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From treitel@wco.com (Beth and Richard Treitel)

These are just my reactions to some of the last few books I inhaled. If you wonder how seriously to take them, here are some of my tastes:

Authors I like:
Heinlein, Clarke, Niven, JMFord, Le Guin, CSmith, James White, Tolkien, Moon, Blish

Authors I also read:
Vance, Bradley, Banks, Asimov, Cherryh

Authors I dislike:
Donaldson, Wolfe, Crichton, Moran, Bova

See also http://www.wco.com/~treitel/reviews/nreviews.html

Gordon Dickson's _Wolf and Iron_ is post-apocalypse fiction in the tradition of _Alas, Babylon_, concentrating on the mechanics of staying alive in a collapsed US, and with heavy emphasis on plain old wilderness survival. It's free of the mysticism that one finds in many of his books (and which I dislike). The prose could do with a little sharpening, but it's a good story, with plenty of detail.

The cover and title of _Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls_ led me to expect a fluffy pastoral fantasy wherein a human girl communes with animal friends and perhaps goes on a Quest. It's actually an urban fantasy which ably weaves together high tech and magic, and whose bad guys are seriously nasty (as opposed to being Evil just because Gandalf says they're Evil). It's still a bit fluffy here and there. The Kipling subtheme amused me, as did the protagonist's handicap.

Philip Pullman's _The Golden Compass_ is the first book of a trilogy set in a very varied magical world, which somehow manages to combine a fairly bureaucratic British government with individual heroes/villains and a vaguely Homeric northern culture. Some of the plot twists are a bit sudden, making me wonder if _TGC_ was intended for juvenile readers; OTOH I can't help having a soft spot for it because it begins in my home town (Oxford). The story is certainly exciting.

I got a few pages into Jack Vance's _Ecce and Old Earth (sequel to _Araminta Station_, yes?), squealed the Other Eight Deadly Words (y'know, the ones Dorothy's brother likes but Andrew Plotkin doesn't), and returned it to the library. Was I over-hasty?

Jared Diamond's _The Third Chimpanzee_ is not fiction at all, but is in some degree speculative. It's about the biological similarities and cultural/behavioural differences between humans and our animal cousins; Diamond points out that the connections are less straightforward than most people suppose. It also has some standard enviro-alarmism and some muddled thinking, but not much of either. I recommend _T3C_ as an excellent starting point for anyone who wants to look at the ways in which ScF writers describe and explain their intelligent alien species.

I'll also briefly mention Daniel Dennett's _Darwin's Dangerous Idea_ as being the book that pointed me to _T3C_.

-- Richard

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James Blaylock's *Homonculus* is set in a seriously warped Victorian England. A street-vendor of squid plays an important part. Tim Powers's *The Anubis Gates* is set in, if I remember correctly, a seriously warped Regency England. A major plot point revolves around a Coleridge lecture. If you like either book, you will probably want to read more of both authors. My husband, a confirmed Blaylock addict, has had to give him up as bedtime reading; Blaylock in bed gives you Kafka dreams.

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For Joanna Cotler, publisher of Joanna Cotler Books at HarperCollins, the crossover appeal of the Weetzie Bat books has been building for a long time. Citing reviews in publications like the Village Voice and a recent NPR interview, Cotler noted, "Block always comes to mind in discussions about crossover books." To capitalize on all the adult attention, Harper is reissuing the Weetzie books with a more adult feel. "We're putting them together into a single paperback book edition with a new title, Dangerous Angels, for the spring," she said. "We're giving it an adult trade trim with an adult look and a quote from Spin magazine. We're also giving it a reading-group brochure like our adult books." Harper will also include the book in both its adult and children's catalogues. certain YA titles might appeal to adults, Cotler suggests authors like Block and Victor Martinez, whose Parrot in the Oven won a National Book Award last year

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Nancy Willard's Cracked Corn and Snow Ice Cream.

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The Far North
When their plane goes down in the remote frozen wilderness of Canada's Northwest Territories, fifteen-year-old Gabe Rogers and his roommate, Raymond Providence, a Dene Indian boy, must depend on each other as they struggle to survive the harsh subarctic winter and reach safety.

Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood
Binjamin Wilkomirski was a child when the round-up of the Jews in Poland began. His father was killed in front of him, he was separated from his family, and found himself in Majdanek death camp, surrounded by strangers. In piercingly simple scenes, Wilkomirski gives readers the "fragments" of his recollections from this arduous time in his life.

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I'm searching for a book from my childhood, late 1950's-early 1960's. The title may have been either, Tall Tales or Tall Stories for Children. It was about 15" long (hence the "Tall" in the title). Two of the stories were"Bad Mousie" and "The Very Mischief".Also, I recall a poem "One Day When I Went Walking". Any help would be very much appreciated.

Sounds like Tall Book of Fairy Tales or Tall Book of Make-Believe to me. Was the book very narrow and tall (say, 15" high, 5" wide)? There were three in the series I think (the third was Tall Book of Nursery Rhymes), illustrated by Rojankovsky (Fairy Tales & Nursery Rhyes) and Garth Williams (Make-Believe), and published by Golden Press. They are avidly sought after by collectors and nostalgic grown-ups. I'm afraid I have just recently sold some, so I do not have any in stock right now. Let me know if this description sounds right though, and I'll let you know when I find some more.

[later message] Here it is:

Werner, Jane. Illus. Garth Williams. The Tall Book of Make-Believe. Harper & Bros., 1950. Corners bumped, spine strip repaired with cloth tape. Not a pristine copy, but as you know, a hard to find title. G. <SOLD>

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Yes, here's a "stumper": in the early '60's, I was very fond of a series of books (published earlier, I believe) about a group of children who play detectives. The story is set--I think--in Sweden, yet I found these easily on my local library shelves. Some Northern European country, anyway. The children are fond of the history of the the War of the Roses, and thus call themselves either the White Roses or the Red Roses. Vaguely like Encyclopedia Brown, but much, much more interesting and with the characters more fully developed. That is all I remember!!! Can you help me? Thanks.

Any ideas out there on this one?

I was browsing through the messages and came across the one relating to a "stumper" about a group of children who were involved in gangs named after the Red and White Roses featured in the War of the Roses. It rings a very real bell for me -I too was intrigued by the book. My recollection is that is was entitled The Wars of the Roses, and I believe that the children were Danish, or possibly Dutch, but that the author was British. Not much help, I'm afraid, but it might provide some lead.

The book is White Rose Rescue. It is set in Sweden. It is the third in a series by Astrid Lindgren. The first two are Bill Bergson, Master Detective and Bill Bergson Lives Dangerously. These are wonderful books!

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a stumper about a family who sailed around the world in a Chinese junk - my friend couldn't remember much else about the books, just that they were a series. Well, I have since discovered that the books were written by Janet Lambert and are about the Campbell family.

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a story of a boy who belongs to a Cathedral School in England and revives an old church ritual involving bees. The book is full of interesting information on bee-keeping. The most memorable scene occurs when the boy leads a procession through the cathedral holding a swarm of honey-bees aloft at the end of some sort of mitre. Another book dealer just told me that the Cathedral School story is William Mayne's fabulous Swarm in May. Now that the title mystery is solved, I'll try to track down a copy.

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The Call of the Wild (The Whole Story Series)
Jack London, Philippe Munch (Illustrator)

Frankenstein (The Whole Story Series)
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Philippe Munch (Illustrator)

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Laszlo Gyozo Ambrus, who writes and illustrates under the name Victor Ambrus, was born in Budapest, Hungary in 1935. He began drawing as a small child and eventually attended the Hungarian Academy of Fine Art for three years, where he studied graphics, etching, lithography, anatomy, and illustration.

In 1956 Ambrus fled Hungary following the failure of the uprising against Soviet occupation. He emigrated to England where he resumed his education at the Royal College of Art in London, from which he graduated in 1960. While studying at the College he met Glenys R. Chapman, whom he married in 1958. Ambrus illustrated his first book during his last year of college, and the publication of one of his drawings in the London Times Literary Supplement eventually led to a number of commissions from publishers to illustrate children's books. Once established, Ambrus became a free-lance illustrator. He has since illustrated more than one hundred books for young people and has written or adapted more than a dozen children's books himself. He prefers to work in clear, brilliant colors, especially when illustrating folk tales.

Ambrus has won many honors and awards for his books. He was twice a runner-up for the Kate Greenaway Medal before he won the award in 1965 for The Three Poor Tailors and again in 1975 for Mishka and Horses in Battle. He is a member of the Royal College of Art, the Royal Society of Arts, and the Royal Society of Painters, Etchers and Engravers. His interests include travel, old architecture, and collecting antique weapons and armor. In 1987 Ambrus lived in Farnham, Surrey, England.

Six books illustrated by Ambrus are represented among the papers. For The Henchmans at Home (1970), a connected series of short stories about three young people growing up in late Victorian England, the collection holds one unpublished illustration. Kodi's Mare (1973) is the story of a Navajo boy who steals his horse away from the cruel owner to whom she has been sold, andThe Traitor Within (1973) concerns Chan Wai Ling, a young Chinese Red Guard who must conquer his own fears in order to defend his village against raiding Taiwanese rebels. For these two titles the collection holds one unpublished illustration each. The King's Monster (1980), which tells how a prince dares to face the monster he must defeat in order to win Princess Gabriella's hand in marriage, is full of the brightly colored illustrations for which Ambrus is known. For this title there are five original color illustrations and an unbound proof.

Pauline (1965) is the story of an orphaned English schoolgirl who has problems adjusting to her new life when she is sent to live with her uncle's family. For this title there are thirteen black-and-white illustrations and one color illustration. Young Mark (1967), set in eighteenth-century imperial Russia, relates the fact-based account of a young Ukrainian boy who runs away from home to become a singer in St. Petersburg. For this title the collection holds a dust jacket. Unidentified at present is a pen-and-ink illustration entitled "Miss Peabody," apparently intended to illustrate a book entitled Modern Tales by Barbara Sleigh. No publication data for this book is available.

Also included in the collection are materials related to Christmas cards designed by Ambrus. The Christmas card he designed for the de Grummond Collection in 1986 is represented by two color separations and a printed card. There is also one Christmas card with original artwork and one printed card featuring an illustration by Ambrus.

¾From The de Grummond Collection

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MARGARET STOREY:

The Double Wizard, A Quarrel of Witches, others. Ellen and Timothy travel to the Open Country; magical adventures. I like how Ellen makes her magic wand look like a used-up old stub of pencil...

The Family Tree. Illus. by Shirley Hughes.

Pauline Doubleday 1965. Illustrated by Illus by Victor Ambrus. 1st US edition.

The Double Wizard London, England Faber & Faber 1979. Illustrated by Jackson, June. 1st (stated).

A War of Wizards 1976 London: Faber & Faber. 1st edition.

ASK ME NO QUESTIONS E.P. Dutton, 1975, 1ST EDITION. 'While trying to guess the identity of her captors and the real reason for her abduction, a teenage girl develops a strange sort of fellowship with the man directly in charge of keeping her prisoner.'.

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K. M. Peyton:

Froggett's Revenge. Illustrated by Maureen Bradley. Puffin paperback, 1987.

Stormcock meets Trouble London: Collins, 1961 First Edition. col frontisp + b/w ills

Late to Smile. London: Methuen, 1992. First edition.

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L. M. Boston:

The Sea Egg; Harcourt Brace 1967., Ills-Peter Boston. Magical doings when a lobster fisherman pulls up an egg-shaped stone in his net.

The Castle of Yew; Illustrated by Margery Gill. 1965

Nothing Said; Peter Boston, illustrator, 1971

The Fossil Snake

The Guardians of the House illustrated by Peter Boston

The Stones of Green Knowe; The last in the "Green Knowe" series.

1.CHILDREN OF GREEN KNOWE
2.TREASURE OF GREEN KNOWE (A.K.A. THE CHIMNEYS OF GREEN KNOWE)
3.RIVER AT GREEN KNOWE
4.STRANGER AT GREEN KNOWE
5.ENEMY AT GREEN KNOWE
6.STONES OF GREEN KNOWE

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Carol Ryrie Brink:

Chrystal & Cordelia Series
1. Two Are Better Than One
2. Louly

Ridgeway Family Series
1. Family Grandstand
2. Family Sabbatical

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Constant, Alberta Wilson and Beth and Joe Krush (Illustrators):

The Motoring Millers
Those Miller Girls ; Crowell, 1965, 2nd Printing (REPLACE; falling apart)

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The Well at the World's End: Folk Tales of Scotland, retold by Norah and William Montgomerie; drawings by Margery Gill. London: Bodley Head, 1975. Tales 5-8 are from The Lure of the Kelpie: Fairy and Folk Fales of the Highlands, by Helen Drever. Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1937.

Margaret Mahy The Bus Under The Leaves, illustrated by Margery Gill London: Dent, 1974 J NZ823.2 M27BU Imagine finding an old coach bus hidden under creepers! Adam and David’s dull holiday suddenly changes.

Arthur, Ruth An Old Magic Illustrated by Margery Gill.
Through the magic of gypsies who occasionally camp on her farm in Wales, Hannah experiences excitement, fear, change, and finally peace by this prolific and fascinating British writer.

Arthur, Ruth REQUIUM FOR A PRINCESS Illustrated by Margery Gill.
Illness and shock leaves a girl vulnerable to supernatural happenings.

Dingle; Marchand, Marie with an introduction by Durrell, Gerald. Jacket design and illustrations by Margery Gill.
Story of Dingle, a chough (type of Jackdaw) who was looked after by the author

Mayne, William SAND Illustrated by Margery Gill.
Sand has been taking over the town but children find a miniature world buried within it

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Nifty-looking Authors Spotted at Powells: Donna Jo Napoli & William Mayne

Nifty-looking authors spotted at the library: Joan Phipson, Nicholas Stuart Gray, Anne Parrish

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Star Dog, by A. M. Lightner. It's a YA novel about a boy and his hyper-intelligent telepathic half-alien dog. Don't laugh— this was my favorite book for a long time as a kid. It's long out of print; I've been looking for years... ¾From Karawynn

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Lloyd Alexander is exactly what I always thought he should look like...the kind of author with an incredibly distinctive face, a head of rumpled white hair, and a total, all encompassing love for the characters he's created. He won my heart forever (as if he hadn't already) when he confessed to having a huge crush on Vesper Holly. He admonished us for not reading The Arkadians and went on about it for so long and so delightfully that I am determined I will read it next. He warned us that we would weep, as he had, over his latest (The Iron Ring). We monopolized him shamelessly for over half an hour and had a really interesting discussion about his incredibly strong female characters, among other things. He told us he'd never known a woman who wasn't strong, intelligent, and forthright and that he wanted all of his women characters to be the same (and they certainly are!) ¾From Melissa

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This morning I read The Seventh Swan by Nicholas Stuart Gray. It's part of the short-lived Magiquest series of fifteen or twenty years ago, four books put out in horrible childish covers which look like choose-your-own-adventure stories. I've read three, all of which are fantastic. ¾From Jessie

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The Secret Hideout by John Peterson

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Meanwhile by Jules Feiffer

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Apparently when Meet the Austins was first published, the chapter "The Anti-Muffins" was edited out because the publisher thought Austins was too long for a children's book. Later the chapter was published as a separate book. If you buy the recently republished hardback of Meet the Austins (1997), the chapter has been returned. Incidentally, there is also an Austins short story, "A Full House," told from Victoria Austin's point of view, in the book Newbery Christmas.

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The Song Of The Lioness Quartet and Sandry's Book (Circle of Magic, 1) by Tamora Pierce

The Sebastian Sisters series

A trilogy of books by Gwen Grant, a diary from a Nottinghamshire child's viewpoint just after World War II.

The Callendar Family books - Friday's Tunnel, February's Road, Ismo - by John Verney

Angela Brazil's British schoolgirls books

¾From a discussion over at Three Way Action

Also: The Schoolgirl Ethic : The Life and Work of Angela Brazil by Gillian Freeman

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Later in life when I tried to locate Shadow Castle for interlibrary loan, of course it was out of print and I didn't remember the author's name. I happened to see the title in the "other works by" list on the back of one of Marian Cockrell's books, and I couldn't believe that the same person who wrote Mixed Blessings and The Revolt of Sarah Perkins had written it. Imagine finding out that two of your favorite authors are the same person!

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Picture books/books for younger readers:

Crossing by Philip Booth, illus. by Bagram Ibatoulline
The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins by Barbara Kerley
The Collector of Moments by Quint Buchholz
So You Want to be President by Judith St George, illus. by David Small

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The Silver Pencil by Alice Dalgeish. A fictionalized autobiography of the future writer. It combines interesting details from her Caribbean and British childhood with the story of a writer coming of age. The sequel Along Janet's Road is also very good.

I am a fan of all of E. Nesbit's books, but good ones to start with are The Railway Children (if you like realistic fiction) or The Enchanted Castle or Five Children and It (if your tastes run to fantasy.) Her children squabble, get into scrapes, and tend to have absent fathers and busy mothers. My favorites as a child were The House of Arden and Harding's Luck, which are two separate stories with overlapping characters. You see the same scenes from two different points of view if you read both books. I thought it was way cool. Now I like the Enchanted Castle best. I love the sly grown-up jokes in her writing too. (Can be enjoyed from 5 to adult.)

John Christopher is one of the best writers of science fiction for children. The Tripod books are very enjoyable and come to a satisfying, but realistic conclusion. (The aliens are thrown out, but it is clear that the humans are going to have to work at putting together a government.) Other books by Christopher may be more suited for older children. At six, my son was shocked by the naughtiness of the children in The Lotus Caves and it also comes to a thought-provoking end. (The boys discover an alien creature on the moon, but decide not to tell the adults for fear that they will mistreat it.) The books in the City of Gold and Lead series come to a very heartbreaking conclusion. My then 10-year-old brother cried when he read them - though he also said they were "the best books he had ever read." The Tripod Trilogy and The Lotus Caves are fine for 7 and up. I might wait a little longer for Christopher's other books.

I love all of Noel Streatfield's "shoe" books. They tend to be about working kids often in the theater, ballet or music. They deal with the stresses of being very good at what you do and having to work hard to maintain your position. These are old books and may be hard to find if your library doesn't carry them. She was very prolific so there are lots of books to keep your child happy if you do find a good source for them. A particularly good one is The Painted Garden (I think the American title was Movie Shoes) about a girl who goes to Hollywood to star in The Secret Garden. As a bonus you get to see many of the characters from Ballet Shoes all grown up.

Diana Wynne Jones is one of the best contemporary fantasy writers going. She is smart and witty and highly original. The Ogre Downstairs is one of my favorites. The ogre is Dad and both sides of a recently blended family find him trying. Things really get interesting when one of the boys is given a magical chemistry set. After many squabbles and laugh out loud funny adventures the families learn to get along with each other and even with the ogre. The Christopher Chant books are a rough series (order is not crucial) about an alternate universe where magic works. Dogsbody is a book about the Dogstar, Sirius. You wouldn't think it would work, but it does. Archer's Goon is... Well you'll just have to read it and see!

Dalemark Quintet by Diana Wynne Jones. I like this series so much that I am listing separately from her other books. It starts with Cart and Cwidder and follows a family from prehistory to modern times in an alternate universe that has many similarities to ours but includes magic of a very mythical elemental sort. (Feels like Scotland.) She wrote the first four books ages ago and seemed to have abandoned the series, then a few years ago a final book appeared. The final book is rather a surprise in its differences, but it works.

Alan Garner is one of those talented writers who became too weird for their own good. Elidor is a fairly straightforward tale of good vs. evil and the four children who need to help good win in a magical country. The Wierdstone of Brisigaman is another nicely done story of four children and a magic object they need to safeguard. It has a sequel The Moon of Gomrath, which I found totally unsatisfactory. (The story never gets to where it should have gone.) In Owl Service things get a little stranger. The story of Rhiannon is echoed in a modern tale of a boy and a girl. I liked it very much, but I am not sure it is a children's book. (I read it in high school.) His more recent books are even more difficult to follow.

Mollie Hunter writes wonderful stories set in Scotland. In the first book a boy must deal with the suspicion that the stranger of the title is a Selkie or seal who has come ashore to steal a human wife. In the second a boy and his grandfather must save the standing stones from the threat of industrial development. Mollie Hunter's two autobiographical novels, A Sound of Chariots and Hold on to Love, are also well worth reading.

¾From Theresa Beyer

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