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

[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.