Recommending Books for Children and Teens

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing (Book for Teens)

I've now read two of M. T. Anderson's novels for teens (see my earlier post recommending Feed), and neither qualifies as pleasant reading.  But boy, are they good.  Anderson is interested in language; the intersection of thinking and feeling; what it means to be human; and what it means to be peculiarly American.  In both FEED and The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party (about an American slave subjected to the experiments of a group of rational philosophers), Anderson manages to interweave compelling stories with powerful ideas.  In each, he uses period language (in FEED, an imagined future-speak; in OCTAVIAN NOTHING, eighteenth-century prose).  There's not a false note to be found in either.  The man is a marvel.  I marvel at him.       

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Song of the Lark (Book for Teens)

Does anyone write as well as Willa Cather?  In this entry I'm recommending Song of the Lark for teens because it's a coming of age story, but I love every Cather novel I've ever read--and they're all accessible to teens. THE SONG OF THE LARK starts slowly, but gathers incredible tension.  It tells the story of a young girl who ultimately outgrows her small, Colorado town.  At the same time, like many of Cather's novels, it tells the story of its western setting.  On top of it all, it's about promise, and the influences of childhood, and love, and greatness.  I've read it twice.  I've loved it both times.  I think it might be time for My Antonia

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The Lion's Paw (Middle-Grade Fiction)

A friend recently recommended Robb White's The Lion's Paw.  He remembered loving it as a kid, tried to find it for his own kids, and discovered that it was just reissued a few months ago.  I'm so glad it was.  It's a terrific, old-timey adventure story.  The requisite orphans, a brother and sister named Nick and Penny (ages 9 and 12), run away from their orphanage and team up with Ben (15), whose father has gone missing while fighting in World War II. Ben believes his father is still alive, but everyone else (other than Penny and Nick) is convinced he's dead.  When Ben's unsympathetic uncle decides to sell his father's boat, the three kids set sail, fleeing both Ben's uncle and orphanage officials.  

THE LION'S PAW is well written and action-packed.  White includes enough danger to keep the tension high, and somehow maintains a reassuring tone.  I felt both scared and safe.  That's one hallmark of a good children's book. 

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