historicalyafen | (no subject)

Does anybody else read Elizabeth Wein's "Young Pilots" books (Code Name Verity, its various companions, and the others dealing with the same time period and subject matter)? If so, what do we think of them?

I've read Code Name Verity, Rose Under Fire, and most recently The Pearl Thief and really enjoyed all of them. I could nitpick about them (and have, on my Tumblr) but I'm so happy to have World War II fiction that's appropriate for teens and early adults and that deals with personalities and relationships rather than solely military or technical subject matter that I've fallen in love with them anyway.

I recently bought Firebird, a recent and for some reason very hard to find one dealing with a Soviet airwoman suspected of treason, but I haven't read it yet. It was actually initially going to be a birthday present for a dyslexic family member of mine (Wein wrote the book in a way that prioritized readability for dyslexic readers, which I wasn't aware that anyone was doing and greatly admire) but even a month after Christmas I'm still really on the fence about giving a book for young readers to someone in his fifties. I'm sure the book is great but he's not really a YA or children's literature fan and I don't want him to feel that I'm patronizing him. If anybody has read it, what would you recommend I do?

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I haven't read Firebird yet. I read Wein's Lion Hunters series before CNV was published, so back in 2012 I devoured it in two days and enjoyed it. Its success made me so happy.

I discovered CNV a while after everyone else did--I made a post on some social media account, I forget which, about a children's book set in the same time period that I'd read, and the post got the attention of a children's/YA lit blogger who was also really into CNV. This was in 2016 so I kind of missed the period when everyone was talking about CNV, which I regret.

But it seems not many people have read The Pearl Thief and I don't know why. Lack of advertising from the publishers, maybe?

Maybe. I'm not sure why else it would be either; it's a really fun book, and it has a well-handled LGBT focus that I know a ton of people who'd probably be really pleased with if they knew about it.

Or maybe becauze it didn't win awards like CNV and Rose Under Fire did.

Edited 2019-01-23 16:29 (UTC)

I loved Code Name Verity, which I listened to as audiobook and is, I thought, very well suited for that sort of presentation. I disliked Rose Under Fire. (For me, the emotional intensity of the first book derived from the discrepancy between what was written in the first half and what Maddie, and I as the reader, were figuring out in the second half. By contrast, all the concentration-camp horror in the second book is exactly what it appears to be at face value. Which is horrible, yes - but sort of numbing and not engaging.) I keep meaning to read The Pearl Thief.

TPT might work for you--it has a pretty simple structure, but the fact that it's a mystery (the Dorothy L. Sayers books get a mention early on) means that there's plenty that isn't as it initially appears.

A close friend of mine listened to CNV as an audiobook too and also loved it.

Edited 2019-01-27 03:34 (UTC)

"I'm still really on the fence about giving a book for young readers to someone in his fifties. I'm sure the book is great but he's not really a YA or children's literature fan and I don't want him to feel that I'm patronizing him."

Age and reading preferences are two separate issues (says the person in their fifties). If he actively dislikes kidlit/YAlit, then I'd agree that such a gift would be risky. But if he simply doesn't seek out such books himself, then you could just tell him the truth: This is a book by an author you really enjoy reading, on a topic you thought he'd enjoy. No need to make a big deal over a book's age categories, which, quite frankly, often come down to marketing decisions on the part of the author or publisher.

He's never expressed any particular opinion one way or another on age categories in fiction, but he's also not much of a reader in general. There are children's or family-oriented movies he likes a lot. Thanks for the advice; I'm not used to shopping for people significantly older than me or buying people books they didn't specifically ask for.

Edited 2019-02-04 02:15 (UTC)

Yeah, choosing books as gifts can be totally intimidating, even when you know that the person is an avid reader. :)