I enjoyed reading Mark Twain and R.L. Stevenson.
T. Kingfisher is an “argue”?
(Some of you will get it.)
It looks like he is now making the covers himself.
Typo for author.
Yeah, that was obvious. But an opportunity to post a once extremely widespread internet meme. Created from an artwork by Ursurla Vernon. Who sometimes writes under the penname T. Kingfisher.
I haven’t seen the meme before. 
I like Ursula Vernon under both names, though. Although i didn’t make it through the hollow place. I may pick it up again later, but if wasn’t enjoying it enough to stick with it over other stuff in my queue.
I read the first sample page and it’s unredeemably awful writing. But the user rating is higher than 4!
It is…quite widespread. Embarrassingly, I haven’t actually read any of her books yet. I just know her from “knowing” her as a regular poster on a small science fiction news blog I used to spend a lot of time on. It was through her I learned of lawn crayfish. I want lawn crayfish.
I’ve lived in the south my whole life, and today I heard of lawn crayfish for the first time.
I’d never seen it before either. This link might be more helpful:
I am a bit surprised that I have only seen one reference to Lloyd Alexander. He had a a number of YA books. One thing I particularly liked about him was that his protagonists actually learned from their experiences.
The Chronicles of Prydain gives an interesting sideways look at The Mabinogian.
I told a college student taking my class that I loved YA books of any era “because Things Happen!” She said “Good to know. I’m the YA manager at a bookstore.”
The next day she passed my table in the school cafe and plopped a book on it without saying a word. That was Hunger Games, and after three of those, she did the same thing with The Knife of Never Letting Go.
Great world-building, where the wild west level of tech is combined with the fact that telepathy is widespread.
Which leads us to my favorite opening of a book:
The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.
“Need a poo, Todd.”
“Shut up, Manchee.”“Poo.”
“Poo, Todd.”
“I said shut it.”“Poo,” Manchee barks quietly to himself. “Poo, poo, poo.”
“Just have yer stupid poo and quit yapping about it.”
Don’t worry, a lot more happens. It’s the first of the “Chaos Walking” trilogy, and was made into a movie that was released during Covid and not marketed at all.
It had a great cast; Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley, with Mads Mikkelsen as the bad guy, and Nick Jonas as his son. But no one saw it… I just happened to see the name and rented it on Amazon.
Highly recommended.
Trixie Belden mysteries by Julie Campbell and “Kathryn Kenny”.
Judy Bolton mysteries by Margaret Sutton.
Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.
The Seven Towers by Patricia C Wrede.
I adore the Chronicles of Prydain. I liked some of his other stuff, too.
Yeah, those were good books. I didn’t see the movie though. It seems like it would be difficult to film.
I am intrigued by the books if they are good. The movie made my “worst movies of the year” list, but it had a very troubled production and I barely remember it now. Boring to the point of being forgotten.
I may give them a shot as books, though.
The books treat the “everyone can see/hear your thoughts” with typography, with type overlaid in different weights/sized to signify The Noise of constant telepathy.
At least the hardcovers did (and they had varnished type overlaid on the cover. The one time that effect had a reason for it).
For anyone who’s read but not seen it, the movie uses smoke-like imagery. I was surprised how well it worked.
But the books are much better. I’m with Mahaloth, the movie didn’t “stick with me”.
Oh! How could I have forgotten Tomorrow When The War Began?
My daughter came home from high school and said “I’m reading a book you’d LOVE!” Australian teens on a long camping trip, way out in the bush, hear jet fighters overhead during the night. They get almost home to find that their town is empty, and has been taken over by a foreign army.
They steal some radio equipment and, retreating back to “Hell” (where they were camping… the geography is one of the best characters in this book), they find the invasion is widespread.
They end up sabotaging enemy forces and looking for their families. Sounds simple, but it’s written with some depth. The first book’s great fun, and I had to read all seven of the books.
They’ve won many awards in Australia, and there’s a film and a TV series. Oh, and a book series featuring the main character, The Ellie Chronicles, I’ll have to find those! And I found a page: "Here are 10 books that authors have personally recommended if you like Tomorrow When The War Began."
In the books or film, after a successful raid, does one of the teenagers raise a rifle over his head and proclaim “Wombats!!”?
“Dingoes!” would be better. Wombats are too cute and cuddly.