Echoing what everyone else has said about The Tombs of Atuan. I actively liked the book as a kid, whereas I was kind of meh on Wizard of Earthsea (mainly just wanted to look at the woodcuts at the top of each chapter in the edition I had) and never finished The Farthest Shore. And it can absolutely stand on its own.
I was thinking about The Dog Dies and why it's a thing in juvenile fiction and I guess--WARNING: ACHINGLY OBVIOUS REALIZATION AHEAD--it's a way of dealing with death that isn't a human death? Not because dogs are lesser: almost the contrary. You can go into grief and loss and somehow have it be less tainted/muddled/confusing/mixed than it is with human deaths. So it lets you explore this very important reality in a story for kids, but without getting into all the complications that go along with human death. ... This makes it sound like I'm championing dog death stories, and no, not in the least. It's just, there has to be a reason why they keep turning up.
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Date: 2021-09-23 04:17 am (UTC)I was thinking about The Dog Dies and why it's a thing in juvenile fiction and I guess--WARNING: ACHINGLY OBVIOUS REALIZATION AHEAD--it's a way of dealing with death that isn't a human death? Not because dogs are lesser: almost the contrary. You can go into grief and loss and somehow have it be less tainted/muddled/confusing/mixed than it is with human deaths. So it lets you explore this very important reality in a story for kids, but without getting into all the complications that go along with human death. ... This makes it sound like I'm championing dog death stories, and no, not in the least. It's just, there has to be a reason why they keep turning up.