兒童節特供：11本最偉大的英文童書
什麼樣的書才能稱得上最偉大的兒童書呢？英國廣播公司（BBC）文化頻道的編輯採訪了幾十位世界各地的書評人和童書編輯，讓他們列出自己心目中針對10歲以下兒童最好的英文兒童讀物。這些評論人士和編輯一共列出了151本書，而下面的這11本在他們的推薦中多次出現。我們相信，這些書還會繼續陪伴一代又一代兒童成長。
11. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie (1935)
《草原上的小木屋》（1935年），蘿拉•英格斯•懷德著
Wilder’s nine classic frontier novels were inspired by her own 19th Century childhood. She was raised in a pioneer family, and traveled through the Midwest by covered wagon. Wilder writes with authentic detail of a little girl living “in the Big Woods of Wisconsin, in a little gray house made of logs" with her parents, two sisters and their dog, Jack. "As far as a man could go to the north in a day, or a week, or a whole month, there was nothing but woods. There were no houses.” Wilder’s accounts have made daily life on the frontier vivid for generations. (Credit: Harper)
懷德的9部經典邊疆小說都是在她自己19世紀的童年生活啓發下寫成的。她成長於一個拓荒者家庭，曾經坐着大篷車橫穿美國中西部。懷德用逼真的細節描述了一個小女孩跟她的父母、兩個姐姐和一條名叫傑克的狗生活在“威斯康星州大森林裏的一座灰色小木屋裏”。“一個人走一天、一個星期、或者整整一個月，也走不出這片森林。一個房子也看不到，只有森林。” 懷德的作品爲一代又一代兒童生動描述了邊疆地區的日常生活。（來源：哈珀柯林斯出版社）
10. Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle In Time (1962)
《時間的皺紋》（1962年），麥德琳•蘭歌著
Meg Murry’s father, a time traveling physicist, has disappeared. One night she, her precocious younger brother Charles Wallace and her mother – “a scientist and a beauty as well” – have an unexpected visitor. "Wild nights are my glory," the strange Mrs Whatsit tells them. "I just got blown off course.” She refers to a tesseract, a fifth dimension that allows travel through time and space. With her brother and a high school friend, Calvin, Meg sets out across the universe to find her father. Their confrontation with IT, the disembodied conformist intelligence that casts a shadow over the universe, is a noirish Cold War touch. L’Engle’s Newbery Award-winning book was an early foray into science fiction for younger readers, inspired in part by Einstein’s theory of relativity. Meg was a first in literature: a nerdy girl whose intelligence was matched by her powerful love for her family. (Credit: Farrar, Straus & Giroux)
梅格•默裏的父親是一位能夠穿越時光的物理學家，他不見了。一天晚上，她和她親愛的弟弟查爾斯•華萊士，還有她的母親，一位美女科學家，迎來了一位不速之客。這位奇怪的“什麼”夫人跟他們說：“狂野的夜晚是我的榮耀。我剛剛被吹離了航線。”她指的是超立方體，能夠讓人穿越時空的五維空間。梅格帶着弟弟和高中同學凱文穿越宇宙去尋找父親。他們與IT的對峙其實是在用黑色手法表現冷戰。IT是一個沒有肉體、循規蹈矩的智能設備，它給整個宇宙罩上了一層陰影。蘭歌的這部作品靈感來源於愛因斯坦的相對論，曾經摘得紐伯瑞兒童文學獎，同時也是針對青少年讀者科幻作品的早期嘗試。梅格是文學世界裏第一個：智商與其對家人強烈的愛相匹配的怪咖女孩。（來源：法勞•斯特勞斯•吉羅出版公司）
9. Ursula K Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
《地海巫師》（1968年），厄休拉•勒奎恩著
A young boy known as Sparrowhawk saves his village with a smattering of magic he learned from his aunt, a local witch. Apprenticed to the mage Ogion the Silent, and renamed Ged, he begins his training as a sorcerer. Le Guin’s exploration of the consequences of Ged’s misfires and temptations while at a school for wizards, his struggles with dragons and his inner demons, reshaped fantasy storytelling’s concepts of good and evil. Gradually, Ged gains wisdom as he faces his challenges. "He knew now, and the knowledge was hard, that his task had never been to undo what he had done, but to finish what he had begun." "To me Le Guin’s story is about learning your craft as a writer, the long and painful struggle for mastery of both your art and yourself, written in astounding prose," says Amanda Craig, author and reviewer for the New Statesman and the Daily Telegraph. (Credit: Parnassus Press)
一位名叫雀鷹的少年憑藉從女巫姨媽那裏學到的一點法術拯救了他的村莊。後來他給巫師“沉默的歐吉安”做學徒，師父歐吉安給他改名爲“格得”，自那以後他就開始學習做巫師。勒奎恩對於格得在巫師學院失手遭反噬以及面對的種種誘惑，他與龍族以及自己內心的惡魔做鬥爭的描寫，重新定義了奇幻小說的善惡概念。漸漸地，格得在面對挑戰的過程中智慧見長。“經歷了一番艱難困苦後，他現在明白，他的使命從來不是要撤銷他所種下的果，而是要把他做的事堅持到底。”“對我而言，勒奎恩的故事講的是作爲一個作家如何磨鍊你的寫作技巧，她用令人驚歎的文字告訴我們，達到藝術和個人境界的高峯需要經過一番漫長而痛苦的掙扎，”《新政治家週刊》和《每日電訊報》撰稿人及評論家阿曼達•克雷格說。（來源：帕那色斯出版社）
8. Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
《查理和巧克力工廠》（1964年），羅爾德•達爾著
The critics’ poll nominated five of Roald Dahl’s children’s books – the most by any author. Poet and book critic Tess Taylor calls his work “rollicking, funny, scary, humane and magical.” New York Times columnist Carmela Ciuraru says, “It seems impossible to choose just one favourite by Dahl, arguably the greatest children's book author of all time, but he is at his most delightful, imaginative and mischievous in this 1964 classic.” Dahl’s most popular among the five nominated is the story of Charlie Bucket, his Grandpa Joe, the Oompa-Loompas and the five golden tickets that take Charlie inside the factory of Willy Wonka, “the most amazing, the most fantastic, the most extraordinary chocolate maker the world has ever seen!” “Something crazy is going to happen now, Charlie thought. But he wasn’t frightened. He wasn’t even nervous. He was just terrifically excited.” (Credit: Penguin Books)
在書評人士的提名中，羅爾德•達爾兒童書就有5本，是作品得到提名最多的作家。詩人、書評家苔絲•泰勒將達爾的作品描述爲“歡樂、有趣、嚇人、人道、神奇”。《紐約時報》專欄作家卡梅拉•丘拉魯說：“達爾可能是有史以來最偉大的兒童讀物作家。在達爾的作品中不可能只選出一部最喜歡的，但這部1964年的經典作品是他的巔峯之作，是他最歡樂、最具想象力，也最調皮的一部作品。”這個關於查理•巴克特、他的爺爺喬、奧柏倫柏人和五張威利•旺卡巧克力工廠金參觀券的故事是達爾被提名的五部作品中最受歡迎的。“這是世界有史以來最驚人、最奇妙、最非凡的巧克力工廠！”“現在要發生一些瘋狂的事兒了，查理想。但他沒有恐懼。他甚至沒有緊張。他只是激動得不得了。”（來源：企鵝出版社）
7. AA Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)
《小熊維尼》（1926年），AA米爾恩著
Milne named the characters in his classic children’s book after his own son Christopher Robin, his cuddly teddy bear, his stuffed animals Piglet, Tigger, the donkey Eeyore and others. Christopher and Pooh wander through the Hundred Acre Wood not unlike the forest near Milne’s home in East Sussex. His first adventure sends him up a tree buzzing with bees, singing a little song to himself: “Isn’t it funny how a bear likes honey…” And the adventures continue, narrated with sweet grace by a father who includes his son and his son’s world in every new plot twist. A playwright and contributor to Punch, Milne will be forever known as the creator of the perfect read-aloud nursery tale. (Credit: Dutton Books)
米爾恩用他的兒子和兒子玩具的名字來給這本經典童書裏的人物命名：小男孩克里斯多夫•羅賓、可愛的泰迪熊維尼、毛絨玩具小豬、跳跳虎、毛驢屹耳等等。克里斯多夫和維尼•噗經常閒逛的百畝森林和米爾恩在英格蘭東薩西克斯郡的家附近的森林也很像。米爾恩的兒子的第一次冒險是爬上一棵蜜蜂嗡嗡飛的樹，自娛自樂地唱着一支小曲：“熊愛吃蜂蜜，這是不是很有趣……”冒險故事在書中延續了下去，父親很有愛地把兒子和兒子的世界寫進了每個新的故事情節。作爲一名劇作家和《笨趣》雜誌的撰稿者，米爾恩將作爲這本完美的牀頭幼兒讀物的創作者而永遠被世人銘記。（來源：達頓出版社）6. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince (1943)
《小王子》（1943年），安託萬•德•聖埃克蘇佩裏著
This parable, written and illustrated by an aviator disappeared with his plane in 1944, encapsulates the meaning of life in an encounter between a pilot who crash lands in the Sahara and a young prince visiting from a small planet. "It is only with one's heart that one can see clearly," Saint-Exupéry writes, in one of dozens of illuminating life lessons. "What is essential is invisible to the eye."
《小王子》的作者兼插畫師是一名飛行員，他於1944年在飛行中失蹤。這則寓言故事將生命的意義寓於迫降在撒哈拉沙漠的飛行員和來自小星球的小王子的一次相遇中。聖埃克蘇佩裏寫下了衆多發人深省的人生感悟，其中一則寫道：“肉眼看不見事務的本質，唯有用心才能洞察一切”。
"Discovered in childhood, this story of leaving home brings the hope and promise of a world opening up to the little prince," says Shelf Awareness children's editor Jennifer M Brown. "As we return to the book at later points in our lives, we experience the story from the pilot's point of view, sadder yet richer, and heartened because we are not alone on life's journey." (Credit: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
《書架認知》雜誌的兒童板塊編輯珍妮弗•M•布朗稱：“童年時讀這本書，這是小王子離開家鄉，踏入一個充滿希望和願景的世界的故事。長大些再看，我們從飛行員的視角重新感受了這個故事，有了更傷感卻也更豐富的體會，還因爲人生旅途中並非孤身一人而欣慰感動。”（來源：霍頓•米夫林•哈考特出版社）
5. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868)
《小婦人》（1868年），路易莎•梅•奧爾科特著
The story of the four March sisters as they pass from childhood innocence to young adulthood has endured from one generation to the next, never losing its power to enthrall. The autobiographical novel speeds along, thanks to crisp, realistic dialogue, enduring characters and keen insights into family dynamics.
馬奇家四姐妹從純真的童年到初長成人的故事代代流傳，經久不衰。這本自傳體小說對話鮮活真實、人物形象深入人心、對家庭動態的洞察敏銳，情節緊湊、引人入勝。
"Meg was Amy's confidant and monitor, and by some strange attraction of opposites Jo was gentle Beth's," Alcott writes. (Jo was the character most like its author.)"One name will explain my adoration for Little Women: Jo March!" says Booklist senior editor Donna Seaman. "What book-loving young reader doesn't revere Louisa May Alcott's intrepid, ink-stained hero? Of course, Alcott was also one brilliant and gripping storyteller with sharp and knowing opinions. So astutely constructed is this novel, it sustains repeated readings." (Credit: Transatlantic Press)
奧爾科特寫道：“梅格是艾米的知己和監護人，而溫柔的貝思對喬又有某種神奇的異性魅力。”（喬的性格最接近作者本人。）《書單》雜誌資深編輯唐娜•希曼說：“一個名字就能解釋我爲什麼喜歡《小婦人》：喬•馬奇！愛讀書的年輕讀者怎麼會不崇拜路易莎•梅•奧爾科特筆下那無畏的英雄呢？當然了，奧爾科特也是位才華橫溢、抓人眼球的作者，她的觀點既犀利又博學。所以這本小說設計精巧，經得起反覆閱讀品味。”（來源：跨大西洋出版社）
4. Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
《愛麗絲夢遊仙境》（1865年），路易斯•卡羅爾著
"Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, 'and what is the use of a book,' thought Alice, 'without pictures or conversation?' Suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her."
“愛麗絲和姐姐並排坐在岸邊，由於無事可做，開始覺得膩煩：她不時朝姐姐正在讀的那本書上瞧上一兩眼，可書上沒有插圖，也沒有對話，愛麗絲心想，‘一本書要是沒有插圖和對話，那有什麼意思呢？’突然一隻紅眼睛的白兔貼着她身邊跑了過去。”
Charles Dodgson's Victorian fantasy was an instant sensation when published 150 years ago under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. To this day Alice's trip down the rabbit hole and her encounters with the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Queen of Hearts, the Mad Hatter and the rest, are fresh fodder for the literary imagination. Alice is now in the public domain, and the versions and variations continue to multiply. "Alice will always be my favourite because I love her curiosity and bravery," says Library Journal columnist Barbara Hoffert. (Credit: Macmillan)
150年前，查爾斯•道奇森用筆名路易斯•卡羅爾寫下了這部維多利亞時代風格的奇幻故事，一經出版便引起轟動。直到如今，愛麗絲跌進兔子洞裏的旅行，與柴郡貓、白兔、紅心女王、瘋帽子先生及其他角色的邂逅，仍然是文學想象力的源泉。愛麗絲儼然成爲一個大衆形象，人們根據她又不斷創造出各種版本的故事。“愛麗絲會永遠是我最喜歡的角色，因爲我愛她的好奇心和勇敢無畏，”《圖書館雜誌》專欄作家芭芭拉•霍佛特這樣評價愛麗絲。（來源：麥克米倫出版社）
3. Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (1963)
《野獸出沒的地方》（1963年），莫里斯•桑達克著
In Sendak’s Caldecott Medal-winning picture book young Max, sent to bed without supper by his mother, escapes into his imagination, “where the wild things are”. “It's a concise, eloquent, moving depiction of a child learning to master his own emotions, which is the chief task of all children everywhere,” writes Time magazine book critic Lev Grossman. “This is one of those books that has everything: beautiful, rich and surprising text, matched with beautiful, rich and surprising illustration,” says Daniel Hahn, author of the new Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. “But more than that… it’s how the words and the pictures and the page design combine to tell a story that is both simple and full of psychological insight, wisdom and truth. As close as it’s possible to come to a perfect book.” (Credit: Harper)
桑達克的這個繪本作品曾摘得凱迪克獎。書中，年幼的馬克斯沒吃晚飯就被媽媽趕去睡覺。他逃進了自己想象的世界中，也就是“野獸出沒的地方”。《時代》雜誌評論家利夫-格羅斯曼寫道：“這本書描寫了一個孩子學着控制自己的情感，這也是世界各地所有孩子的主要任務。繪本簡明動人，令人感動。”新版《牛津兒童文學指南》作者丹尼爾-哈恩說：“這本書有你想要的一切：優美、豐富且令人驚訝的內容、以及相配的同等優秀的插圖。不僅如此，繪本的詞語和插圖以及頁面設計巧妙結合，講述了一個簡樸、充滿對心靈的洞悉、又飽含智慧和真理的故事，幾近完美。”
2. CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
《獅子、女巫與魔衣櫥》（1950年），C•S•路易斯著
Lewis’ high fantasy classic drew high praise in our critics’ poll. “CS Lewis’ perfect fable The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is subtitled 'a story for children',” says author and critic David Abrams. “But The Chronicles of Narnia are stories for everybody. They can be read as Christian allegory or as a magical fable about four children who stumble across a magic wardrobe and, pushing their way through mothballed fur coats, enter a land of snow and forests and fauns and lampposts and a white-skinned, black-hearted Queen who dispenses turkish delight like deadly heroin.”
在我們的投票中，路易斯這本高度奇幻經典之作得到了很高的評價。作家兼評論員大衛•阿勃拉姆斯說：“路易斯的完美寓言故事《獅子、女巫與魔衣櫥》副標題是‘寫給兒童的故事’，但《納尼亞傳奇》人人都可閱讀。它們可以被看作基督教寓言，或者有關四位兒童的神奇寓言故事。他們偶然發現了一個魔法衣櫥，穿過封存好的皮毛大衣，來到一片冰雪森林世界。這裏有半人半羊的農牧神、街燈柱、雪白肌膚但心腸狠毒的女王，她在分發像海洛因一樣致命的土耳其軟糖。
“This enchanting story combines unsettling magic, psychological realism and a deep sense of beauty,” notes critic Roxana Robinson, president of the Authors Guild. “Lewis is wonderful at descriptions of the physical world. It is both thrilling and comforting to read, intelligent, compassionate and graceful.” (Credit: Geoffrey Bles)
美國作協主席、評論家洛克珊娜-羅賓遜說：“這個令人着迷的故事把讓人不安的魔法、心理現實主義和深刻的美感融合在一起。路易斯擅長描寫現實世界。故事讀來驚心動魄又令人欣慰，充滿睿智、富有憐憫又不失優美。”（來源：傑弗雷-佈雷出版社）
1. EB White, Charlotte’s Web (1952)
《夏洛特的網》（1952年），EB懷特著
“One day when I was on my way to feed the pig, I began feeling sorry for the pig because, like most pigs, he was doomed to die,” writes White. Charlotte’s Web topped our critics’ poll. “If I were asked to put one book in a space capsule to send to some far-off galaxy to evoke life in all its complexity, I would send White's masterpiece about friendship, loss, resignation and mortality,” notes NPR’s Maureen Corrigan. “It was the first book in which I encountered mortality, legacy and love that transcended differences,” writes author and critic Rigoberto González. “Those were huge lessons from a book that, at its core, was about an adorable friendship between a spider and a pig.”
懷特寫道：“一天，在我去餵豬的路上，我開始爲豬感到難過，因爲就像大多數豬那樣，它註定會死去。”《夏洛特的網》在我們的評論家投票中排名居首。美國國家公共廣播電臺的莫林-科里根寫道：“如果要我放一本書到太空艙，發送到遙遠的星系，喚醒複雜的生命，我會把懷特的這本有關友誼、失去、放棄和生死的傑作送上去。”作家兼評論家裏戈韋託-岡薩雷斯寫道：“這是第一本讓我遇到超越差異的生死、遺贈、和愛的書。故事的精髓是一隻蜘蛛和一頭豬之間可敬的友誼，而我們從這本書中卻有這麼多收穫。”
“The complex emotions that emerge from the barnyard in EB White’s masterpiece never cloy, but feel true and important,” writes novelist and critic Meg Wolitzer. “Who can forget the opening: Fern in her damp sneakers wrestling to save the life of the runt Wilbur?” asks Karen R Long, who manages the Anisfield-Wolf Book Awards. “Not just about loyalty and friendship, this perfect book is an introduction to metaphor – the barnyard as life,” says Chicago Tribune literary editor-at-large Elizabeth Taylor. Author and critic Joan Frank calls it “sturdy and deeply wise.” “White managed to write a children’s book that encompasses mortality, friendship, and the power of the written word — amazing”, adds critic Heller McAlpin. According to our poll, Charlotte’s Web is the greatest children’s book of all time. (Credit: Harper)
小說家兼評論家梅格-沃利策爾寫道：“EB懷特這部傑作中所描寫的倉院之中涌現出的複雜感情從不讓人膩煩，而是讓人感到真實和有價值。”安斯菲爾德• 沃爾夫圖書獎負責人凱倫-R-朗問到：“誰能忘掉開篇：弗恩穿着潮溼的運動鞋跌跌撞撞地跑去救小豬威爾伯？”《芝加哥論壇報》文學特約編輯伊麗莎白•泰勒說：“不僅是忠誠和友誼，這本完美之作還引入了隱喻——生活就像穀場。”作家兼評論家瓊•弗蘭克稱其“耐讀、智慧深沉。”“懷特成功寫出了一本包含生死、友誼和文字力量的兒童圖書——太不可思議了，”評論家海勒•麥卡爾平補充說。我們的投票結果顯示，《夏洛特的網》是有史以來最好的兒童讀物。（來源：哈珀柯林斯出版社）
