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Book about childhood and play


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Hi, I am a romanian student and I need some books from foreign literature with the theme of play, basically about childhood because thats the period of your life when you play all the day. I am having a hard time searching for those kind of books, I have searched for two hours and found nothing.

 

For comparasion, I need books like "Childhood memories" by Mihai Eminescu (the author narates his childhood stories, he stole cherries from his aunt and got beaten up by his dad for that, ha ran from home to the lake so he can swim but his mom took his clothes and he had to walk naked back to his house) or something more deep that is about life and games, like "Hide and seek" by Tudor Arghezi (I dont think it can be translated, its a poetry about a family playing hide and seek where the game is actually the life, dad talks to his children "we are going to play a game, a weird old game, everyone plays it, boys like you and girls like you, teens and elders, kings and slaves, flowers and animals, first i will count up to ten, i will be laying under a tree, i will laugh then i will be quiet, your mom will say i am on a trip,i will be late a week...two...a month... more months your mom will cry, you will be sad... i will leave you the house, the farm you wont starve... your mom now doesnt cry, you have your own children, i am long gone, we will meet again, this game plays forever, damn this game!"the life is associated with that game, the dad dies. 

 

So, can you people help me? I need some books or poetry about childhood, play and game that were written before 1940. I need at least 3 from a single region, any region but Romania and west europe.

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The Flame Trees of Thika by Elspeth Huxley tells of Elspeth's childhood in Kenya. My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell is about his young years on Corfu in the Greek Islands. And The Sun In the Morning by M M Kaye tells of her childhood growing up in India.

All are pre 1940's.

 

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I have been re-reading Grendel again and I am awestruck by the possibility of retelling a classic like Beowulf and especially the childhood and abandon play in it. John Gardner's literary influences from the trusty old Whitman-type really come through. I have been trying to find out more about how Grendel was received and especially how Gardner was treated. It is interesting to see that he faced so much criticism for too.  I noticed in a theme discussion on Bartleby that they make a conversation about the play and childhood very impactfully

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