Historical and classic C/YA books

New wiki for vintage career fiction

Tue, 16 Apr 2024 16:52:37 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Recently I've gone down a rabbit hole of children's/YA career novels, so I made a wiki for them.

Vintage Career Novels

Some are mysteries, some are romances, and some are neither. Some are standalone books and some aren't. There are ones with male protagonists and only about half of them are military propaganda.

To find books to add:
Dodd Mead Career Books
Romance for Young Moderns
Bodley Head Career Books for Girls
Starlight Novels for Modern Girls

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Author Discussion: Rosemary Sutcliff

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 15:03:31 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Rosemary Sutcliff (1920-1992) wrote many historical novels for children and adults. Her Dolphin Ring series, telling the story of several generations of a Roman Britain family, begins with The Eagle of the Ninth, the basis for a 1977 miniseries and a 2011 film. She also wrote an Arthurian trilogy, a standalone adult Arthur novel titled Sword at Sunset, children's retellings of mythology, short stories, and an autobiography.

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Author Discussion: Jennifer Donnelly

Wed, 01 Sep 2021 14:02:01 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Jennifer Donnelly made her debut in 2002 with the adult historical novel The Tea Rose, the first of a trilogy. In 2003 she published A Northern Light, known as A Gathering Light in the UK, winner of the Carnegie Medal. She's also written Revolution, These Shallow Graves, and the Disney tie-in Beauty and the Beast: Lost in a Book.

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Author Discussion: Kate Douglas Wiggin

Sun, 01 Aug 2021 14:38:36 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923) grew up in Maine and then lived in California and New York City. She was a teacher and the founder of a school for training teachers. Her fiction includes The Birds' Christmas Carol (1883), Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903) and its sequel, and the Penelope series, about a trio of women travelling around the United Kingdom. In her autobiography she wrote about meeting Charles Dickens on a train as a little girl.

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Author Discussion: Philip Pullman

Tue, 29 Jun 2021 01:42:05 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Philip Pullman, author of the fantasy series His Dark Materials, also wrote the Victorian mystery The Ruby in the Smoke and its two sequels. The New Cut Gang books feature the same setting for younger readers. He was a teacher and an Oxford lecturer.

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Author Discussion: Beverly Cleary

Tue, 15 Jun 2021 03:25:28 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Beverly Cleary (1916-2021) was the author of the Ramona Quimby and Henry Huggins books, The Mouse and the Motorcycle and its sequels, an autobiography in two volumes, and many more. She was a children's librarian before she was an author.

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Author Discussion: Frances Hardinge

Tue, 01 Jun 2021 03:40:20 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Frances Hardinge has published nine novels so far. The Lie Tree is about a girl in Victorian England who finds a supernatural tree that reveals hidden truths. A Skinful of Shadows is set during the English Civil War and Cuckoo Song is set after WWI.

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Author Discussion: Louisa May Alcott

Tue, 04 May 2021 13:31:42 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Louisa May Alcott (1832-1888) was the author of thirteen novels, or fourteen if you count Little Women and Good Wives as two. She also wrote over 200 short stories and novellas for children and adults.

Some of her short stories are historical, including Tabby's Tablecloth, set during the American Revolution, Eli's Education, based on her father's youth, and Little Things, based on her mother's youth.

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Author Discussion: Mackenzi Lee

Tue, 20 Apr 2021 15:47:24 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Mackenzi Lee is the author of The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue (2017), the first of a trilogy about eighteenth-century siblings. She has also written a non-fiction book about women in history and Marvel tie-ins.

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Author Discussion: Mark Twain

Tue, 06 Apr 2021 15:19:55 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Mark Twain, a pen name for Samuel Clemens, was the author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper, and a number of other novels and short stories. Tom and Huck have been portrayed onscreen many times, including by Mickey Rooney, Elijah Wood, Jonathan Taylor Thomas, and everyone's favorite Jack Russell terrier.

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Author Discussion: Mildred D. Taylor

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 15:39:06 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Mildred D. Taylor won the Newbery Medal and several other awards for Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, part of a series that tells the story of the Logan family from Reconstruction to the Civil Rights era. The last book came out earlier this year. She served two years in the Peace Corps.

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Author Discussion: Frances Hodgson Burnett

Thu, 25 Jun 2020 15:32:51 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Frances Hodgson Burnett was born in Manchester, England and emigrated to Tennessee as a teenager. Her first novel was That Lass o' Lowrie's (1877), set in a Lanchashire mining town. She's best known for Little Lord Fauntleroy, A Little Princess, and The Secret Garden, which has a new movie coming out in August.

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Author Discussion: M. T. Anderson

Thu, 11 Jun 2020 16:07:34 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

M. T. Anderson has has a varied career, with picture books, graphic novels, and YA to his name. Most relevant to this community is the duology The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, the story of a young black boy before and during the American Revolution.

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Author Discussion: Lucy Maud Montgomery

Thu, 21 May 2020 16:16:55 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Montgomery, who preferred to go by Maud, needs no introduction. Anne of Green Gables is one of the most famous works of Canadian literature. LMM wrote eight novels about Anne Shirley and her kids, ten other novels for kids and adults, and numerous short stories. Her journals have also been published.

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Author Discussion: Karen Cushman

Thu, 07 May 2020 16:06:23 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Karen Cushman is the author of eight historical novels and one fantasy novel including the Newbery Honor book Catherine, Called Birdy and the Newbery Winner The Midwife's Apprentice. And The Ballad of Lucy Whipple, which was made into a TV movie with Jena Malone, Glenn Close, and Meat Loaf.

Discuss any of her works and their adaptations and fanworks.

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3 sentence ficathon 2020

Mon, 03 Feb 2020 19:38:21 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

The 2020 edition of the Three Sentence Ficathon is live! The "Three Sentences" is just a guideline. There are a bunch of prompts for any fandom.

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Yuletide nominations are open

Wed, 02 Oct 2019 16:20:50 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Nominations for the Yuletide 2019 are now open! See this post for details.

There is also a post for coordinating nominations.

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And the winner is

Tue, 22 Jan 2019 00:47:26 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

The winner of the 2019 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction is Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome.

Chicago brings culture shock for eleven-year-old Langston, who moves there from Alabama with his father in 1946 after his mother dies. At school the other Bronzeville neighborhood kids call him “country boy,” and at home the strange city noises keep him up at night. He’s startled but delighted to find that his neighborhood hosts a beautiful library, and that, unlike the libraries back in Alabama that “don’t let in colored folks,” this one is open to all Chicago residents, serves its African-American community, and celebrates writers of color. Langston begins to find a Chicago home in the quiet welcome of that library, and his literary explorations lead him to learn more about his name—and even his family.

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Mon, 21 Jan 2019 23:43:13 GMT

Posted by: gourmandizingcats

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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Three Sentence Ficathon 2018

Thu, 13 Dec 2018 20:08:38 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

There are prompts for many fandoms, including some "any." Come join us!

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2018

Fri, 07 Dec 2018 17:45:27 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

What books did you read this year?

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Louisa May Alcott recaps

Tue, 03 Jul 2018 20:43:36 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

I've been recapping/reviewing all Alcott's novel-length fiction and certain non-fiction.
The Inheritance
Hospital Sketches
Moods
A Long Fatal Love Chase
Little Women
Good Wives
An Old-Fashioned Girl
Little Men
The first half of Work because I couldn't finish it
Transcendental Wild Oats
Eight Cousins
Rose in Bloom

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Obscure & British Commentfest 2018

Sat, 12 May 2018 19:41:55 GMT

Posted by: thisbluespirit

A multifandom commentfest for tiny to medium British fandoms of all kinds. All fanworks welcome. (Click on the banner for the link.)

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(no subject)

Thu, 19 Oct 2017 18:37:56 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

What was the last book you read?

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Yuletide noms!

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 16:43:16 GMT

Posted by: nocowardsoul

Nominations for Yuletide are now open! This year you get 3 fandoms with 4 characters each.

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