This past weekend, I saw an article on The Guardian website where major authors listed the books that influenced them the most as children and young adults. I'm definitely more an artist than an author, and I go through phases of reading lots to reading little (at least in the sense of traditional books, that is). However, I thought it would be fun to have a go at listing the literary works that have had an impact on me. Even though I had to divide it into two parts, it still isn't exhaustive.
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| Where the Wild Things Are (Illustration by Maurice Sendak) |
As a very young child, I was exposed to a lot of the books most small children of my era would have read. These included well-loved picture books such as The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Where the Wild Things Are. It was only as an adult that I discovered a great deal many other works by Eric Carle and Maurice Sendak (the latter being more of a direct inspiration to me). Needless to say, the fact that these stand out so much among all the other picture books I was exposed to says something about their longevity. Looking at Sendak's illustrations of a boy chasing a dog with his fork and then imagining his room turning into a jungle still gives me feel the Peter Pan-like thrill I had seeing them as a four year old. Equally, I still can remember the surprise of seeing pages of strawberries and pears having holes in them when encountering The Very Hungry Caterpillar. It was a pleasant surprise indeed to find our childhood copy of that book in a long unopened box in my brother's closet.
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| Illustration by Beatrix Potter |
Beatrix Potter's books equally resonated with me. As an adult, I find her writing somewhat moralistic, but I still admire her as both an environmentalist and as an illustrator. Her attention to detail regarding nature and her delicate drawings certainly helped me see the beauty of nature. It may be old-fashioned, but so what - it's soothing. Disney film tie-ins and children's magazines also were popular in our household; in time, these grew out of fashion and were replaced by "Simpsons Comics" and The Beano. Audiobooks were also popular, particularly read-along books; we acquired some story magazines that came with tapes called "Once Upon a Time", and we had many titles from Disney's book and tape series.
There were also the countless fairy tales and other traditional stories. Ladybird books are partly responsible for my introduction to many of those stories. Due to my age I didn't come into contact with many of the older editions with hyper-realistic illustrations, but the company's inexpensive illustrated pocket books were always favourite purchases from the toyshop above the local post office. I only have a couple of the many books I used to have, but I've since rediscovered some of the ones I've lost along the way along with ones I wasn't familiar with. That's not to say that I was never exposed to the original texts (or what can be considered nearly original given that we're talking about folk stories). As an eight year-old, I remember reading an edition of Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales as a reading book from the school library. It was a long tome and got quite heavy towards the end, but I can remember the feelings of wistfulness and whimsy I got from reading that text and for the illustrations in the volume, such as the murky image of a fish swallowing the little tin soldier and the Snow Queen riding through a wintery sky. Equally, I remember my surprise at first reading the Grimms' take on "Cinderella" with resourceful birds and an enchanted tree instead of a fairy godmother.
There were also some legends and fables. I was always exposed to many of Aesop's stories in some form or another, and through studying the Greeks in school, I was introduced to key stories from Greek mythology, including those of Hercules, Odysseus and Theseus. I remember as a nine year-old initially being disappointed with Disney's Hercules, partly due to the fact that I had already been exposed to the original story as opposed to being exposed to the film simultaneously or before reading the original.
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| The Magic Finger (illustration by Quentin Blake) |
I didn't read every Roald Dahl book as a child - in fact, a number of his books I didn't read until I was an adult. Nonetheless, any child born from the 60s onwards would have been familiar with some of Roald Dahl's wonderful works. The Enormous Crocodile, Fantastic Mr Fox, Revolting Rhymes and Rhyme Stew all stand out, as do the sentimental Esio Trot and the delightfully surreal environmental tale The Magic Finger. Other standouts include The Twits, read to me and my brother by my mother in one reading on holiday, and The Witches, which as a ten year-old I read in one evening, a rarity for even now. Quentin Blake's illustrations for both Dahl's books and other projects had an impact on me - it's simplistic yet radical and original. Even though I didn't read the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in its entirety until fairly recently, I did read Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator (the sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) but didn't enjoy it.
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| "You're nothing but a pack of cards!" (illustration by John Tenniel) |
No discussion on children's books that inspired me would be complete without mentioning Alice in Wonderland (or Alice's Adventures in Wonderland as it's technically called) and Through the Looking Glass. Dickens described Red Riding Hood as being his first love, but for me it was Alice. Though she was a little girl, she spoke to me in ways many boys in literature did. It goes without saying that I was captivated by the fantasy and adventure. Even as a child, however, I could tell to some extent that the books were as much a satire on the attitudes of adults towards children and a commentary on the silliness of our own world as much as they were extended fairy tales. The original illustrated version by John Tenniel is also a milestone of sorts; never before were text and picture so brilliantly intertwined. Not only do Tenniel's illustrations capture the strangeness of Wonderland or Looking-Glass Land and its inhabitants, but they also enrich Carroll's text with extra details while not overshadowing the text too much. That's not to say, however, that other artists have not done a good job at re-interpreting Wonderland. Mervyn Peake's illustrations are macabre delights, and Mary Blair's colourful designs for the Disney animated film are spectacular, making nods to Tenniel without being too derivative.
Very soon, I'll write about the books I encountered as I became a teenager and then an adult...
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