Coming Soon: Classic Children’s Lit Event, 4

I’ve been teasing it for a while, but now the official post: The 4th edition of the Classic Children’s Literature Event will be here in April–just one month away!

As in years past, I will be reading an optional readalong title. The votes are in, and although it was close, Emil and the Detectives [Emil und die Detektive] by Erich Kästner (1929, Germany) was the winner, so hopefully many will join in. I know absolutely nothing about this one, other than at one time I read something about it interesting enough that I decided to add it to my own project list. (And apparently there was a Disney movie, but I don’t know anything about that either.) Note: my library didn’t have a paper copy in their collection, and a cursory search online suggests it may be not so easy to find a new paper copy for purchase, so if you want to join in and don’t already have a copy, you may want to start looking now. (A digital edition is available, but I know that’s not for everyone.)

Event Basics

• During the month of April, read as many Children’s Classics as you wish and post about them on your blog and/or leave a comment on the event page on this blog. I will have a link page starting the first of April to gather posts so that we may share as we go.
• The optional RAL title: Emil and the Detectives by Erich Kästner. I plan on discussion the weekend of April 22-24.
• I’m not going to be the “children’s classics” police. Use your own judgement for what fits the category but if you want some guidelines, these are what I’m going by:
  • I think many of us have read more recent children’s books that we may already deem “classics” (for example, many people feel that way about the Harry Potter books), but for this event, I’d prefer if we read books that were written prior to 1966. This will still allow a lot of options, and will hopefully avoid the “but what is a classic” dilemma! (And yes, 1966 is rather arbitrary. Rebel if you wish, but 50 years old seems a good age.)
  • Defining “children’s,” especially prior to 1900 or so can be a challenge as some books we think of as “children’s” today may not have been intended that way at the time. Personally, I’d say books appropriate for approximately an elementary-school aged child or preteen (to read or to have read to them) should be fine. I’d personally also count the various fairy tales, even though some of the earliest versions were not exactly family friendly.
  • Feel free to include books from any country, in translation or not. I have limited exposure to non-American children’s lit, so I’d love to learn about books from other countries myself.
  • Feel free to double up with other events or challenges if you wish.
• And if you need ideas I posted
  • A suggestion list in 2013
  • Some more ideas in 2014
• There is no deadline for joining or participating (other than, of course, the end of April).

Most important: Have fun!

Please let me–and other participants–know in the comments of this post if you are interested in participating, and let me know if you have any questions. Also, please feel free to use any of the event/RAL images on your own blogs.

Happy reading!

Participants:

Anastacia from Rambling Reviews
Becky from Becky’s Book Reviews
Bellezza from Dolce Bellezza
Bex from An Armchair by the Sea
Carol from Jouney and Destination
Cleo from Classical Carousel
Lynn from Smoke and Mirrors
Nancy from ipsofactodotme
Plethora from Plethora of Books
Tom from Wuthering Expectations

Image sources: The event logo illustration if from The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck (1908) by Beatrix Potter (1866-1943). The RAL logo illustration is from Emil and the Detectives (1929), illustrations by Walter Trier (1890-1951).