#Children's fiction

[intothestacks]

Disney's Zombies 2: Why blatantly obvious social commentary in kid's stories matter

It's obvious to grownups, but not to kids, because they lack the necessary experience to pick up on the cues that are blatant to an adult.

Once, while hanging out with some Grade 2s at my work, one of them turned to me and said in a very thoughtful tone "You know, the story about the werewolves in Zombies 2 is a lot like that of Indigenous people's."

If you're unfamiliar with the plot, that's exactly what they're an allegory for. Like, as a grownup you sit there within the first 3 minutes of the show going "Ah, this time they're discussing Indigenous rights."

I've seen videos describing the movie as "Indigenous Rights for Dummies". But here's the thing: you need to simplify things for kiddos so they have the foundational knowledge needed to understand more complex aspects of a topic.

And, based on my interaction with that Grade 2, it worked. They understood the concept of the Land Back movement through the allegory.

Now, you can argue that using monster allegories for minorities can be... tricky at best. Especially when the main character is always a white person. I'm not saying the series is perfect.

But in relation to teaching young kids about a complex topic, Zombies 2 succeeded.

[island-in-ignorance]

I finished the Animorphs series.

[punkeropercyjackson]

haiiiiiiiiiiii do you have any ocs

Not many fandom ones because self-inserts don't count but for original stories,yes!!!I have four book series' planned

Charlie The Tomboy/Charlie's The Man-Middle school aimed duology about a 2000s tomboy from Bronx and his egg crack that affectionately parodies and reconstructs tropes that were popular in that era

Heroes Of Our Time-7 book urban fantasy/capepunk about a team of vigilante kid superheroes who's powers come from a mix of scifi and magical sources and distrubutes archetypes to play with them and takes place in the 90s for the most part and has 'time' it's biggest theme in multiple ways

Chronicles of Existentia-14 book high fantasy with afropunk/solarpunk dripping from it's core(the mc is essentially a mythologically accurate Persephone and Percy Jackson fusion)and inspired by my daydreaming disorder combined with listening to Helena by Mcr on repeat and subquently going from there to inspire other elements of the books by the rest of Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge.My fave one out of all of them and it's heavy focus on girlhood avoids the hurdle bits unless you count Helena needing her egg cracked.If you find any similarities to Narnia including the title that was intentional

The Unprivate Diaries-5 book kids horror focusing on a girl with realistic amnesia and brain damage effects as the opener and the powers system here Magic and Morbid,essentially light/'traditional' kids fantasy elements and dark/'corrupted' kids fantasy elements but with taste and love for the craft i have,not 'a deconstruction of naivetee'

The mcs in order are called The Pro-Losers,Team Reject,The Forever Force and The Horror Solvers.The Pro-Losers are just normal humans but bullied weirdkids turned weird transsexual autistic adults(first book > second book),Team Reject i already described but a worthy note is there's 7 members,The Forever Force consists of Helena and her closest friends she built up over the series that swore their loyalty to her as their leader because she saved their lives not in the saving from danger sense but in the helping them move on and gain healthy coping mechanisms sense and The Horror Solvers are self-appointed kid dectectives that solve mysteries and take down people who want to hurt/destroy the world and it's people with M&M forces

And yes,i did make Team Reject and The Forever Force start the series at 11 to spite that author fascist and include an all girls magical school in Girasol(Helena's homecountry)that is exclusively for transfems🙏🏼🫶🏽Magnus aka the Hoot mc also insults the series as an at least once per book gag because he's a bookworm and it gave him endless psychic damage

[bookcoversaroundtheworld]

Os Vingadoidos: A era de Sanson - Brazil

A spoof of "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" featuring wildly popular Brazilian comic book characters.

The title is a smoosh of the words "vingadores" (the Brazilian name for the Avengers) and "doidos" (crazy).

[mayonesamitch]

PETE THE CAT LOVES HIS BRAND NEW WHITE SHOES 🔥🔥🔥🥶🥶🥵🥵 (Pete the Cat edit)

I'm really tired and I like Pete the Cat. Thank you @irenecatz for accidentally giving me this idea. Pete the Cat 2024!!!! Pete for Purresident!! (I'm so funny.)

[zippocreed501]

AUTHOR EXTRAORDINAIRE

'Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about.'

'If you take myth and folklore, and these things that speak in symbols, they can be interpreted in so many ways that although the actual image is clear enough, the interpretation is infinitely blurred, a sort of enormous rainbow of every possible colour you could imagine.'

'Things we are accustomed to regard as myth or fairy story are very much present in people’s lives. Nice people behave like wicked stepmothers. Every day.'

'It does seem that a fantasy, working out in its own terms, stretching you beyond the normal concerns of your own life, gains you a peculiar charge of energy which inexplicably enriches you. At least, this is my ideal of a fantasy, and I am always trying to write it.'

Author Extraordinaire Diane Wynne Jones

[fallensapphires]

Stories: The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett (1911)

I am sure there is Magic in everything, only we have not sense enough to get hold of it and make it do things for us.

[m4rs-ex3]

Top 5 children’s books?

oh my god yes how did you know that this has been an interest of mine lately

but only 5? hahahahhaha no.

10) the tale of peter rabbit (beatrix potter)

ok so this will come up a lot in this list so something you ought to know about me is that i grew up with a cd player at my bedside that played audiobooks for me every night as i fell asleep from ages 3ish-10. anyway this was one of those and i remember it just being so visceral for some reason. i also had (actually have bc i still have a lot of these) jemima puddleduck which didn't make nearly as much of an impression

9) revolting rhymes (roald dahl)

this book explains a lot about both my tastes and sense of humor. it is only now occurring to me how incredibly gay red and snow white are in this and i don't mean like "omg they're lowkey girlfriends" i mean like no this is a lesbian love story to the highest degree. anyway this one has a full animated movie i watched religously that is literally incredible and also free to watch online so i highly highly recommend watching it

8) a bad case of the stripes (david shannon)

don't even feel the need to explain this one bc y'all already KNOW

7) strega nona (tommie depaola)

this was an absolute childhood staple for me and the best reasoning i have is that i really love pasta

6) the fourteen bears, summer and winter (evelyn scott)

this one just has so much nostalgia for me. i remember my mom was really protective of this book (she'd had it forever) to the point that she kept it in her cabinet instead of on my bookshelf. it was such a treat whenever she brought it out. our favorite part wasn't even the book though; a couple pages are dedicated to showing all of the bears' different bedrooms which are all gorgeously themed and decorated and we loved going through and picking all our favorites. and now, our favorite thing to do together is watch house hunters, so this was pretty special

edit: just asked my mom about this, and turns out this book came out in the 70s and then was reprinted only once (that could be inaccurate idk that's just what she told me) and goes for hundreds of dollars online. i now understand why she never let me have it. it's still in her cupboard.

5) where the sidewalk ends (shel silverstein)

i love shel silverstein like nobody's business. i also have light in the attic and falling up (and read several others) but i'm pretty sure this was my first and my favorite. at like 7 i had the entirety of sarah cynthia sylvia stout memorized

4) the snow queen (sarah lowes)

this was a repeat listen for me. as evidenced by like 40% of this list i really loved fairytales and retellings, and this was my favorite amongst those (story wise). i'll forever have a soft spot for this story because of it. disney i will never forgive you

3) the twelve dancing princesses (brigette barrager)

another fairytale entry and while the 12 dancing princesses is a solid story (there's a reason the barbie movie was also one of my favs) the main reason is because this book is GORGEOUS.

also all of the princesses are themed around different flowers and i eat that shit up.

2) the seven silly eaters (mary ann hoberman)

it doesn't feel right to explain this story nor why i've always loved it as much as i do. it's just charmed me since i can remember and it was my favorite bedtime story for all my life. it's #2 because the following is more Iconic and Special to me, but in terms of books i think this is my favorite.

1) madeline (ludwig bemelmans)

i have very vivid memories of my obsession with madeline, more specifically the movie. when i was 5-6, i had to watch this movie every single day for months on end. i particularly remember one day when i was misbehaving at the grocery store and in order to get me to knock it off, my mom threatened to not let me watch it that day (it worked). i credit this as being my first hyperfixation and it's very special to me because of that. my love for madeline has actually resurfaced very recently when i found a copy at the thrift store (don't have my original) and bought it, and then a month or so later i got this adorable madeline ragdoll at a different thrift store. in conclusion i love her

[bodhrancomedy]

Shnazsnit the Astonishing (Public Enemy No.9)

I have started on my chaotic children's book about my troublemaking delight of a creation, Shnazsnit.

Here is her description.

Shnazsnit was short and scraggly with long white hair and skin the colour of green pond-scum. She had two short tusks which jutted up nicely above each corner of her bottom lip, a sharp chin, even sharper ears, and a long green tail with not one, not two, but three tufts on the end. Shnazsnit was very proud of these – most orcs could only grow one tuft or maybe two. Three was unusual and often meant the owner was destined for great things. That wasn’t the main reason Shnazsnit liked them. It was also because each of those tufts were at the end of a three-way split, just at the end of her tail, and she could move the tips independently which made pulling pranks and climbing away from angry adults far easier. That was also why she liked her sharp nails on her fingers and toes, although those had yet to grow properly. She would have to wait a whole three years at least before they caught up with her current growth and hardened into the retractable claws like her mother’s, her father’s, and her grown-up neighbours’.   She wasn’t a very patient orc.

by Bodhrán M

[fiction-quotes]

“My boy,” said the fairy, “those who talk in that way almost always end up either in prison or in the hospital. Let me tell you that every man, whether he is born rich or poor, is obliged to do something in the world – to occupy himself, to work. Woe to those who lead slothful lives. Sloth is a dreadful illness and must be cured at once, in childhood. If not, when we are old it can never be cured.”

  —   Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi)

[intothestacks]

Friendly reminder

Children's stories simplify complex topics because kids need to learn the basics before they can understand the more complex aspects of a topic, NOT because kids are dumb or the writers think the kids are dumb.

Kids haven't had as much time to learn stuff and they need to learn literally everything from scratch, so creators need to meet kiddos where they're at.

[reallyunluckyrunaway]

I just thought this was cute.

[doubtspirit]

Lisa Aisato's illustrations are a tribute to the very ordinary, highly uncertain – but oh so beautiful – life.

[bookcoversaroundtheworld]

O Senhor dos pincéis - Brazil

The name translates as "The Lord of the Paintbrushes" ("paintbrushes" rhymes with "rings" in Portuguese)

[first--lines]

Mrs. Rachel Lynde lived just where the Avonlea main road dipped down into a little hollow, fringed with alders and ladies' eardrops and traversed by a brook that had its source away back into the woods of the old Cuthbert place; it was reputed to be an intricate, headlong brook in its earlier course through those woods, with dark secrets of pool and cascade; but by the time it reached Lynde's Hollow it was a quiet, well-conducted little stream, for not even a brook could run past Mrs. Rachel Lynde's door without due regard for decency and decorum: it probably was conscious that Mrs. Rachel was sitting at her window, keeping a sharp eye on everything that passed, from brooks and children up, and that if she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.

  —  Anne of Green Gables (L. M. Montgomery)

[alicewhitesblog]

This is really good. I have nearly finished it. It also came with this lovely bookmark.