Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Tonight on Medium Cool, I thought we might talk about kid’s movies that aren’t just for kids, and YA Fiction that isn’t just for young adults. Personally, my brain is still screaming “oh my god”, so I don’t have the mental or emotional bandwidth for my usual activates. Assuming I’m not alone in that, it seems like it might be a good time for this topic.
If that’s not where you are, well, you might just get some great ideas for holiday gifts – and some good reads even for normal times.
I know we have some YA Fiction writers on Balloon Juice, so if you’re one of the, don’t be shy about mentioning your own books!
Note: for those new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.
War for Ukraine Day 998: Sumy Burns!
Splitting Image
Wallace & Gromit would be a good place to start. I found out about that show because my sister’s kids were raving about it when they were tykes. An immense labour of love by its creator (who also did the dancing headless chicken scene in Peter Gabriel’s video “Sledgehammer”.) And Chicken Run.
Mr. Prosser
The Wizard of Oz is the primary one
gene108
Avatar: The Last Airbender is so damn deep an complicated.
Unless you really dislike fantasy realms and want things set on Earth, I just don’t see how anyone would not like it.
Omnes Omnibus
Roald Dahl.
Suzanne
Ironically, Julie of the Wolves is a book I just hated. I was the nerd kid who read for thousands of hours. Won the reading award every year in elementary school. Read every major kids’ book of the era.
Loved From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, and The Westing Game, and the Bruno and Boots books, and countless others.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
Not sure whether they’re slightly younger than young adult but I’ve been reading my kid Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series and they’re great. Old enough to be modern classics but very good. He’s 11.
Suzanne
@Splitting Image: Spawn the Youngest was absolutely hooked on Shaun the Sheep for some time. Made by the Wallace and Gromit studio.
lowtechcyclist
I’ll never stop re-reading A Wrinkle in Time. The climax brings me to tears every time.
Ditto The Phantom Tollbooth.
Ditto The Incredible Journey. There are bits of all three – Tao, Luath, and Bodger – in me. My spirit animals? Might as well be.
mali muso
@gene108: Was literally coming here to say that my 8 year old has been watching Avatar: The Last Airbender series (on her 4th round now) and hubby and I are enjoying following it as well. It has enough adventure and plot to keep things interesting but is also very funny and imaginative.
Starfish (she/her)
This year, we read They Both Die in the End.
In the reality of the book, everyone gets called and told when a day is the last day of their lives. Two teenage boys who are told that it is the last day of their lives find each other and form an unlikely friendship on their last day.
One is pretty impulsive, and the other wants to hide in his room to see if he can avoid death. As they go through their last day, their traits rub off on each other just a little.
gene108
@mali muso:
I was surprised by the characters story arcs. More complicated than I would have expected and very well handled.
RSA
I really enjoyed Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy, which probably everyone knows: a parallel universe in which people’s souls are external, embodied in animal form. Great world building, and an interesting response to C.S. Lewis’s Narnia books (also great).
I gave up on Pullman’s follow-on trilogy, though, in that the first book had some creepy vibes and the second one was sad and violent. Oh, well.
Old times
I just read El Deafo – a very sweet graphic novel about growing up deaf in the 1970s. Great on disability in general and deaf culture in particular.
UncleEbeneezer
@RSA: I can’t wait to see what Greta Gerwig does with Narnia. I loved the old cartoon series. It was kind of creepy.
Scout211
I loved the YA book, The Giver by Lois Lowry. I suggested it for my book group and everyone loved it as well
I was not a fan of the movie though, except Jeff Bridges was very good.
AM in NC
@Suzanne: The Westing Game!!!!!!! Loved that book.
Also loved the Great Brain Series – for slightly younger readers, but fun for adults to read too. And my two boys loved them as much as I did.
Other books I really enjoyed (as kid, parent, or both) : The Wheel on the School (DeJong); Lord of the Flies (Golding) ; Are you there God, It’s me Margaret (Blume); Harriet the Spy (Fitzhugh); My Side of the Mountain (George)
Regarding filmed media, Phineas and Ferb, and the Avatar series are two that every adult I know (myself included) really loved watching with their kids.
Salty Sam
Showing my age, but the Don Knotts “ The Ghost and Mr. Chicken” and “The Incredible Mr. Limpet remain as true classics.
.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Is that a person or a book name?
WaterGirl
@Suzanne: What did you hate about it?
Old Dan and Little Ann
My fourth grader has been reading “A Wolf Called Wander” this week. It is making her cry and she hates it. I’m ready to call the school and have it banned. /sarcasm
Starfish (she/her)
@WaterGirl: You don’t know Roald Dahl?
He wrote children’s books like he hated children.
James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda.
John S.
@Starfish (she/her):
If you grew up the way Roald Dahl did, you’d probably hate kids too.
ETA: But not nearly as much as he hated authority figures.
Suzanne
@WaterGirl: I found it plodding and ponderous and just dull AF.
Starfish (she/her)
A lot of award winning children’s books are made for adults who give awards and not for children.
Which Newbury Award winner do you not forgive your teachers for making you read?
Johnny Tremain
lowtechcyclist
@AM in NC:
Perry the Platypus, Dr. Doofensmirtz, Vanessa – great stuff.
Suzanne
Other books I did not like that everyone else seemed to love: Bridge to Terabithia, and pretty much every book with Ramona Quimby in it.
Trivia Man
@AM in NC: I loved the Great Brain, partly because I have pioneer ancestors. I moved to UT in high school and happened to mention the books for some reason, my classmate told me there had been a movie, and he played Sammy Leeds. Still haven’t seen the movie.
I have tried to reread them, the casual racism and stereotyping makes them a lot less fun now.
Suzanne
@AM in NC: Phineas and Ferb is a goddamn delight.
lowtechcyclist
@Suzanne:
Yep, that was a good one. I re-read it several years ago, and it held up well.
I read that because Katherine Paterson was probably the only famous alum of the small college I taught at for five years, and it was OK but didn’t really do that much for me.
Starfish (she/her)
@Suzanne: I read almost everything that Beverly Cleary wrote.
Ramona was annoying younger sister, and I also had an annoying younger sister so I found it relatable.
zhena gogolia
Children’s books I loved and have reread with pleasure in recent years are The Witch of Blackbird Pond by Elizabeth George Speare and The Secret Language by Ursula Nordstrom.
We loved Paddington 2 and cried through the whole thing.
Trivia Man
@lowtechcyclist: In museums I still look for places to sleep at night in case I ever have the same adventure.
Suzanne
@Starfish (she/her): I have always felt that I spent enough time IRL with annoying people and I don’t need to do so in my free time. I have never found incorrigibility a charming quality.
I remember thinking, as a kid, “I hope Ramona gets in trouble….”.
Starfish (she/her)
I thought that as a young person I liked a Lois Lowry book, but I liked the Lois Duncan book “Killing Mr. Griffith.”
Suzanne
You know what is just as good as Phineas and Ferb? BLUEY. So good.
UncleEbeneezer
Barbie. I have friends who’s kids (especially girls) absolutely loved it even though I know much of the references went over their heads. It’s one of those films that they are gonna have those “ohhhh…so that’s what that meant” realizations that only reinforce its’ brilliance, as they get older.
UncleEbeneezer
Secret of Nimh, Charlotte’s Web, Watership Down…we had some seriously traumatic (but great) cartoons back in my day, lol.
RevRick
When our kids were young we had a subscription to a book series called Sweet Pickles. Some of titles were Nuts to You Nightingale, Me Too, Iguana, and Yakity, Yak, Yak, Yak.
RevRick
Let’s not forget Winnie the Pooh
bluefoot
The Westing Game was a fun book. I think I discovered it in my middle school library. I reread it when my niece got old enough for it and I sill liked it. Same with the Mad Scientist Club books.
recently I read the “A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder” trilogy on the recommendation of my niece. I liked the first one a lot, then the next two less so.
It’s funny to me how some books I read as a kid have stuck with me. There was one, whose title I don’t remember, about three Polish siblings who were in hiding then refugees during WW2. Considering I grew up in a typical American suburb, the book was definitely eye opening. Both my parents had some pretty harrowing experiences during the war, so this helped me understand them at least a little bit better.
I read TH White’s The Once and Future King probably too young. Is that an adult book or a YA book? I can never decide.
UncleEbeneezer
Does anyone remember a Disney movie titled Watcher In The Woods that starred Betty Davis in one of her last appearances? It was creepy as hell for a Disney flick aimed at kids.
Chris
@AM in NC:
The only Phineas and Ferb I’ve ever seen is the Star Wars episode, but it was some good Star Wars.
kalakal
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I loved The Dark is Rising books
I’d recommend Alan Garner (The Owl Service, The Weirdstone of Brisingamen etc) and anything by Diana Wynne- Jones
bluefoot
@UncleEbeneezer: I feel this way about The Muppet Show. As I got older I appreciated how droll it could be.
NotMax
Both squarely targeting kids, Freakazoid (animated) and Big Wolf on Campus (live action) contain references, dialogue and/or plot homages which will sail over that audience’s heads, meant to be appreciated by a more mature cohort.
Ditto for the output of Termite Terrace in its heyday. Also too, printwise, Winsor McKay’s meticulously detailed newspaper strip Little Nemo in Slumberland.
Sheila in nc
Rocky and Bullwinkle!
RaflW
Pretty sure I’ve talked about Adib Khorram, a Kansas City based Iranian-American gay guy mostly YA author. Darius the Great Is Not Okay just blew me away. The sequel was good, too.
I’m currently reading (ok, stalled in the middle of, but through no fault of the author) Kiss & Tell, a silly but sweet story of gay infatuation* amongst boy band boys (late teens themselves). It has been a good distraction from all this when I can get myself offline.
Though I’m also getting some good outdoor walks in this week up in the CO high country. Next week the run up to the holiday gets bonkers for us, with family in two parts of the country that are not our home base. So be it, off we go.
*TBH, this is probably for a bit older YA audiences than the Darius books, I think. Or I’m kinda old and blush slightly easily.
lowtechcyclist
@UncleEbeneezer:
IMHO Watership Down is an adult novel. AFAIAC, the only thing that would cause anyone to characterize it as YA is that the characters are all rabbits, and that’s a really bad reason to do so: “it’s about rabbits, so it must be for kids.” Kinda like characterizing The Lord of the Rings as YA because of hobbits, elves, dwarves, and so forth.
It’s an absolutely great novel though. Haven’t re-read it in at least a decade, so it may be time to pull it off the shelf.
lowtechcyclist
Nobody’s mentioned Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain series (The Book of Three, etc.) which I love.
arrieve
I loved that book! Google tells me it’s called either The Silver Sword or Escape from Warsaw.
A book I was just talking about with someone is A Candle in her Room, by Ruth M. Arthur. A very scary evil doll, and I am apparently not the only one who it terrified for years.
Chetan Murthy
I’d add any of the classic movies by Miyazaki: Porco Rosso, Princess Mononoke, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Castle in the Sky, Howl’s Moving Castle, probably a few others.
Rose Weiss
@RevRick: I adored all the Sweet Pickles books! I read them with my son when he was growing up, now I’m sending them to my grandson when I can find copies. The series is sadly out of print.
Timill
@kalakal:
No hyphen. Jones, Diana Winifred, apparently.
Spent an interesting evening aground in Chicester Harbour with her once…
RaflW
@lowtechcyclist: I was in like 5th or 6th grade when I read Watership Down, and in middle school when I read the Hobbit and LOTR books.
Then again, I had a collegiate reading level as tested the summer after 8th grade. [pushes up glasses proudly]
Sheila in nc
@lowtechcyclist: Me too. Just reread them recently.
When my daughter was in middle school, I went through a period of reading her assigned books, just for fun. I enjoyed Tuck Everlasting.
Ihop
If there may be older youngins in your life I will reccomend two relatively recent musicals, “anna and the apocalypse” and “cyrano*
Anna is mix of the zombie tropes with the high school musical and cyrano is a unique film that blends songs and dance with the narrative. I love films like “on the town” but niether is not at all like that.
Armadillo
I want to second everyone’s recommendations of the Westing Game, Avatar the Last Airbender, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh / The Secret of Nimh, the Dark is Rising, Watership Down, the Once and Future King, the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, a Wrinkle in TIme, and Phineas and Ferb. The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, and also Time Cat.
I liked Bridge to Terabithia and Lord of the Flies. Maybe liked is the wrong word. I thought both were good books but were pretty depressing or disturbing and wouldn’t read them again. Or at least not lightly.
The Pushcart War is also good.
Chinese themed books: Where the Mountain Meets the Moon and Starry River of the Sky by Grace Lin.
Going below the YA level, but a book my kids liked when they were little that I did too: The Monster Who Ate Darkness.
Sheila in nc
p.a.
50+ comments & no one’s mentioned the Muppet Movies? TV show? & I don’t even have kids!
lowtechcyclist
@RaflW:
Yeah, I think the ages at which we jackals first read stuff can be deceptive. When I was twelve or thirteen, I read 1984 in between reading my parents’ Travis McGee novels. Catch-22 the summer I was 15, and Brave New World sometime between 1984 and Catch-22. LOTR the spring I was 14.
I didn’t read Watership Down until I was an adult because it hadn’t been published yet.
Spanish Moss
@kalakal: I loved The Dark is Rising books too! I started out reading The Grey King to my young children, not even realizing it was part of a series, and got hooked myself.
I also love The Chosen, I have reread it a few times as an adult.
RevRick
@Rose Weiss: My wife informs me that you can find them on Etsy.
Suzanne
As for The Westing Game….. I’m sure I was not the only weird nerd girl to identify closely with Turtle Wexler.
RevRick
@p.a.: Let’s not forget The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show
lowtechcyclist
@p.a.:
Pssst! bluefoot @44.
RachelBakes
@Starfish (she/her): My favorite was Danny Champion of the World. Absolutely loved that book. Tracked it down 10 years ago and it was still pretty delightful.
Amalthea1
I love the Young Wizards series by Diane Duane- I think we’re up to ten or eleven books in the series. The first is called So You Want To Be a Wizard. As a sci-fi nerd, I love that the wizardry is partially science-based (if you want to go to the moon, cool, just make sure to bring enough air with you). I can’t read the first three books without weeping. Really good stuff.
The Wild Robot was a visually beautiful and incredibly touching movie. My little one loved it and I cried several times during it. I’ll also second The Secret of Nihm, and throw in The Last Unicorn for good measure. That’s where my nym comes from!
RachelBakes
@Suzanne: LEarned about that one as an adult but adored Turtle. Our daughter probably felt like Turtle back in middle school.
Sheila in nc
I will also say that reading Louisa May Alcott as an adult is totally different than reading her as a child. Not Little Women so much as her lesser known books like An Old-Fashioned Girl and Eight Cousins. Her feminism comes out more fully in contrast to the nineteenth century background.
RachelBakes
One that I came to late (as to most of these) was Sorcery and Cecilia: or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot, an epistolary novel by Patricia Wrede and Carolyn Stevermer. They later wrote 2 sequels to it but the first is far and away the best.
Wrede also wrote Mairelon the Magician and The Magician’s Ward, 2 more delightful light fantasy novels. And Stevermer’s College of Magics but that feels more adult in its writing.
lowtechcyclist
@RevRick:
That would be impossible! I loved those cartoons. And of course it wasn’t just Rocky and Bullwinkle (and their nemeses, Boris and Natasha), but also Sherman and Peabody, and Dudley Do-Right. Remember his horse’s name? :-D
p.a.
Do local stations still do Sat morning live-actor kid’s shows, some local doing skits, having guests, & introducing cartoons? A very 50s/60s thing (when I would have noticed.) RI had Salty Brine, Mass had Major Mudd.
BoZo & Soupy Sales were national, right?
billcinsd
I agree about The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle. I would add The Tick Saturday morning show and Terry Pratchett’s Tiffany Aching books
Quaker in a Basement
Adrian Mole Diaries anyone?
Years ago, I spotted a young kid a couple of rows in front of me at a ballgame reading the first of the series. I was curious, so I checked it out.
@RSA #12: Indeed! Pullman is excellent. I think Dark Materials would be a tough go for lots of young readers and Book of Dust nearly impossible. I love ’em all though.
And Roald Dahl? Fantastic Mr. Fox is my favorite, including the Wes Anderson animated movie version with its all-star voice cast.
Peale
Currently watching the Thai Series “Caged Again”, which is about as teen friendly as Thai BL can be. Uncomplicated fluffy gay fairy tale. Junior, a fledging Humboldt penguin in a zoo, transforms into a high school freshman with a goal of joining the other penguins at the North Pole. Fortunately, he is able to enroll in a high school where he learns the truth about where penguins actually live. While he decides that he’ll still visit the North Pole someday, he stays around when he meets an outwardly socially reserved but secretly neurotic fellow student who used to be a panther. O.K. this isn’t going to win a major award anywhere this year, but its the kind of fluff and cheese I need to cope right now.
UncleEbeneezer
@Chetan Murthy: Oh shit, how did I miss Miyazaki?? Nobody does kid/adult co-appeal in such a profound way. Anime, in general, is impressively “adult.”
UncleEbeneezer
@p.a.: New England you say? Do you remember Willie Whistle?
p.a.
@UncleEbeneezer: OMFG. I just got a shiver down my spine. Not the good kind😂😂😂😂 He was freaky.
UncleEbeneezer
Animaniacs was the first cartoon that I noticed really had some subtle, sophisticated jokes/themes. I know lots of old cartoons did, but it was watching Animaniacs (and the 90’s Batman cartoon) that really opened my eyes to how cartoons could be so “adult.”
bluefoot
@arrieve: Thank you! Yes, Escape From Warsaw. I loved that book. It was what made WW2 real to me as a youth.
kalakal
No love for Alice in Wonderland or Through the Looking Glass?
UncleEbeneezer
@p.a.: Scarier than John Wayne Gacey, lol!!!
kalakal
@arrieve: I read it as The Silver Sword. I loved it
Sure Lurkalot
I was a sickly kid until I got my tonsils removed and my dad would buy me books in NYC where he worked. One of my favorites was a compilation of stories made into Shirley Temple movies…The Little Princess, Heidi…with pictures.
I was also a big Nancy Drew fan. I re-read the first five or six a couple of years ago. They may have aged but a whole book series about a girl with smarts was pretty groundbreaking for me.
TBone
Rascal by Sterling North
The Great Brain series by John D. Fitzgerald
The Alvin Fernald series by Clifford Hicks
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell
Just to name a few!
hitchhiker
Julie of the Wolves. Thanks for that! In February of 2001 we were traveling with our 10 and 12 yr old daughters, and we all listened to that book together on some long car rides. I’ll never forget it.
Two weeks later, mr h took a weird fall skiing and broke his neck, so that book stands as one of our family’s last “before-time” good memories.
Quaker in a Basement
@UncleEbeneezer: Oh yeah! The Warner Brothers (and the Warner sister) and Pinky and the Brain were brilliant. My favorite bit though only lasted a fleeting moment: Babs Bunny singing Me So Bunny.
Jackie
@Sheila in nc: Tom and Jerry! I loved watching them as a kid; rediscovered them with my kiddos, and loved them the best watching them with my grandsons – especially my youngest – who pealed with laughter at Tom and Jerry’s mishaps.
When the Tom and Jerry movie came out a few years ago, my grandsons insisted we go. At that time they were 11 and 13, and we had a blast!🥰
Quaker in a Basement
@UncleEbeneezer: Too many good ones to choose one favorite.
ArchTeryx
@lowtechcyclist: The entire Madeline L’Engle Time Quintet is worth reading. The second book, A Wind in the Door, actually is what first got me interested in cellular biology and ultimately led me to my Ph.D. Considering L’Engle was a Christian Humanist and contemporary of Carl Sagan, and the evangelicals hated her, I’d say she would have been happy at that.
zhena gogolia
@Sure Lurkalot: Someone mentioned Shirley Temple? I can watch her movies over and over.
CatRadio
At some point, several years ago, I worked my way through all of the Newberry winners, easy enough to do living in the Boston area. Just a joyful exercise. That’s how I discovered Lloyd Alexander.
Prior to that, was a volunteer librarian for the small American library outside of Oslo, Norway. That’s where I discovered Susan Cooper, I believe. Close to heaven, that was, unless I was reading Stephen King and realized it was later than I thought….
Good times.
TinRoofRusted
@Chetan Murthy: Spirited Away. I count that in my top 5 movies period and rewatch it at least twice a year.
And because I grew up with hunting dogs – Where the Red Fern Grows. Book and movie.
NotMax
@Quaker in a Basement
Narf!
Eunicecycle
@Jackie: my husband got our oldest grandson hooked on Tom and Jerry. They both laugh together over the episodes although they’ve seen each many times. For years I got him a subscription to Boomerang for his birthday, because they had all the T & J episodes.
John S.
@zhena gogolia:
Shirley Temple seems to be popular across many generations. Even my teenage daughter enjoyed her movies.
Quaker in a Basement
@NotMax: Helloooooooo Nurse!
NotMax
@John S.
Diff’rent strokes and all that.
Can fidget while sitting through maybe 10 or 15 minutes of her films before the urge to chug insulin sets in.
Miss Bianca
@arrieve: Jane/Emily by Patricia Clapp, is an absolutely wonderfully terrifying book that I keep thinking would be an absolutely amazing movie – about a little girl and her slightly older aunt (who’s 18), who go to a house in the country that’s haunted by the spirit of another little girl who is absolutely malevolent and bent on murder, although that’s kind of a gradual reveal. (Jane is the Real Girl, Emily the ghost girl.)
CaseyL
I pretty much learned to love reading by animal stories my Mom got from the library for me: if the book’s main character was an animal, I probably read it. I’ve mentioned most of them before. So many of them had tragic endings (“Ring of Bright Water” and “The Fox and the Hound” traumatized me forever), and that still seems to be the main motif to this day.
So I’m not sure that’s a recommendation, come to think :)
It probably does explain why I’ve always preferred animals to humans: humans were the villains in most of the books I read from age 6 to age 12.
Something brand new and lovely is the movie “Wild Robot.” I didn’t realize it was a YA movie, and it’s a good bit gentler than a grown-up version of the story would be, but it is very sweet and funny. Also the animation is its own style, which I appreciate after seeing too many big studio animated movies that are intensely polished and CGI’d.
Miss Bianca
@Amalthea1: I just saw The Wild Robot the other night and I was kind of a puddle for the last third of it.
Miss Bianca
@TBone: I read all those and loved them! As I recall, it was Alvin Fernald that got me into rudimentary cryptology as a kid.
The Mad Scientists Club is another series that really holds up revisited as an adult.
As well as, ahem…the Miss Bianca books by Margery Sharp (NOT the Disney movies!)
NotMax
@Miss Bianca
Ever seen The Iron Giant?
:)
Tehanu
Nobody has mentioned Ursula K. LeGuin? A Wizard of Earthsea and the other books in that series? The Annals of the Western Shore (Gifts, Voices, Powers)?
I would also mention The Perilous Gard by Elizabeth Marie Pope — an Elizabethan girl kidnapped by the fairies, only they aren’t, they’re just pretending to be the fairy folk — with echoes of Tam Lin. Wonderful story!
JAM
I loved Julie of the Wolves, Island of the Blue Dolphins, Frankweiler, Watership Down, L’Engle, Harriet the Spy…I seem to be the only one here who liked horse books, Misty of Chincoteague, Black Beauty, etc. Also Call of the Wild and White Fang. Frank L. Baum. I had to read all the old stuff because our library was small.
sentient ai from the future
i bought the girl who drank the moon on the strength of the award list when i saw it. ok, it was basically on a whim.
but i read it with my kid and it was really really good. it’s worth re-reading, i think
SectionH
Probably thread is dead, but wth. An “all ages” movie I guess, that hasn’t been mentioned is Moana, yes Disney and entirely so… But fun anyway and my granddaughter loved it back then. I gather there’s another one in cinemas now or soon.
I’m so far not thinking of any books which haven’t already been mentioned. The Boxcar Family, maybe? [oops, just looked, and there’s an entire series.] I only read the first one when I was a kid, so the literary quality is not trustworthy, but I did like it.
Oh wait – Wizard of Earthsea – Ursula Le Guin? Damfine book, and a couple more books to make a trilogy. I read all three, and iirc, liked 2 and 3, even if they weren’t memorable.
sentient ai from the future
@Tehanu: well yeah of course you would mention leguin. your name is fucking tehanu.
but yeah, i read wizard of earthsea with my kiddo, but we couldnt get into tombs of atuan. maybe we’ll try again, it’s been a few years.
sentient ai from the future
@Quaker in a Basement:
i was just commenting earlier tonight to the kiddo that slappy squirrel is my favorite character in all of animation. and even though we havent watched much of the original series together (though i have downloaded the entire original series as well as the reboot, like a good media
pirateindependent archivist) he said that recently in class he said “narf!” and teach definitely picked up what he was putting down.SectionH
@JAM: Oh yeah – horse books. Loved Henry’s books, especially the Godolphin Arabian’s story (one of the 3 foundation sires of the Thoroughbred breed). Thank you for that memory. Also read Walter Farley, who was a bit more fanciful than Henry, but ok. I broke down in tears when my Mama read the scene in Black Beauty where Ginger dies. Yeah, I know, but yeah
eta: “Sham” was the Arab boy in the Henry book. And that resonated to me a lot when Secretariat won the Triple Crown, because Sham was the only colt who even pretend to keep up him. I have a special place for Sham in my heart.
Trivia Man
@Suzanne: but Ramona always meant well. She was just young and trying so hard to be with the big kids.
As an update, I really enjoyed reading Junie B Jones to my kids. Again, annoying but really means well and tries her best.
Magic School Bus also holds up well, I think. We had it on at a family party for the kids, the bus went into a human body and traveled through the digestive tract. One of the aunts was a nurse and she stopped to watch. When it was time to leave, magic school bus went out via a sneeze or something. She laughed and said, “I was really curious how they were going to finish the trip and still keep it SFW.”
sempronia
Susan Cooper’s The Dark Is Rising series came immediately to mind.
Patricia Wrede’s most well-known series is a four-book send-up of traditional European fairy tales starring strong, sensible female characters, beginning with Dealing With Dragons. That series holds up very well.
Robin McKinley’s The Blue Sword and The Hero and the Crown are also wonderful.
The Sign of the Beaver (Elizabeth George Speare) and The Indian in the Cupboard (Lynne Reid Banks): I gave them to my nephews with some trepidation and reread them myself, and to my surprise, both of those potentially dicey books are great.
Speaking of Dicey, Cynthia Voigt’s “Homecoming” series is excellent.
Have we had a Medium Cool on podcasts yet?
SectionH
@SectionH: the Arab boy’s name for the horse,
Yes, I’m an idiot. At least I’m slightly less pedantic than I was a while ago.
Trivia Man
Two more I can’t recall the titles. One is twin children who turn 13 and discover they are Djin – the powers don’t hit until that age. A series of several books.
The second is a terrible and powerful demon who is inadvertently summoned by a young, very inexperienced magician. The demon intends to break free at the first opportunity but is bound by the powerful magic. As he waits for a chance to destroy the magician and free himself, the demon begins to grudgingly respect the youngster and his fight against powerful evil. Of particular note is the extensive footnotes by the demon explaining backstory and telling funny anecdotes about history.
Quaker in a Basement
@sentient ai from the future: Oh! I forgot Slappy! She’s awesome.
Jacel
@Salty Sam: “The Incredible Mr. Limpet” is a far better film that I ever expected, and on each further viewings it continues to be even better that I recalled.
Quaker in a Basement
@TinRoofRusted: Spirited Away deserves to be listed among the best Miyazaki. I also like Ponyo, not so much for the story, but for the trio of old women, voiced in English by Cloris Leachman, Betty White, and Lily Tomlin.
Would have loved to have been in the studio for that recording session.
Blue mouser
For books, Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood and Co series is a fun read as are most books by Diana Wynn Jones (Howl’s moving castle,Chrestomanci series) . Many of Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical fiction books contain characters and sometimes main characters with physical defects or injuries that they must deal with during their adventures. Gachiakuta is an ongoing manga with fantastic art and an action adventure with an interesting power system.
Some YA movies that adults can appreciate are A Silent voice (about bullying) and Your name. An older anime series that I noticed adults can appreciate is Attack on Titan. And a newer series that is getting attention is DanDaDan
Timill
@Sheila in nc: Oh yeah? Watch me…
[I will try to shorten the the footnotes [1]]
Once upon a time, back in the Dark ages, like 1987, my pal Roger bought a boat (a Bobcat 26 catamaran), and the Hurricane of ’87 happened. So he had to rebuild a chunk of the port hull so we could actually sail her. Since we’d been sailing together for some years and Roger was treasurer of the 1989 Eastercon, of which I was Chairman, I spent many of my 1988 weekends helping with the rebuild.
Anyway, Roger picked ‘Crestomancy'[2] as the boat’s name. And as we had met Diana at the 1989 Eastercon[5] he invited her down to apply the requisite champagne at the start of the 1989 season.
So Diana came down from Bristol (and a bunch of friends turned up as well), we all had lunch in the boatyard bar[6], champagne was suitably applied, and we set off for a brief cruise.
Brief it was, because in the course of paying too much attention to the guests and not enough to the course, we stuffed her on the bank opposite the RAF club.[7] At the height of the springs, of course…
At this point Diana confessed that the invocation she had used was the one that caused hills to rise up in one of her ‘Spell-Coats’ books, so we all blamed her… ;-)
So anyway, Roger got out the dinghy and got those who needed to leave (including Diana) to the boatyard, and brought back Chinese takeout for the rest of us.
The following afternoon, we managed to lay out the anchor and winch ourselves off the bank and return to the boatyard rather later than planned.
[1] Terry Pratchett was also a friend of mine.
[2] Actually ‘Chrestomanci’, which is the proper name of Diana’s character ‘Cat’ who is a nine-lived magician, but you don’t want to be spelling that phonetically over the radio if you’re in trouble[3]
[3] Which happened to us South of the Isle of Wight, because we invited another sailing friend of ours (Mike) along for a trip[4]. It so happened that Mike was shorter than Roger or myself, so when we had one hand on the wheel and one on the coaming, he had both on the wheel. So it came off the hub in his hands…[8]
[4] Remember the garlic mushrooms? This was that trip.
[5] Another 1989 committee member had sort-of invited Diana to the 1989 Eastercon, which turned out to solve a problem for her and her husband, as each of them was wondering how to introduce gently the idea that they had an invite for Easter that didn’t include the other…
[6] You thought boatyards made their money off the boats in the yard…?
[7] Audience? We don’t need no stinking audience…
[8] We rigged emergency steering and were able to fall back into Lymington. We were flying ‘D’ – keep clear of me, I am manoevering with difficulty – not that anyone noticed…
Jacel
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: In a nearby Little Free Library I saw a copy of “Over Sea, Under Stone” (the start of The Dark Is Rising sequence) and thought, somebody is in for quite a treat. Susan Cooper has also written scripts and poems for The Christmas Revels shows.
Jackie
I loved the Anne of Green Gables book series. Years later, I think the Disney Channel? did the TV series, (early 90’s?) and both son and daughter loved.
ArchTeryx
@Trivia Man: The Bartimaeus series. The demons in question are ancient spirits that are summoned from their own dimension to be enslaved by magicians. They don’t like it much and any chance they get, you end up lunch and they go home to The Other Place. They are the source of all magick in the world.
Barty is a mid power djinni that gets by on his wits, and never fails to toot his own horn in the footnotes.
Timill
@ArchTeryx: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006N57PXG
SectionH
@Timill: I’m in awe.
Sailing small boats? THAT is cool. My aunt did that, but she learned in Caribbean. Not exactly the same,
Trivia Man
@ArchTeryx: Thank you! So much fun, I kept my son’s copies and when he comes home to visit he always takes a glance through them.
TiredOfItAll
I always reach these medium cool posts too late. Oh, well. Like many above mentioned, I loved …Mixed-Up Files… (and many other Konigsburg), A Wrinkle in Time, Jane/Emily etc. When I grew a little older (maybe 12 or so) my favorite L’Engle became And Both Were Young. I read Watership Down for the first time in college at the suggestion of a sociology prof, who was a good friend to me during a difficult time. But I came here to mention two items I don’t think have been mentioned in the comments so far, although perhaps I missed it: Book: The Hundred and One Dalmatians — forget what you think you know about it from Disney, it’s a good read by the same author who wrote I Capture the Castle. And movie: The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. (Japanese anime that I suspect most Miyazaki fans – I’m one – will enjoy. Don’t we all want to go back in time to change a few things?)
Yutsano
Justice League and Justice League Unlimited still hold up to this day IMHO.
Erin in Flagstaff
@lowtechcyclist:
I devoured this series in grade school. I still have three of the books on my shelves.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Sheila in nc: my husband saw the recent Greta Gerwig movie version of Little Women with me and he was astonished at the feminism in it, since he had never read the book abd knew nothing about Jo. It was like all the women in his life had been keeping a secret from him, out in the open. I thought Gerwig did a great job on the movie.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@lowtechcyclist: loved Rocky and Bullwinkle. I remember in 10th grade history when we were studying Russia as part of European history, and we came to the Tsar Boris Godonov. My immediate thought was for Boris Badenov and Natasha LOL
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Tehanu: oh, I love The Perilous Gard! She has another book The Sherwood Ring, which is good, but not as good.
I also like The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley, and prequel The Hero and the Crown.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Blue mouser: another vite fir Rosemary Sutcliff, especially Eagle of the Ninth.
Gloria DryGarden
@sempronia: I love robin mcKinley, also,
Patricia McKillip has a wonderful fantasy trilogy, and several other books. I wait a few years, and read her again.
Are we only doing fiction? If non fiction also, then The Diary of Anne Frank
Jerry Spinelli writes some tremendous Books, some are j, other YA, such as Stargirl, really wonderful book.
Also really enjoyed Kate Di Camilo, Because of Winn Dixie, and she has another title, also terrific.
(I know it’s a dead thread, but books have saved my life)
eta McKinley, many titles, esp of note Deerskin, incredible subject matter to address in YA fiction, very moving.
Gloria DryGarden
I loved wrinkle in time. Why do evangelicals hate it?
as an adult I tried to go back and read the lion the witch and the wardrobe. I only got in a few pages, and couldn’t bear it, so very judgey moralist right wrong Christian-y.
TBone
@Miss Bianca: 💜 I loved the Mad Scientists Club too.
TBone
@CatRadio: Lloyd Alexander lived close enough to walk to my elementary school and read to us kindergarteners.
TBone
HOW did I forget this one last night? 🤦♀️
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Animal_Family
Best story EVAH for kids AND adults!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I loved that movie
I missed this thread last night. Most of you know, I write YA fantasy, most recently Dragoncraft and Glass Girl.
It’s interesting that a lot of the books people are reminiscing about are Middle Grade rather than YA. MG is for readers 9 and up. The Newberry Award is specifically for MG books. I think, if you’re older, the YA category almost didn’t exist when we were teens. You read kid books or classics, then moved on to adult books.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@TBone: Wow. My son loved Lloyd Alexander’s books.
Chat Noir
@zhena gogolia:
The Witch of Blackbird Pond is my all time favorite book and has been since I first read it in 1976. I re-read it almost every year and it never fails to delight. I love how the book is for children but the writing style is quite adult. (at least it is to me which is probably why I love it still, besides the fact that the story is so compelling)
JAM
@Dorothy A. Winsor: You’re right, my public library had a section called middle readers or something. I switched to adult books in 5th grade, which is when I read Watership Down. I didn’t really read YA books until I went to High School and could check out from that library.
zhena gogolia
@Chat Noir: Agree!
SpongeBobtheBuilder
@Scout211: The whole Lowry series is great. There are 4 books, all excellent in audiobook form. We listened to them on family trips when our kid was a tween. Great conversations!
SpongeBobtheBuilder
In case anyone is still reading this thread:
If you like Phineas and Ferb, you might like Backyardigans. Aimed at younger kids, but plenty of adult inside jokes. They make every episode a musical, but a different genre every time (noir, western, etc).
And great kids’ book series are Guardians of Ga’hoole and Wolves of the Beyond by Kathryn Lasky. Post-human apocalypse with owls in charge, and lots of moral dilemmas to discuss with your 8-12 year olds.
psychobroad
@gene108: I am a children’s librarian, the kids LOVE Avatar!
Jacel
@SpongeBobtheBuilder: The Backyardigans! This is so wonderful, and I’m not saying that just because a college friend (and fellow clarinetist) was one of musical directors of the show. Every episode was in a different musical style–sometimes aligned with the story scenario but usually not. The effect of the animation is like nothing else I’ve seen. It was originally going to be motion-capture animation with live dancers (usually from the Alvin Ailey company) wearing sensors to drive the graphics system, but they found they got better results by filming the human dancers and the human animators taking inspiration from watching them. Please give this show a try, even if you don’t have young children around as an excuse for watching. The stories are great models for how young or old humans can play together imaginatively.
Miss Bianca
@NotMax: late reply, but yes. :)
Miss Bianca
@SectionH: slight correction – “Sham” was what Agba (the boy) called the Godolphin Arabian.
So Sham’s name has even more resonance that way. Poor Sham, he would have been Horse of the Year and probably won the Triple Crown in his own right if only he hadn’t had the misfortune of being pitted against Secretariat!
Colette South
@JAM: I loved Brighty of the Grand Canyon even more than Misty.
dnfree
@lowtechcyclist: We watched The Phantom Tollbooth a couple of weeks ago, and I’m hoping the book is a lot better? The movie was quite unimpressive.
dnfree
@Gloria DryGarden: What I came to dislike about A Wrinkle in Time, as well as Lord of the Rings and so many other fantasy stories, was that the “good” characters were distinctively physically attractive and the evil characters were ugly. Beauty and goodness don’t necessarily equate. In fact, evil can be disguised as attractive.
Nancy
@WaterGirl: Roald Dahl is an author of James and the Giant Peach, The BFG–big friendly giant, Matilda, others that I’ve forgotten.
SectionH
@Miss Bianca: See my comment at 113. It was too late to edit when I noticed I’d left the important bit out. Yeah I knew it was the horse’s name. And totally agree with you about RL Sham – any other year, he might have won the Triple Crown.
lowtechcyclist
@dnfree:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the movie, but I doubt it would translate well to film.