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Originally Posted by Bookworm_Girl
I was feeling nostalgic and recently purchased Martin Pippin in the Daisy-Field by Eleanor Farjeon. I was enchanted by this book as a child when I discovered an old hardback edition in my mother's bookcase.
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Oh, what a lovely book. It reminds me of another pleasure of kidlit, the window into the past. Not so much as with the classics such as Alcott, but the typical stories children of another read. In my house, we had an anthology of stories from the old
St. Nicholas magazine and they fascinated me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by orlok
For me it evokes the Famous Five books by Enid Blyton. I used to sit enraptured as our teacher read these to us in our down time, which probably fuelled my love of reading. They weren't all based in the summer, but that's the enduring memory I have of these wonderful stories.
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The Five books and the ones I mentioned encapsulate the particular charm of summer kids books in that they're about children in charge of their own lives. Unlike the school books where operating under regimentation was the norm, summer gave the kids agency. I think that's part of summer's appeal to me still, that lingering sense of being able to kick over the traces - or maybe of time suspended for a little while.