Can the children in your class (minimum group size six, but no upper limit) produce two pages of BfK – a double-spread of book-related writing based on any, or all, of our regular features?

Closing Date: 30th December 1991

Entries to: Books for Keeps, 6 Brightfield Road, Lee, London SE12 8QF.

The Prizes: A selection of brand new paperbacks and hardbacks valued as follows:

Infant Winners (Years 1-2) £500 Junior Winners (Years 3-6) £500 Secondary Winners (Years 7-10) £500 Plus overall competition winner-£2000

Entries must be reducible to BfK size for future publication, but otherwise may be hand-drawn or written, typed, computer-set or some combination of all three – let the children choose! See BfK 70 (September 91), page 23, for full details or send us an s.a.e. marked `Competition’.

Winners to be announced in our March 92 issue.

Share this entry
  • Share on Facebook
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on WhatsApp
  • Share on Pinterest
  • Share on LinkedIn
  • Share on Reddit
  • Share by Mail
http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png 0 0 Richard Hill http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png Richard Hill1991-11-01 10:00:252021-12-10 11:14:20Editorial 71: November 1991
Download BfK Issue Bfk 273 July 2025
Skip to an Issue:

Related Articles

Editorial 273
Bfk 273 July 2025
Editorial 272
Bfk 272 May 2025
Editorial 271
Bfk 271 March 2025
Editorial 270
Bfk 270 January 2025
Editorial 269
Bfk 269 November 2024
Editorial 268
Bfk 268 September 2024
Editorial 267
Bfk 267 July 2024
Editorial 266
Bfk 266 May 2024

About Us

Launched in 1980, we’ve reviewed hundreds of new children’s books each year and published articles on every aspect of writing for children.

Read More

Follow Us

Latest News

The School Library Association Announces Honours Lists for 2025 Awards

July 14, 2025

Margaret McDonald and her editors Alice Swan and Ama Badu win the 2025 Branford Boase Award

July 9, 2025

‘The magic of poetry by heart’ Champions of the 2025 National Poetry Speaking Competition Announced

July 8, 2025

Contact Us

Books for Keeps,
30 Winton Avenue,
London,
N11 2AT

Telephone: 0780 789 3369

ISSN: 0143-909X (this is our International Standard Serial Number).

© Copyright 2025 - Books For Keeps | Proudly Built by Lemongrass Media - Web Design Buckinghamshire
What Makes a Children’s Classic? Dreams and Mysteries
Scroll to top