Top 100: 61-70

I read several other blogs and I am flabbergasted by the frequency and quality of the author's posts. They must stay up all night blogging, because between work, home, kids, and all those other things that require time and attention I can barely manage to post once a week.

Well, to quote Trace Adkins:  "All I can do, is all I can do and I keep on tryin'". My mother-in-law was a huge country fan and she once said this to me and it has always stuck in my head.

Here we go with the next 10 books on my Top 100 list.

70. Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine

I am sure that many of you have seen the film version of Ella Enchanted starring Anne Hathaway and Hugh Dancy which is cute and campy. Levine's Newbery Honor book actually has a lot more depth. Yes, there is a fairy godmother and a handsome prince, but Ella Enchanted is less about finding true love and more about redefining the classic fairy tale heroine. Ella may be cursed with obedience, but she does not allow that to keep her from being confident and independent. Rather than waiting for Prince Charming to rescue her from unhappy circumstances, Ella exerts her will to change things herself.



69. The Call of the Wild by Jack London

The Alaskan gold rush in the 1890s leads to a profuse demand for strong, large-breed dogs that can pull sleds laden with equipment and supplies. Buck is St. Bernard/Shepherd mix that is snatched from a life of comfort with a wealthy family and shipped to the Alaskan wilderness.

I think that the expected, happy story line would be for Buck to stay loyal and make the steadfast journey back to his home. London does not take this route, though. Instead he shows that Buck's domesticity barely contains a fierce and independent will to survive. Eventually he becomes so disgusted and furious that he abandons all semblance of docility and embraces the savage freedom of a wild wolf.

And not only did he learn by experience, but instincts long dead became alive       again. The domesticated generations fell from him. In vague ways he remembered back to the youth of the breed, to the time the wild dogs ranged in packs through the primeval forest and killed their meat as they ran it down. . . . Thus, as token of what a puppet thing life is the ancient song surged through him and he came into his own again. . . .


68. Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard and Florence Atwater


It has been over 75 years since Mr. Popper's Penguins was published but it is just as lively and cheerful to read today. Mr. Popper is just your everyday house painter working and raising a family in a small town. Whenever he has a free moment, though Mr. Popper dreams of traveling to the Antarctic and exploring the frozen continent just like his hero, Admiral Drake.

One day a package arrives from Admiral Drake and the Popper family is delighted to welcome a penguin, whom they dub Captain Cook, into their home. When Captain Cook is overtaken by loneliness the Poppers do the logical thing and bring him home a mate. Well, of course, one penguin plus one penguin equals ten baby penguins and what could possibly go wrong in a house with a dozen penguins?

This book is so joyful; it begs to be read aloud with your children.

67. Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

Isn't it every reader's fantasy that the characters and worlds that exist in fiction become reality? I would definitely not object if Edward Rochester or Rhett Butler were to walk into my living room. The ability to summon the characters and things that they read into the real world is more of a curse for Meggie and her father, Mortimer. For every object that is drawn into reality from fiction, something from our world must go into the realm of the book. This is how Meggie's mother was lost and a depraved villain was unleashed upon our world.

I am a total book nerd so nothing could be better than an exciting  fantasy that revolves around books and reading. Don't stop after reading just the first one, though, because the entire trilogy is an amazing fantasy adventure.

66. The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford

The fierce loyalty and 300 mile trek of Luath, the young lab; Bodger, the old bull terrier; and Tau, the Siamese cat are the antithesis to The Call of the Wild. Both books do share a savage yet breathtaking setting: London's being the Alaskan wilderness and Burnford's takes place across Canada. Burnford actually based The Incredible Journey on the pets she and her husband owned while living in Canada and the strong bond that those animals shared.

The Incredible Journey was not that popular of a book until Disney made it into a movie in 1963. The 1963 film version is wonderful (I do not like the remake, Homeward Bound, as much, because they changed the breeds of the dogs which bugged me), but the book is definitely worth the read.

 
 65. The Tale of Despereaux  byKate DiCamillo

I must confess that I am not a big fan of Kate DiCamillo. Personally, I find that she throws too many mature themes in books intended for younger readers and her writing style is pretentious. However, the grandiose (you could say highfalutin) language really suits this classic fairytale about a tiny mouse that aspires to be a knight. The abusive and depressing history of Miggery Sow may be a little heavy for younger readers, but overall The Tale of Despereaux it is a whimsical and charming fantasy.

My kids and I listened to the audio version of The Tale of Despereaux and the reader, James Heywood, was wonderful. The narrator in this book "breaks the fourth wall" i.e. speaks directly to the reader which really works when are you listening to the audio version.







64. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg
I am aware that most "greatest chapter books" lists have From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler much higher. I do love this book and, like every other kid who read it, imagined running away and secretly living in a museum (or library!). However, it has never been a book that I wanted to read again and again. I also had to drop it lower on the list just because even when I was a kid I thought that Claudia was a snobby, know-it-all and when I read it as an adult I still thought that she was a snobby, know-it-all and a selfish, disrespectful brat too. I know that is the mom in me talking, because if my kids just decided to runaway with or without a note, because they didn't always get their way I would be frantic with worry and really angry when I found them. Despite the rather unlikeable heroine (I much prefer Claudia's little brother) From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler is a fun mystery to read.


63. The Fantastic Mr. Fox by Roald Dahl

Here he is again, the splendiferous Roald Dahl!!! I told you that I adore him and you would see more of his books on my Top 100 list. Mr. Fox is an ingenious trickster that manages to outwit the three despicable farmers determined to kill him. One of the things that Dahl does exceptionally well is make his villains so outrageously horrid that they end up being hilarious.
"Boggis and Bunce and Bean
One fat, one short, one lean.
These horrible crooks
So different in looks
Were nonetheless equally mean."
- Roald Dahl, Fantastic Mr Fox, Ch. 1
 
62. Coraline by Neil Gaiman

 

Coraline should probably be reserved for older elementary kids that love to read anything creepy, because it is horrifying in the best possible way. When Coraline opens a mysterious door in her home it does not lead to a magical fantasy land like Narnia. Rather it leads into a replica of her apartment that is different in strange ways. Cleaner, nicer, and with an Other Mother who is much more attentive and affectionate. At first Coraline enjoys all of the attention and special treatment, but then things begin to seem sinister. I love scary books and Coraline definitely delivers. Of course, part of the reason I find it so scary is that I am terrified of dolls and there is the whole replacing eyes with buttons. The movie was also quite good too (it is from the director of The Nightmare Before Christmas) and especially fun to watch around Halloween.

61. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brian
I must have read this book half a dozen times and probably watched the Don Bluth cartoon more than a hundred times. I cannot remember if I read the book or watched the movie first, but they are both imaginative and exciting.  Sorry, Mrs Frisby, you may have been the title character, but I was much more interested in the super intelligent laboratory rats that escaped from the National Institute of Mental Health.
The home that they build in the Fitzgibbon's rose bush is so fascinating I wish that I was small enough to explore it. I read this aloud to my daughter when she was five or six and it was so much fun to share a book from my childhood with her and have her love it just as much as I did.