The Oxford book of children's stories

Author(s)

• Mark, Jan

Bibliographic Information

The Oxford book of children's stories

selected and introduced by Jan Mark

Oxford University Press, 1993

Note

Summary: A collection of short stories written for children over the past 250 years by such authors as Louisa May Alcott, Rudyard Kipling, Carl Sandburg, Joan Aiken, and Rosa Guy

Includes bibliographical references

Description and Table of Contents

Description

Children's writer and Carnegie medallist Jan Mark has selected 44 stories which include moral tales, fairy tales, ghost stories, adventure stories, and school stories; they are inhabited by good and bad children, strict parents, and unkindly uncles and aunts, as well as kings and queens, giants, and enchanters. The stories represent some of the best children's literature written over the past 250 years. They traces how the children's short story has evolved since the publication of Sarah Fielding's "The Governess" in 1749. The book contains work such authors as Louisa M. Alcott, Rudyard Kipling, E. Nesbit, Richmal Cromptom, Philippa Pearce, and Joan Aiken, as well as some long-forgotten tales. Chronologically arranged, the anthology also serves as an introduction to the historical development of the children's short story, providing insights into the way perceptions of childhood and contemporary attitudes have influenced writers of different periods. But as Jan Mark's selection demonstrates, the ingredients of a good children's story - as well as the fictional tastes of children themselves - have remained remarkably constant, despite changes in style and outlook. This is a survey of the children's short story for parents, teachers, librarians, children's literature professionals - and of course for children themselves.

Table of Contents

• "The Story of Celia and Chloe" (1749), Sarah Fielding
• "The Ill-natured Boy" (1783), Thomas Day
• "Difference and Agreement" (1792-6), John Aiken and Laetitia Barbauld
• "Elinor Forester" (1809), Mary Lamb
• "The Little Blue Bag" (1825), Alicia Catherine Mant
• "Soffrona and her Cat Muff, Mary Martha Sherwood
• "Uncle David's Nonsensical Story about Giants and Fairies"(1839), Catherine Sinclair
• "Limby Lumpy" (c.1840), Anon
• "the First Theft" (1847), Anon
• "The Mother and Boy" (1853), Anon
• "The Story of Merrymind" (1856), Frances Browne
• "The Green Velvet Dress" (1858), Charlotte Maria Tucker
• "Little Daylight" (1864), George MacDonald
• "The Lady Who Put Salt In Her Coffee" (1868), Lucretia P. Hale
• "The Children's Joke" (1871), Louisa May Alcott
• "Nineteen Hundred and Seventy-Two" (1872), Jean Ingelow
• "A Party in the Land of Nowhere" (1874), Christine Rossetti
• "The Two Wishes" (1877), Susan Coolidge
• "Chicken Lizzie" (1878), L. Duykwood
• "Alf Brownson's Shilling" (c.1880), Anon
• "The New Mother" (1882), Lucy Lane Clifford
• "The Griffin and the Minor Canon" (1885), Frank R. Stockton
• "Quiquern" (1895), Rudyard Kipling
• "The Schoolboy's Apprentice" (1897), E.V. Lucas
• "The Story of the Small Boy and the Barley-Sugar" (1897), Max Beerbohm
• "The Island of the Nine Whirlpools" (1899), E. Nesbit
• "Nanina's Sheep" (1900), Mary de Morgan
• "How a Skyscraper and a Railroad Train got Picked up and Carried away from Pig's Eye Valley Far in the Pickax Mountains" (1923), Carl Sandburg
• "The Riddle" (1923), Walter de la Mare
• "The Caravan Siege" (c.1926), Alice Massie
• "Wailing Well" (1928), M.R. James
• "Aunt Arabelle in Charge" (1931), Richmal Crompton
• "The Great Bronze Tulip (c.1939), Henry de Vere Stacpoole
• "The Lost Garda (1946), Patricia Lynch
• "The Lobster's Birthday" (1953), Joan Aiken
• "Spit Nolan" (1961), Bill Naughton
• "The Great Blackberry-Pick" (1972), Philippa Pearce
• "Feeding the Cats" (1975), Ann Thwaite
• "Oliver Hyde's Dishcloth Concert" (1977), Richard Kennedy
• "She" (1984), Rosa Guy
• "The Banana Tree" (1987) James Berry
• "Dan, Dan, the Scenery Man" (1989), Jan Mark
• "Fabric Crafts" (1990), Anne Fine
• "The Convict Box" (1992), Nadia Wheatley.

by "Nielsen BookData"

Details

• NCID: BA2120858X
• ISBN:
  • 0192142283
• LCCN: 93006978
• Country Code: uk
• Title Language Code: eng
• Text Language Code: eng
• Place of Publication: Oxford ; New York
• Pages/Volumes: xix, 450 p.
• Size: 23 cm
• Classification:
  • LCC : PZ5
• Subject Headings:
  • LCSH : Children's stories
  • JVSH : Short stories