100 Books, #15: Libby on Wednesday
Jan. 30th, 2013 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osprey_archerI read Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s Libby on Wednesday at two formative periods in my life: first, when I was eleven or twelve, and reading all the Zilpha Keatley Snyder because her books spoke so strongly both to who I was and who I wanted to be; and again, when I was at the University of York for a term and signally failing to make any kind of social adjustment.
(Speaking of social adjustments: I invited one of my cohort over to tea! She likes Downton Abbey and...presumably other awesome things! Yay, I have a potential grad school friend! Plus she studies Latin America, so we won’t be competing for jobs or grants or anything. This is apparently something that endangers grad school friendships.)
Libby on Wednesday is a book about social adjustments. It stars Libby McCall, a budding young writer who lives in a grand, decaying house built by her grandfather, where hitherto her relations have homeschooled her - but now, she's been sent to public school to be socialized.
First thing I love about Libby on Wednesday: Libby’s complicated but loving relatives. Her mother is an actress and lives in New York most of the time (though she’s still married to Libby’s father). Libby lives in California with her grandmother, her great-aunt, her father, and Eliot, who is, to quote Libby, “an extra adult male family member who was not at all related to anybody.”
Possibly we’re meant to see Eliot and Christopher as a couple? If so, it’s very understated. (The book was published in 1990, after all.) But it wouldn’t be out of character for Snyder. The Egypt Game, which was written in the seventies, has a multiracial cast which is all the more impressive for seeming completely natural, while The Changeling deals sensitively with class issues.
But young Libby’s quiet life in the bosom of her family has come to an end! For the first time, she’s going to public school. She hates it. The book begins when Libby announces that she wishes to quit school - because otherwise, she’s going to have to join a writers’ group with the undereducated peons who got lesser prizes in the writing contest that Libby just won.
The book chronicles Libby’s adventures with her writers’ group: their social interactions, which grow from awkward into budding friendships. My favorite is probably Libby’s friendship with Alex Lockwood, who is rather in the mold of Neal from Protector of the Small: quick-witted and odd and charming. (He also has cerebral palsy, which is a recurrent theme throughout the book, but never takes over his other character traits.)
I also really enjoyed Libby’s friendship with Tierney the punk girl: they share a love of the 1920s, which possibly contributed to my affection for that time period. It has more rough edges than Libby’s friendship with Wendy, the sweet popular girl - although that’s fun too...oh, friendship for everyone! Friendship all around!
But the story isn’t just about navigating friendships. The book focuses, just as much, on learning to write, and I ate that up with a spoon. Libby is writing a fantasy set in Ancient Rome. Why can she not be real? Wouldn’t she be an awesome addition to LJ?
Lastly, in case you are not completely sold: Libby has a Treehouse. It is always capitalized, because it’s basically a little palace in a tree. I coveted this treehouse with such a great coveting that it found its way, in mutated form, into my novel about Sage. (Sage also read Libby on Wednesday, and named her treehouse after it.)
(Speaking of social adjustments: I invited one of my cohort over to tea! She likes Downton Abbey and...presumably other awesome things! Yay, I have a potential grad school friend! Plus she studies Latin America, so we won’t be competing for jobs or grants or anything. This is apparently something that endangers grad school friendships.)
Libby on Wednesday is a book about social adjustments. It stars Libby McCall, a budding young writer who lives in a grand, decaying house built by her grandfather, where hitherto her relations have homeschooled her - but now, she's been sent to public school to be socialized.
First thing I love about Libby on Wednesday: Libby’s complicated but loving relatives. Her mother is an actress and lives in New York most of the time (though she’s still married to Libby’s father). Libby lives in California with her grandmother, her great-aunt, her father, and Eliot, who is, to quote Libby, “an extra adult male family member who was not at all related to anybody.”
Possibly we’re meant to see Eliot and Christopher as a couple? If so, it’s very understated. (The book was published in 1990, after all.) But it wouldn’t be out of character for Snyder. The Egypt Game, which was written in the seventies, has a multiracial cast which is all the more impressive for seeming completely natural, while The Changeling deals sensitively with class issues.
But young Libby’s quiet life in the bosom of her family has come to an end! For the first time, she’s going to public school. She hates it. The book begins when Libby announces that she wishes to quit school - because otherwise, she’s going to have to join a writers’ group with the undereducated peons who got lesser prizes in the writing contest that Libby just won.
The book chronicles Libby’s adventures with her writers’ group: their social interactions, which grow from awkward into budding friendships. My favorite is probably Libby’s friendship with Alex Lockwood, who is rather in the mold of Neal from Protector of the Small: quick-witted and odd and charming. (He also has cerebral palsy, which is a recurrent theme throughout the book, but never takes over his other character traits.)
I also really enjoyed Libby’s friendship with Tierney the punk girl: they share a love of the 1920s, which possibly contributed to my affection for that time period. It has more rough edges than Libby’s friendship with Wendy, the sweet popular girl - although that’s fun too...oh, friendship for everyone! Friendship all around!
But the story isn’t just about navigating friendships. The book focuses, just as much, on learning to write, and I ate that up with a spoon. Libby is writing a fantasy set in Ancient Rome. Why can she not be real? Wouldn’t she be an awesome addition to LJ?
Lastly, in case you are not completely sold: Libby has a Treehouse. It is always capitalized, because it’s basically a little palace in a tree. I coveted this treehouse with such a great coveting that it found its way, in mutated form, into my novel about Sage. (Sage also read Libby on Wednesday, and named her treehouse after it.)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 06:31 am (UTC)I haven't read any of the recent (er) stuff by ZKS. This definitely made me want to, and furthermore, I'm impressed by this: The Egypt Game, which was written in the seventies, has a multiracial cast which is all the more impressive for seeming completely natural, while The Changeling deals sensitively with class issues.
I never perceived this truth, though it's staring me in the face. Thank you for your observation!
This detail about your own life made me laugh:
Plus she studies Latin America, so we won’t be competing for jobs or grants or anything.
--It made me laugh in part it's something that comes up in the Pen Pal story: Kaya's bunkmate is relieved that Kaya intends to focus on sciences rather than humanities and decrees that she (bunkmate) will win humanities prizes and is willing to let Kaya win science ones.
Downton Abbey: I had been WARNED by your entry of a TRAGIC HAPPENING, which happened this past episode. You hadn't said which character, but based on your description, I had narrowed it down to two or three, and sure enough....
I have to say, your entry--having that much forewarning--actually helped make it more bearable. Sort of.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-30 01:31 pm (UTC)And ha, specialties are an important consideration! There's another girl in my cohort who studies the exact same period of US history that I do - she's the one I see operas with - which is fine now, but what will happen down the road?
And I'm glad my tragically tragic post helped you deal with Sybil's cruel fate. Sometimes if I think something is going to upset me, I find all the spoilers before deciding whether to read/watch it.