Pointless children’s book list

There’s a BBC TV quiz show called Pointless, which Jen and I watch. Prior to the show, 100 people are each given 100 seconds to provide as many answers as possible to the questions that will be put to the teams during the show. Correct answers are assigned a point value equal to the number of respondents who gave them, so that less commonly given answers have lower values than those given by many respondents. Contestants on the show attempt to give answers worth as few points as possible, aiming to have the lowest score amongst the contestants in each round. If a contestant gets an answer wrong, they score 100 points. "Pointless" answers are those correct answers that none of the 100 respondents gave, making them worth zero points. Thus, the more obscure the answer, the more chance of getting to the final, where the objective is to get an answer without any points - a pointless answer.

Yesterday, we watched one session that concerned ‘100 books for children to read by age 14’, a list provided by the Book Trust. We, among many others, were surprised at the books that were excluded. Books such as Alice in Wonderland, Treasure Island, Wind in the Willows, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Gruffalo.

 

I’ve since had a look at the Book Trust website, which can explain some of the exclusions.

http://www.booktrust.org.uk/programmes/primary/childrens-book-week/100-best-books/

The initial selection was for books published in the last hundred years – so that immediately excludes a great number of classics.

As for the absence of Charlie and Gruffalo, the 100 selection was further broken down into the ‘best books’ for 0-5 year-olds; 6-8; 9-11; and 12-14; so inevitably, that limits each group to only 25 titles.  The authors of both of these books are represented in the list, however, with other titles.

If nothing else, it proves that whenever a list of ‘best’ books is published, it will be controversial or at least contentious. And that can be no bad thing – it encourages discussion about favourite books.

Here is a selection of children’s classics that couldn’t make it onto that list but still provide rewarding reading for children:

(Full title not always shown, but you recognise the book!)

Robinson Crusoe, 1719

Brothers Grimm, 1812
Swiss Family Robinson, 1813

Hans Christian Andersen tales, 1837-72

Children of the New Forest, 1847

Tom Brown’s Schooldays, 1857
Coral Island, 1858

Water Babies, 1863
Journey to the Centre of the Earth, 1864
Alice in Wonderland, 1865
Little Women, 1868

What Katy Did, 1873

Tom Sawyer, 1876
Black Beauty, 1877

Treasure Island, 1883

Pinocchio, 1883
Heidi, 1884
King Solomon’s Mines, 1885
Dr Jekyll etc, 1886

Jungle Book, 1894

Dracula, 1897
Moonfleet, 1898

Wizard of Oz, 1900

Tales of Peter Rabbit, 1902
Call of the Wild, 1903
A Little Princess, 1905
Railway Children, 1906
Wind in the Willows, 1908
Anne of Green Gables, 1908
Secret Garden, 1909
 

 

The long tale of the Adventures of Super Scoop the Penguin

Long before Pingu (1986), there was Super Scoop. At the outset, he didn’t have a name. He was just a drawing of a penguin, along with a sketch of sheep (!) that Jen put on her letters while we were courting. After a while, I started drawing the penguin in different situations, slipping on ice, swimming, birthday cards etc. Slowly, it dawned on us that this character had the potential for a children’s story, so Jen began writing the adventures. In the second episode, the penguin gets his name, and thus Super Scoop was born. Six adventures were written, and I illustrated in colour a few scenes from each episode. We tried getting children’s publishers interested, but the response was less than enthusiastic, one actually citing Watership Down, stating that anthropomorphic animals don’t sell! I approached Penguin Biscuits and the makers of a super scoop ice cream, and sent off the drawings – fortunately, I’d made black and white photocopies because the drawings mysteriously got ‘lost’…

B&W copy of one of several lost illos

Then we were married and shortly afterwards I was drafted to Malta, taking Jen with me for a two-year tour.  I worked in the cash office of RN Hospital Mtarfa, just across the valley from Rabat. (The island inspired me to write a vampire novel set there, though its gestation took several years thereafter!)

Super Scoop’s first adventures were read over the BFBS Malta radio by Jen in 1975.

 

On our return to UK, we intermittently attempted to evoke interest in the character, but had no success. I wanted to establish some kind of publishing history for Super Scoop, as I thought he was quite a unique creation. I was serving in Faslane, Scotland, and edited the establishment magazine, so I wrote and drew the Super Scoop adventures as a black and white comic. It seemed well received by the families stationed there…

Faslane comic...

Leapfrog forward to 2003 and Super Scoop appeared this time in a full colour comic strip in the monthly magazine, the Portsmouth Post.

Beginning again - in colour...

 

He featured every month thereafter until that magazine’s demise in 2007. His adventures involved dinosaurs emerging from icebergs, an attack of leopard seals, encountering humans (scientists), shipwrecked polar bears, a friendly arctic tern, a long-lost relative, a journey to the centre of the earth, and fun with pals and even snowflakes. The strip is laced with humour, too.

Since then I’ve approached some children’s publishers and their interest is astoundingly non-existent. I say ‘astoundingly’ because I’ve shown and read the Portsmouth Post comics to our five-year-old grandson and he not only remembers the stories in great detail, but asks for them again and again – despite being strongly attracted to Angry Birds and Batman online games (under supervision!) His response is everything we hoped it would be – but clearly Jen and I are in a minority and publishers know best!

So I’m now thinking that rather than let these adventures gather dust in a drawer or sit unloved on a computer disc, I’ll self-publish, even if it means the illustrations won’t be in colour.

Watch this space.