“Wow…what a classic!” is something you may have heard before regarding a good book or film. But what is it exactly that makes something a classic? In regard to books, there are a HUGE amount of differing opinions on the subject once you start searching.

Each year our third graders at SAS do a unit on ‘the classics’ and while I could easily just head to destiny and select the usual suspects… it got me thinking. I did a lesson with students where I shared a book I’d read as a 5th grader, Nicholas, and had loved it, lost it, and rediscovered it again in my late 30’s… School Library Journal claim: “This classic book about a mischievous schoolboy and his friends, originally published in French in 1959, is now available in English.” Did you see it? Did you see the word classic? I read this in the 80’s, searched for it in the 90’s, finally found it in the ‘naughties’ and introduced it to my students in the mmmmm, 2010! But had I thought of it as a classic? Never.

Is Nicholas a classic because it “expresses some artistic quality–an expression of life, truth, and beauty” which is one of the definitions given by About.com here. Well… not really; although Nicholas does hark back to a simpler time, a more honest time perhaps?

“It seems to help if the author is dead ” says Laura Miller writing for Salon.com in January this year. Indeed, author of not only Nicholas, but the wonderful Asterix books, Rene Goscinny passed away in 1977, yet his legacy lives on. Miller goes on to say “It has stood the test of time…It captures the essence and flavor of its own age and had a significant effect on that age.” I certainly feel that the latter is the case, the students I’ve been reading to are laughing hysterically about kids running around with guns, smoking cigarettes, calling each other fat, idiots, stupid etc… Our kids cannot get enough of this ‘forbidden fruit-so Un-PC’ As for the test of time… is 55 years long enough? One commenter on this Goodreads thread suggests that 30 years is long enough…I think not.

So, what do you think? What do you think makes a book a classic?

Which of these books, listed by Jim Trelease here, would you term a classic?

MIKE MULLIGAN & HIS STEAM SHOVEL

MAKE WAY FOR DUCKLINGS

RIKKI-TIKKI-TAVI

SYLVESTER AND THE MAGIC PEBBLE

TIKKI TIKKI TEMBO

THE UGLY DUCKLING

AESOP’S FABLES

THE BIGGEST BEAR

BRAVE IRENE

THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT

IF I RAN THE ZOO

IRA SLEEPS OVER

THE ISLAND OF THE SKOG

THE LITTLE HOUSE

LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD