Posted by Mike Dennis on August 27, 2016 at 01:17:15 user MTD.
For me, AR as a children’s author, (and it is a pity we have to pigeon-hole him with this phrase, a great writer is a great writer), stands head and shoulders above any others because he doesn’t encourage or try to force his readers to do anything away from the books.
He may have inspired some to follow certain paths but that is just coincidental. One aspect of his work that he excels at is explaining to the reader how to do things – all I know about boats, sailing and numerous other subjects comes from reading AR. Fifty or so years on from my first reading his books I still draw upon that knowledge, even if only to enable me to understand references to those things in other books etc.
Reading his canon in my later adulthood has shown me another side to his work that is often underrated. He had a great understanding of the psychology of children, and how they interact with the world of adults. I always take great comfort from whenever in his plots the children show they have a much better understanding of things than the adults around them.
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