I'm Hooked! (i.e. Best Opening Lines, Part Two)

Beyond "Once upon a time"...
Today I'm highlighting some classic books whose exceptional opening lines are "hooks" that will grab kids' attention and make them want to keep reading...

"The night Max wore his wolf suit and made mischief of one kind and another his mother called him 'WILD THING!' and Max said 'I'LL EAT YOU UP!' so he was sent to bed without eating anything." Where The Wild Things Are, Maurice Sendak 

"In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines."  Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans 

"Way out at the end of a tiny little town was an old overgrown garden, and in the garden was an old house, and in the house lived Pippi Longstocking." Pippi Longstocking, Astrid Lindgren

 

"The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where had he come from? Nobody knows. Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness."  The Iron Man (changed to The Iron Giant in 1968), Ted Hughes

 

"The Herdmans were absolutely the worst kids in the history of the world." The Best Christmas Pageant Ever, Barbara Robinson

 
"Up until I was fourteen years old, no boy on earth could have been happier."  Summer of the Monkeys, Wilson Rawls

 
"'Christmas won't be Christmas without any presents,' grumbled Jo, lying on the rug." Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

  

"Once on a dark winter's day, when the yellow fog hung so thick and heavy in the streets of London that the lamps were lighted and the shop windows blazed with gas as they do at night, an odd-looking little girl sat in a cab with her father and was driven rather slowly through the big thoroughfares." A Little Princess, Frances Hodgson Burnett

"Most motorcars are conglomerations (this is a long word for bundles) of steel and wire and rubber and plastic, and electricity and oil and gasoline and water, and the toffee papers you pushed down the crack in the back seat last Sunday." Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, Ian Fleming

 

“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell, nor yet a dry, bare, sandy hole with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a hobbit-hole, and that means comfort.”  The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

It's not too early to start planning your child's summer reading list!  I love re-visiting favorite childhood books - often reading their opening lines brings the whole story rushing back into my mind!

This is the second installment of my favorite opening lines (you can see Part 1, here).  I tried to include good examples for both boys and girls...Do you have any to add?

Opening Lines From Some Favorite Books - Did I Leave Out Your Favorite?

"There was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it." The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, C. S. Lewis

"The Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little home." The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame

"'Where's Papa going with that axe?' said Fern to her mother as they were setting the table for breakfast." Charlotte’s Web, E.B White

"It's a funny thing about mothers and fathers. Even when their own child is the most disgusting little blister you could ever imagine, they still think that he or she is wonderful." Matilda, Roald Dahl

“Here is Edward Bear, coming downstairs now, bump, bump, bump, on the back of his head, behind Christopher Robin." Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne

"When Mary Lennox was sent to Misselthwaite Manor to live with her uncle everybody said she was the most disagreeable-looking child ever seen." The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett

“All children, except one, grow up.” Peter Pan, JM Barrie

“Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.” A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." 1984, George Orwell

"No one who had ever seen Catherine Morland in her infancy, would have supposed her born to be a heroine." Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

“When Mr Bilbo Baggins of Bag End announced that he would shortly be celebrating his eleventy-first birthday with a party of special magnificence, there was much talk and excitement in Hobbiton.” The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, J.R.R. Tolkein

"Marley was dead, to begin with." A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.” Pride & Prejudice, Jane Austen

Downton: What's this Abbey's Appeal?

That question may seem like a strange subject for a children's book blog, but I think the answer can be applied to writing in general - whether it be literature for children or, as in this case, a smash-hit public television series. I discovered the answer last week.  From one of the creators of the series, Julian Fellowes (I'll share his answer at the end of my post).

Surely you've heard about Julian Fellowes’s Emmy Award-winning show about an Edwardian family,  their servants, and their life in an English manor.  I admit I am one of the many people who has gone through Downton Abbey withdrawals in-between seasons and has counted down the days until the newest episode aired on Sunday nights.

I've asked myself more than once why this PBS Masterpiece Classic series appeals to such a broad spectrum of viewers - women, as well as men (my husband is a huge fan), Brits and Americans.

Is it because we all love history and period dramas?

Last summer (while in withdrawals between seasons) I read Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle. This biography, written by the current Countess at Highclere, Fiona Carnarvon, is a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining account of the Fifth Earl of Carnarvon, his wife, Lady Almina, and their grand castle, the inspiration for the popular PBS series. The fictional character of Downton's Lady Cora Crawley is loosely based on Lady Almina, the real-life American heiress and illegitimate daughter of banking tycoon Alfred de Rosthschild.

The real Downton Abbey: Highclere Castle

Is it the Downton Fab-bey set and scenery?  Downton Abbey is filmed at Highclere Castle, and the fabulous manor house has a starring role in the series each week (click here for more beautiful photos).

Highclere's library holds 5,000 books!

Beautiful salon

Is it the authentic costume design? Many of us look forward to the gorgeous gowns and dapper dinner jackets!

The Crawley sisters: Edith, Sybil, and Mary

Maybe it's Maggie Smith's one-liners? (Can you imagine having Violet Grantham as your grandmother?)

Dowager Countess: "What is a weekend?"

One of her most comical moments so far, was from last week's Season 3 opening episode...
All of Lord Grantham's formal shirts are mysteriously missing from his room and he has no choice but to wear an inappropriately informal shirt under his dinner jacket. His mother, the Dowager, mistakes him for one of the staff and asks for a drink.  As she turns and sees that it is the Earl of Grantham, without missing a beat she quips, "Oh I’m so sorry, I thought you were a waiter…”

Remember these gems?
Don’t be defeatist dear, it’s very middle class. 

I’m so looking forward to seeing your mother again. When I’m with her I’m reminded of the virtues of the English. 

No guest should be admitted without the date of their departure settled.

Is it the characters and romance? Now we're getting closer to Julian Fellowes answer...

Lady Mary and Matthew Crawley

Mr. Bates and Anna

Can you pinpoint what the main appeal of "Downton Abbey" is?  Consider Julian Fellowes answer: 
Over the last two rather extraordinary years, at the risk of sounding vain, I have often been asked why I thought Downton Abbey has been quite such a success.  Of course, it is hard to be definite about these things.  If television were an exact science, there would be nothing made that did not break records.  but supposing I were to put my finger on one element, it might be that we have made the decision to treat every character, the members of the family and the members of their staff, equally, in terms of their narrative strength.  They all have emotional lives, dreams, ambitions, and disappointments, and with all of them we suggest backstories, any of which are to be found in my own history...

The upper class family of Downton

The working class "family" of Downton

I was brought up in a class minefield.  My father's birth was grander than my mother's, his relations therefore disapproving of both her family and her, and she was condemned to the unenviable task of making everything in their life seem smooth and seamless when it was in fact riven with stitching...I suppose standing, as it were, on both sides of the divide has influenced my work...It is precisely because I identify with both teams that my writing, if I am allowed to say so, aspires to a kind of social justice which, I believe anyway, is one of the reasons it as reached so wide an audience.
[source: Parade Magazine, January 6, 2013]

Fellowes' honest answer is why we love classic children's literature such as Frances Hodgson Burnett's  The Secret Garden (Mary Lennox, Colin Craven, Dickon); Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol (Ebeneezer Scrooge, Bob Crachit, Tiny Tim); Charolotte Bronte's Jane Eyre (Mr. Rochester, Jane); Frances Hodgson Burnett's A Little Princess (Sara Crewe, Becky); Johanna Spyri's Heidi (Heidi, Clara, Peter); Sid Fleischman's The Whipping Boy (Jemmy, Prince "Brat" Horace); and fairytales such as Cinderella.

Well, here's to Sunday night!  Excuse me while, I go and  feed my weekly obsession...