Brainstorming and Schedule

[evil_plotbunny]

The Exchange at Fic Corner 2013 Revised Schedule
July 6th - Comm Opens for Brainstorming
July 12th - 22st - Nominations
July 23nd - 30th - Sign-Ups
July 31st or August 1st - Assignments Sent Out
September 22nd - Deadline for Stories
September 29th - Collection Goes Live

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?

Go forth in the comments and pimp your favo(u)rites.

ETA: 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.
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.

Comments

[primeideal]

Squee squee squee squee squee I cannot narrow down all the books. I have this lolmassive crossover with so many fandoms I should probably just go through and sound off which are the really obscure ones people might have heard of but aaaah I'm really going to be incoherent about this, sorry?! And yayyyy.

[snowynight]

Un Lun Dun by China Miéville: Think Neverwhere with a heroine the trope codifier of the Unchosen, a London through the looking glass, and an exciting plot.

Summerland by Michael Chabon: a American fantasy version of Narnia, with a charming ensemble cast and an extensive world building

The Necessary Hunger by Nina Revoyr: The book centres around a Japanese American teenage girl basketball player who needs to decide on her future, face inter-racial tension, and a crush about her rival.

Supergirl: Cosmic Adventures In the 8th Grade: a really charming comics with great female friendship and a interesting plot.

[primeideal]

I got Summerland fic for Yuletide last year! And still sort of want to write NYR fic for it. :)

[automaticdoor]

Roald Dahl books!!

Ella Enchanted, the BOOK, not the MOVIE, ew ;)

Baby-Sitters Club? There can't be enough BSC! Yes, I know the fandom is thriving in small pockets. :)

[osprey_archer]

Ella Enchanted, the BOOK, not the MOVIE, ew ;)

Ha, this warms the cockles of my heart. The book is so awesome, isn't it? Ella & Char could visit Ayortha and catch up with Areida! Or something.

And YES, BSC fic all the way!

I am also a big fan of Roald Dahl books - particularly Matilda. Your taste in books is clearly excellent. :)

[mmmdraco]

"The Secret Garden", definitely.

I'm pretty sure Harry Potter, Hunger Games and Twilight will make it, along with Percy Jackson, the Hiccup series and the Guardians of Childhood series.

But I'd love "Number the Stars", the Gallagher Girls series, the Sunset Island series, the Alex Rider series, "Hatchet", "Charlotte's Web", the Alanna series, the Dark is Rising sequence, David Leviathan's "Boy Meets Boy", the Chronicles of Chrestomanci, the Sweet Valley High series and the Howl's Moving Castle series.

For manga, "Hikaru no Go", "Skip Beat!", "BECK", "Full Moon o Sagashite", "Kaitou Saint Tail", "Kodomo no Omocha", "Hanazakari no Kimitachi e", "Ouran High School Host Club", "Eyeshield 21" and "Kuroko no Basuke".

...>_< No, totally not my preferred area to read in at all.

[jenn_calaelen]

ooh.. Chronicles of Chrestomanci! I read those for the first time this year - and it would be a really interesting series to read/write fic for (although I never got as far as looking to see what people had already written).

Would you be thinking of requesting and/or offering it? Which characters are you interested in? (if you want to answer ;) )

[graycardinal]

This is going to be interesting; here's a longish list of authors/books/series that popped into my head as this exchange was being born -- many of them older works, many probably very obscure. So one of the questions here is "Does anyone but me remember these?"


Amerman, Lockhart - Guns in the Heather; The Sly One (Jonathan Flower books)
Appleton, Victor - Tom Swift (series #4, 1990ish)
Campbell, Hope - Meanwhile, Back at the Castle
Chambers, Kate - Diana Winthrop series
Curry, Jane Louise - The Ice Ghosts Mystery; The Sleepers
Erwin, Betty K. - Go to the Room of the Eyes
Hicks, Cliffort B - Alvin Fernald series
Newman, Robert - The Case of the Baker Street Irregular (& sequels)
Pope, Elizabeth Marie - The Sherwood Ring
Smith, L.J. - The Night of the Solstice; Heart of Valor
Tallis, Robyn - Planet Builders series
Wickenden, Dan - The Amazing Vacation
Williams, Jay & Abrashkin, Raymond - Danny Dunn series

I'll try to annotate or describe some of these a bit later; for the moment, feel free to chime in if any of them resonate.

[elf]

Oooh Alvin Fernald and Danny Dunn!

I have very fond memories of SuperWeasel. I have more vague memories of Danny Dunn, except that I know I loved them.

[osprey_archer]

The American Girl series - I'm thinking particularly of Felicity, Samantha, Kit, or Molly, though I think any of the series could spawn awesome fic. (Has anyone else read the Rebecca books?)

Megan Whalen Turner's Queen's Thief books. Politics! Clever heists! All in AU Greece.

Sherwood Smith's Crown Duel: More politics! Not as many clever heists! The heroine, Mel, is awesome; I love how she gets things totally wrong sometimes, and rather than dig in with her errors, tries to correct herself.

The Borrowers. Okay, I can't be the only person who just wants the further adventures of six-inch tall people. I would probably be happy reading about them constructing a chest of drawers or something out of common household objects. (I also always kind of thought Arrietty and Spiller would get together in the end...)

[katherine]

The Borrowers absolutely.

[voksen]

I'm thinking Anne of Green Gables and Pippi Longstocking, maybe...

[voksen]

aand Watership Down

[the_rck]

Has anyone else read Brandon Sanderson's Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians? There are four books, and the last one ends with a heck of a cliffhanger. The books are fantasy(ish) and very funny. The Librarians secretly rule the world. Alcatraz and his family oppose them, and all have Talents that sound useless but are really quite powerful.

There's also Drujienna's Harp by Ellen Kindt McKenzie. This is a portal fantasy in which a girl named Tha finds herself in another world, a world that's been under a curse for two hundred years. She's searching for her missing brother but gets caught up in events.

I'm sure I'll have other ideas. I just need to look at my bookshelves.

[evil_plotbunny]

I've read the first Alcatraz.

[mmmdraco]

I totally forgot one of my favorites in my original post, so....

The Evil Genius series by Catherine Jinks. Cadel Pigott is <3.

[aoifes_isle]

The Star Kingdom series is a fairly obvious choice for me (it's the Honorverse YA sub series) - I love the Treecats and I want more?

And then the Discworld's YA set which I really need to check whether they have an official sub series title - Tiffany Aching's quintology of books, especially the first three (I love the snarky commentary on the Pagan community if you read between the lines in those and the main Witches' books).

Chalet School. But I'm only any good on the pre-war books - or at least that's the canon I have access to right now. I want more of the girls being girl guides and camping ...

And maybe the Famous Five .....

[ozqueen]

THE FAMOUS FIVE, YES, YES ♥ Also The Enchanted Wood. Or any Enid Blytons really, because kadsfjalsdkjflsdjf

[pleonasm]

Does anyone remember the Spooksville series by Christopher Pike? I adored these as a kid but I've never met anyone else who has read them.

[crantz]

I REMEMBER THESE. The time travel book sticks with me.

[jadelennox]

Ooh, The True meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex -- hilarious Earth invasion.

Ronia the robber's daughter by Astrid Lindgren -- surreal, darkly sweet middle grade story of a robber's daughter falling in love.

Midnighters by Scott Westerfeld has a fantastic ensemble cast and would have made great team television. My favorite character is the one whose magical power comes in 13 letter words.

Bleeding Violet and Slice of Cherry by Dia Reeves are the most fucked up novels I've ever read, and I love them. They're gorgeous.

The westing game by Ellen Raskin, of course. Best puzzle book ever.

I'd kind of like to read fic set in the collective Maurice Sendak universe, connecting the world of Outside over There with Higgledy-Piggledy Pop, We Are All in the Dumps with Jack and Guy, and Brundibar.

And oh dear me The Borribles by Michael de Larrabeiti. "That's me mate out there. That's Torreycanyon, the poor bleeder, he's still alive after all this time." *sobs*

Children's comics: Scary Godmother, Castle Waiting, Blue Monday, Bone.

[primeideal]

I know someone has written "Westing Game" fic. Great book.

[velvetmouse]

throwing in for:

Betsy-Tacy series
L'Engle Murry-O'Keefe books (although honestly I'm really only interested in the initial three)
pretty much anything Louisa May Alcott wrote (well, her popular stuff. she has some amazing things that were definitely not kid-material)
Harry Potter, depending on characters nominated
Young Wizards, again depend on who's nominated
the Eloise books would be awesome
as would Madeline....

and Mary Poppins. The books, of course. *nods firmly*

so many choices!
<3

[batman]

I'm definitely nominating Young Wizards (le gasp) so which characters were you after?

[elf]

Things I love that I know will be recognized:
Wrinkle in Time series
The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster
Shel Silverstein's poetry
Just So Stories - Rudyard Kipling

Things I'm less sure anyone else knows/cares about: (although actually, I'm pretty sure they'll be recognized by someone)
The Three Investigators series - Robert Arthur, Jr.
Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle series - Betty Bard MacDonald
Tripods Trilogy - John Christopher
Encyclopedia Brown series - Donald J. Sobol
SuperDictionary

Things I'm worried that I might be the only one:
The Witch's Catalog - Norman Bridwell
Sweetwater - Laurence Yep
Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls - Jane Lindskold
Interstellar Pig - William Sleator
The Changeling - Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Brainstorming resources
Newbery Medal list
Juvenile Series and Sequels from the MCPL database (looong list.)
Top 100 Middle School 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--Three Musketeers was apparently considered youth reading.)
Amazon's terrifying list of Teen/YA authors, which may not be entirely accurate for purpose of this fest... I'm not sure "Name of the Rose" is a Teen/YA novel. (But maybe it was? On the theory that any book with a teenage protagonist must be marketed to teens?)

not the only one!

[grrlpup]

The Changeling meant a lot to me when I was a kid. I'd love to reread it.

[nocowardsoul]

All the Alcott books
Anne of Green Gables, Emily of New Moon, and Jane of Lantern Hill
Most of Avi's historicals
Lloyd Alexander's Prydain and Westmark
Joan Lowery Nixon's Orphan Train Adventures - Someone else has read these, right?

[cest_what]

Oh, Prydain fic would be lovely.

[baranduin]

Bunnicula!

[pameluke]

Astrid Lindgren like whoa... I'd be down for anything, but mostly The Brothers Lionheart, Ronja Robbersdaughter, and Pippi Longstocking.

I'd also TOTALLY be down for some Thea Beckman, but the chance that there are people who've read any of them here are slim. But seriously Children of Mother Earth Trilogy just screams for fic. Or Hasse Simonsdochter.

[pameluke]

Oh and Tonke Dragt with Letter for the King and The Wild Forrest.

[ysobel]

One YA book that I read fairly recently and would love to see fic of (especially just worldbuildingy fic; I love the premise) is Darkbeast by Morgan Keyes -- has anyone else read that?

[grrlpup]

Dairy Queen and its sequels (The Off Season and Front and Center), by Catherine Gilbert Murdock.

Look Through My Window and Kate, by Jean Little.

Midnight Hour Encores, by Bruce Brooks.

[evil_plotbunny]

Yay for both Dairy Queen and Jean Little!

[primeideal]

Okay, here are some of the super-obscure ones I'm just wondering whether I'm the only one for...

Lots of Louis Sachar stuff (Wayside School, Holes...)
Lots of Gordon Korman stuff (especially the sports, No More Dead Dogs, Island trilogy?)

"In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson"--Bette Bao Lord

basically a lot of baseball-themed stuff...

Things I've technically written (surreal crossover) fic for:
-Outernet (Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore): series of six parody science-fiction books.
-Mal Peet's YA books (Tamar, historical fiction; Keeper/The Penalty/Exposure, soccer/football series with a hint of fantasy; "Life, An Exploded Diagram"--have not read this one but I've heard it's good).
-Children of the Star trilogy (Sylvia Louise Engdahl--"This Star Shall Abide," "Beyond the Tomorrow Mountains," "The Doors of the Universe")

I'll come up with some more plausible candidates later I guess. Sorry, just way too bouncy about this.

[osprey_archer]

Children of the Star fic would be great! I don't think I've even met someone else whose even read those books.

[elanya]

Has anyone else read any of Thornton W. Burgess's books? Old Granny Fox was one of my favourites growing up - I still have the ancient hardcover copy that may have originally belonged to my dad, though I think it is in storage. It's anthropomorpic animals - but with more animal related concerns than, say, the Wind in the Willows.

Anyway, to that I will toss out a few other unrelated ideas...

The Eyes of the Dragon by Stephen King
The Graveyard Book and Coraline by Neil Gaiman because... Gaiman.
and Emilie and the Hollow World by Martha Wells, because I want stories about Rani and Kenar

[graycardinal]

I had several of the Burgess books as a small child, including Old Granny Fox. I think my parents eventually donated those somewhere or other after we grew up, so I'm not sure where I'd lay hands on them now. (Hmm. Are those old enough to have fallen into public domain, such that Project Gutenberg would have them?)

[spoke]

Bunnicula series!
L'Engle's Murry-O'Keefe series, though I've only read Wrinkle, Wind and Planet. Working on Many Waters now.
The Discworld YA books, the Tiffany Aching ones and The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents
Foxy by Helen V. Griffith
The Three Investigators
the Dark is Rising sequence
Guardians of Childhood
The Boxcar Children

HERE, I CLEANED OUT MY YULETIDE FILE FOR THIS

[ar]

Frozen - Mary Casanova: Sadie Rose is an orphan being raised by a Minnesota senator in the early days of Prohibition. She has all the finer things in life--a home on Summit Avenue in St. Paul, a summer home in northern Minnesota, piano lessons--but she doesn't have a voice. Or a past. Sadie has been mute for ten years, since the winter night when her mother died under mysterious circumstances. How and why did her mother die? What does that death have to do with the political machinations going on around the senator? And in her sixteenth summer, will she find out who she really is?

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD SHOULD READ THIS BOOK AND WRITE ME SADIE ROSE/TRINITY FIC.

Flygirl - Sherri L. Smith: Ida Mae Jones has never wanted anything as bad as to be a licensed pilot--and when World War II starts, she sees her opportunity. The WASP is always looking for new pilots, and by flying military planes across the United States, Ida Mae could help out the men flying overseas. But the WASP is an organization for white women, and even if she passes the paper-bag test, Ida Mae is still black. If she wants to achieve her dream, she'll have to pass as white among the other trainees and professors. She quickly makes two great new friends, Lily Lowenstein and Patsy Kake, but is this new life worth the sacrifice?

EVERYONE IN THE WORLD SHOULD READ THIS BOOK AND WRITE ME LILY AND IDA MAE TALKING ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST.

Princess Academy - Shannon Hale: Miri, too small to mine stone (and forbidden from doing so anyway) has always felt like the most useless girl on Mount Eskel, the hillbilly backwater of the kingdom. When it's announced that the next princess of the realm will come from her mountain, though, she's swept up into a "princess academy," a school to teach her and her peers all the skills needed to be a princess. Their teacher doesn't believe in them, but Miri and her friends show her wrong every day as they learn to read, write, do sums, and more. And all this education is useful for more than just catching a prince: Miri realizes through her studies that the people down the mountain have been cheating her village for years and years. Can she take what she's learned to make a better life for her family and friends?

I DON'T KNOW WHAT I WANT FOR THIS I JUST WANT MORE

When You Reach Me - Rebecca Stead: It's 1978, and Miranda has started getting weird notes. Not only are they cryptic, they're showing up in places they really shouldn't, like her backpack. And her apartment. And in New York City, you really don't want to find strange notes in your apartment. It's one strange mystery on top of all the other issues taking up residence with her: Her best friend won't hang out with her anymore, her new friends seem to think she should want to hang out with snobby Julia, she can't seem to get the hang of how time travel works in A Wrinkle in Time, and she has to help her mother study for The $20,000 Pyramid. The only thing she's sure about is that sixth grade is going to be a year to remember.

I WANT TO SEE THE FUTURE, YOU GUYS, WRITE ME ABOUT JULIA AND MARCUS IN THE FUTURE

The Ramsay Scallop - Frances Temple: Elenor and Thomas have been betrothed for years and years, but it's never seemed real to Elenor. First, they were too young for marriage to be relevant, and then, Thomas went to fight in the Crusades. But now she's fourteen, the year is 1300, and Thomas has returned a disillusioned young man, and marriage seems all too close. Before they're wed, however, they're sent on a pilgrimage to Compostela. On the way, they have the chance not only to get to know each other but to meet people from all walks of life and see parts of the world they would never have experienced otherwise. And by the time they reach Spain, perhaps the idea of marrying each other won't be so horrible after all.

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO WRITE ME THOMAS/ELENOR SINCE I WAS THIRTEEN YEARS OLD

Every Day - David Levithan: A wakes up in a new body every single day. Sometimes they're female; sometimes they're male. They might be rich or poor, black or white, a stoner or a beauty queen--the only thing they know for sure is that when the clock strikes midnight, they'll move on to a new body. And they've made their peace with their life...until they meet Rhiannon. Suddenly, there's a reason to want to stay in one body forever. Can you make a relationship work when you're a different person every day?

I JUST WANT A TO GET OLDER

Re: HERE, I CLEANED OUT MY YULETIDE FILE FOR THIS

[crantz]

You beat me to When You Reach Me. I really want to see what went down with the dome.

[nocowardsoul]

Fly By Night and sequel by Frances Hardinge

[true_statement]

One somewhat more obscure YA writer I was obsessed with: Liz Berry. She wrote a gorgeous standalone called The China Garden:

'Remember, I tried to stop you. Don't blame me. Remember I tried to warn you.'

Clare is chilled by her mother's warnings to stay away from Ravensmere, the large country house where her mother has taken a private nursing job. But Clare knows she has to go there - it is not a choice but a compulsion. And she only intends to stay a few weeks, anyway, just until she goes to university in the autumn.

Ravensmere is a strange, enchanting place, but she grows increasingly disturbed. How come the local villagers appear to know her? Why is she having these odd visions? And who is the attractive, leather-clad stranger who is watching her? What is the power of the Benison and why must she visit the China Garden in the middle of the night?

Ravensmere casts a magical spell over Clare, drawing her into a mystery that stretches back over thousands of years. She knows that Ravensmere and the valley are in danger and that time is running out - but will she risk her future to save it?

The China Garden is a haunting novel of an ancient legend, family secrets and young love. A heady mixture of romance and mystery.

She also wrote a bunch of more or less interconnected books about rock bands Easy Connection, Night Mission and Assassination and the girls who get caught up with them, which were id-central for teenaged me.

[evewithanapple]

Fuck YEAH The China Garden! That book influenced me on levels it took me years to realize.