Wednesday Reading Meme

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

Will James’ Smoky the Cowhorse, the only Western ever to win a Newbery Medal. I now have just three books left for the Newbery project, and all of them are on CD!

What I’m Reading Now

Clare Vanderpool’s Moon over Manifest, which is ostensibly the story of Abilene, but in fact is mostly the story of Jinx and Ned. (I am pretty sure that Jinx is going to turn out to be Abilene’s daddy, but we’ll see.)

So until recently, Abilene’s been riding the rails through the Depression Era Midwest with her daddy Gideon, but after she cut up her leg he sent her to the town of Manifest, where he spent some time as a boy. Abilene is our narrator, but most of the story concerns her digging up her daddy’s story, as he and his friend Ned dodge the Klan, learn how to make fireworks, and get caught up in the Great War fever.

It’s not precisely that I mind this, but it does feel a bit like Vanderpool made up a heroine then couldn’t think of an adventure to give her, so ended up writing mostly about her dad instead.

Last week, enemyfrigate asked whether there was any correlation between time period and gender of protagonist - if, that is, historical fiction books were more likely to have a male protagonists than contemporary fiction. The answer is “Not particularly” - I have the numbers below the cut, if you’re interested.

But there is a definite correlation between gender of protagonists and type of plot. The historical fiction books about boys tend to be adventure stories, descended loosely from Treasure Island, while the ones about girls are coming of age stories in the mode of Anne of Green Gables. Many of the boys come of age too, but they usually do so through the medium of adventure.

Here’s how the numbers stacked up: ( Behind the cut )

What I Plan to Read Next

School has started, so mostly I’m reading books for class. However, once I finish listening to Moon Over Manifest, I’m moving on to Criss Cross.