I’m afraid I can’t recall any of these, except of course the Asterix and Tintin books. The Chronicles of Prydain is one of those vaguely-intriguing things I’ve never managed to sit down and read.
Louise Fitzhugh’s Harriet the Spy
Am I the only one who found that to be a tremendous bore? It struck me as the kind of kid’s lit that strikes adults as being quality kid’s lit despite what the kids think. The sequel, The Long Secret, was even worse, but Sport picked up a little.
As a kid in the 70s-80s I read a lot of sci-fi, and many of the great books I discovered were from about that time. They’re maybe not what most would call “older kid’s literature”, but they are what I had and recommend. These were all published in 1966:
Destination: Void (Frank Herbert)
The Green Brain (Frank Herbert)
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Robert Heinlein)
Babel-17 (Samuel Delaney)
The Crystal World (J.G. Ballard)
That is a shame
Spent a year out of country with my parents when I was ~12, and they felt so bad about me not having any friends that by the end of it they had bought me the entire sets of both Tintin and Asterix. Totally better than having friends.
One of the things that always intrigued me about the Asterix books was that bad puns were about 80% of the humor…but obviously they all had to be derived independently for each language it was translated into. Asterisk and obelisk are phonetically the same in English and French, but little else, and likely neither of those would work in most other languages.
I liked a short story by Theodore Sturgeon called Microcosmic God.
I liked both of those.
Old Soviet science fiction. Got quite some when I was a kid. Strugatsky brothers rock. That, and A.C. Clarke.
A little past 1966 but still close enough.
Stanisław Lem - many of his SF stories were published before 1966. I loved the books when I found them in my dad’s old-and-forgotten box.
THAT. The Astronauts rock, inter alia.
And some yet older authors, e.g. this one, with works dated 1939-1941. Maybe that’s why I have such a weakness for the vintage tech from that era.
We You are all oldsters.[quote=“shaddack, post:10, topic:72570”]
And some yet older authors, e.g. this one
[/quote]
Czech authors represent!
No love for Peter Dickinson’s “Changes” trilogy? I have a sad.
… The Gazoogle informs me that Dickinson died a month ago. Buggrit!
I’m always happy to see references to my favorite books and The Castle of Llyr is definitely on my list of favorite books, but I would suggest reading the entire Prydain series. Great characters and great stories. This is still one of my favorite series of books and I re-read it every couple of years (the books are totally falling apart…)
The others in the list I have to admit are new to me and a trip to the library this weekend is now on the calendar. Thank you!
I have a friend who wrote a master’s thesis on Asterix’s humour and part of her discussion detailed the incredible complexity (and brilliance) of the various translations.
My mom’s a librarian, and she’d often bring home boxes of discarded or damaged books. One of them had the hardcovers of Flight 714 and Tintin & the Picaros, and I loved the hell out of them at age 8. Discovering the rest of the then-hard-to-find Tintin series was such a joy for me as a kid.
I can’t remember anything about the books now, but I DEVOURED all of them at the time. No opinion on what order, but definitely read all of them.
Very cool! My understanding is that puns are immensely popular in Francophone nations, but significantly harder to come by than they are in English. Certainly Dogmatix is better than Idefix, and Getafix is funnier and more apropos than Panoramix, unless there’s some cultural thing there I’m missing.
Actually, most of them seem better in English:
A favorite from when I was a kid, now somewhat obscure:
Paulus and the Acornmen (1966, english edition)
Man, I loved Nightbirds on Nantucket as a kid, waaaaaay out in South Dakota. I think I may have read The Wolves of Wiloughby Chase at some point, but don’t recall anything about it, much less that the two were of a series, naught else of which I read.
A cannon whose recoil would shove Nantucket into Long Island? And that’s the main reason the heros are opposed to the venture? bwah-hah-hah!
Alexander Key is another author from that era who wrote undervalued works for kids. He was responsible for the Witch Mountain books, which are far superior to the Disneyfied movies, and a standalone title, The Forgotten Door. All of them are like Zenna Henderson lite, about how we would deal with castaways from other worlds (not always nicely).
And: Andre Norton!!!
