of youth and listology.
the listing behavior is manifesting itself again. it's strangely exciting. anyway, it applies to the category of books that is somewhere between children's and young adult, i.e. those wonderful novels that contain stories with deep emotional meaning and aren't yet bogged down with coming-of-age angst. (these are also the books that have reading levels listed on the inside front covers. ha.) i am going to list the ten that i think are phenomenal above all, along with a brief synopsis of each.
1. Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli. in my opinion, this is one of the greatest young-people books of all time. it's the story of a homeless boy who is a kind of legend--he excels in all sports and appears to have no fear. deep down, though, what he really wants is a home. . and a family. through his legendary adventures, Maniac manages to unite a racially divided town and change its history forever. the book touches poignantly on issues of color and class and reminds us that everyone, no matter how great or terrible, is human. this is one of the most powerful stories i have ever known.
2. Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson. what a well-done story. it's in the point-of-view of Jess, a ten- (or eleven-, i can't quite recall) year-old boy living in the rural south. he meets and befriends Leslie, the daughter of hippieish artists, who teaches him how to unlock the magic of imagination as well as just to think a little differently about beauty and fairness. warning: this is one of those stories that WILL make you cry, and hard.
3. A Wrinkle in Time, by Madeleine L'Engle. This philosophical fantasy takes three children desperately in need of love--Meg, Charles Wallace, and Calvin, on a journey out of the known world and through a tesseract, or a wrinkle in time. they're searching for Meg and Charles Wallace's missing father, who has been kidnapped by a terrifying entity known as IT, and through their travels they learn a lot about the true nature of art and humanity and all of the magic that works below the surface.
4. Catherine, Called Birdy, by Karen Cushman. this story is framed as the diary Catherine, of a girl just reaching adolescence during the late thirteenth century. she's the daughter of a knight, and at fourteen she is eligible for marriage to the highest bidder, regardless of his age or degree of nastiness. this girl is an incredible free-thinker who questions gender roles, Catholicism, and class issues, and her sense of humor is biting and wonderful. if i had lived on a manor in the middle ages, i would have wanted to be her friend.
5. Starring Sally J. Freedman as Herself, by Judy Blume. from what i understand, this book is semi-autobiographical. it's 1948 and Sally is ten years old (standard age for protagonists in these types of books, i'm pretty sure) and figuring out a lot of stuff about prejudice, fear, and coming of age--all through the window of her outrageous imagination. (she's convinced that the old guy downstairs is Hitler in disguise, for instance.) i loved this book, in part because of all of the little snippets of Jewish culture that just hit so close to home. i'm also a history buff, and the late '40s pop culture references are great as well.
6. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster. this is the tale of Milo and his journey out of the boredom in his bedroom, through the toolbooth that appears in his closet, and into a bizarre world of words and witticism on a quest to rescue the princesses Rhyme and Reason and restore order between the warring kings of Dictionopolis and Digitopolis. for me, memorable moments in this book include the Island of Conclusions (you can only get there by jumping) and a sweet delicacy known as half-baked ideas (such as the nicely frosted "THE MOON IS MADE OF GREEN CHEESE."
7. Number the Stars, by Lois Lowry. yeah, Lowry is easily one of the best authors ever. (i know i didn't include The Giver in this list, but it's a worthwhile read as well.) Number the Stars takes place in Nazi-occupied Denmark, where Annemarie and her family harbor her best friend Ellen, who is Jewish, and smuggle her out of the country. the story is well-told (well hell, just look at the author) and rife with feeling--Annemarie risks her life to save her best friend, and the power of imagery is beautifully expressed in the almost talismanic symbolic value of a Star of David on a chain.
8. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred D. Taylor. i clearly remember crying a lot while reading this book--both while actually reading it and just thinking about it outside of reading it. Cassie, who's nine, is part of a large and very close family in the Deep South of the 1930s. when white bigots unleash a rash of terror on the black family, Cassie sees racial hatred for the first time. in the face of the hell her family goes through (while fiercely sticking together), Cassie struggles with her rage toward what is happening and her confusion about the cruelty of the world. this story is so powerful because it is so timelessly true, and Cassie just rocks. she's another one on my list of fictional kids i wish i could have befriended.
9. Konrad, by Christine Nostlinger. nobody else has heard of this book, it seems, but i remember reading it and loving it. Mrs. Bartolotti, an unconventional artist type living in Manhattan, unexpectedly receives a package containing. . .a mail-order boy named Konrad. he's been factory-manufactured to be perfect--always polite and on his best behavior. when the factory discovers that they made a mistake in shipping him, however, they want him back, so Mrs. B. and a neighborhood girl work to teach him how to be a "normal" kid (i.e., one who goodnaturedly misbehaves and screws up from time to time).
10. Then Again, Maybe I Won't, by Judy Blume. i have always admired Judy Blume's ability to portray a vast array of characters so well and so differently. this is Tony's story--he's thirteen going on fourteen and going through a bunch of stuff at once: moving from a working-class neighborhood in Jersey City to a wealthy, white-bread town in Long Island, puberty, anxiety attacks, and a friend who compulsively steals. this was written with deep understanding. it hit pretty close to home when i read it way back when, and given that i'm essentially going through puberty all over again, it probably would now, too.
happy reading. happy summer.