儿童节特供：11本最伟大的英文童书
什么样的书才能称得上最伟大的儿童书呢？英国广播公司（BBC）文化频道的编辑采访了几十位世界各地的书评人和童书编辑，让他们列出自己心目中针对10岁以下儿童最好的英文儿童读物。这些评论人士和编辑一共列出了151本书，而下面的这11本在他们的推荐中多次出现。我们相信，这些书还会继续陪伴一代又一代儿童成长。
11. Laura Ingalls Wilder, Little House on the Prairie (1935)
《草原上的小木屋》（1935年），萝拉•英格斯•怀德著
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)
怀德的9部经典边疆小说都是在她自己19世纪的童年生活启发下写成的。她成长于一个拓荒者家庭，曾经坐着大篷车横穿美国中西部。怀德用逼真的细节描述了一个小女孩跟她的父母、两个姐姐和一条名叫杰克的狗生活在“威斯康星州大森林里的一座灰色小木屋里”。“一个人走一天、一个星期、或者整整一个月，也走不出这片森林。一个房子也看不到，只有森林。” 怀德的作品为一代又一代儿童生动描述了边疆地区的日常生活。（来源：哈珀柯林斯出版社）
10. Madeleine L’Engle, A Wrinkle In Time (1962)
《时间的皱纹》（1962年），麦德琳•兰歌著
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•默里的父亲是一位能够穿越时光的物理学家，他不见了。一天晚上，她和她亲爱的弟弟查尔斯•华莱士，还有她的母亲，一位美女科学家，迎来了一位不速之客。这位奇怪的“什么”夫人跟他们说：“狂野的夜晚是我的荣耀。我刚刚被吹离了航线。”她指的是超立方体，能够让人穿越时空的五维空间。梅格带着弟弟和高中同学凯文穿越宇宙去寻找父亲。他们与IT的对峙其实是在用黑色手法表现冷战。IT是一个没有肉体、循规蹈矩的智能设备，它给整个宇宙罩上了一层阴影。兰歌的这部作品灵感来源于爱因斯坦的相对论，曾经摘得纽伯瑞儿童文学奖，同时也是针对青少年读者科幻作品的早期尝试。梅格是文学世界里第一个：智商与其对家人强烈的爱相匹配的怪咖女孩。（来源：法劳•斯特劳斯•吉罗出版公司）
9. Ursula K Le Guin, A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
《地海巫师》（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)
一位名叫雀鹰的少年凭借从女巫姨妈那里学到的一点法术拯救了他的村庄。后来他给巫师“沉默的欧吉安”做学徒，师父欧吉安给他改名为“格得”，自那以后他就开始学习做巫师。勒奎恩对于格得在巫师学院失手遭反噬以及面对的种种诱惑，他与龙族以及自己内心的恶魔做斗争的描写，重新定义了奇幻小说的善恶概念。渐渐地，格得在面对挑战的过程中智慧见长。“经历了一番艰难困苦后，他现在明白，他的使命从来不是要撤销他所种下的果，而是要把他做的事坚持到底。”“对我而言，勒奎恩的故事讲的是作为一个作家如何磨炼你的写作技巧，她用令人惊叹的文字告诉我们，达到艺术和个人境界的高峰需要经过一番漫长而痛苦的挣扎，”《新政治家周刊》和《每日电讯报》撰稿人及评论家阿曼达•克雷格说。（来源：帕那色斯出版社）
8. Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964)
《查理和巧克力工厂》（1964年），罗尔德•达尔著
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)
在书评人士的提名中，罗尔德•达尔儿童书就有5本，是作品得到提名最多的作家。诗人、书评家苔丝•泰勒将达尔的作品描述为“欢乐、有趣、吓人、人道、神奇”。《纽约时报》专栏作家卡梅拉•丘拉鲁说：“达尔可能是有史以来最伟大的儿童读物作家。在达尔的作品中不可能只选出一部最喜欢的，但这部1964年的经典作品是他的巅峰之作，是他最欢乐、最具想象力，也最调皮的一部作品。”这个关于查理•巴克特、他的爷爷乔、奥柏伦柏人和五张威利•旺卡巧克力工厂金参观券的故事是达尔被提名的五部作品中最受欢迎的。“这是世界有史以来最惊人、最奇妙、最非凡的巧克力工厂！”“现在要发生一些疯狂的事儿了，查理想。但他没有恐惧。他甚至没有紧张。他只是激动得不得了。”（来源：企鹅出版社）
7. AA Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh (1926)
《小熊维尼》（1926年），AA米尔恩著
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)
米尔恩用他的儿子和儿子玩具的名字来给这本经典童书里的人物命名：小男孩克里斯多夫•罗宾、可爱的泰迪熊维尼、毛绒玩具小猪、跳跳虎、毛驴屹耳等等。克里斯多夫和维尼•噗经常闲逛的百亩森林和米尔恩在英格兰东萨西克斯郡的家附近的森林也很像。米尔恩的儿子的第一次冒险是爬上一棵蜜蜂嗡嗡飞的树，自娱自乐地唱着一支小曲：“熊爱吃蜂蜜，这是不是很有趣……”冒险故事在书中延续了下去，父亲很有爱地把儿子和儿子的世界写进了每个新的故事情节。作为一名剧作家和《笨趣》杂志的撰稿者，米尔恩将作为这本完美的床头幼儿读物的创作者而永远被世人铭记。（来源：达顿出版社）
6. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince (1943)
《小王子》（1943年），安托万•德•圣埃克苏佩里著
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》的作者兼插画师是一名飞行员，他于1944年在飞行中失踪。这则寓言故事将生命的意义寓于迫降在撒哈拉沙漠的飞行员和来自小星球的小王子的一次相遇中。圣埃克苏佩里写下了众多发人深省的人生感悟，其中一则写道：“肉眼看不见事务的本质，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)
《书架认知》杂志的儿童板块编辑珍妮弗•M•布朗称：“童年时读这本书，这是小王子离开家乡，踏入一个充满希望和愿景的世界的故事。长大些再看，我们从飞行员的视角重新感受了这个故事，有了更伤感却也更丰富的体会，还因为人生旅途中并非孤身一人而欣慰感动。”（来源：霍顿•米夫林•哈考特出版社）
5. Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (1868)
《小妇人》（1868年），路易莎•梅•奥尔科特著
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.
马奇家四姐妹从纯真的童年到初长成人的故事代代流传，经久不衰。这本自传体小说对话鲜活真实、人物形象深入人心、对家庭动态的洞察敏锐，情节紧凑、引人入胜。
"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)
奥尔科特写道：“梅格是艾米的知己和监护人，而温柔的贝思对乔又有某种神奇的异性魅力。”（乔的性格最接近作者本人。）《书单》杂志资深编辑唐娜•希曼说：“一个名字就能解释我为什么喜欢《小妇人》：乔•马奇！爱读书的年轻读者怎么会不崇拜路易莎•梅•奥尔科特笔下那无畏的英雄呢？当然了，奥尔科特也是位才华横溢、抓人眼球的作者，她的观点既犀利又博学。所以这本小说设计精巧，经得起反复阅读品味。”（来源：跨大西洋出版社）
4. Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
《爱丽丝梦游仙境》（1865年），路易斯•卡罗尔著
"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."
“爱丽丝和姐姐并排坐在岸边，由于无事可做，开始觉得腻烦：她不时朝姐姐正在读的那本书上瞧上一两眼，可书上没有插图，也没有对话，爱丽丝心想，‘一本书要是没有插图和对话，那有什么意思呢？’突然一只红眼睛的白兔贴着她身边跑了过去。”
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，查尔斯•道奇森用笔名路易斯•卡罗尔写下了这部维多利亚时代风格的奇幻故事，一经出版便引起轰动。直到如今，爱丽丝跌进兔子洞里的旅行，与柴郡猫、白兔、红心女王、疯帽子先生及其他角色的邂逅，仍然是文学想象力的源泉。爱丽丝俨然成为一个大众形象，人们根据她又不断创造出各种版本的故事。“爱丽丝会永远是我最喜欢的角色，因为我爱她的好奇心和勇敢无畏，”《图书馆杂志》专栏作家芭芭拉•霍佛特这样评价爱丽丝。（来源：麦克米伦出版社）
3. Maurice Sendak, Where the Wild Things Are (1963)
《野兽出没的地方》（1963年），莫里斯•桑达克著
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)
桑达克的这个绘本作品曾摘得凯迪克奖。书中，年幼的马克斯没吃晚饭就被妈妈赶去睡觉。他逃进了自己想象的世界中，也就是“野兽出没的地方”。《时代》杂志评论家利夫-格罗斯曼写道：“这本书描写了一个孩子学着控制自己的情感，这也是世界各地所有孩子的主要任务。绘本简明动人，令人感动。”新版《牛津儿童文学指南》作者丹尼尔-哈恩说：“这本书有你想要的一切：优美、丰富且令人惊讶的内容、以及相配的同等优秀的插图。不仅如此，绘本的词语和插图以及页面设计巧妙结合，讲述了一个简朴、充满对心灵的洞悉、又饱含智慧和真理的故事，几近完美。”
2. CS Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1950)
《狮子、女巫与魔衣橱》（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.”
在我们的投票中，路易斯这本高度奇幻经典之作得到了很高的评价。作家兼评论员大卫•阿勃拉姆斯说：“路易斯的完美寓言故事《狮子、女巫与魔衣橱》副标题是‘写给儿童的故事’，但《纳尼亚传奇》人人都可阅读。它们可以被看作基督教寓言，或者有关四位儿童的神奇寓言故事。他们偶然发现了一个魔法衣橱，穿过封存好的皮毛大衣，来到一片冰雪森林世界。这里有半人半羊的农牧神、街灯柱、雪白肌肤但心肠狠毒的女王，她在分发像海洛因一样致命的土耳其软糖。
“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)
美国作协主席、评论家洛克珊娜-罗宾逊说：“这个令人着迷的故事把让人不安的魔法、心理现实主义和深刻的美感融合在一起。路易斯擅长描写现实世界。故事读来惊心动魄又令人欣慰，充满睿智、富有怜悯又不失优美。”（来源：杰弗雷-布雷出版社）
1. EB White, Charlotte’s Web (1952)
《夏洛特的网》（1952年），EB怀特著
“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.”
怀特写道：“一天，在我去喂猪的路上，我开始为猪感到难过，因为就像大多数猪那样，它注定会死去。”《夏洛特的网》在我们的评论家投票中排名居首。美国国家公共广播电台的莫林-科里根写道：“如果要我放一本书到太空舱，发送到遥远的星系，唤醒复杂的生命，我会把怀特的这本有关友谊、失去、放弃和生死的杰作送上去。”作家兼评论家里戈韦托-冈萨雷斯写道：“这是第一本让我遇到超越差异的生死、遗赠、和爱的书。故事的精髓是一只蜘蛛和一头猪之间可敬的友谊，而我们从这本书中却有这么多收获。”
