tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post2748168213470823849..comments2024-03-10T16:42:34.106-04:00Comments on Collecting Children's Books: Sunday Brunch for 9/11/11Peter D. Sierutahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09301507180150710089noreply@blogger.comBlogger13125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-17630362879330412062011-09-17T15:33:09.545-04:002011-09-17T15:33:09.545-04:00I remember searching for Janet Lambert books at ga...I remember searching for Janet Lambert books at garage sales and flea markets after I read the first two (both Parri books) at the library. This was in the 70s, and they were fairly easy to find. <br /><br />The thing I liked most about them was that the characters crossed over from one series to another, so you could be reading about one character, and suddenly the 30-year-old version of a teenager you'd read about in an earlier book would show up to provide some information or save the day. I found it interesting to see characters aging...something that rarely happens with series books.<br /><br />The military background was also completely foreign to me, so it seemed very romantic.Reading is my Lifehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00496432758648000629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-80572069762018321992011-09-15T13:43:06.026-04:002011-09-15T13:43:06.026-04:00Monica, that story about Kate Dicamillo/Despereaux...Monica, that story about Kate Dicamillo/Despereaux is fantastic!<br /><br />I really like Don Brown's new book about 9/11. But I agree with your FB friend, Peter, about Mal Peet's Life (in fact, I think I said as much when I commented on that status). Fabulous book, one of the best I've read this year.Sam B.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13870144459370240769noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-62333029279457522192011-09-15T10:02:02.867-04:002011-09-15T10:02:02.867-04:00My Davy is really not Janet Lambert's best boo...My Davy is really not Janet Lambert's best book. Not by a long shot. I don't care for Parri at all. On the other hand Star Spangled Summer is very good. <br /><br />Also if anyone wants to just pick up a Janet Lambert book Image Cascade Publishing has reprinted them so they are about $10 a book.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-6399505800108244452011-09-15T09:33:23.834-04:002011-09-15T09:33:23.834-04:00Janet Lambert was more popular as Anne Emery and a...Janet Lambert was more popular as Anne Emery and as prolific as Betty Cavanna. Her early books about aspiring actress Penny Parrish, written in the 30s and 40s, are her best and were reprinted many times in hardcover and in Tempo paperbacks that were checked out frequently in my grade school and city library. The later books, written in the 60s and 70s, were not quite as good because her heroines seemed somewhat dated. However, they were available from Scholastic Book Services and were among the first paperbacks I ever bought for myself. As with many of my childhood favorites, I was introduced to JL by my mother and now own all 53. I read Star Spangled Summer to my nieces last year and it held up well. Lambert made me fascinated with West Point and Governor's Island and Broadway, and I was thrilled the first time I attended a football game in famed Michie Stadium.<br /><br />Lambert's books are unusual in that they show army families and the realities of war - long absences, injuries, death. In Just Jenifer, the eldest sister of a blended family is left in charge of her siblings when her father leaves for WWII. Her stories about Tippy Parrish living in Germany after WWII are particularly interesting, contrasting Tippy's observations of the post-war occupation with the happy ignorance of her friends back in NY. It is not as good as Rilla of Ingleside but there are some similarities.<br /><br />One flaw with Lambert for a modern reader is that the men are all groomed for West Point but (other than actress Penny Parrish) the women's role is primarily to support them and they rarely even go to college. As I recall, the one character who attends Barnard dies in a car crash! But wonderful Image Cascade has republished Lambert's work so give Star Spangled Summer a try.CLMhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03595294217111602231noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-72821262885118467122011-09-12T18:52:58.845-04:002011-09-12T18:52:58.845-04:00celebrity kid's books
http://www.theatlantic.c...celebrity kid's books<br />http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/09/dr-seuss-vs-madonna-can-celebrities-write-good-childrens-books/244700/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-1136986327822798372011-09-12T13:07:10.328-04:002011-09-12T13:07:10.328-04:00I blog about teen books from the 50s/60s so I'...I blog about teen books from the 50s/60s so I'd heard of Janet Lambert but her books are fairly hard to get so I haven't read any. In my experience demand for used books doesn't have a lot to do with price. You probably know more about this than I do, but I get the impression that used books from that era go for high prices simply because there aren't a lot of them around.<br />And if Lambert wasn't found in libraries much probably that would make her books even scarcer.Laura Canonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16574566234310522696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-30773662551559593302011-09-12T10:35:04.506-04:002011-09-12T10:35:04.506-04:0014 Cows for America by Carmen Agra Deedy is hopefu...<b>14 Cows for America</b> by Carmen Agra Deedy is hopeful and positive and lovely. I cannot recommend it strongly enough.Kaethehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01138988651491869091noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-15122489955712910112011-09-11T22:24:35.253-04:002011-09-11T22:24:35.253-04:00I read a Janet Lambert book called My Davy back in...I read a Janet Lambert book called My Davy back in middle school and didn't like it at all. I thought the way the characters talked to each other was too arch, put-on. I'm totally shocked that her books are collectible.Bybeehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10061186489010154661noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-19107309154013404172011-09-11T22:23:12.671-04:002011-09-11T22:23:12.671-04:00I picked up some Janet Lambert paperbacks publishe...I picked up some Janet Lambert paperbacks published in the 1950s and 1960s second-hand way back in the 1970s and read them. I remember they were sweet books about young teenage high school girls, thinking about the future and careers and falling in love for the first time. They are still in my collection. I suspect those Janet Lamberts that you found are collectible due to nostalgia. As for their not being represented in public libraries, you rarely found Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys and other such series in libraries back then and Janet Lambert books seem to have been classified as part of those kinds of "trashy" books.<br /><br />As for Kindles, I haven't gotten any type of e-reader yet, but have downloaded Kindle for PC, Nook for PC, etc on my computer so I can read some books that way. I'm still very cautious but it is convenient to be able to download books when you want them. However, I still prefer physical books.<br /><br />Monica, I love that story about Kate diCamillo and Despereaux! Thanks for sharing it.<br /><br />I have to admit that the Gerstein book about the Twin Towers is the only one that comes to my mind about 9/11 so that may be the current classic book for 9/11. However, the classic 9/11 children's book may not yet have been written. Do report on that one you are reading and what you think of it.<br /><br />Thanks as always for your brunches!Jenny Schwartzberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06346217514073560797noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-40023611664722380182011-09-11T18:24:19.804-04:002011-09-11T18:24:19.804-04:00I think Janet Lambert was popular with my sisters ...I think Janet Lambert was popular with my sisters (I recall the titles The Stars Hang High and Up Goes the Curtain) in the 1970s. I don't think I read any of her books, though.Daughter Number Threehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08171356533232458827noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-88630167132624778252011-09-11T16:44:25.237-04:002011-09-11T16:44:25.237-04:00I've always like that 9/11 photograph. New Yor...I've always like that 9/11 photograph. New York's finest.Sherrynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-4012125178299366862011-09-11T16:09:30.097-04:002011-09-11T16:09:30.097-04:00Janet Lambert is very popular among some of the sa...Janet Lambert is very popular among some of the same people who are devotees of the Maud Hart Lovelace books (Betsy-Tacy) and Lenora Mattingly Weber (Beany Malone). I have a big collection of vintage YA--Anne Emery is my favorite author of the era/genre; if you aren't familiar with her, now's the time--and Janet Lambert isn't one of my favorites, but I like that many of her books have a military base setting, which is unusual.Wendyhttp://sixboxesofbooks.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7046320545497573335.post-32024515365074917372011-09-11T16:07:20.831-04:002011-09-11T16:07:20.831-04:00Here's something Kate Dicamillo wrote to me fo...Here's something Kate Dicamillo wrote to me for a talk (the whole of which is at http://medinger.wordpress.com/publications/talks/if-the-shoe-fits-literary-fairy-tales-and-their-audience/):<br /><br />Right after 9/11, I was heading back to Minneapolis. I sat next to a man who asked me what I did for a living. I told him that I wrote stories. Stories about what he wanted to know. Well, I told him, before 9/11 I had been working on a story about a mouse and a princess; but now, I couldn’t make myself believe that stories mattered or would ever matter again. In luggage claim, in Minneapolis, the man came up to me and said, ‘Hey, good luck with your mouse. And have you ever thought that you’re wrong? Maybe stories do matter.’ I went home and wrote ‘maybe stories do matter’ on a little piece of paper and stuck it over my desk and I started working again on the mouse story. I tried to tell the story as if it mattered.Monica Edingerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03924540264341924291noreply@blogger.com