Saturday, February 21, 2015

Ten top menaces in children’s fiction

Steven Butler is the author of The Diary of Dennis the Menace.

At the Guardian he tagged ten top menaces in children's fiction, including:
Long John Silver, in Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson

This classic, peg-legged rogue is as interchangeable as the sea wind he sails with. At any given part of Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Silver swings from loveable rascal to a seemingly cold-hearted villain. It’s his wealth of redeeming qualities that stop him from ever being so, however. His wicked sense of humour and fatherly compassion towards Jim Hawkins place him firmly on the Menace list.
Read about another entry on the list.

Treasure Island also appears on Emily St. John Mandel's list of the six books that influenced her most as a writer, David McCallum's six best books list, Bear Grylls's top ten list of adventure stories, Eoin Colfer's top 10 list of villains in fiction, Charlie Fletcher's top ten list of swashbuckling tales of derring-do, Robert McCrum's list of the ten best first lines in fiction, John Mullan's list of ten of the best pirates in fiction, and among Mal Peet's top ten books to read aloud, Philip Pullman's six best books, and Eoin Colfer's six favorite books.

--Marshal Zeringue