Today I read the first book in Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising series. (See my sidebar list over there). It was fun, I enjoyed it, and I will check the others out from the library. But what I want to know is this:
The entire series had been published before I could read--before I was born. Why have I not heard of it until now? There are all kinds of children's and young adult books that I could have been reading as a kid or young adult if someone had simply told me they existed, or just pointed me to right shelves in the library.
But no, I got pointed to the The Little House crap by my librarian at school and shooed away from anything remotely interesting in the public library. I think living in the country may have had some drawbacks. I didn't know these kinds of books existed for kids when I was their target audience!
2 comments:
Cooper's series is one of my favorites, too, but like you it took me a while to find it/have it recommended to me. I think the whole series is masterfully done, and I do wonder why more teachers and librarians don't point it out to kids. Perhaps the thought of actual death spooked them? Maybe now with HP so popular, death in kids' fantasy books won't be such a big deal.
Enjoy!
I suspect it has to do with the fact that most of what we find in our children's sections of the library are American-authored books. With a few exceptions (Narnia, Potter, Anne of Green Gables), a lot of children's departments look a little xenophobic. There are much better books out there than Little House - which I despise - and there is a whole lot more to fantasy than Narnia and Potter (which isn't my favorite). I think that a lot of people think that kids won't get or like the Arthur/Merlin allusions in Dark is Rising, but it still baffles me that the books aren't better known since a one of them was a Newberry winner and another was a Newberry honor book.
Ultimately, though, I think it might be attributed to the sentimental recollections people have of books like Little House (Dark is Rising might have come after the recommenders' childhoods). A lot of older children's lit stays in print for just this sort of reason.
I like Dark is Rising, but I'm always a little disappointed by how male-centered it is. My favorite book of the group is Greenwitch!
Post a Comment