/report: Children's Books

[mklutz]

Guys, we recorded for over an hour this week before scrapping the episode and re-recording on a different topic entirely. If we sound punchy at all it's because it was late in England and in Canada. (Oops?)

But! This week we cover a delightful range of children's and young adult books, which we hope you will enjoy, and we finish up with some book recs for you.

As per usual, you can click here to download the episode.

As usual the iTunes feed will be up later. Since it's a week about children's books we don't actually have any fic recs for you. Go read a book! You can follow us on twitter over here for other updates.


Due to request, a (hopefully mostly complete?) list of the books mentioned:

• Matilda
• A Promise is a Promise
• The Witches
• Little House on the Prairie series
• Anne of Green Gables
• The Secret World of Og
• Dragon Singer & Dragon Song
• Meg Cabot's Mediator/Princess Diaries/1-800-where-are-you books
• Jane Eyre
• 1984
• Catcher in the Rye
• The Last Unicorn
• The Handmaid's Tale
• The Fountainhead
• Anything by Antonia Fraser (Frasier? Pru is asleep, so MK is guessing)
• The Egypt Game
• From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
• The Giraffe, The Pelly, & Me
• These Happy Golden Years
• Catherine Called Birdie
• Gordon Korman's MacDonald Hall books
• Agatha Christie's Poirot; Agatha Christie's Marple
• The Paper Bag Princess
• Stardust of Yesterday
• Freedom's Landing
• Redwall (the series)
• The Hundred Secret Senses
• Charlie & The Chocolate Factory
• Robert Fagles translation of The Odyssey

Comments

[youkosiren.livejournal.com]

While I was listening, I kept thinking 'ooh, I hope they talk about Gordon Korman because those books cracked me up so much as a kid' and then...

Actually, ever since I moved into fandoms that involve actual people (whether they're portraying characters or are the objects of fangirling themselves), I experience occasional stabs of fangirl guilt. I now feel awkward around my coworker who looks like Chris Pine because I've read so many terrible fics about reboot Kirk, but I'd rather read Trek fic than feel comfortable around my coworkers, go figure. That, actually, is probably what I'm going to be doing at work when STBB starts posting this week.

I adored Anne McCaffrey books when I was younger (dragons! psychic powers!), but I'm not sure if I could stand to read any of her books now. I am strangely intrigued by this ghost time travel amnesia romance novel though, so I hope you'll post a list of the books discussed 8D

[mklutz]

I think I got them all! Links to books added above.

Man, when shitty things happen at work, or when it's a rare slow time that is the time I read a lot of fic at my desk while pretending to check my work email. I didn't know STBB was starting up soon, though, so that's exciting.

Psychic dragons and powers! What's not to love? Lynn Kurland (who wrote the amnesia time travel ghost romance) is pretty prolific, so you might want to find her in the romance section of your local store and read the backs of her books until you find something that jumps out at you. There is a lot of ghosts/amnesia/time travel/historical action in her books.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh, yay, thanks for the links~

Yes! I think it might start posting the 15th or so. This is the beauty about having my ipod - I can set it up and read fic without being obvious at all! Except sometimes it's painful to keep all the feelings inside.

I am always on the lookout for more dragon fantasy novels! I even read one about metal dragons a while ago. It really is funny though how things you read or watch as a kid leave their impression on you - somehow I impressed on actors in ancient Chinese martial artist dramas when young and it's never gone away 8|;

[mklutz]

That's how they get you! I watched a lot of Rupert and read a lot of fantasy novels and, late at night, stayed up to watch chinese movies subtitled on OMNI.

[elandrialore]

I have to say the image of you compulsively sniffing your book is making me laugh.

Also, the two books that really influenced me as a twelve year old girl are Bridge to Terabithia - which was just delightful to the tomboy in me who liked to disappear into her own imagination - and, I'm not even kidding you right now, Clan of the Cave Bear. I believe I had much the same much the same fascination with the descriptions of living off the land in this series as Pru did with the butter churning in Little House on the Prairie.

[helenorvana]

The book Pru mentioned about the nun in the flying chair is something my English teacher used as an exercise my freshman year of high school. I don't remember what it was called either, but we had to, in groups of three, pick one of the pictures and lines and write our own story about it.

And actually, I found the pictures here. The one my group was Mr. Linden's Library.

[(Anonymous)]

I found myself very sad that you didn't talk about Diana Wynne Jones. I grew up (UK obv) reading Enid Blyton, David Eddings, and DWJ, and I still adore DWJ and reread often (and happily read any Chrestomanci fanfic that comes my way). If you didn't mention her because you haven't read her books, then you need to go out and buy them right now :). I'll assume it was just time constraints, though!

Katkun. Posting anon because I don't have a dw account.

[mklutz]

Some of my favourites are definitely Diana Wynne Jones, David Eddings, Phillip Pullman, Mary Norton, Beatrix Potter, C.S. Lewis, Gail Carson Levine, Orson Scott Card, J.K Rowling, Roch Carrier, Oliver Jeffers, Ludwig Bemelmans, Roger Hargreaves, Carolyn Keene, Norton Juster, Louise Fitzhugh, Stephen Leacock, Shaun Tan, Douglas Adams, Lynda Barry, etc, etc, etc.

But partly we were reallllly tired and still a bit sick, and partly I don't think you could fit it all in one episode.

You know you can login using OpenID (basically log into DW with your LJ), right? It's in the drop down and very easy - might help you out next time!

[kat-kun1.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the tip.
And how could I have forgotten Douglas Adams. Last Chance to See was brilliant, even if it did make me cry....

[melodiousb]

a) I'm totally with Mklutz on The Giraffe, the Pelly and Me.

b) I'm not going to throw the whole underrated childrens' books think I did on my blog at you, but have either of you ever read My Father's Dragon?

[katkaminion]

And this is the part where it gets weird.

Because this is the part where I realize how completely utterly radically everythingy different my education was from most people I meet in fandom. The only books I know from that whole list are Matilda (because there is the movie and yes, I only realized it had a book version when heard the report), Little House In The Prairie (again, tv show that I've never actually seen but have heard about) and Charlie, again, movie.

That's kid section. From the rest, I know a few. Odissey obviously, Poirot (and the only Poirot for me is David Suchet, I agree with mk), I've heard but never read 1984 and Jane Eyre and Catcher in The Rye, I didn't escape national channels in my country and their annoying habit of playing Princess Diares every. Single. Holiday, but most of this report was so shiny and new.

My amazon wishlist filled up like wow. My wallet is writing its Will as we speak.

I'm kind of really looking forward to it, because it'll probably be very enlightening. These are books almost everyone has read.

I mean. I grew up hearing poetry in the car, reading Fernando Pessoa and Luis de Camões and José Saramago and all those usual fairy tales, red riding hood and some of the less known ones like Rumpelstiltskin and Vasilisa The Beautiful. Man. Don't get me started on the Saint Anthony Sermon to the Fishes.

My childhood was so different guys. It's so weird.

[katkaminion]

Well. I read Marion Bradley Zimmer's Mists of Avalon when I was 12 or so. That's probably one of the first foreign writers I read.

[mklutz]

I read that, and it scarred me for life.

[katkaminion]

I... don't remember reading it actually.

All I can remember is, there was a passage about women having hair on their legs, and all I could think of was "oh cool no waxing".



And the I went back to Marvel.

[eponymousanon]

Hahaha I did the same thing. Literally, I remember reading those kinds of books in 5th grade or so and going "wait... that's not how sex really works, is it?"

[katkaminion]

Oh god, I think it probably mangled our minds win ways we can't even begin to imagine.

Well, the sex is... I asked my mom where babies come from when I was a lil' chick and she told me what sex was. By time I was 12, I was asking Ma about several positions. I was a very weird kid.

I remember asking my parents how they made me. Oh god usser icon definitely related.

[eponymousanon]

I am super excited about hearing this though I will admit, I have read a lot of Gordon Korman fanfic without ever reading the Macdonald Hall/I Want to Go Home! books. I'm kind of afraid that the books won't match up, the way that HP fanfic a lot of times surpasses the original (y'know, with the editing and all).

[backspace]

De-lurking to say that I loved this episode so much, and hope to hear you talk about books again. XDDD I've liked some of Margaret Atwood's poetry, mostly because hers was some of the first poetry I read outside of school, though I've never tried her fiction. Now I'm curious.

Ugh, The Giver so much. Like what I told someone recently after reading the Hunger Games trilogy - if I wanted to read good dystopian YA, I'd read The Giver. It's one of those very, very resounding YA books that never leave you. (Or, you know, Ender's Game.)

[zeplum]

My older sister LOVED the Little House books, and the show, and both were passed along to me when I came of age (also, all of her Holly Hobby shit). So when we were driving from Florida to Washington last year, she made a very emphatic point to stop at the Ingalls homestead in De Smet, South Dakota.

This is the view from the front porch of the "house":



It is absolutely in the middle of nowhere, but if you're a fan, it's worth the visit.


Also, much love for Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I actually discovered my copies of The Velvet Room and The Changeling yesterday (before the podcast went up) and squealed for joy. I read them mid/late in elementary school, and they were a huge influence on my headspace as a writer.

[nuit_belle]

Really enjoyed the podcast. I remember when pru posted a snippet from the Inception Little House AU and I remember loving it. So count this as one vote from someone who'd love to read it!

As for children's book recs, the Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner is absolutely incredible. Cannot recommend them enough. They feature, among others, two awesomely strong female characters. They go in this order: The Thief, The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings. Do NOT read the blurbs on the back of the books.

While they're ostensibly geared at kids (The Thief was a Newbery Honor book), there's this wonderful undercurrent of sensuality in the main romance (one I think you have to be older to read between the lines and pick up on).

[samjohnsson]

Caveant oratores, o wondrous ladies - I don't know about the iTunes feed, but the Feedburner feed is failing in the first two seconds. Something about the file is just not working - maybe the dash in the front of the file name?

[mklutz]

Thanks for the heads up. I've renamed the file and made a change or two. See if that works?

[samjohnsson]

Winamp is seriously hating my face at the moment. I've pulled the single file from your link. If it's still being pissy after next week, I'll try recapturing the feed or something. (It could just be Winamp being pissy at Feedburner. It happens.)

[mklutz]

Feedburner might also take a few minutes to an hour or so to catch up to the ftp change. That happens. Thanks for letting me know!

[samjohnsson]

Had to pull and replace the feed in Winamp - it was convinced of the bad information. If iTunes wasn't such a system fungus, or if Miro and Songbird were unified...

Anyway, thank you for reloading it!

[jayj530]

I just wanted to say that I really enjoyed this episode of /report...not that I haven't enjoyed all the previous episodes, but I especially enjoyed this one. Mostly because I've had non-fandom friends assume that because I read/write fanfiction I'm less interested in "real" books and that is just not the case. So it was really great hearing you two discuss "real" books and make some excellent points about them.

Also, mklutz, don't listent to Pru, the Pern books are awesome and every child should read them. When I was 10, I convinced my entire 5th grade class to read Dragonsong and Dragonsinger and I will never regret that life choice.

[sesquipedaliatic]

Paper Bag Princess! Listening to the actual podcast will happen shortly, but I noticed the image as I was skimming posts and flailed HARDCORE. Can't wait to listen to the continued awesome!

[legalliquid.livejournal.com]

First, I definitely love and appreciate all of the slashreport episodes because you guys always have such great opinions and interesting recs and I can listen on my way to work, etc.

This week’s episode reminded me of so many beloved books from my childhood. I haven’t thought about The Egypt Game, or Little House on the Prairie in years, and I’ve been trying to remember the title of From the Mixed up Files for forever, so thanks for that :)

The Handmaid’s Tale, The Jungle, Fahrenheit 451, and Anthem were all required reading during the same semester back in high school. That was some pretty depressing stuff as a 15/16 yr old, but my teacher loved it. I have to say that I agree about reading books at the right age for them to make an impact, because I had to read Huck Finn 4 years in a row (8-11th grade, v. unoriginal teachers?) and so I will never be able to see it as the masterpiece so many people think it is.

Plus, I love Amy Tan, so her books are always worth a reread, and the others are new :)

[trinity_clare]

Having grown up in Wisconsin, the Little House series was a staple of my early childhood. I think Alonzo Wilder might have been my first fictional crush.

Also I totally agree about The Giraffe, The Pelly, And Me.

[trinity_clare]

Also also, now I need to reread the Redwall books. I do have to admit that I generally read all the way to Legend of Luke (I own the books up to Taggerung Loamhedge, but was so disappointed after that that I stopped paying attention to the series).

[ashtree22.livejournal.com]

Pru, I remembered you mentioned the Chronicles of Harris Burdick by Chris van Allsburg during this podcast and I thought you might be interested to hear that a new edition was just released. We just got copies in my bookstore. Each of the pictures now has a story written by a well-known adult or children's author. There's a story from Stephen King and one from Lois Lowry, who I think was also mentioned during the podcast, plus one by Chris van Allsburg. Here's a link to info on the new edition http://www.hmhbooks.com/features/harrisburdick/chronicles_of_harris_burdick.html