Talk about the kidlit you're reading!

AllieKat

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I like YA and JF. :D I know I'm not the right age group for it, but some of the stories are better than "grown up" fiction. For one thing, brevity is a not an evil in JF and YA. And in my opinion, brevity improves most stories.

One of my favorite books ever is "This Time of Darkness," by H. M. Hoover. It's a dark, futuristic story about two children in an underground world. Awesome stuff that's stuck with me a long, long time. I can still reread it and get a lot from that book.

Another big favorite from my childhood (and still today), is "Runaway Robot," by Lester del Rey. It's an amazing, first person account of a robot that really draws the reader in. The robot is a better character than a lot of human narrators, IMO. :)
 

MsJudy

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I like YA and JF. :D I know I'm not the right age group for it, but some of the stories are better than "grown up" fiction. For one thing, brevity is a not an evil in JF and YA. And in my opinion, brevity improves most stories.

Exactly! These days, whenever I pick up an adult novel, there's at least one point where I just want to scream, Get to the point already!

Actually, there is one exception to that, written by a fellow AW gentleman. Jamie Ford's HOTEL AT THE CORNER OF BITTER AND SWEET almost reads like an MG novel, it's so clean and direct. If he ever gets tired of grown-up writing, let's invite him to join us over here!

But in general...grown-ups take a lot of words to tell a story.
 

MsJudy

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Darn you guys. Now my To Be Read list is two pages long... Can I be excused? I have to go catch up on my reading.
 

sissybaby

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I thought Savvy was a wonderful book! I made my sister read it, and she positively hates to read anything that isn't written by Jude Deveraux or Nora Roberts.

I also called her yesterday and told her she must read Way Down Deep. I want to say Barbara O'Connor wrote it, but I could be wrong. I just know I've been reading her books lately, and it was in the mix I had, so maybe it was, and maybe it wasn't.

Today I picked up The Borrowers again - thank you, Judy - Moonpie and Ivy, and something called The Poisons of Caux; The Hollow Bettle, by Suzannah Appelbaum. I have no idea what that one's about.
 

Kitty Pryde

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I just read "Millicent Min, Girl Genius" by Lisa Yee. I enjoyed it a lot. Good voice, typical pain-of-growing-up story, and very very funny. One thing I noticed was that a lot of the humor would probably go over a kids head--I know I wouldn't have gotten most of the jokes until I was 15 or something. The narrator MC is a genius so she talks about a lot of stuff that kids don't necessarily know about, but it works. She is adorably clueless in social situations so she's very confused, but the reader knows what's going on.

One other thing I thought was interesting is that she wrote two other books from the perspectives of the other two kid main characters in the book, and all three books take place in the same summer. So the events are covered in three different books. I haven't read the others but they are about the individual issues each kid deals with.
 

sissybaby

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Has anyone read Night Wings? I can't recall the author now, but he also wrote Skeleton Man. It has a native american theme, and I really enjoyed it. I think it would definitely appeal to boys, but my niece, who is a non-reader, read it and talked about it for, like, forever, ya know? Her dad is part native american, and maybe that's why, but whatever it takes to get her interested in reading, I'm all for.

Just wondered if anyone read Skeleton Man, and if it's similar in style or theme.
 

RitrChick

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Okay, it's not a book, but I've been reading Girls' Life magazine and I'm finding it to be a fabulous resource. It's a mag aimed at the tween/early teen demographic. With quizzes, fashion and beauty tips, first-person accounts and newsy stories, it's great for giving an insight into the language/slang/important issues of this age group. The June/July issue even has several pages of suggested summer reading - it's worth a look to see what the publishing houses are promo-ing in girls' mags, if those will be YOUR readers some day. :)

I got a copy from my library, but I'm thinking of subscribing. It's $14.95 for a year or $24.95 for 2 years. Not too bad. They also have a great web site at girlslife.com .
 

timp67

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I've been rereading some old favorites.

Just finished The Cuckoo Tree, by Joan Aiken. I loved it as much as ever!

As soon as Dido Twite sets foot on English soil, mischief awaits. While her friend Captain Hughes recovers from a carriage accident, Dido is marooned with the odd inhabitants of the Tegleaze estate—strange old Lady Teglease, her nephew Tobit, and his wizened, witchy nurse, Sannie. Soon suspicious things happen: a priceless possession is stolen, a boy is kidnapped, a twin sister is found. And when Dido catches a glimpse of her rascally father in Petworth, she is sure she's in the midst of another wicked Hanoverian plot. Can she combat mass hypnotism, smugglers, and a gang of murderers to prevent the plot to put St. Paul's Cathedral in the Thames?
 

Amarie

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Timp, I've never heard of this one, but it sounds really fun. By the way, I know your name isn't Timp, but in Suzanne Collins' series, Gregor the Overlander, there is a giant cockroach (one of the good guys) named Timp.
 
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MsJudy

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Joan Aiken was one of my absolute favorite authors when I was a kid!

Strange, though. I picked up one of her books a while back, and found that I didn't care for it at all. Just too much from an older time, I guess, written at so much slower a pace than a modern kids' book. Sigh...
 

timp67

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Timp, I've never heard of this one, but it sounds really fun. By the way, I know your name isn't Timp, but in Suzanne Collins' series, Gregor the Overlander, there is a giant cockroach (one of the good guys) named Timp.

Well, if it HAS to be a cockroach, I'm glad it was one of the good guys! :)
 

kdbeaar

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Another big favorite from my childhood (and still today), is "Runaway Robot," by Lester del Rey. It's an amazing, first person account of a robot that really draws the reader in. The robot is a better character than a lot of human narrators, IMO. :)


I haven't read this, but I did recently reread Tunnel Through Time by del Rey. It was one of my childhood favorites. A lot is outdated now, of course (I'm old!), but it was better than I thought it would be. It took me ages to remember the name of the book; even the children's librarian at the library couldn't help me when I described it. (I should have come here, but it was in the dark ages before I knew about AW!)
 

Angela_785

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I just finished Prada and Prejudice and I loved it!! I think there was only one part that made me go wha? and that was when the author's age directly came out: 15. GREAT book, but I'll admit that age threw me...the characters seemed closer to 17 to me, but with how they acted, what they said/thought, sneaking out to go clubbing in London, etc. Anyone else feel this way--I'm curious.

I also recently read If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period and enjoyed the voices of the individual characters and the storyline, although the begining was a bit hard to get into.

Cassidy, I loved Savvy. Can't wait for the movie! :)
 

MsJudy

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Just finished TANGERINE by Edward Bloor. One of the quotes on the back describes it as "American Gothic," and I think that's a good description. Some of what goes on in the family is truly dysfunctional. Intense, some horrific bits, but well-written.

One of the things I loved about it is that it's set in a Florida boomtown that could be the part of California that I grew up in. The citrus groves are being plowed under to make room for beautiful housing developments that are actually badly built and plagued with problems. Meanwhile there's the old part of town, where people of color still try to make a living with what's left. Bloor really captures the complexity of the setting, and the conflict between old and new communities.

Interesting to note: the RenLearn site lists it as MG, reading level 4.3, but my library shelves it as YA. The MC is in middle school, so...
 

Kitty Pryde

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I'm out of town visiting my parents, and I just discovered my favorite picture book from childhood. I couldn't remember the name of it and I was going nuts searching for it. Anyways, it's called "Dream Child" by David McPhail. It's an amazing book! I'm so excited I found it.

It's your basic picture book subjects, friendly animals, frolicking, and imagination, but it's all told in a very surreal poem about dream adventures with amazing painted illustrations to go with it. And it has a boat with wings that flies around at night! It's a wonderful book, but it's out of print. I'm going to try to track down a few copies to hold onto :)
 

fringle

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My daughter and I are reading Savvy together as our read-aloud book. We are loving it. I'm revisiting The Borrowers and I'm finding it too old fashioned. I remember reading as a kid and loving it, but I'm not finding the same magic this time around.
 

timp67

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Just finished TANGERINE by Edward Bloor.

Interesting to note: the RenLearn site lists it as MG, reading level 4.3, but my library shelves it as YA. The MC is in middle school, so...

That is interesting ... how did it strike you, JudScotKev? MG or YA?
 

MsJudy

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Mature MG. The MC is in middle school, there's no sex or drugs, but there is violence. No blood, no gratuitous violence, but definite violence. As in one maiming, one murder and one attempted murder. The attempted murder is in the first chapter, so it isn't a huge shock to the reader when things get ugly later on. A reader would know by the end of the first chapter whether he could handle this kind of book or not. But I definitely think it would be too much for most kids in elementary school.
 

C.J. Rockwell

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Darn you guys. Now my To Be Read list is two pages long... Can I be excused? I have to go catch up on my reading.

Don't be ashamed JSK, you're nowhere near behind as I am.

I mostly have been listening to audiobooks over the summer as opposed to reading the old-fashioned way.

It was the only way I could enjoy fiction without feeling the need to be as good as the stories I was hearing.

I don't know how it happened, but there have been long periods of time when I feared reading would never be fun again after trying to look at books instructively for so long.

I now know my love of reading is still in me, it's just fighting to stay alive. I'm starting to read my long back list of books I was too frustrated to read before.

Brevity may make stories better, but that doesn't mean it's easy to achieve, and it doesn't mean it's because of a lack of trying.

All that said, I'm still trying to get back to the joy I felt when I started reading for pleasure in the first place.

I'm sure I'm not the first writer who's had this problem, but sometimes I feel like I'm in a situation no one gets but me.

Maybe because I came to reading for pleasure late in life, I still have to further grow in this area.

I often feel left out when I head about the books people grew up with. I didn't hate reading growing up, and I didn't struggle with it on a developmental level either, but I didn't have books that were touchstones in my life the same way.

Sometimes I fear that because I didn't grow up with a innate love of books as a kid, I can't connect with books the way I want and know I can.

It wasn't until high school that it finally clicked for me, I finally found the books I loved, and still love them today.

Even then, I wasn't reading the hot thought-provoking YA titles either.

The farther away a story was from reality was the kind of reading I loved, and still do.

Sometimes you need to read to escape, and I think that gets lost when we're trying to read with a writer's eye all the time.

There's nothing wrong with using a book to escape. I don't think anyone here would disagree, but sometimes I feel like we adults don't allow ourselves to escape our troubles once in awhile like we might've when we're younger.

I think we'd be less hard on ourselves if we were more honest with ourselves about that.

That said, I can tell from being on AW as long as I have that a lot of you are some of the bravest readers I've ever known. I'm getting there, but I've got a ways to go.
 

charlotte49ers

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I'm a 3rd grade teacher, so I get the joy of reading kids books all of the time. :)

I'm reading The Tale of Desperaux to them right now. Our librarian holds a Caldecott and Newbery contest each year. If they read 3 Newberys and get an 80 or better on the AR test for it, she buys them their favorite Newbery and they go to a party. She does the same with Caldecotts, but they have to read 10. I try to help them out during D.E.A.R. time because most of the Newberys are above their reading levels.

I'm going to read them Caddie Woodlawn next because I love it. :)
 

MsJudy

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I remember loving Caddie Woodlawn! That's one I haven't read in 30+ years... Guess I'll have to check it out again one of these days.

And yes, I enjoyed Princess Academy, though I admit it wasn't quite what I expected. A fantasy without much actual fantasy...not much magic, really, so it's more of a contemporary drama with a fantasy setting!
 

SheilaJG

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I really enjoyed Tangerine, though it is dark. I don't think I'd recommend it to my 4th grader.

We're reading The Case of The Case of Mistaken Identity, by Mac Barnett. He came to our school and was absolutely hilarious with his chums Adam Rex and Jon Scieszka.

I had to go pick up Granny, after Judy's recommendation. My boys love silly books like that, and it's very funny.

More recent reads - Catching Fire (sequel to Hunger Games), really good.
I'm a little ways into The Dragon of Trelain by Michelle Knudsen.
 

fringle

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I was just looking through my daughter's books and I realized that I've never read Because of Winn Dixie, so I'm starting on it tonight.