As for books that stand the test of time, I'll put it this way: I bought Diana Wynne Jones' Deep Secret at twelve years old. To this day, it remains my favorite book of all time. Admittedly, though, that one was written for a more adult audience. But in terms of books actually written for kids, I still set aside an hour or so to read Wizards Hall every now and again. Jane Yolen's always been good with prose, and I've always liked the Aesop of the book: Even if you think you might fail, it's important to try.
I read a lot of stupid stuff as a kid, so I imagine a lot of my picks back then probably wouldn't hold up now. I'm currently trying to track down a book I really loved in middle school to see how it holds up now...
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI finally finished (since I'd put it off for a long time) Super Zombie Juice Mega Bomb. While the Totally Radical dialog and upbeat tone annoyed me at first, I was able to appreciate it for what it was, a Zombie Apocalypse story that doesn't really take itself seriously. Then it decided to surprise me by having the balls to kill one of the main characters. As in, for real. Oh, and the kid who dies is nine. I have to say, the author certainly pulled a surprise right there, I'll admit.
Sure, all the time. Most recently I finished About Average by Andrew Clements, author of Frindle.
So far, Wainscott Weasel is very satisfying.
The same friend who recommended it also recommended Silverwing, which I've been trying to read but never have.
I love stories with animal characters along this style. Anyone else got anymore recommendations that'd run along the lines of Silverwing, Redwall, etc.?
Big fan of The Queens Thief series and right now am reading the Bartimaeus novels.
Edit, edit, edit, edit the wiki![]()
: If you're still looking, definitely try The Book Of The Named if you haven't yet. They're about prehistoric lionlike cats with sapient intelligence levels. Also, pretty dang awesome. Amusingly, the original covers for the books had these horribly generic badly done watercolor-painting style covers that didn't really convey anything about the books except that big cats were in them, while the rereleases go full-on EPIC HARDCORE KIRBY mode.
edited 29th Dec '12 1:17:38 AM by FreezairForALimitedTime
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI was never really a fan of kids books when I was a kid. No shit, my favourite bedtime reading were J.T. Edson westerns and Sven Hassel war novels. I only really started reading books for children when I was way into my late adolescence, and then it was C.S. Lewis' Narnia books all the way. I don't think I would enjoy them as much now as I have sort of walked well away from the whole religion thing which those books are heavily influenced by.
Just got done reading the sequel to The Candy Shop War, The Arcade Incident. Probably the weakest of Mull's works so far, but still pretty entertaining. I think its biggest problem is that it feels a bit too... retread-y in some respects? I understand the premise and think it's a good one (newly Genre Savvy protagonists now get stuck looking after kids trapped in the same situation they once found themselves in), but because of how they have to play along with the bad guy, there's a lot of similar scenes to the first one. Also, the various temple assaults feel a bit more like Fablehaven than they do the first book, which is kind of a shame, because I liked the somewhat more Mundane Fantastic of the first book. The 'series bleed' is somewhat disappointing.
But if I sound like I'm disappointed with it on the whole, trust me, I'm not. It actually does several things I'm actually really glad to see, especially in how it deals with the character of Lindy. Indeed, she's kind of the biggest focal kid out of all of them, even Nate in some ways, and it makes sense. She has exactly the sort of scenes I wanted her to have, and her character ended up being my favorite. The ending addresses the sort of things I wanted it to. And for the most part, the book is just kind of a vehicle for inventing more cool magic and worldbuilding, which, to be honest, I am more than OK with. A lot of it is neat and fun. And as per usual, the ending was tense and page-turning and action packed and a lot of fun to read.
Although I was somewhat disappointed to find out that the cover is a big fat lie.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI enjoyed some kid's or YA series when I was younger that I never finished reading — specifically the Named series and the Animorphs. I wonder, if I ever decide to finish reading them, whether I'll enjoy them as much as I did as high schooler?
But I just picked up a YA book called Anna Dressed in Blood and read it on a whim, and it wasn't terrible. Not the best literature I've ever read, but I enjoyed it. It wasn't sappy or saccharine, nor dripping with overdone "hippness," nor was it dumbed down, and wasn't afflicted with Black-and-White Morality. It did not try to make the undead more sexy than the living. My biggest complaint is probably all the loose threads that never got cleared up by the end of the story.
On the other hand, reading books that are aimed at children (like, small children) isn't fun for me.
edited 17th Jan '13 10:38:27 PM by ArcadesSabboth
Oppression anywhere is a threat to democracy everywhere.Latest reading for kids way, way younger than me: The first book of The Dragonet Prophecy. I admit it: I picked up the book as soon as I saw it, because the cover is DRAGONS, the inside blurb was MORE DRAGONS, and the illustrated guide placed before the book actually begins was HOLY CRAP LOOK AT ALL THESE DRAGONS. And we all know what I'm a sucker for!
I probably enjoyed it mostly for the DRAGONS, but I have to admit, the main characters were all, uh, well-characterized. I also liked the fact that the book has a Five-Man Band but doesn't use The Hero as the focal character—instead, The Big Guy is our main character, with the hero as a side-character. Though it looks like she'll be the focus of the next book. Still, each of the main characters is very distinct, and characterized strongly, such that certain actions and scenes gave me a perfect feel of, "Yes, that is exactlyu what this character would say/do in this situation." The book also has the rare talent of making all its main characters sound nicely different. In particular, I can't picture one particular character (Glory) as sounding like anyone but Rarity.
But I was kind of disappointed with it, in that the bad guys (both the temporary bad of this book, and the overall bad guys) were awfully "Mweehehe cackle cackle look at me I'm so evil." The book also had a bit of an issue with being either way too transparent, thus sapping the tension or surprise from a scene, or going all the way to the other end: "Evel Kinevial couldn't make that leap!" I guess that goes with the transparency—hard to properly hate villains who are too transparent in their motives, and seem to be in it For the Evulz. Also, mystical dragon children from a fantasy world talking almost exactly like human teenagers—might sap some people's suspension of disbelief; it kind of did with mine, but I grew to accept it.
Overall: A definite keeper; not my favorite piece of dragon-related literature I own, but still entertaining, and I look forward to the rest of the series.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI read the first Fablehaven novel and quite enjoyed it, but haven't read the others. I heard the series gets much darker after that, so I'm hesitant to have my charming first book spoiled. It may sound immature, but it's rare to find a fantasy that's sweet, genuinely magical, and doesn't preach about growing up and losing your child's sense of wonder for a badly disguised Author Tract about how the world sucks and being cynical and overly responsible is the only way to cope.
Speaking as ye olde local Fablehaven fangirl, I can tell you, it's nothing like that. The series does get much darker, but it's not a metaphor for losing one's childhood innocence and the characters themselves do not grow increasingly cynical to "cope." It's much darker more in the sense that things become much more dangerous and treacherous, and although there are a few more cynical moments later on (in particular, through a group of characters introduced in the final book), I find it never quite loses that sense of wonder, even if it's incredibly dangerous. (Said final book also gets a lot of mileage out of probably the series' most whimsical character, too.) Magic in that world is treated sort of like a poison dart frog, or maybe a tiger: Incredibly beautiful and wonderful to admire, but you have to be really careful with it or it could easily hurt you.
But if you still find that off-putting, might I recommend a book called The Hounds Of The Morrigan to you? It's pretty much %100 pure whimsy. It reminds me of the way fantasies were in the early 1900's/1910's, though it was written in the 1980's. It's a charming, lighthearted adventure that never gets too scary, and its kid heroes are, well, kid heroes because they're young and they believe.
edited 22nd Jan '13 10:54:09 AM by FreezairForALimitedTime
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI'm taking a class called Children's Literature and so far, I've needed to read Alice In Wonderland and A Wrinkle In Time. Alice in Wonderland has far more structure (i.e. coherent thought and planning) to it than I thought it would, and I loved a Wrinkle in Time.
I also read the Artemis Fowl books on a friend's recommendation recently and I've also read the Keys To The Kingdom series by Garth Nix. Un Lun Dun is amazing too.
Why are children's books usually the most imaginative that I've read?
edited 22nd Jan '13 12:10:33 PM by Zendervai
I really don't get that. Fantasy lets you see worlds and places that are amazing and wonderful and big and epic and it lets your imagination dance by creating these amazing places in your head. I don't understand why you'd want to restrict the stories you experience to the mundane and ordinary.
One other children's book I highly recommend is Brave Story.
The language is too polished for kids, but Lord dunsany's works fall under that enchanting pure fantasy atmosphere only a few writers can muster. Somehow his language is more Tolkien than Tolkien. Not too many modern readers have read his works, which is a real shame, but the one's I've gotten to give them a try love them. In particular the Gods of Pegana, the book of Wonder, and though a bit indulgent the King of Elfland's Daughter is also well worth a read. Catherynne M. Valente is the only recent author who seems to tap into the same source, but her writing's more meandering and like a postmodern fairy tale that doesn't loose the tale if that makes sense.
@Twen: If that is a literal description of the book you're reading right now, name drop it, because that sounds like something I'd want to read.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~Madrugada
It's The Wainscott Weasel, which I mentioned upthread already. I just finished it last night, and it's great. There are a lot of characters in it, but I think it does well juggling its plot threads (there's also a B-plot about a younger weasel who wants to get married and chooses the eye-patched one as his best man).
Who's the author? I may need to add this to my "To Read" list.
Speaking of, I picked up a book that looks like the high cheese to end all high cheese. It is also, luckily, only about 150 pages long, so if it sucks, it'll be over with quickly. But it looks like some beautifully unpretentious high fantasy velveeta for kids, so I'm all over it. It's called The Chronicles Of Avantia.
"Proto-Indo-European makes the damnedest words related. It's great. It's the Kevin Bacon of etymology." ~MadrugadaI'm reading through the sequels to A Wrinkle In Time for the first time. A Wind In The Door is excellent. I did not expect a book that had a snarky 'Singular Cherubim' and Mitochondria as major plot points.
And the villains are truly terrifying. Mostly through Fridge Horror, but I would never, ever want to meet the Echthroi.
The book hammers in how horrible it is to have bullying in a country that styles itself as one of the greatest in the world a little too bluntly. In a book written in the 70s. I guess things haven't really changed that much.
edited 23rd Jan '13 8:55:02 PM by Zendervai

A lot of my friends who read it say that Wayside School still holds up well. Come to think of it, some of the aspects were kinda dark, like the phantom 19th floor.
I admit I don't analyze plots really deeply though, and I tend to be kind of a surface guy. I was just never programmed to dig really deep into anything I liked.