Harry’s got a wand. The Pevensies have Narnia. Percy just happens to be descended from Greek Gods. With all the fuss about kids’ fantasy novels, many might overlook these three classic and perfectly wonderful titles about kids who are just…well…kids. They are smart and sassy but also annoying and weird. Some of them are brats…almost. None of them are popular at school. They’re mere mortals for sure, but they are anything but ordinary and their stories are immensely re-readable. Give these to your favorite young reader or keep them for yourself, I’ve done both several times over.
by Ellen Raskin
This Newberry Award winning mystery is a whodunit covered in riddles and wrapped up in a puzzle, and never before and never since have I read anything quite like it. It begins, like all proper mysteries, with a corpse and a reading of a will. Not only does the deceased claims one of the heirs is a murderer, he also informs everyone in the room that one of them has been chosen to inherit millions! Provided he…or she…wins the Westing Game. The prospective heirs are a bizarre bunch and include ” a dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake.” Armed with nothing but paper clues, they race against time, and each other, to find the murderer AND win the money. What do i like about it?
FIRST-You have to THINK to get through the Westing Game and in this day and age, I think that’s a good thing. SECOND-It’s not age-bound. Yes it’s for kids, but believe me…it’s more Agatha Christie than Nancy Drew. The language is easy enough for a tween to understand, but the plot (and its solution) will confound everyoneTHIRD-I love Turtle Wexler. She’s thirteen, she kicks people in the shins (usually when they really deserve it) and she’s so ornery but she never backs down from a dare, she could probably hold her own in a fight and she’s just so smart!
HARRIET THE SPY by Louise Fitzhugh
If Harriet were a contemporary heroine, she’d be a blogger for sure. How lucky we are, then, that she was created in the pre-internet days! Our intrepid spy traipses around her neighborhood observing people and jotting it all down in her notebook. When her friends get a hold of the notebook, all hell breaks loose.
I loved this book growing up, although I’d be hard pressed to tell you why. It was only when I got older that I realized why it struck such a chord with me. It’s because it’s so realistic. Eleven is an age where everyone can turn on you at the drop of a hat and, just as quickly, decide they like you again. It’s an age where everything and nothing make sense at the same time and it’s probably the age where you are most likely to be ignored (too old to need constant watching, and also too young to need to be watched constantly.There’s a difference. Think about it). It’s also the age where things start going all grey instead of black and white and where you learn that sometimes, the truth is something best kept to yourself. A very wise book, and truly funny too.
FROM THE MIXED-UP FILES OF MRS. BASIL E. FRANKWEILER by E.L. Konigsburg
Like Harriet, Claudia Kincaid is eleven years old and like Harriet, she feels misunderstood and confused. Claudia, however, is pro-active. Not happy where she is, she decides to run away and she takes her kid brother Jamie with her too. Where does she choose to go? The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Their survival there is a great adventure all on its own. The children hide out in the bathroom at closing time, sleep on period furniture and take their allowance from the coins in the museum fountain. Then they also manage to get mixed up in a mystery involving a Michelangelo sculpture and a very special old lady. You’ll never see a museum quite the same way after you’ve seen it through Claudia’s eyes.
To this day, I re-read these books every few years and there is never a time these titles were not in my possession. They never get old and they never feel dated. When you think about it, that’s really kind of magical.