Posted by John Birch on 01/07/00 from gateway1.gsi.gov.uk:
In Reply to: Re: Appealing to a new generation? Really? posted by Woll on January 04, 19100 at 21:12:53:
I feel certain that children are maybe not voluntarily taking to Arthur Ransome for several reasons - the most important of which is that they are not being told about them. What chance does a challenging 400+ page book with no promotional backing whatsoever have compared with a higly promoted 100+ page RL Steine?
For the record, my wife picked up a copy of S&A (along with other books) in a car boot sale, which she was going to donate to a school. My daughter - who has been camping - looked throughthe books and saw the cover of S&A (Red Fox paperback edition) and wanted to know more. the rest, as they say, is history.
Ideal age? Depends on whether the child has been camping or sailing (though the sailing is probably not necessary). Roughly 7-9 (Roger-Titty?)is a good start as children like to identify with a character in a story (my daughter sees herself as Titty).
The appeal is that it is so realistic (although arguably Mrs Walker is just too perfect a mother to be true - but she is certainly any child's wish-fulfilled!) so IF the child identifies with some of the situations they go down very well.
Having a parent who loves the tales as well is obviosuly a help - not least because reading 20 page chapters of an evening can be pretty exhausting!