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root beer posted:There was another book, called Homecoming, about a few kids whose single mother left them, and they eventually catch up to her to learn she is schizophrenic and in a catatonic state. Looking back, I wonder if our teacher was going through something because, drat, what a weird theme we were dealing with in that class.
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Feb 26, 2024 05:36
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My mom decided to read Homecoming and she really got into it and sought out Dicey’s Song. I may have to let her know there are more that follow, if she remembers.
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Feb 26, 2024 15:28
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redshirt posted:I might have missed any references to "The Three Investigators". I had dozens and dozens of these books when I was a kid. They were great, and some of them were pretty spooky. A large number of them were Scooby Doo-esque stories where something apparently supernatural was happening but I'm pretty sure every single one resolved itself quite mundanely, sometimes literally by pulling the mask off the monster.
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Feb 26, 2024 15:47
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Extra Large Marge posted:There was one that stood out though "The Car". It's about a 14-year-old kid with loser parents who end up leaving each other "Dear John" letters on the same night, thus accidentally abandoning the kid. Haha this book gave me a weird feeling, I remember thinking as a kid hanging out with an old weirdo drifter that basically attached himself to you plus his pal was kinda sketchy.
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Feb 26, 2024 17:22
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:I remember the Peter and Fudge stories, especially how Fudge's parents gave him the talk, then he saw a pregnant lady on the bus and said "I know what's inside you and I know how it got there" so she moved to another seat. Not a canuck, but I also read the McDonald Hall series over and over (the boring days of no internet). Also same author (Gordon Korman) wrote a one-off book about a scamming 11 year old called "No Coins, Please" that I was obsessed with.
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Feb 26, 2024 18:26
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Oh man, that title rings a bell but reading the plot on Wikipedia doesn't. Guess I'll have to read it and see if I remember anything. I do remember reading Don't Care High, and Who Is Bugs Potter, also by Gordon Korman. Just checked and he's still writing!
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Feb 26, 2024 18:46
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Beezus and Butthead
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Feb 26, 2024 19:14
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I remember really loving Island of the Blue Dolphins as a kid because it was about a girl learning how to survive all alone on an island, but re-reading a synopsis now it's a depressing look at how white hunters and missionaries wiped out indigenous cultures. The book ends on a bittersweet but hopeful note if I remember right, completely ignoring how the real-world woman the story was inspired from died of dysentery a few months after being taken from the island and was buried under a Christian name instead of whatever her true name was. Not that anyone could ask her, because by that point everyone else the missionaries had "rescued" had also died and she was the last survivor of her entire culture and language. Anyway my 5th grade teacher was not at all interested in teaching our class about the many crimes inflicted upon entire communities and only cared that we took the books at face value. I also remember him getting upset at me pointing out how Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes was about a real girl who'd died because of the atomic bombs in WWII and compared it to spoiling a Harry Potter book. gently caress you Mr. Witty Cornwind Evil posted:Toddlers do do lots of stupid things. There's not even any real malice in them, because they don't understand that concept yet. But even so, everything Fudge does falls under 'This can be fixed' or 'This can be water under the bridge' or 'This can be taken back'. But committing to swallowing a small turtle, especially since the kid never gives any sort of reason, not even a "I wanted to try to do it"? That's not a 'can be taken back' thing. But you're right. While I can't expect the parents to have predicted their kid might do that (You can predict that kids want to play with matches, it's a lot harder to predict 'This kid will eat his brother's pet...just because'), they probably should have punished him, not rewarded him for being 'all better' once the turtle is extracted (IIRC, they give him castor oil, and milk of magnesia, and prune juice, so I'm guessing they had him poop the turtle out) and then giving the older brother a dog as a "Sorry" consolation. I chalk it up to the general attitude that if an animal isn't a cat or a dog, it isn't considered a "real" pet and therefore its suffering is unimportant or even comedic. I remember lots of sitcoms around this same era where there'd be canned audience laughter because the hamster got stuck in a freezer or the cat ate the bird or the fish got flushed. The parents were lovely for constantly enabling Fudge's worst behaviors but ultimately they are just one example of an unfortunately common plotine. Well, obviously the details aren't common, but you get what I mean. Anyway the Wayside series was cool from what I remember, pretty hosed up that near the end of the third book a woman nearly kills a baby (but then she changes her mind so it's okay). I had no idea a fourth book got releaaed in 2020 though
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Feb 26, 2024 20:15
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Cornwind Evil posted:The plot between them varies a great deal. I'd say like 30 percent of the book actually makes it into the movie. Some of that is probably due to 40 years passing between the book's original publishing and the film, though. That's just how book adaptations are. The war that's central to the movie version of "Howl's Moving Castle" is a small detail that doesn't really affect the plot of the book.
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Feb 26, 2024 21:01
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Powered Descent posted:Was that the one where the protagonist finds out she's dyslexic? At one point she spraypaints graffiti on the school and almost gets caught because it's misspelled in a very dyslexic way. (Or am I thinking of completely the wrong book?) That’s the one and she does get caught for it iirc. She scrubs off the graffiti and I WANT to say the authority figure involved taught her to consider the custodial staff would have had to clean up her mess otherwise and was the same person who recognized her acting out was due to her learning disability being unrecognized. I wish I had those kind of teachers at her age! I just remembered another book from when I was very young, Mary, Rose, and Christmas Tree June. A young girl goes to spend a weekend with her very rich great-aunt but the real story is about what adventures her dolls - and all toys - get up to when humans aren’t around. Great aunt also offers to buy a very expensive toy but the little girl chooses a forgotten doll instead. I always enjoy the “secret life of toys” trope (well, pre-Toy Story anyway) but the most notable feature of the book is it’s illustrated by Edward Gorey. It was probably the first time I saw his art, which is why I recognized and began to watch Mystery on PBS, and why as an adult I had to leave a gallery showing of Gorey’s art after only 30 minutes because I was in the throes of Stendhal Syndrome.
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Feb 27, 2024 01:25
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Anyone else a fan of Hank the Cowdog as a kid? Basically a ranch dog narrating his life and framing barking at some opossums or eating some roadkill or whatever as an epic western showdown. The books on tape read by the author were great.
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Feb 27, 2024 01:41
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:
My favorite author as a kid was John Bellairs, who I started reading because Gorey did the covers and interior illustrations so they looked completely different from anything else on the library shelves (except, apparently, Mary, Rose, and Christmas Tree June). I loved the books in part because the magic in them was real stuff people in the actual world believed it, and because they could be legitimately scary - there was a bit in Eyes of the Killer Robot (otherwise not one of the strongest books) that had me so frightened I remember hiding it in another room and going to bed with the light on that night. eta the Eyes cover because drat it's creepy  Rain Brain fucked around with this message at 02:14 on Feb 27, 2024 |
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Feb 27, 2024 02:07
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RapturesoftheDeep posted:I dunno, I really identified with him in the book where his parents moved and he started jerking it to the rich girl next door. I only found Then Again Maybe I Won't a few years ago. It probably would have made a big impression of me if it had been in our library with the other Judy Blume books! wesleywillis posted:As mentioned, the Quimbys always seemed to be on the verge of bankruptcy and Ramona was sad when her mom slapped her dad in the hand with a spatula after someone forgot to turn on the fuckin crockpot in the morning. Howie Kemp, he is actually Ramona's friend mostly. (Also his technically-correct point was that the builders came and pried the siding off the house where the new room was going to be constructed) dividertabs posted:The first books in the series were from the perspective of Henry Higgins. His friend and neighbor was Beatrice "Beezus." Beezus's bratty annoying tag-along little sister was Ramona, similar Fudge. Later books switched to focus on Beezus, and then to Ramona. When I was a wee lad, I didn't like the shift in perspectives from Henry to Ramona, but now I realise that Henry and Beezus are actually pretty boring characters for the most part.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:29
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Also, I take a photo of my books in a series to aid in thrift shopping, so now you get to see my Blume collection. I love the old airbrushed covers. The photoshop collage ones are godawful. The "modern" minimalistic ones are hit-or-miss.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:34
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Does the Belgariad/Mallorean count? because I read both series a kerjillion times I read The Ellenium too but that whole series was hot garbage
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Feb 27, 2024 03:37
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Wtf apparently the book where you’re only allowed to have one kid is the giver. I always thought I never read that book.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:47
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 The Westing Game was pretty fun. It's a mystery with a wide variety of interesting characters and feels like an Agatha Christie story. Also taught me what a "bookie" is. Extra Large Marge fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Feb 27, 2024 |
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Feb 27, 2024 03:47
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The view from the cherry tree much?
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Feb 27, 2024 03:48
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Shiloh much? Judd got you down?
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Feb 27, 2024 03:49
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Extra Large Marge posted:
I reread this book once every few years just to keep it fresh in my brain. It's really fantastic and it influenced my writing in so many small ways. If it wasn't for Good Omens and Universal Harvester I'd probably consider it my favorite book. I'll never forget America The Beautiful's second verse thanks to it. Or what an ornithologist is.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:53
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Rain Brain posted:My favorite author as a kid was John Bellairs, who I started reading because Gorey did the covers and interior illustrations so they looked completely different from anything else on the library shelves (except, apparently, Mary, Rose, and Christmas Tree June). I loved the books in part because the magic in them was real stuff people in the actual world believed it, and because they could be legitimately scary - there was a bit in Eyes of the Killer Robot (otherwise not one of the strongest books) that had me so frightened I remember hiding it in another room and going to bed with the light on that night.  gently caress yeah, loved Bellairs. I got The Trolley to Yesterday at a used bookstore when I was like 10 and immediately after finishing it I went and read as much as I could find from him. I had no idea Gorey did the covers, that's rad.
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Feb 27, 2024 03:53
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the Silverwing books were sick, going from kind of a Rats of Nimh ripoff type situation in the first book to fighting Bat Satan in Bat Hell by the third
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Feb 27, 2024 04:06
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I learned to read really early, so when I was 11 I was reading The Babysitters Club, Hans Christian Anderson, and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" My mom was totally fine with me borrowing her books at that age, but she did want me to hold off on "Clan of the Cave Bear" until I was in middle school on account of the main character being raped. Except I didn't, and read it anyway. The weirdest things I read as a kid, however, were some books on the history of alchemy and witchcraft, that were definitely not for children but were in my elementary school library all the same. Very dry, but really interesting, but still probably shouldn't have been there: the alchemy one was where I learned the word "smegma." (Alchemy is weird.) Edit: I remembered one of them! "Black Magic, White Magic," by Gary Jennings. Now I need to read it and see if it did belong three shelves up from "Miss Nelson is Missing!" Powerful Katrinka fucked around with this message at 06:33 on Feb 27, 2024 |
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Feb 27, 2024 04:54
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I was a very coddled, naïve kid, but my cousin got me into Christopher Pike books in middle school, which were more young adult books and not kids books. My parents didn't care at first because "look how smart he is, reading far above his grade level!" Until I had to do a book report and choose the one I happened to be reading at the time. Like most middle school book reports it was just a summary of the plot, from what I remember went something like "Pervert high school photography nerd wants some pictures of the girl he likes showering, so he climbs up on the roof and sets up a camera with a timer in the skylight. He knows that she's shy and waits until the other girls leave before she showers, and sets the timer accordingly. When he develops the film, it starts out exactly how he expected with her alone in the shower, but near the end of the roll, someone is clearly sneaking up behind her with a baseball bat. Girl is declared missing the next day. Turns out she found out about a drug ring and was murdered for it. Drug ring found out about his pictures and captured him and tried to force him to snort cocaine laced with something that would kill him, so it would look like another loser killed by his habit. I guess he gets away or something at the end I don't remember." It wasn't under the night before the book report was due, as I finished reading it to my parents and then looked up to see their horrified faces that it occurred to me for the first time, this might not be an appropriate story for a middle school book report. We also read Rats of NIHM in class and everyone loved it, so the teacher brought in the movie and the whole class hated the movie because of all the changes. I remember some kid called out during the movie "Why do they have swords now?" I liked the book so much I read the second and third books on my own. Second one was good but I hated the third one, all I remember is at the end it's revealed that none of it was real somehow. Then I realized the third one was written by the kid of the original author and decided it wasn't "official."
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Feb 27, 2024 06:53
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One more for the lost in the wilderness genre: Lost Girls, Adrift! and Alone!. A group of teenage girls go on what was supposed to be a one week vacation sailing in the Bahamas. A storm comes up, their boat gets wrecked, and they wash up on a deserted island. I don't remember much about the survival skills within but there was a section where they learn how to shell a conch and cook the meat. It probably wasn't very popular because there were only two books in the series, and reviews say the second one ends abruptly. I wonder if I can track down the second book. I'm still wondering what happened to those characters. 
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Feb 27, 2024 07:58
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Another entry in the “some bits haven’t aged well” department, Roald Dahl! I read Matilda several dozen times as a kid, and The Witches was a first “maybe I like scary things” memory. Also I totally forgot he wrote the screenplay to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, no wonder why it also was deeply unsettling. I love love love Quentin Blake’s illustrations as well, they’re so part and parcel with Dahl’s books.
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Feb 27, 2024 08:11
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When my sister was in middle school, she was into terminally ill teen melodrama by Lurlene McDaniel; here’s a selection from dozens: —Mother, Please Don’t Die —Why Did She Have To Die —If I Should Die Before I Wake —Last Dance —Letting Go of Lisa —Too Young to Die —Time to Let Go —Mourning Song —Baby Alicia Is Dying From the “One Last Wish” series, which seems pretty much like all the others? —All The Days Of Her Life —Sixteen And Dying —Reach for Tomorrow —A Time to Die —Please Don’t Die —Mourning Song —She Died Too Young —Mother, Help Me Live —Someone Dies, Someone Lives —A Season for Goodbye —Let Him Live She’d often add a horse girl element: —Where’s the Horse for Me / Three’s a Crowd —A Horse for Mandy (featuring a dreamboat who ends up dying of mouth cancer, from his chaw habit) I get it, there is a need for ways to cope with situations like this—McDaniel has a son with type I diabetes so she wanted to write about kids with life-changing illnesses. But I don’t know what percentage of girls who read these books were actually dying or were dating guys who were dying, so it all ends up seeming more like she’s just churning out a ton of very niche teen romance. Anyway, sometimes I’d get bored and read the last chapter and fake spoil it for my sister.
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Feb 27, 2024 19:23
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counterfeitsaint posted:I was a very coddled, naïve kid, but my cousin got me into Christopher Pike books in middle school I remember hearing that the author took his pen name from a long-forgotten character from an old Star Trek episode. In recent years, Captain Pike has of course gotten a teensy bit less obscure, what with having an entire series centered on him.
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Feb 27, 2024 21:32
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This thread reminded me of The 18th Emergency.  It’s a short-form fiction about a nerdy kid who doodles a lot, usually by drawing arrows to stuff with funny captions. One day he draws an arrow pointing to an ancient hominid because it reminds him of the school bully, only the bully sees him do it. So the whole book is about him trying to figure out a way out of getting beaten up, because he and his friend spend their time planning on ways to get out of emergencies like lying down in quicksand or shoving your arm down a lion’s throat. They have 17 scenarios planned so far, hence the title. It’s a quirky coming of age book with a weird sense of dread, and unlike a lot of stories where you think the bully will get his comeuppance or something, the main character does indeed get the poo poo beat out of him.
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Feb 27, 2024 21:34
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root beer posted:When my sister was in middle school, she was into terminally ill teen melodrama by Lurlene McDaniel; here’s a selection from dozens: Think that's the one I read. If it is, the sick teenage girl gets a heart transplant because a college football player dies of a sudden aneurysm kicking off before this huge crowd. Despite this being proto-Damar Hamlin, of course 100% of the focus is the transplant patient whose fate is left in the air at the end as the transplant is rejecting. It isn't even uplifting YA medical literature. I began reading grown-up books soon after, really not much of a jump to go from this type of book to Stephen King's Carrie.
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Feb 27, 2024 22:35
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teen witch posted:Mentioning Where the Red Fern Grows unlocked a memory of my fifth grade class listening to my teacher read it out loud. When we got to the ending, it became a classroom of weeping kids. I’m certain doesthedogdie.com came from a kid who read that book. Our elementary school had an assembly where the movie* was shown. It went as badly as you can expect. *1974 movie. I'm old.
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Feb 27, 2024 23:13
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I hazily remember the Red Fern movie, was Wilford Brimley in it? Or was that the sequel, in which the kid from the book is grown up and inexplicably had his leg amputated in the time between? I may be thinking of something else altogether. [edit] it was indeed the sequel, he lost his leg in WWII, and it also starred Lisa Whelchel (Blair from The Facts of Life)
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Feb 27, 2024 23:46
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The one thing about where the red fern grows that would make me rethink recommending it to a kid is, why the hell was there a graphic child death in the middle of the book? Like usually if a child dies violently in a children's book, that's what the book is about. Like the rest of the book is about dealing with the child's death. But some kid axes himself in the woods and the takeaway is, at least a sad old raccoon got to live i guess. Anyway moving on! Like what the hell. Also the book is so much more jesusy than I remembered. the end was basically, maybe God wanted your dogs to die because that way the family could stay together. Great job, God
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Feb 28, 2024 00:51
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I remember devouring any Redwall book I could get my hands on, but also Garth Nix’s Sabriel was my jam. I’m often tempted to go back and reread those books but I suspect they might have sucked for anyone but middle schoolers
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Feb 28, 2024 01:16
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I'm a fan of the Sabriel books and I actually just reread the whole series over the last year leading up to his newest book Terciel and Elinor. I still really enjoyed it but ymmv.
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Feb 28, 2024 01:24
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Had to read Dorp Dead a book about an uneducated orphan who escapes from an abusive foster home and mostly I just remember thinking "I wish I could read a fun adventure" which resulted in idiot child me getting Dune out from the school library and resulting in the thing I am today. So, parents, don't let your children read Dorp Dead
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Feb 28, 2024 01:34
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When I was in middle school, I remember talking about The Phantom Tollbooth (by Norton Juster) with a friend. I mentioned that there is a character named King Azaz, and the school librarian scolded me because she overheard and thought I said "kick rear end." Anyway, that was a cool book. Kind of in the vein of Lewis Carroll, if I remember correctly, in that it had a lot of wordplay and mathematical theory. My favorite part as a kid was when they meet Dr. Discord. I have a copy sitting on my shelf that I got from a free book thing a while back. I'll reread that at some point when I'm in the mood for something light.
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Feb 29, 2024 05:06
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I just remembered being really into a book series by one Sylvia Waugh, about a family of life-sized humanoid dolls, the Mennyms, who came to life after their maker died and who have to navigate the flesh-and-blood world without letting it know that they exist. For a series whose characters can repair themselves with a bit of cloth, kapok, and a sewing needle, the books get downright existential and sort of depressing; but I loved the ones I could get my hands on just the same
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Feb 29, 2024 06:41
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PhotoKirk posted:Our elementary school had an assembly where the movie* was shown. Christ I remember hiding my head during That Part when watching the movie in class. Like I knew what was coming but still, what a tragic loving story for kids to enjoy(?)
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Feb 29, 2024 08:03
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teen witch posted:Judy Blume wrote Blubber and that book was loving ROUGH. It’s great but it’s so hard to get through. I was returning to this thread to post that when I remembered it. JESUS CHRIST, even for young adult melodrama, Blubber is basically 'young teenage girls are innate psychopathic sadists who once they decide they want to destroy someone for fun, induce a torture routine that dictator secret police would take notice of', backed up by sheer utter banality. The main tormentor, Wendy, is basically shown to have no scruples or actual beliefs at all: she stooges out two of her so-called friends because, well, we never find out, probably because she'd find it funny, and when one of them finally puts her foot down, she drops a racial slur in regards to that person's (Chinese) best friend. And just to top it off, no one learns anything, no one really gets punished for their awful behavior, the adults are completely useless, and by the end there's just been a bunch of musical chairs in regards to 'friendships', when it's been demonstrated that to this vicious lot, 'friendship' is mostly just a series of power based transactions. In the days of cyber bullying and much greater awareness of suicide, it basically reads as the equivalent of splatterpunk horror for young female social interaction. Either be a monster perfect alpha nightmare bitch who has all the power, or pray you never draw their ilk's attention, or else your life will be hell and there will be nothing you can do to prevent it. The worst part is, it's not like the book is WHOLLY unrealistic, because I'm sure plenty of people have stories about how monstrous teenagers of both sexes, with their not yet proper developed empathy brain centers, can be, and just how banally (really, that's what gets me the most, the BANALITY of the acts) they can act if they're very slow to develop them or, for one reason or another, just don't. I recall a story (so, pure hearsay but whatever) of someone who went to a bad school, there was a feud between two older teenage girls over a boy, one was pregnant, and the other when there was some big distraction (I think a legit fire?) decided this was the best time to attack/'get back' at her 'enemy', which she did by attacking the heavily pregnant girl on the stairs and deliberately stomping/jumping on her belly to attempt to kill the unborn child. Just so she could hurt her 'rival', completely oblivious to just how far over the line and 'you can't take this back' such an action can/could be. But, again, this is a story heard secondhand so it could well be wholly made up, but I think it says it all that you can't dismiss the possibility that a teenage girl could be that ignorantly monstrous.
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