Bittercon: "Forgotten Treasures"

[intertext]

What I think of as the "Harry Potter Effect" - a renewed interest in YA or children's fantasy - has resulted in the welcome recent republication of authors who had been well-known in certain circles, like DWJ, or well-known from the past, like Edward Eager. It has also seen the reprinting of some rather more obscure but equally deserving works, like A String in the Harp by Nancy Bond or Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Perilous Gard. I've been thinking for a while of beginning a series of posts on old forgotten treasures from my own collection - not necessarily SF or fantasy, but books I loved that I wondered if anyone else had heard of, that I think deserve a bigger audience and potential reprinting. So, I thought I'd launch that series here, and invite others on my flist or from the bigger bittercon community, to link comments to posts about their own forgotten but deserving treasures.

My first oldy but goody is Ellen Kindt McKenzie's
Drujienna's Harp, which begins on a day in an unnamed city in what seems to be our world - indeed I've always assumed it was San Franciso. It is uncharacteristically hot, and the sky is a strange translucent pink. Tha and her brother Duncan visit a curio shop and pick up a bottle that the shop-owner warns them has a curse on it. They are instantly transported to another world.

Of relevance to one of sartorias's panel topics on world building, this is one of the most distinct and well developed worlds I remember encountering in children's fantasy. It has almost a quality of the surreal, with its pink sky, killing winds, geographic areas spreading out in concentric circles from a mysterious and deadly mound in the center. It is also unusual in children's fantasy for its bleak picture of political totalitarianism. The inhabitants are kept in a kind of controlled state of unknowing; asking too many questions is punishable by imprisonment or death. Yet there are mysterious Histories and a Prophecy, suppressed but not forgotten, that hint of "two" who will come and put the world right - or destroy it. This book deals with many extremely serious and important themes: ignorance, real or feigned, the importance not so much of physical courage but of moral convictions. Tha is a strong and believable heroine and there is a cast of well-drawn supporting characters, from the morose Eshone and even more grim Acheron to the delightful "Know-nothing" Zacapoos.

Like Victoria Walker's equally obscure but not entirely forgotten work, The Winter of Enchantment, this fascinating novel is now listed on ABE with absurdly high prices. I used to borrow it time and again from the library, and managed to snag a copy a few years ago at a less than astronomical price, and I treasure it. Just writing about it now makes me think I should reread it again - I suspect it will not have lost its magic.

So now it's your turn! How many of you have read any of the books I mention, especially this one? What are your own forgotten treasures? And don't forget to write a review of your favourite and link it here.

Comments

Re: part 2 - the rest

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

Oh, how splendid! I have placed ILL requests for these - I have never encountered them before.

Perhaps because my earliest exposures to history were through stories, both actual fiction and kids' level biographies, I never understood how anyone could be bored by it. Or how anyone who enjoyed sci-fi/fantasy could fail to be enthralled by history...

Re: part 2 - the rest

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

My historical writer was Rosemary Sutcliff - I think I read every single one of them and loved them all.

Oh, yes!! I haven't reread her books in such a very long time (my husband did the rereads to screen them for our kids, so I missed that opportunity... perhaps someone will choose one, or more, as a bedtime story). I remember loving Flame colored tafetta (is that the right title?) and Warrior Scarlet... and being captivated by Tristan and Iseult.

My kids and I used her retelling of the Iliad and Odyssey in our homeschool (fabulous, fabulous books - beautifully done with evocative illustrations. Similarly wonderful is In Search of a Homeland by Penelope Lively (another underappreciated author!

.. how could I have left off Barbara Willard? My older girls have been rereading her recently - and clamoring for us to but more of her Mantlemass chronicles so they don't have to wait for the ILLs to come it)

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

Nancy Bond - still like A String in the Harp best. I plan to write about that, so I'll restrain myself now.

I'd like to 'hear' your reasons... SitH is indeed a fabulous book, but the other two resonate much more strongly for me. I used to prefer "Best of Enemies", but it lost some of its magic when I reread it as an adult (and the sequel was disappointing somehow - the third was odd, and didn't really feel as if it were about the same people at all)

Perhaps I read SitH too late? I liked it very much, and at times it almost clicked all the way for me, but I was never drawn as deeply into it as I wanted to be, if that makes any sense.

Jane Langton - I wonder if it was the jack in the box that creeped you out - I remember hating the illustration because it really scared me (though normally I love Eric Blegvad's illustrations)

That was the section which haunted me for a quite a while afterwards... and a bit of that childish terror still lurks in the corners when I reread it.

Elizabeth Goudge - I think her reprinting is a direct JKRowling effect - she has said somewhere that A Little White Horse is one of her favourite books. It's certainly one of mine - I adore it. I also love Linnets and Valerians I wrote about the rooms in them some fairly long time ago...

I haven't read the Potter books (my husband read the first one to preview it for my eldest, and we decided to pass on the series. I was supposed to have been doing it, but gave up after the first few chapters - it didn't work for me at all), but I am so deeply grateful for the ripple effects of their success!

Re: part 2 - the rest

[gillo]

Trease was a one-man history machine I think. I loved his way of presenting history through the eyes of young people on the sidelines but spectators to great events.

Re: part 2 - the rest

[gillo]

I loved Sutcliff of course, but somehow I never got into Treece - my first encounter was Horned Helmet and I think I found it just too blokish. I discovered Willard as an adult in teh school library of my last school and ripped through them with great enjoyment.

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Yes it *is* a help. It tells me both that it isn't the story I thought it might be and that I'd like to read it. Sounds very interesting.

A propos of Richard III, a children's book I really liked was A Sprig of Broom in which R was a good guy. My first introduction to him, so boy was I in for a surprise when I found out what the usual picture of him was...

How'd you come across Shakespeare's Richard the III as a kid? It's not one of the ones that usually gets assigned in school, so you must have found it some other way...

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

It is most certainly interesting...

Shakespeare's Richard was my first input, but I read Kendell's bio very young, and it is very much in the Ricardian camp. (It is a delightful work, and has a nifty appendix analyzing possible suspects for the murders of the princes.) This is one of my dozen or so favorite biographies (I first read it when I was 8 or so, and liked it despite my anti-Richard sentiments, which, given how strongly the young cling to their prejudices, is a powerful recommendation!) It is, I believe, in the Yale English Monarchs series.

Of the slew of hist-fic which touched on RIII, the only titles I can recall offhand are Tudor Rose (which focuses on Richard's niece, Elizabeth), Song of the Thrush (Clarence's kids), and Sprig of Broom... I know there were so many more, but as a kid I never thought to take notes so I could find any of these stories again!

How'd you come across Shakespeare's Richard the III as a kid? It's not one of the ones that usually gets assigned in school, so you must have found it some other way...

Well, I started seeing live Shakespeare plays when I was 6 or so (at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival). We went at least once or twice a year every year thereafter (I missed one year between the first and the year my eldest daughter turned one...).

Although I immersed myself in as much Shakespeare as possible (audio recordings, reading the plays themselves, the BBC televised versions, etc) I had a very strong preference for the historical plays...

The Richard II to RIII cycle was entrancing to me, and I (for what reason I know not) took Margaret of Anjou as my heroine - I can still recite most of her speeches. But despite my loathing for all things Yorkist, Richard fascinated me. He is so evil, but the complexity, the multi-facetedness of his personality are amazing. I think it must be one of the hardest leads to do really well... his vivacity, the way you can know how horrible he is ... and he clearly shows the audience his manipulations, you are still mesmerized by him, and you can see how Anne is drawn to him against her will.

And the language just rolls off the tongue! .. to a child the vivid insults Margaret throws at Richard are so marvelous: "...thou elvish marked abortive rooting hog, thou that wast sealed in thy nativity the slave of nature and the son of hell. Thou slander of thy heavy mother's womb, thou loathed issue of thy father's loins, thou rag of honor..."

Long before I reached high school age I had read all the plays multiple times, and seen most of them at least once (I've avoided Titus Andronicus - and plan to continue doing so!).

[Side note: if anyone lives near Seattle and has any interest at all in Shakespeare, you *must* see at least one production at the Seattle Shakespeare Company. I am passionate about my Shakespeare, and have seen more performances than I can easily tally, but I have never seen anything that matches this caliber...

There, you ask a short, simple question and I give you my life story... can you tell that the bulk of my writing time is spent trimming? :)

Eliana

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Wonderful! Just wonderful. And I love a long story--the longer the better! so thanks for sharing about your childhood. I'm admiration and envy all mixed together :-D

I've ended up saving this entry of intertext's in my Memories so I can come back and follow up on all the good reading.

Must read Richard III, for one thing! I shouldn't confess that I only know it from hearsay, but it's true. But I'm going to rectify that--based on your enthusiasm. Maybe we can read it as a familiy and take parts. Or maybe we should first read it on our own, to get the language and story down.

Kashka!

[1crowdedhour.livejournal.com]

There's another book with Kashka in it! Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I had no idea!

[danceswithwaves.livejournal.com]

I actually have three definite favorites, listed in order of favoritism, they are,
The Folk Keeper by Franny Billingsley. I love how Corinna finds her balance between her two worlds. There's a mystery thrown in about her mother and a stillborn child, as well as Corinna's inner strugle to find her place.
The second favorite I read when I was younger, got it from the school library and had a hard time finding it again for a second read since I'd forgotten the title (I tended not to memorize author's names when I was in elementary school). I moved the last year of elementary school and haven't been able to find the book since. :( It's written in diary format, except for the prologue and epilogue, and is about this girl who was raised by dolphins. People find her and try to make her human, but in the end she goes back to live with the dolphins.
My third favorite is Ella Enchanted. I never saw the movie because I heard that the plot was so drastically different. What I loved about the book was the inner struggle of Ella, and how she overcomes the curse with her inner strength. It's tough to show the climax in a movie anyway, but I heard they walloped the plot good, so I stayed away.
Interesting to note is that my favorite books when I was younger (and maybe they still run this theme) have themes that deal with girls who are separate, apart, but manage in the end to find their inner balance and the place that's right for them.

Oh yes--

[carbonelle.livejournal.com]

Oh who's the keenest karf that keefs
In all the castles, towns and fiefs!
It's Bothwell, here! The Best in Mere!
The keefing karf of Tantalere!

She also wrote the Moons of Mere

Re: part 2 - the rest

[c-bibliophagist.livejournal.com]

"I wish there were a revival of kids' non-fantasy books as well...

I loved Hilda van Stockum's books"

Her books have been republished by Bethlehem books.

Re: part 2 - the rest

[auriaephiala.livejournal.com]

Sally Watson's books have recently been reissued in nice trade paperbacks by a small publisher in the U.S.: www.ImageCascade.com. Highly recommended.

Re: part 2 - the rest

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

Isn't that marvelous!! I just wish they had wider circulation so more kids could find these great books... I hate it when libraries ditch all the older stuff to make room for more copies of the latest craze...

Re: part 2 - the rest

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow!! I knew Bethlehem had republished Winged Watchman some years back (they did one of Madeline Polland's books too), but I hadn't known they'd done more...

Thank you!

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

I should warn you, it is a bloody play without a real hero, or rather with an anti-hero.

I'm not sure what it says about either me or my family that I was so entranced by it... or that I've passed it along to my kids. In all other respects they are very sheltered kids - no TV, no video games, no toy guns (even the Playmobils have to hand over their rifles and pistols when they enter the house), we screen the books they read and the (very few) movies they see with great care...

but we have almost unlimited exposure to Shakespeare.... (well, not Othello, and certainly not Titus A., but we went to Pericles last month... all the really heavy stuff went over everyone's heads, but my eldest knew enough to know she was missing things... which led to our first discussion of the concepts of rape and prostitution. Since she is 14.5, that is evidence of the success of our sheltering.)

Let me know what you think after reading Richard. I wish you could have see our local Shakespeare company's production the other year - it brought Richard to life.

Eliana

Shakespeare's Richard III

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Ah, it was a wise decision, the no-video-games rule... (do you hear the regret in my voice?)

I will let you know what I think of it; I'll come to your LJ and let you know--and if it's a year from now, you'll wonder who in the world I am, so I'll remind you of our conversation here :-D

Re: Shakespeare's Richard III

[elianarus.livejournal.com]

Perhaps by then I will have a journal with content - rather than an account which I use to hijack other people's journals... but if not, you can always email me at: eliana@efn.org

I don't think you'll need to remind me who you are! Having someone express an interest in my passions and a generous tolerance for my babbling is always enjoyable and memorable... and you've been exceedingly generous.

Re: Shakespeare's Richard III

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

:-D

Thanks for the address! And as for generous--thank **you** for your generosity toward **me**--this is why I love LJ ♥

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

As I read your introduction, a book came to mind. Then, you went on to discuss that very book. I read Drujienna's Harp as a child and my memory of that book remained with me; there was something that resonated strongly. But, I couldn't remember the book's name or author. Fortunately, an adult friend of mine had also remembered the book, had much the same reaction to it, and remembered the title and author. As a result, I was able to re-read the book. It's very strange going back to an old favorite after so many years. I was particularly struck by how bleak the story was, by Tha's anger, and by the disturbing ending.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

OMG - Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I read many of Lucy Boston's books when I was a child, but had forgotten her name and all of the titles. All I knew was that at least one of them had Green in the title. As soon as I saw this mention, I knew these were the books.

I've tried many times to describe these books, but no one ever recognized them from my garbled descriptions. Oh, I'm so glad to know what to look for now. 8D

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Through the closet to a secret world . . .

My husband has mentioned a book in which two children, a sister and brother, go through a closet into another world in which the stars are all different colors. He doesn't think the book you mention is the one he remembers, but does this ring a bell for anyone?

Re: part 1 - fantasy and semi-fantasy

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I discovered the Mushroom Planet series at my cousins' home and loved it, along with Freddy the Pig. The Freddy the Pig stories were just talking animals and targeted at a much younger audience, but they reminded me of the Uncle Wiggly stories that had been my mom's and which were some of my earliest reading, along with Old Mother Westwind.

Re: part 2 - the rest

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

I remember reading Ransome's Swallows & Amazons books, as well. They had been my mother's and my dad still has her old copies on the bookshelves at home.

Did any of his books have a story in which some children get lost somewhere in/on the North Sea and make pets of a pair of puffins they called Huffin and Puffin?

[curtana.livejournal.com]

Very glad to have been able to jog your memory :) They're all reprinted and quite affordable, fortunately!