rereading fever

[coraa]

So it's (almost) December, which means there's more than usual stress, which, for me, means rereads. Last December it was a complete Discworld rereaed.

This December, apparently it's middle-grade books from my childhood. Who knew?

It started with Harriet the Spy and The Long Secret. (Harriet is more famous but actually, upon a reread, I think The Long Secret is the better book.) Then I bought all the Anastasia Krupnik books that were available on the Kindle, and chafed that that's less than half. (I may break down and buy physical copies.)

Now it's the discovery that the Ramona books are available on the Kindle. I'm also thinking of rustling up my extremely battered copies of Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher and The Farthest-Away Mountain.

I'm a little embarrassed by this but, to be honest, not much. I think I have become, blissfully, old enough to do kid stuff.

(Someone is going to read this, scratch their head, and ask, "But don't you review YA fantasy all the time?" And oh, yes, I do; most of my favorite books of the past three years have been YA fantasy. But modern YA fantasy is an utterly different beast than the middle-grade books of my own childhood; it's not the same thing at all.)

Comments

[oracne]

You should post about the rereads, so we may all wallow in nostalgia.

[coraa]

That's a good idea!

[gwyneira]

I second oracne's comment! :)

Also, have you read Sport? I like it nearly as much as Harriet and The Long Secret and am surprised to see that it's out of print.

[coraa]

Yes! I read Sport and Nobody's Family Is Going To Change and liked them as a kid, but have not read them since.

[janni.livejournal.com]

I love Jeremy Thatcher! And Jennifer Murdley, too.

Speaking of Bruce Coville's books, were you a Unicorn Chronicles fan? Because the third book in that series came out last year, and the final book is due out in 2010, and these things make me very happy. :-)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Ooh, Jennifer Murdley! I'd forgotten that one. I remember really liking it -- particularly the way it used the fairy tale elements.

I read the first Unicorn Chronicles book, but then lost track of them. I'd like to pick them up again, though.

[janni.livejournal.com]

What's fascinating about the Unicorn Chronicles is how each book is -- a thing an order of magnitude more than the book before: from a slender middle-grade thing, to a not-so-slender middle-grade thing, to a thicker almost-YA thing -- only it's not just about length or genre, but somehow about depth and breadth of story, too.

I adored all of them, and I adored them in I think different ways. There's a progression going on here.

Book 3 (Dark Whispers) was one of my favorites last year. I'm very curious where Book 4 (The Last Hunt) is going to take all the threads from the first three.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

That's awesome! I love rereading childhood books. You've seen these posts, right? http://jezebel.com/tag/fine-lines/

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oh, no, I hadn't! I think I started reading Jezebel more recently than most of those. Thank you for the link. :)

[geekjul.livejournal.com]

Oh, I had so much love for Ramona Quimby when I was a girl. I related to her awkwardness and need to belong so very much. You're making me want to re-read them now :)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Me too! She was so creative and oddball and yet realistic in that she wanted to stand out, but still be a part of things.

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

I totally loved Anastasia Krupnik when I was a kid. My favorite was how her little brother taught himself to talk, then his first words were when he stood up and said, "Look at me, I'm up!"

My favorite fantasy books from when I was a preteen though have to be The Dark is Rising Sequence, anything by Patricia Wrede, and those books by Robin McKinley.

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

Which books are those books? Do you mean the series that has The Blue Sword in it, or her fairy tale retellings, or other ones?

[paperclippy.livejournal.com]

Yes. :P I liked both the series that has The Blue Sword and the fairy tale retellings, I don't think I read any others.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too!

There's another bit in one of the books where Sam says that he hates a kid in his class, and his mom says, "We don't use that word, Sam. You can say that you don't care for them." And Sam thinks about it, and says, "I don't care for Nicky so much I wish he would get run over by a big truck."

I sometimes think of that when I, ah, don't care for somebody. ;)

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

I wish more of my childhood lit were available on kindle, because I feel totally sketchy borrowing it from the library.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I used to, but then I said 'fuck it' one day and checked out a whole stack. The children's librarian just grinned at me, and the check-out person didn't even bat an eye.

Part of it is that I just don't care anymore, but part of it is that the librarian has no idea whether I'm taking them home to read myself, or for a child I know. Heck, I'm old enough now that I could theoretically be the parent to the kid reading some of these.

[porfinn.livejournal.com]

That's funny. There are usually more adults milling around in that section at the library then kids because guardians/teachers/parents/siblings/aunts-uncles etc., etc., etc. check out books for small frys. Might I recommend Lloyd Alexander re-visit, and not those Cauldron books, but Westmark-- All hail the Beggar Queen!

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

I might go back to the library now that I have long hair. People treat me better. (I have a whole slew of issues with this realization, but if I get to read my books...)

[coraa.livejournal.com]

That's really unfortunate, and I'm sorry to hear it. (Well, I'm glad you're being treated better, but I'm sorry to hear why.) Bias sucks.

[sithjawa.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Well... some of it is probably explained by being more obviously girly and thus apparently a valid flirting target, but from the women the best explanation I can think of is "I don't confuse them, and people react more positively when they're not confused."

Ah well. I was getting tired of the funny looks.

[clairebaxter.livejournal.com]

I've got all sorts of children's novels and a few old YA books, if you want to borrow some.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

Oooh. I may take you up on that! Perhaps I'll take a peek when I'm over there to watch Nora?

[clairebaxter.livejournal.com]

Totally! Though if you're in the neighborhood sooner, and you want to swing by, you can. Do you have my number?

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I used to, but I lost it when my phone OS crashed. E-mail it to me? :)