Gearing up my NaNo novel and I need to find all the fantasy works I can that involve children going from this world to a fantasy world, ideally written before 1978. Anything that would have been read to a child that included ordinary children traveling to unusual places.
I.e. Oz, Narnia, Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland. Any more?
[ October 30, 2007, 03:35 PM: Message edited by: Chris Bridges ]
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
The Phantom Tollbooth Where the Wild Things Are
Posted by FlyingCow (Member # 2150) on :
I don't know about pre-1978, but here are a few more:
Pan's Labyrinth Mirrormask Neverwhere (not really children, though) The Neverending Story Captain N the Gamemaster (I couldn't resist!) Land of the Lost Darwath Trilogy (again, not children) Harry Potter Labyrinth
I'll try to think of more.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
The Neverending Story
Books only? I can probably think of a few movies... Just not now.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Depending on your definition of "fantasy world":
Wrinkle in Time et al Half Magic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Great Glass Elevator Hansel and Gretel Bridge to Terebithia
Posted by mr_porteiro_head (Member # 4644) on :
"Coraline"
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Was that before 1978?
The Once and Future King (the first part where Wat gets changed into animals.)
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
These would be stories read to or by a 7-year-old girl in 1978 or thereabouts.
Xanth might squeak by, but Coraline definitely would not. Pity, it'd be perfect.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by FlyingCow: Harry Potter
I'm not sure that counts. He's still in the same world. He just finds out things about it that he didn't know.
Pamela Dean's "The Secret Country" trilogy.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Chris, are you looking for a specific book or just books that fit a certain criteria? Also, how are you defining "fantasy world"? I have been using a fairly broad definition of children taken out of their ordinary world rather than just "geographical". For instance, Wat doesn't go anywhere, but magically experiences life underwater. Let me know if I should narrow the definition. So often in classical literature, people didn't go to a completely different world to experience fantasy, but went, for example, into a forest where out of the ordinary things happened.
Bridge of Terebithia was publishsed in 1977 so it should be about right date-wise.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I'm taking the basic plot from my ScriptFrenzy script and going all novely with it. The idea is that years ago, a 7-year-old girl raised on fantasy makes all sorts of plans to have those sorts of adventures herself. She prepares, practices hiking, swimming, and basic broomstick-swordplay to get ready, and then is horribly let down when her closet remains a closet and no stuffed animals take her by the hand to go traveling. There will be mentions of her favorite stories - which she tends to treat more like casefiles and reference - throughout.
Traveling... Little Nemo! Missed that one...
Harry Potter would count, from my point of view, had it been written then. Any story where a child discovers a hidden land and has adventures fits, for my purposes. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory works nicely.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
And thanks folks! Some great ones I missed so far.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Chris, are you writing my biography? I used to pack snacks in my backpack just in case I got transported somewhere.
Posted by Strider (Member # 1807) on :
quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk: The Neverending Story
Books only? I can probably think of a few movies... Just not now.
Are you questioning the validity of that choice Nighthawk? Or just wondering if we can extend Chris's question to movies? Because the book fits the bill perfectly.
Posted by Lisa (Member # 8384) on :
quote:Originally posted by Chris Bridges: These would be stories read to or by a 7-year-old girl in 1978 or thereabouts.
Xanth might squeak by, but Coraline definitely would not. Pity, it'd be perfect.
No Flying in the House is close. It's the right age and time, but she doesn't actually go to whatever fairy land her parents were in. Narnia and Oz and Alice and Peter Pan are probably your best bets.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
Movies and TV are also fine. The "saving Christmas" TV specials are specifically referenced.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by Strider:
quote:Originally posted by Nighthawk: The Neverending Story
Books only? I can probably think of a few movies... Just not now.
Are you questioning the validity of that choice Nighthawk? Or just wondering if we can extend Chris's question to movies? Because the book fits the bill perfectly.
No, no for that choice, but for others. I was thinking of Labyrinth actually, but that was in 1986. Could've sworn it was earlier.
Never mind. Others seem to have this better covered than I.
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
TV is okay? Yay for Saturday morning cartoons!
HR Puffinstuff and Lidsville (fixed) and Land of the Lost and...
edited to add: Lost Saucer, Far Out Space Nuts (yes, I know) Valley of the Dinosaurs (Land of the Lost redux)...
[ October 30, 2007, 01:56 PM: Message edited by: kmbboots ]
Posted by Javert (Member # 3076) on :
'The Talisman' by King and Straub. Written in 1984. Sorry, as close as I could get.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
In spirit if not in letter, Escape to Witch Mountain, 1975 (from 1968 novel). The kids had to think about what to gather, and they were going to a place as supernatural as they found themselves to be.
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Edited to add: That inspired my hobo-bandana-on-a-stick method of escape storage. I also spent hours trying to stabilize a fan onto a laundry basket a'la Uncle Wiggly's flying contraption.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Where the Wild Things Are (1963) for creatures to anticipate and dread. [Aha, Morbo already noted this one]
The Mural Master (1974) -- goodness, I loved this one. Tried to paint my way into another world for years.
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[Edited to add from another site: " US: Houghton Mifflin, 1974.
"For those whoever fantasized about stepping into a picture, The Mural Master will doubtles provide frightening second thoughts"]
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Edited to add: two I have yet to track down titles for, but maybe someone here knows them --
- A girl finds a little shop sometimes there, sometimes not, and she gets magic random buttons
- A girl and her friend or sister (living in a junkyard?) find a maze. She goes right at all the turns and finds a kindly witch (here is where I learned how to make rose petal beads). The other child always goes left, the "sinister," and gets into dark magic trouble. I think the girl may have been African-American, if that helps pinpoint it.
quote:Two sisters find a route through their family's garden maze by sleeping on an herb pillow (which might have been an inheiritance. They sleep on different sides of the pillow, and one learns a route of all left turns, while the other learns a route of all right turns. When they get to the center of the maze they each meet a woman (witch?) one of whom is good and one of whom is bad. That's all I remember about the book, except that I loved it. --- Andre Norton, Lavender-Green Magic. When the Wade children go to live with their grandparents in the country, they explore an old garden maze that leads them back through time to a witch's cottage. --- This was a wonderful book! The heroine is the oldest child, and she's angry for a variety of reasons, not least that she must live at the junkyard with her grandparents. But what a junkyard! I wish -I- could live there! --- I read this book also, and the girls were sisters, I believe they were African American, and they lived with their grand parents who were caretakers of a garden, or an estate. The pillow itself had a maze like pattern sewn on it and a pleasant smell associated with lavender on one side and a smell of decay on the other. I also seem to remember that they found the pillow somewhere on the property. I don't recall the author or name of the book, but perhaps these clues can help you further your search. --- I just came across your "Stump the Bookseller" web site and finally, after years of searching, found out the title and author of Lavendar-Green Magic! I read that book when I was in 4th or 5th grade in the 70s, and the story stuck with me but nothing else had. I have been trying to discover what that book was for years, but did not discover it until I stumbled across your web site. Thank you so much!
Boy, that has bugged me off and on for decades.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Does Charlie and the Chocolate Factory count? That factory was as fantastic as any fantasy world I've ever seen.
The BFG
James and the Giant Peach.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
quote:I read this book over and over when I was about ten or eleven years old (1978-79), but it may have been older than that. I think I got it from either my school library or the local public library, but I can't find anything like it there now. It was about a girl who passed an abandoned old mansion on her way to and from school daily, and she sometimes would sit by the gates of the estate, hiding behind a bush or rock or something, imagining the people who lived there. One day she went in, and found seven (?) paintings of sisters who had once lived there, and I remember very vivid descriptions of their appearance and their dresses in the paintings. After the girl (I can't remember her name) sees the paintings, she can't stop thinking about them, and goes back, hiding and imagining again, and somehow she imagines so hard that she goes back in time to when the sisters were alive, and for some reason they take her in and then either won't let her leave, or she can't figure out how to leave. She finally goes home by getting out of the house and back to the rock/bush she always hid behind, and imagining that she was back home. Please help! This was a great book!
H34 is most definitely The Wicked, Wicked Ladies in the Haunted House. It used to be called The Wicked Pigeon Ladies in the Garden. I read it around the same time the person who wrote did, and there are seven sisters, one whose name is Maude. (Not Mauve). I looked it up in my copy at home, and I'm sure this is the one. I kept it because it was one of my all-time favorite Scholastic books when I was in elementary school. It's on the solved mysteries page because someone else was interested in this one, too. --- This book was in my classroom library about 30 years ago and may be from Scholastic. Lonely girl explores abandoned Victorian house with an overgrown fountain or statue in the yard. Inside she finds dusty oil portraits of seven sisters. At some point, the girl is thrust back in time and finds herself living with the family depicted in the portraits. The sisters are rather nasty, so the experience is unpleasant, but the protagonist has difficulty returning to the present. Any further information would be appreciated. Thanks. --- The book I am looking for is about a girl that goes back in time somehow. She ends up in a house with sisters that I think were witches or something. I don't remember much but I do remember several specific things from the book. In one part of the book the one of the sisters was staring at her and the little girl thinks she is staring right through her as though she doesn't exist. In another part the girl is having to put on these close and they are old with lots of buttons and she is having a hard time with the button hooks that they used back then. The last thing I remember is a part where the girl is in the kitchen and the older ladies, cooks perhaps, make a statement not to speak in front of the girl by saying "little pitchers have big ears." Sounds strange but I remember loving this book and would love to read it again. I think in modern times the girl passes by this old house in her neighborhood and somehow she goes back in time to live with its old inhabitants. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
etc. [Looks like lots and lots of people remember this one vividly]
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Sir MacHinery by Tom McGowen.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
Daniel Pinkwater's Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars would be perfect if it hadn't come out in 1979.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
And (*smacks forehead) the Dark is Rising (1973), et al
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
"Fog Magic" by Julia L. Sauer
There was another one I can't remember right now about a boy that fell through a door in a hillside and went to another world. I think "door" or "tunnel" might have been in the title, but I'm having no luck on Google.
The Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, according to my research, might fit.
Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
quote:Originally posted by kmbboots: Chris, are you writing my biography? I used to pack snacks in my backpack just in case I got transported somewhere.
Kate, I'd have liked you as much when we were kids as I do now. While I didn't do this exact thing, it sounds very much like something I'd have done.
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
And apparently, I took too much time on wikipedia ... CT beat me to it. Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Maybe Fog Magic (1943) [heh heh, beaten ] and Knee Deep in Thunder (for Navajo mythos, first published 1967)
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Tuck Everlasting? (1975): "Winnie Foster, stifled by the formality of her proper life, escapes into the woods only to get lost. She meets the Tuck family and learns their secret - a spring that holds the magic of everlasting life."
Tom's Midnight Garden? (1958): "Tom is bored and lonely when sent to stay with his uncle and aunt while his brother is ill, but one midnight when the clock chimes thirteen he makes an amazing discovery."
Miss Hickory? (1946) (Not travel to another world, but she could fiddle with little branches to make a Miss Hickory.)
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CaySedai, was that Magic Tears (1971) by Maurice Sendak's brother, Jack?
[Edited to add: Not likely. MT = "Determined to prove his courage, a young boy follows a strange dog and finds an enchanted forest." I think I've read the one you mention, though. Hmmm.]
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Heh. Old Tobacco Shop : A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure (1921) "After smoking, Freddie and some friends are magically transported to another world with comic pirates."
(Are you willing to have her scavenge cigarette butts, Chris? )
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I remember some (different) children's short stories about journeying to the moon, climbing on a rainbow, and dolls that come to life on one special day, but I haven't any titles. Posted by Noemon (Member # 1115) on :
What about Harold and the Purple Crayon? It's a picture book aimed at very small children, but it's relevant.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Hey! How could I forget!?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971 Disney movie***), which of course brings us to (maybe) The Magic Car/Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang (book 1964, movie 1968).
Chris, I love this thread. Please don't let it blink out.
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Edited to add: ***from Mary Norton's books, Magic Bed-Knob; or How to Become a Witch In Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
There were other books written by Andre Norton in the Magic series that fit your requirements. I only remember reading Steel Magic (first published in the 1960's) as a child, but a look at Amazon suggests that there could be four or five good stories there.
Posted by Chris Bridges (Member # 1138) on :
I de-mayflied it, the thread is taking off way beyond my simple needs.
Posted by TomDavidson (Member # 124) on :
For pseudo-useful "how-to" information, the Tom Swift books were priceless.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
yay Posted by SenojRetep (Member # 8614) on :
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald gave me one of the worst nightmares of my life when I was about seven. I was walking down a staircase in our house when suddenly a door opened and I was dragged inside the dark cavern in between the floors by a goblin. Not nice. Anyway, if you're looking for a somewhat darker fantasy land (think Silver Chair Narnia), it might be interesting.
Posted by Fyfe (Member # 937) on :
The Farthest-Away Mountain, sort of. She doesn't exactly go into another world, but she does a bit, because her world is normal and the places she goes are magical and different.
Posted by Nighthawk (Member # 4176) on :
quote:Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese: Hey! How could I forget!?
Bedknobs and Broomsticks (1971 Disney movie***), which of course brings us to (maybe) The Magic Car/Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang (book 1964, movie 1968).
For that matter, Mary Poppins...? Guess that and Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang might not count because kids going to the fairy tale world isn't the primary focus.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Yeah. However, I recall reading the book on which CCBB was based while I was hospitalized as a child, and man, did I ever expect to see gnomes under every leaf of the potted plants. I was pretty sure if I chose the right car to go home in, I'd be set with friends forever.
That may well have been the medication, though. Posted by Zalmoxis (Member # 2327) on :
The animated part of Bedknobs and Broomsticks freaked me out so bad that I made my cousins leave the movie and take me back to my aunt and uncle's house. I believe it was because (other than the fact that I was only 6 or 7) the mixing of two worlds (the "real" and the animated) was just too unsettling.
Posted by Eowyn-sama (Member # 11096) on :
The Perilous Guard by Elizabeth Marie Pope
"In 1558, while exiled by Queen Mary Tudor to a remote castle known as Perilous Gard, young Kate Sutton becomes involved in a series of mysterious events that lead her to an underground world peopled by Fairy Folk whose customs are even older than the Druids' and include human sacrifice."
Probably not pre-1978 and I don't know if the main character will fit your definition of 'ordinary', since it's set in (almost) Elizabethan England, but it's a really interesting take on the idea of a magical world.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
The Neverending Story -did- start out as a book, not a movie. Posted by AvidReader (Member # 6007) on :
What a great website, CT. I found a book I loved as a kid, The Farthest Away Mountain by Lynne Reid Banks. I remembered she had a gnome statue that turnd out to be a real gnome and she thought gargoyles looked sad. Armed with those two bits of knowledge, I found it on the third page. Woot!
She's a native of the fantasy world, so it might not help you any, Chris, but she goes on one strenuous adventure.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Glad it is of use. I am going to find that button story someday. I remember writing out a sequel and playing for hours with my mother's button tin, trying to find just the right ones to use in it.
Posted by Tara (Member # 10030) on :
The Wizard of Oz?
Also, I don't see why Harry Potter doesn't count. He was just as surprised as any of the Narnia kids...
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Chris is trying to write a story set in 1978, and he wants that setting as accurate as possible. HP is the sort of story he wants to reference, but it did not exist at that time in history, so it would not have been available to his character.
quote:Harry Potter would count, from my point of view, had it been written then. -- from Chris above
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Has anyone mentioned The Dark is Rising Sequence? While Will and Bran turn out to be the Sign-Seeker and Pendragon, Jane and her brothers are ordinary children. More or less. And they all end up visiting some very mythic places, most in the past or outside of time.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
quote:Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese: And (*smacks forehead) the Dark is Rising (1973), et al
Yep.
We need a list so that new readers don't have to slog through every post.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
The following is a list of the titles of books, movies, or other forms of stories that have been mentioned in this thread so far. These items may have been published post-1978 and/or be not applicable to Chris' request, but they have been mentioned.
quote:Alan Mendelsohn, the Boy from Mars Alice in Wonderland [& Through the Looking Glass, presumably] Abadazad Bedknobs and Broomsticks (Magic Bed-Knob; or How to Become a Witch In Ten Easy Lessons and Bonfires and Broomsticks) BFG, The Bridge to Terebithia Captain N the Gamemaster Cat Returns, The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory/Great Glass Elevator Chitty-Chitty Bang Bang (The Magic Car) Christmas TV specials Coraline Courtney Crumrin Dark is Rising series Darwath trilogy Escape to Witch Mountain Far Out Space Nuts Farthest-Away Mountain, The Fog Magic Forgotten Door, The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything, The Half-Magic Hansel and Gretel Harold and the Purple Crayon Harry Potter series HR Puffinstuff James and the Giant Peach Knee Deep in Thunder Knight's Castle, Knock Three Times Labyrinth Land of the Lost Lavender-Green Magic (and others in the Andre Norton Magic series) Lidsville Little Nemo Lost Saucer Magic by the Lake Magic Faraway Tree series Magic Meadow, The Magic or Not? Magic Tears Mary Poppins Mirrormask Miss Hickory Mural Master, The Narnia series Neverending Story, The Neverwhere No Flying in the House Old Tobacco Shop : A True Account of What Befell a Little Boy in Search of Adventure Once and Future King, The Pan's Labyrinth Perilous Guard, The Peter Pan Phantom Tollbooth, The Princess and the Goblin, The Scary Godmother Secret Country series Secret Garden, The Secrets of the Shopping Mall Seven-Day Magic Sir MacHinery Snow Queen, The Star Wars Talisman, The Tellos Time Garden Tom Swift series Tom's Midnight Garden Valley of the Dinosaurs Vision of Escaflowne anime series Well-Wishers, The Where the Wild Things Are Wicked Pigeon Ladies in the Garden, The Winnie the Pooh series Wizard of Oz series Wizard, the Witch and Two Girls From Jersey, The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet, The Wrinkle in Time, et al Xanth series
Please do let me know if I missed something.
[ November 03, 2007, 11:56 PM: Message edited by: ClaudiaTherese ]
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Sadly not written in 1978 is Lisa Papademetriou's The Wizard, the Witch and Two Girls From Jersey. A pity...it manages to poke fun at every element of the genre while simultaneously celebrating it. Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Which makes me wonder when The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything was written and when it came out as a movie. Not really a children's story, but one she might have seen her parents watch.
Puffy Treat, I'll add yours to the list and go read up on it. The title sounds fun.
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Edited to add: TGTGW&E came out as a novel in 1962, but the movie didn't come out until 1980.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
From recent graphic novels we have some excellent examples of "children visiting a fantasy world"...but the 'recent' means they don't apply. Alas, alas.
Still, Scary Godmother, Tellos, Courtney Crumrin, and Abadazad are all worth checking out.
As is the somewhat more teen oriented The Vision of Escaflowne anime series.
And Studio Ghibli's The Cat Returns!
Posted by CaySedai (Member # 6459) on :
The book I was trying to remember was "The Forgotten Door" by Alexander Key. Wikipedia has a list of his books.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
List updated.
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I am disturbed by how absurdly gratifying I find the making of such lists.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
I remember one where the main character was trapped in a mall and all the manikins came to life. The Secret of the Shopping Mall or something like that.
Aside: CT, in case you're following this thread, are you currently open to receiving e-mail or PM? If you don't want to post your contact info, you can email me by replacing the "w" in my username with my entire (married) last name and adding AT cox DOT net.
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
I forgot a true classic: The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson. The further Gerta travels in search of Kay, the more fantastical and strange the country gets.
Posted by swbarnes2 (Member # 10225) on :
Edgar Eager and E. Nesbit both wrote fantasies involving child protagonists.
Funny that Amazon doesn't have the original publications dates, but a description says that Eager has been read for 40 years, and E. Nesbit is clearly one of his favorite authors. I think that Nesbit dates back to the 1900's.
Posted by Eowyn-sama (Member # 11096) on :
Knock Three Times by Marion St. John Webb, 1973
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Oh, for sure, Dana. I'm emailing you now. My address that is will come from is from gmail via account ID <my first name> DOT <my last name>. Let me know if you don't get it right away.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
List updated except for swbarnes2's authors. (Do you happen to have titles on hand? )
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Edited to add: I typed "Edgar Eager" into Amazon and got The X-Rated Videotape Star Index III (X-Rated Videotape Star Index) as the first returnn, so I'm just going to wait on your specific input. )
quote:Originally posted by ClaudiaTherese: Edited to add: I typed "Edgar Eager" into Amazon and got The X-Rated Videotape Star Index III (X-Rated Videotape Star Index) as the first returnn, so I'm just going to wait on your specific input.
Not personally familiar with Edgar Eager, but this series of Children's Fantasy books (by Edward Eager) looks like its likely what was being referred to.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Thanks, SenojRetep. We already have Half-Magic, but I'll add Magic by the Lake, Knight's Castle, Time Garden, Magic or Not?, The Well-Wishers, and Seven-Day Magic with the caveat that they may or may not be relevant to Chris' mission but have at least been mentioned.
Given that Chris will likely be writing like a fiend (rather than doing much reading research), I bet he'll be focusing on the ones he already knows. Regardless, I'll update that list with bare minimum plot summaries when I can.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
Huh. I remembered the details wrong, but the cover looks familiar, so I'm guessing that was it. First published in 1979, though, so it's out.
Posted by Reshpeckobiggle (Member # 8947) on :
Am I really the only person to have read anything by Grace Chetwin?
Posted by swbarnes2 (Member # 10225) on :
Oops, may bad. I meant the author of "Half-Magic" and "The Time Garden".
Posted by tt&t (Member # 5600) on :
The Magic Faraway Tree series by Enid Blyton.
quote: This is the story of three children and their wonderful adventures in the Enchanted Wood near their home in the country. The Enchanted wood grows very thick trees, and if you listen carefully, you can hear the dark leaves saying "Wisha-wisha"!! And in the middle of this woods is the most enchanted tree in the world. A simply enormous tree! "The Magic Faraway tree" which grows every kind of fruit and has a queer fairy-folk living on every branch!! Its top goes right up the clouds- and at the top of it there's always some strange land. You can go there by climbing up the top branch of the Faraway tree, going up a little ladder through a hole in the big tree that always lies on the top of the tree- and then, you are in some peculiar land!
quote:The Magic Faraway Tree is the biggest and the tallest tree in the world; right in the middle of the Enchanted Wood- and it's very magic indeed! But do you know why it is called the Faraway Tree?- That's because its top is so far away, up into the clouds, and always sticks up into some queer magic land - a different one every week! Isn't that exciting? The Land of Treats, where you can eat whatever you like, The Land of Spells, where you can buy spells for almost anything and such other lovely places! Its not fun always however. There can be strange lands, dangerous at times, ....
I used to love those books when I was about that age, and they're certainly old enough (written in the 1930s & 40s). Posted by tt&t (Member # 5600) on :
The thread topic reminds me of The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett; but The Secret Garden isn't actually a fantasy world. The kids do go into a secret locked garden which is like a different world to them, but it's not fantasy. Good book though, worth reading.
edit: apparently, you can read it online. I still prefer the dog-eared paperback, but nonetheless. Secret Garden Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
The Secret Garden is good up until the point it falls into the trap of much Victorian children's literature: It eventually deteriorates into endless descriptions of the characters stuffing their faces with good, honest country food.
I would suggest renting the 1993 live action film version instead. Far better.
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
(list above updated)
Posted by Puffy Treat (Member # 7210) on :
Whats up with the non-italicized section? Posted by adfectio (Member # 11070) on :
I know it's cutting it close, but since Chris opened it up to movies and TV:
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Frown]](frown.gif)