Reading: Dubosarsky

[sartorias]

I finally forced myself to finish Ursula Dubosarsky's Abysinnia, which I had begun weeks ago, and set aside because this is just not a children's book--nor is it (to me) satisfying as an adult novel

Comments

[merriehaskell]

I have to ask... what's on the list of best children's books (for you)? Particularly on the spec-fic end of things. I know my own answers, and I know that I re-read those books often, trying to make sure that my own writing doesn't stray too far from my ideals, so I'm more curious if your ideals are anything like mine...

[sartorias]

First I have to ask, how are you defining "best"? My favorites, or award winners I think deserved it, even admire, but don't necessarily read? (Like Ursula K. Le Guin's Ged series.) Ones I thought best when I was a kid? (Like Enid Blyton's Adventure series.) My problem here is that every single angle that I examine the possibilities from does a kaleidoscope rearrangement.

Just for purposes of discussion, I think Robin McKinley's The Blue Sword comes the closest to showing up every time, for most of those questions; that is it wasn't a childhood favorite because it came out when I was grown, but I am dead-on sure I would have read it to pieces had it come out then, as I did Sally Watson's Witch of the Glens. Ditto Pamela Dean's Secret Country books--in fact, all of the Minneapolis writers, which is not surprising as they are more or less my own age, loved many of the same things I did, and so their books are the books I would have wanted when young

[merriehaskell]

"Best" meaning something that satisfies you both as a reader and as a writer of the same. Award-winning... well, that's nice, but not what I mean. Favorites that go beyond being personally satisfying (now) and end up serving as models for your chosen art.

My livejournal is the claptrap and bobtail of life; most reading is done more publicly elsewhere, like my entry about The Blue Sword, in fact. But I don't know that I've ever waxed effusive about the bests (not all in one place), either.

Yes. A discussion of writing-for-kids guideposts would be lovely. I use McKinley's The Blue Sword, which I read obsessively then and now. Jackaroo and the other Kingdom books by Cynthia Voigt, which just seem to get more intense every time I read them. Tamora Pierce's Alanna books, for pacing. And, well, Crown Duel got me through my most recent endeavor. Not flattery, just fact. It's attained a place in my landscape that surprises me, since I read the other books at a much younger age

[sartorias]

I loved your entry about The Blue Sword. I can see wanting to read it just before one's wedding as it is so very romantic a book, in all the very best senses.

I have an enormous list of books that are personally satisfying, and all for different reasons, but because I seem to do everything bass-ackwards, I've never had any models: from the moment I got really serious about writing, at age eight, I always had the ideal story (MY ideal I hasten to say) and I gloried in reading books that came close in this or that aspect, but the ideal was always there--for many decades along with the conviction that "they" would never publish any of them because I did not obey the "rules."

Still, it might be worth trying to articulate my own guideposts, just to see if any of it resonates with anyone else, or if it seems like so much hot air. Let me think about this a bit.