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

[gillo]

What, no Geoffrey Trease? I'm certain I learned as much history from his books as I did from any teacher. Favourites were the pair

The Hills of Varna

and

Crown of Violet

- the first a Renaissance adventure as two young people braved the Ottoman Empire to recover the last manuscript of an Athenian comedy, the second (yes it was written later) a story about the writing of the play in classical Athens.

Re: part 2 - the rest

[intertext.livejournal.com]

Henry, but not Geoffrey.

My historical writer was Rosemary Sutcliff - I think I read every single one of them and loved them all. And Hester Burton, and Barbara Willard.

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 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 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

[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.