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

[weatherglass.livejournal.com]

I'm fond of Elizabeth Marie Pope's other YA book, The Sherwood Ring. It's not as good as The Perilous Gard, but it has a couple of really marvellous scenes. And I'm a sucker for anything set during the American colonial period.

But the childhood favorite I'd most like to see reprinted is Palmer Brown's Beyond the Pawpaw Trees, about a girl who is sent off to visit an aunt who lives on a mirage in the desert. It has tiny, intricate, tasselly pen and ink illustrations, and bits of odd poetry and songs. It's another one that's unobtainable except at exorbitant prices online.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

I think I actually own a copy of that book... somewhere. I believe the "tiny, intricate, tasselly pen and ink illustrations" are by Edward Gorey, which may help account for its exorbitant online prices.

I always loved The Sherwood Ring! It's delightful. I agree that it's not quite as good as The Perilous Gard, but is one of my "old favourite comfort reading" selections :)

[weatherglass.livejournal.com]

I think we may be thinking of different books; Palmer Brown did his own illustrations. Though the image of a Gorey-illustrated Beyond the Pawpaw trees is delightful; the internal logic of the book is as odd as some of Gorey's, though in a different way.

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Ah... yes... hmmm. I shall have to go and look and see if I can find whichever book I'm thinking of. Though I've definitely read Pawpaw trees, too.

[pixelfish.livejournal.com]

I recently bought both the Sherwood Ring and The Perilous Gard on Amazon. They had a buy-this-book-with deal going. :)

[weatherglass.livejournal.com]

Oh, fantastic! I hadn't thought The Sherwood Ring was in print. I'm pretty sure I only had The Perilous Gard as a child because my mother found it on the Newbury lists, and I had no idea that Pope had written anything else until I stumbled on it at the library a few years ago. Now I have to think of people to buy copies for...