Fic Corner Brainstorming
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fic_cornerThe Exchange at Fic Corner 2017 Schedule
June 3rd - Brainstorming Post will open; Any Changes to Eligibilty Rules will be posted (none this year).
June 9th - June 17th - Nominations
June 17th - June 18th - Vetting
June 18th - June 27th - Sign-Ups
June 28th - Assignments Sent Out
August 21st - Deadline for Stories
August 28th - Collection Goes Live
While I was hoping to shift the schedule to Memorial Day (last Monday in May) to Labor Day (first Monday in September), I'm late getting started this year. I've also moved sending out assignments earlier as I can't guarantee I'll have time to deal with issues the last weekend of June.
Go forth and brainstorm in the comments.
Got a favo(u)rite kids or YA book or series or story you want other people to write for or request? Want to know if you're "the only one" who ever read that one particular book or who loves that certain character?
Some helpful brainstorming links provided byelf and a few added by me.
Newbery Medal list
Links to other Youth Awards from ALA including the Batchelder (translation) and Belpre (Hispanic/Latino). Scroll down for links to the Coretta Scott King (African-American/Black) and Printz (YA) The Notable Books lists linked in the sidebar are also of interest.
Carnegie Medal. Poke around the site for the Greenaway and other awards lists.
Juvenile Series and Sequels
from the MCPL database (looong list.)
Goodreads Top 100 Middle School Must Reads from Goodreads
Obscure:
A List of Series and Sequels for Juvenile Readers. Compiled in 1915. (Edith Nesbit is included. And Lewis Carroll. And Dumas was apparently considered youth reading.)
Mary Crosson's "Plain Jane" Series List. Public domain (pre-20s) children's and teens series available on the web.
We Need Diverse Books - try the resource page for lists and links.
Mirror post on LJ.
June 3rd - Brainstorming Post will open; Any Changes to Eligibilty Rules will be posted (none this year).
June 9th - June 17th - Nominations
June 17th - June 18th - Vetting
June 18th - June 27th - Sign-Ups
June 28th - Assignments Sent Out
August 21st - Deadline for Stories
August 28th - Collection Goes Live
While I was hoping to shift the schedule to Memorial Day (last Monday in May) to Labor Day (first Monday in September), I'm late getting started this year. I've also moved sending out assignments earlier as I can't guarantee I'll have time to deal with issues the last weekend of June.
Go forth and brainstorm in the comments.
Got a favo(u)rite kids or YA book or series or story you want other people to write for or request? Want to know if you're "the only one" who ever read that one particular book or who loves that certain character?
Some helpful brainstorming links provided by
elf and a few added by me. Newbery Medal list
Links to other Youth Awards from ALA including the Batchelder (translation) and Belpre (Hispanic/Latino). Scroll down for links to the Coretta Scott King (African-American/Black) and Printz (YA) The Notable Books lists linked in the sidebar are also of interest.
Carnegie Medal. Poke around the site for the Greenaway and other awards lists.
Juvenile Series and Sequels
from the MCPL database (looong list.)
Goodreads Top 100 Middle School Must Reads from Goodreads
Obscure:
A List of Series and Sequels for Juvenile Readers. Compiled in 1915. (Edith Nesbit is included. And Lewis Carroll. And Dumas was apparently considered youth reading.)
Mary Crosson's "Plain Jane" Series List. Public domain (pre-20s) children's and teens series available on the web.
We Need Diverse Books - try the resource page for lists and links.
Mirror post on LJ.
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Date: 2017-06-05 01:55 am (UTC)I'm also considering Narnia, of all things. I know it's huge. But I actually have a good number of interesting prompts beyond the usual "Pevensies adjust to England" sort. (For instance, what if they all came back through the wardrobe in their grown-up bodies and Narnian clothing? Or what if their parents were killed in the bombings while they were at the Professor's house?)
I'm not sure what else I want, though. I got great fic for Harper Hall trilogy last time and sort of want to switch gears from that. I'll have to look through my bookshelves for ideas, I guess.
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Date: 2017-06-05 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-05 07:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-05 02:01 am (UTC)Night Calls by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel finally got marketed as YA. (The sequels too!) The shorthand is "What if Laura Ingalls Wilder were a shaman?" but the books are more than that. It's that setting, but the magic is deeply rooted, and while the first book has werewolves, a vampire, and a ghost, it's really a coming of age story.
The Chimes of Alyafaleyn by Grace Chetwin (The kindle version is much longer than the print version, and I like both.) Wonderful world building, where a precocious child's extraordinary talent is squashed, and as a result she nearly undoes everything that makes her world a good place.
Red Moon and Black Mountain by Joy Chant. Three children find themselves in a different world, where a battle between good and evil is coming... And that doesn't come anywhere near to giving this story justice. Again, fantastic world building, and great characters.
Okay, so three fantasies. Let me think on other genres.
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Date: 2017-06-05 02:41 am (UTC)I also have three books in the Night Calls series. The third was frustrating because it was all set up for things to happen later. There wasn't a through line. I haven't seen mention of a fourth book yet, but I might have missed it. Do you know if there is one?
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Date: 2017-06-05 02:14 am (UTC)The Hardy Boys / Franklin W. Dixon
The Three Investigators / Robert Arthur
Trixie Belden / Julie Campbell and Kathryn Kenny
The Boxcar Children / Gertrude Chandler Warner
(I'd say Sherlock Holmes, which has certainly been marketed to YAs and kids, but I don't need to prompt for ACDfic here.)
I also liked individual mysteries but the only one coming immediately to mind is The Spanish Cave by Geoffrey Household.
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Date: 2017-06-05 02:58 am (UTC)Mystery:
Mystery of the Haunted Mine(Lost Treasure of the Espectros) by Gordon D. Shirreffs. There's gold in them thar hills, but everyone who's gone looking for it has disappeared or turned up dead.
Ghost Town Treasure by Robert C. Bulla. A boy's small town is dying, but if he can just find a treasure, then maybe he and his family won't have to move. (I fell in love with roll top desks because of this book.)
Alvin's Secret Code by Clifford B. Hicks. Alvin and his best friend Shoie learn about codes and ciphers, and by the end of the book I had learned a lot about them too!
Tearjerkers:
The Chestry Oak by Kate Seredy (recently reprinted!) Prince Michael of Chestry is a child when the Nazis come to his valley in Hungary, and not much older when the war ends. Curiously enough, I usually need the handkerchiefs when I get to the part where everything is working out.
The Lottery Rose by Irene Hunt. This is a love it or hate it book, about a child who is rescued from an abusive situation, and it is an unabashed angstfest.
On their own:
Slake's Limbo by Felice Holman. Slake escapes from bullies by diving down into the New York City subway system, and then stays down there for 121 days. You may see some reviews that say he is white, but the book never specifies; Holman didn't, so that more children could see themselves in Slake.
My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George
One of my Sam's. Sam Gribley decides to go and live on the land his grandfather failed to farm, having done his research first.
The Village That Slept by Monique Peyrouton de Ladebat (I read it in English.) Three children find themselves in an alpine village where no one lives anymore, with no memory of how they got there, and no real idea of which way they should go.
Landslide by Veronique Day. A landslide traps several children inside a buried building, and they must find a way to survive and signal for help.
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Date: 2017-06-05 02:40 am (UTC)Sadly, I've found no fandom whatsoever for this book. The ending is rife for aftermath fic, dealing with Lyric's relationships and how Summer's fate effects them. Her best friends, her sorta boyfriend, her father, her teachers. Does she ever go back to the hills even as an adult for a visit? Does Summer retain even a bit of herself or is she lost forever?
I also reccommend Two Are Better Than One by Carol Ryrie Brink. It's a story about two preteen BFFs and their adventures, told via a nested story and the POV of one of the girls as an old woman. The two girls' friendship takes center stage even as they grow up and have implied romances with two older guys.
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Date: 2017-06-05 02:51 am (UTC)The premise, for anyone who doesn't know the book, is that everyone over about 12 years old dies in a mysterious plague, and the children that are left are trying to figure out how to survive (and protect themselves from armies of bullies...). Post-apocalyptic your thing? You'll love this book. :D
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Date: 2017-06-05 03:39 am (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2017-06-05 03:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-05 05:02 am (UTC)Danny Dunn series, by Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin - A trio of young people have adventures and along the way end up learning about science. Some are more fantastical (they travel to space, they get shrunk and experience the world while from insect-size), while some are straight from the forefront of science at that time. (The first laser was built in 1960; "Danny Dunn and the Heat Ray" gives Danny a chance to save the day with one in 1962.) I love that of the trio (besides the title character), one is a girl who likes science and this is treated neither as strange or as worthy of a lot of commentary; it's just the way things are; and one is not great at science but good at English, and this is also treated like it's totally fine, without pushing him to need to get better at science or thinking he's unintelligent.
My Side of the Mountain, by Jean Craighead George - I was so into books on survival and living off the land as a kid, and I loved how Sam was so practical and thoughtful, and accomplished so much. The other books in the series had more plot and less Sam-slowly-making-improvements-to-his-home, so I never liked them as much.
Two things I love in books that both of the above have in spades are a) competence/characters doing stuff they're good at; and b) adults being helpful advisors/teachers to the child characters and in return not being treated as "us vs. them" by the main characters.
Toliver's Secret, by Esther Wood Brady - During the American Revolutionary War, 10-year-old Ellen Toliver dresses up as a boy to take a message out of occupied New York. The story makes characters on both sides of the war come alive as she goes through adventures on her journey, and I've always loved Toliver as a character.
Follow My Leader, by James B. Garfield - Another book that helped me to understand something outside my experience, except instead of historical fiction, here it's a disability. This book is about a boy who is blinded in an accident and slowly comes to grips with the changes in his life, learning Braille and how to get around, and eventually going away to school to get a guide dog and learn to be self-sufficient again. What I didn't realize until looking the book up just now is that the author himself was blind.
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Date: 2017-06-05 03:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 08:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-05 03:16 pm (UTC)The Alice Series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor. Afaik it's considered YA by genre (it's very YA just having read the whole series P:) It goes through the series and life of a girl named Alice, growing up in Silver Spring, Maryland, after her mother died of leukemia, with her brother and her father, moving to a handful of new places and the friends and people she meets. The series has also been ongoing on a lot of banned books lists for its frank discussions of sex, racism, and LGBT characters (though it's not an LGBT series; it's just, like, politically left leaning.)
I'm new around here, so let me know if I'm doing anything wrong or making suggestions that have already been suggested!
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Date: 2017-06-09 02:14 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2017-06-05 05:05 pm (UTC)Nancy Drew, of course. Or maybe the Dana Girls. I have the manga ND that apparently features the Dana Girls, but I won't get to read it before noms, most likely
Little House on the Prairie books
Witch Week maybe? (I'm planning to read it with my daughter here very soon.)
A Little Princess and The Secret Garden.
Ruth Fielding - older girls series that I really enjoyed, a lot of it is available for free on Kindle/Gutenberg.
The Incredible Journey
Cherry Ames
Does anyone else remember the Sunfire books for girls? Historicals, all have girls' names for the titles, generally have a triangle situation with varying levels of danger. Josie was the first one I read, because it took place in my home state: https://www.amazon.com/Josie-Sunfire-Vivian-Schurfranz/dp/0590412078
Wait Until Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. Also by MDH: The Doll in the Garden. It's short but definitely interesting, involves a little time travel (and a possible ghostly cat): https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003UV91BU/ref=kinw_myk_ro_title
The "Dead Is" series by Marlene Perez is really good, sort of snarky teen UF set in a small CA town called Nightshade.
https://www.amazon.com/Dead-8-Book/dp/B00WKOGRS8/ref=sr_1_1_ha?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1496681303&sr=1-1&keywords=dead+is+the+new+black
The Starfleet Academy books - thinking here of the Worf-centric three books by Peter David.
The Tawny Scrawny Lion also sounds like it could be fun.
A Deadly Game of Magic by Jean Lowery Nixon.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume - I apparently read this one with my daughter just in time.
The Choose Your Own Adventure stuff? I guess we would have to nom individual titles - I was thinking the Vampire Express or Secret of the Ninja
Old Yeller
101 Dalmatians book
Sweet Valley High and the Baby-Sitters Club
Bobbsey Twins
Little Bo by Julie Andrews: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Bo-Story-Bonnie-Boadicea/dp/0786805145/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496681992&sr=8-1&keywords=little+bo
Judy Bolton
The stewardess stories by Margaret Hill (Hostess in the Sky, etc): https://www.amazon.com/Hostess-sky-Margaret-Hill/dp/B0007E6QHA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496682109&sr=8-1&keywords=margaret+hill+hostess
The Animals Vacation: Picture book I loved as a kid - https://www.amazon.com/Animals-Vacation-Vintage-Shel-Haber-ebook/dp/B00SA5KGBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1496682171&sr=8-1&keywords=the+animals+vacation
Ever After High books - particuarly EAH Next Top Villain
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Date: 2017-06-05 10:40 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2017-06-05 08:02 pm (UTC)Little House for sure. So many ideas.
Narnia, because reasons.
Number the Stars by Lois Lowry.
Actiony Tiny-to-Nonexistent Fandoms
Date: 2017-06-06 12:07 am (UTC)The Mysterious Benedict Society series by Trenton Lee Stewart - Four exceptionally clever young people must take on a dangerous mission to stop the evil mastermind Mr. Curtain! I found the characters very relatable and enjoyed the assorted puzzles and word puns.
The 39 Clues series by assorted authors (published by Scholastic): A wide variety of characters must travel around the world to complete a dangerous quest! Much of the cast is very competent in at least one area - teenage music star, super athletic family, several geniuses, and a literal ex-spy - the two main protagonists have no clue what they're doing and what's really going on. There's a lot of action and some cool locations/history. (Just don't look for realism in the science or plot.)
Because of the series' length (the first part is 10 books long plus two tie-ins, and the franchise sprawls from there) and multiple authors, getting your hands on this one can be a bit tricky, and while books 2-5 can be read in any order with minimal confusion, the latter half really needs to be read in order for it to make sense.
The Time Hunters series by Carl Ashmore (not to be confused with the series with the same name by Chris Blake, though that's probably also eligible) - Two siblings and their (great) uncle travel through time! Lots of stuff set in assorted periods (complete with appropriate clothing!) and many extinct animals (and cryptids). I found it funny and engaging, and the assorted members of the household (including the non-human ones) are wonderful.
The H.I.V.E. series by Mark Walden - Students at a school for villains engage in hijinks! It alternately uses, subverts, and plays with all sorts of action tropes. The story itself is fun, but realism is not to be expected. I found the first book a bit of a drag but the others much more engaging.
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Date: 2017-06-06 08:28 am (UTC)Howl's Moving Castle (How did Howl get to Ingary, anyway?)
The Lives of Christopher Chant (I crave a three-Chrestomanci teamup fic, or a crossover with Jamie from The Homeward Bounders)
The Magicians of Caprona (because the world needs more fic about the Montana family cat, right?)
Archer's Goon (backstory for those weird siblings and who their parents were?)
But possibly others!
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Date: 2017-06-09 01:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 01:39 pm (UTC)All of a Kind Family
Krabat (also called Krabat and the Satanic Mill, also called The Satanic Mill)
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Date: 2017-06-09 02:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-06 02:39 pm (UTC)The Captain Underpants Series by Dav Pilkey - I'd love to see what delightfully silly fic could come from this one.
The Changeling and The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder - Two very different kids-playing-pretend adventures. Also, two early "I shipped it before I knew what shipping was" f/f pairings for very young me.
Here Lies the Librarian by Richard Peck - Auto mechanic meets new town librarian in early 20th century rural Indiana.
The Wayside School Series by Louis Sachar - Tales of the world's strangest school, including some notable encounters with dead rats and cows in the classroom and a 13th story that doesn't actually exist.
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Date: 2017-06-06 05:49 pm (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 2017-06-08 05:17 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-09 02:29 am (UTC)The Bartimaeus series by Jonathan Stroud. What happens to Kitty after Ptolemy's Gate? Does she ever meet Bartimaeus again?
Would love more on Sophie in the time between Howl's Moving Castle and House of Many Ways by Dianna Wynne Jones!
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Date: 2017-06-09 08:01 pm (UTC)Oh wow, seconded!
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Date: 2017-06-09 09:00 pm (UTC)I also remember the books of Montgomery M. Atwater.. There's a whole interconnected lot of them about Forest Rangers. I knew Avalanche Patrol best, but I liked all of 'em.
And of course I should remember the Green Knowe series. I just handed the first one to a child.
More currently, Dragonbreath and the Hamster Princess books are fun.
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Date: 2017-06-10 08:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-06-11 03:03 am (UTC)