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Wednesday Reading Meme
Apr. 10th, 2024 07:57 amWhat I’ve Just Finished Reading
Abbie Farwell Brown wrote twee children’s books in the early twentieth century, and every once in a while in a certain mood, I read one. My latest venture was Friends and Cousins, in which two children go to their island holiday house, befriend some local children, pretend to be pirates (with the addition of their newly arrived cousin), and then one of the local children saves one of the visitors (I think; I must confess I never fully sorted out who was who) when she is about to drown, and the book ends abruptly.
Now, when one selects a book in full knowledge of the author’s twee tendencies, one cannot then complain that the book is flimsy. But I did feel that there was just a bit more substance to John of the Woods and The Lonesomest Doll.
I also read Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Magic Nation Thing. In general, I feel that Snyder’s earlier books are stronger than her later ones, and this book fits firmly into that trend. A lot of the book is Snyder summarizing what happened rather than actually letting it happen on the page. Moreover, although the heroine Abby clearly has a psychic ability to see things by touching objects belonging to people, from the beginning of the book to the very end, she’s still trying to convince herself that this ability is imaginary. One, if you’re going to do a “magic or not?” plotline, both options need to be plausible; and two, when it clearly IS magic, the heroine ought to accept it as such, at least by the very last page!
Finally, however, a charmer! Rosalie K. Fry’s Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry has been making the rounds of DW lately, and I picked it up because who am I to resist the book that inspired The Secret of Roan Inish? (Do I actually remember anything about The Secret of Roan Inish? No. Am I in fact 100% sure that I ever watched The Secret of Roan Inish? Also no. But I looked at it longingly in the video store, which is just about the same thing, right?)
Anyway. Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry is a delightfully atmospheric book set in the Western Isles of Scotland, a modern-day tale of selkies featuring ( spoilers )
What I’m Reading Now
Almost done with Hilary McKay’s Straw into Gold! This week my favorite was the Snow White story, where a little girl finds a razor-sharp shard of mirror and starts asking everyone if she’s the prettiest in the land. “There’s no more a prettiest girl than a prettiest buttercup,” her grandmother replies, and tells her a story about an evil queen, long ago, who had a magic mirror, and tried to kill her stepdaughter when the mirror said that the stepdaughter was the fairest in the land…
I also loved the Princess and the Pea story, where the prince was cursed as a baby: if he doesn't marry a true princess, his castle will fall down! "So what?" says a visiting princess, when she learns that the prince's true love is the maid, and the prince and the maid get married and live happily in the stables after the castle falls.
What I Plan to Read Next
Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry was reprinted as part of the New York Review Children’s Collection. Most of the titles I haven’t heard of, but the few that I have were all excellent (Penelope Farmer’s Charlotte Sometimes; Rumer Godden’s Mouse House), so I’m contemplating exploring the list further… Particularly drawn to Russell Hoban’s The Marzipan Pig, as Hoban’s Frances books were one of the obsessions of my childhood.
Abbie Farwell Brown wrote twee children’s books in the early twentieth century, and every once in a while in a certain mood, I read one. My latest venture was Friends and Cousins, in which two children go to their island holiday house, befriend some local children, pretend to be pirates (with the addition of their newly arrived cousin), and then one of the local children saves one of the visitors (I think; I must confess I never fully sorted out who was who) when she is about to drown, and the book ends abruptly.
Now, when one selects a book in full knowledge of the author’s twee tendencies, one cannot then complain that the book is flimsy. But I did feel that there was just a bit more substance to John of the Woods and The Lonesomest Doll.
I also read Zilpha Keatley Snyder’s The Magic Nation Thing. In general, I feel that Snyder’s earlier books are stronger than her later ones, and this book fits firmly into that trend. A lot of the book is Snyder summarizing what happened rather than actually letting it happen on the page. Moreover, although the heroine Abby clearly has a psychic ability to see things by touching objects belonging to people, from the beginning of the book to the very end, she’s still trying to convince herself that this ability is imaginary. One, if you’re going to do a “magic or not?” plotline, both options need to be plausible; and two, when it clearly IS magic, the heroine ought to accept it as such, at least by the very last page!
Finally, however, a charmer! Rosalie K. Fry’s Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry has been making the rounds of DW lately, and I picked it up because who am I to resist the book that inspired The Secret of Roan Inish? (Do I actually remember anything about The Secret of Roan Inish? No. Am I in fact 100% sure that I ever watched The Secret of Roan Inish? Also no. But I looked at it longingly in the video store, which is just about the same thing, right?)
Anyway. Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry is a delightfully atmospheric book set in the Western Isles of Scotland, a modern-day tale of selkies featuring ( spoilers )
What I’m Reading Now
Almost done with Hilary McKay’s Straw into Gold! This week my favorite was the Snow White story, where a little girl finds a razor-sharp shard of mirror and starts asking everyone if she’s the prettiest in the land. “There’s no more a prettiest girl than a prettiest buttercup,” her grandmother replies, and tells her a story about an evil queen, long ago, who had a magic mirror, and tried to kill her stepdaughter when the mirror said that the stepdaughter was the fairest in the land…
I also loved the Princess and the Pea story, where the prince was cursed as a baby: if he doesn't marry a true princess, his castle will fall down! "So what?" says a visiting princess, when she learns that the prince's true love is the maid, and the prince and the maid get married and live happily in the stables after the castle falls.
What I Plan to Read Next
Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry was reprinted as part of the New York Review Children’s Collection. Most of the titles I haven’t heard of, but the few that I have were all excellent (Penelope Farmer’s Charlotte Sometimes; Rumer Godden’s Mouse House), so I’m contemplating exploring the list further… Particularly drawn to Russell Hoban’s The Marzipan Pig, as Hoban’s Frances books were one of the obsessions of my childhood.
