This week I've been visiting my sister Wendy (we live far apart) so we had the pleasure of discussing the Fuse #8 Top 100 Children's Novels countdown each morning. (Before I got to Wendy's, I was in Portland, where I spent an afternoon exploring Beverly Cleary's neighborhood with my mom, sister Kathleen, and eldest niece. My family is pretty great.) Last night we came up with what we are absolutely certain will be 1-7 (though we are not certain about the order). Anything else we will consider a major upset.
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (#5)
The Giver (which was indeed #7 this morning)
A Wrinkle in Time (#2)
Holes (#6)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (#3)
Charlotte's Web (#1)
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (#4)
I have read and liked all of these books (two of them, Mixed-up Files and Wrinkle, were on the top ten list I submitted), so I'm OK with this list. But Wendy and I were feeling melancholy over the books that are not on the Top 100 list at all, such as Anastasia Krupnik (which is, at least, referred to in the post about The Giver) and Wendy's beloved The Diamond in the Window.
Here's the updated complete list of what's in the Top 100 so far.
6 comments:
Oh, I think you nailed it. (Although, I hasten to add, it is not MY top seven.)
Last night, as Max and I finished the last chapter of THE GREAT BRAIN (and amidst all my sobbing), I was having advance sadness that TGB didn't make it on the top 100. He LOVED it... in fact, he said it was his favorite book so far.
I said, "Even more than Harry Potter?" and he chuckled and said, "Well, *nothing* can beat Harry Potter. Although I'm wondering maybe if Narnia will be right up there, too." He has seen the movie, but we haven't read the series yet together. While I liked THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE as a kid, I was never really into the whole series. I grabbed it off of the shelf after he went to bed and read the first eight or so chapters. It would still definitely not make *my* top ten. I'm excited for his reaction.
By the way, did I ever tell you that when I was in first grade we lived on 26th between Fremont and Klickitat?
I agree with Wrinkle. It is pretty much a perfect book, and that opening--who else could get away with "It was a dark and stormy night"?
All of your selections match mine although different order. It's great to see that I'm not out of touch with my picks. I used to live just off Klickitat on NE 15th. Recently,I went to the Portland Art Museum with my grand daughter and gave her From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. She is 8 and an excellent reader.
Enjoying your blog and Top 100.
The closer we get to the top, the harder it is to believe that The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe will be up THIS high; yet it's unthinkable that it might not be on the list at all.
Yes, I would not have guessed that Narnia would be this high (assuming that most people submitted LWW as their stand-in for the entire series -- early drafts of my list included The Voyage of the Dawn Treader instead, though that got dropped altogether). But it seems much more likely that many people listed it as their 1, 2, or 3, than that it wouldn't be on the list at all.
I'm guessing the top four are in this order: Charlotte, Wrinkle (my #1), Sorcerer's Stone, LWW.
Oh, and the one I'm sad isn't there is Stuart Little. The two on my list that I love but didn't really expect to see on the list were Swiftly Tilting Planet and Wednesday Wars.
Post a Comment