Brothers Lionheart

[aceofkittens]

I grew up reading a lot of Scandinavian children's books — a lot of Astrid Lindgren, Selma Lagerlof, Tove Jansson — but I couldn't say that I had read all of Lindgren's books. There are still some vast gaps in my Lindgren reading, which is why I picked up a copy of The Brothers Lionheart when I happened to be at the bookstore yesterday.

Holy shit, Batman! I'd been expecting a pleasant story along the lines of Kalle Blumqvist or maybe even Ronia, the Robber's Daughter. No... not exactly. As fillyjonk said, "Brothers Lionheart is not an uplifting book." Yes, I was sobbing like a baby on the train. I think it would have shattered me even harder if I'd read it as a kid. Imagine Bridge to Terabithia, only more so.

I'm tired of whining about how sick I am and how I'm coughing out my lungs every time I breathe. Let's talk about children's books. What are the books you read as a kid which affected you, shattered you, changed you forever?

Comments

[colubra.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not really a children's book, but it looked enough like one that I read it as a child: The Last Unicorn.

[scanner-darkly.livejournal.com]

Man. I need to read that one again. Haven't read it since I was a teen. Sob. I want my books!

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

I'm impressed you've read Astrid Lindgren! :) Swedes solidarity! ;)

[saladbar.livejournal.com]

Is it a kid's book?

You read booktards

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

I haven't read that community -- I'll look into it.

And yep, Brothers Lionheart is a children's book.

[erikred.livejournal.com]

I checked out D'Aulaire's Norse Gods and Giants from the school library from the start of first grade to the end of third (when I moved). It introduced me to fatalism, moral ambiguity, and transgenderism/transspeciesism (Loki's giving birth to Sleipnir), and pretty much gave me the moral framework by which I've lived my life.

It also gave James Baldwin's book, The Fire Next Time, more oomph.

[spican.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow, you hadn't read that one before? Lucky you, to just have discovered it! Even though it's so terribly sad. It's my favorite Lindgren book by far (and one of my favorite works of fiction in general, for that matter.) My music teacher in sixth form wasn't very musical and I don't think she quite knew what to do with us musically for all of 45 minutes, so she used to spend the last fifteen minutes or so of each class reading to us from The Brothers Lionheart. I still remember how she read the last paragraphs of the last chapter, her voice almost breaking with emotion and a good part of us 25 twelve-year-olds in tears -- even the boys. :) Though I think we all certainly bought into the fairy-tale aspect completely then and didn't see the darker realistic interpretation at all, we still recognized that this was a "happy end" with a lot of loss and sadness to it.

Did you read an edition with the original illustrations by Ilon Wikland? Her Lindgren illustrations are fantastic. If not, I can scan some from my edition and link them for you.

Have you read Mio, my Mio? It's the one of Lindgren's that most resembles The Brothers Lionheart in theme and tone. Also very beautiful and very sad.

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Mio, my Mio was in the same volume as Brothers Lionheart, so I read it yesterday as well. I didn't write about it, but I thoguht it was incredibly sad and the darker realistic interpretation of it is heart-breaking. This edition didn't have any illustrations whatsoever.

[spican.livejournal.com]

Not that I mean to drown you in Lindgren angst, but there's another book of hers that is melancholy and dark -- the short story collection "Sunnanäng" which translates roughly as "South wind meadow". The stories are very poetic and written with extreme compassion for children as outsiders, but some of them like "South wind meadow" and "Play, my linden, sing, my nightinggale" will just tear your heart out. Ack.

Oh, and yes, since you asked, Lindgren's stories definitely had a huge impact on me as a child, and they're what sparked my interest in fantasy literature in the first place. I do prefer the darker and very poetic ones, although I have a big weakness especially for the "Kalle Blomquist, master detective" series -- I checked them out of the library so often I might just as well have not bothered to check them in. Especially the second one where Eva finds the murdered man. :)

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Oh, my darling Spica, that's actually in the book as well. :) This is a big hardback volume which contains Mio, Brothers Lionheart, Ronja the Robber's Daughter, and Sunnanäng. I have been lingering on Ronja...

{{{{you}}}}

[fillyjonk.livejournal.com]

hey, who is Selma Legerlof? I can't believe I've never heard of her. Ah - I bet she's not in English, right? Darn. I could really go for a good, new children's book at the moment.

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Sure, she is. The Wonderful Adventures of Nils! I don't know if it will let you click through to this link (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0486286118/qid=1101244748/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl14/102-8808222-2556920?v=glance&s=books&n=507846), but there you go. :)

[fillyjonk.livejournal.com]

huh. Was there a film of this back in the 70s? My German neighbors had it on TV, I'm willing to bet - a vague memory from when I was 7 or 8, I think. But being in German, I of course didn't get much out of it....

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

Film? No idea. :)

[toastmantom.livejournal.com]

I've been reading books my whole life, and I honestly can't think of one I read as a child that had such a deep impact on me. I think I'm just too gosh-darned American. All our books have to be so uplifting or something. Even Bridge to Terabithia didn't hit me that hard.

Or maybe I'm just a sociopath.

[aceofkittens.livejournal.com]

What about Old Yeller? :)

[aerinys.livejournal.com]

Ack!

Or Where the Red Fern Grows.

Hmm...I was obsessed with Watership Down as a child, though I didn't understand all of its intricacies until much later. I guess that's not a children's book really, though I discovered it in about fourth grade.

I'm sure there are some children's books I'm forgetting though. I hate my memory sometimes. I remember crying when Aslan "died" in The Chronicles of Narnia.

I think I must have read a lot of vapid books as a small child, though.

[d-r-o-n-e.livejournal.com]

Ones that freaked me out or made me weepy, definitely hit me hard as a kid:

Tuck Everlasting
Old Yeller
Charlotte's Web
A Book of Days

That last one was by a woman named Joan Blos, and for some reason i have kept it of all my childrens books through all my moves and such. In it, a child character dies and there is a verse which, looking back on it as an adult, is not terribly brilliantly written, but which really affected me as a kid, such that I insisted on writing it on the burial shoeboxes of my pets when they passed away (we had TONS of cats so several died during the course of my childhood). The verse I can still quote from memory, and it went like this:

She walked among us for a while
And brought joy wherever she went
We thought she was a gift from God
But learned she was but lent.