Fandom squee post

[evil_plotbunny]

The nice thing about children's book fandoms is they're mostly short (I'm looking at you, Chalet School), so now might be the perfect time to pick up a new fandom or revisit an old favorite.

Tell us why we should read your awesome fandom in the comments. Don't forget to link to legal sources, if they're available. Many long out of print books are now appearing as ebooks. And there's always the library.

Comments

Dogger by Shirley Hughes

[deep_dark_waters]

(Only posting about the less well known books from my signup - it doesn't mean I want these more than the others.)

Dogger is a picture book about a little boy called Dave whose beloved toy dog accidentally ends up on the jumble sale at the school fair. I've sort of got a two-part love for this book: my most precious thing is my own toy dog, Joe (here in 1990 and here in 2012 ♥), so that panic of losing him always really resounded with me, especially when I was little, but as I grew up I never got bored of the book like I did with some others because Shirley Hughes is such a beautiful artist. There's always something new to see in her illustrations, even if you're reading the book for the hundredth time. She's got this amazing knack of matching story and pictures so perfectly to make something that feels real, like it's something you've half-forgotten from your own childhood, and she's never condescending or overly simplistic even though she writes and illustrates for very young children. She won the Kate Greenaway award for this in 1977, then for the 50th anniversary it was voted the favourite against all the other winners, so it's fairly well known but there's no fic that I know of. Really hope it gets some love!

This is my copy, knackered and creased and falling apart because I used to carry it everywhere with me like a comfort blanket. It's available on Amazon and all over the place and so so so worth looking at if you don't know it because it's honestly the most beautiful picture book I've ever read.

Bonus: I found this adorable kid reading it on Youtube.