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.

[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.

[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...)

[voksen]

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

[osprey_archer]

I love Number the Stars! I'm not sure what I would write for it, but I bet there could be some amazing fic. Maybe what happens to Ellen in Sweden...indeed, just Ellen's point of view on what happens in the book!

And I think the Alanna series - indeed, all of Tamora Pierce's series - would be great too.

[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.

[mmmdraco]

I'd want to reread the series before I tried to write for it as I've read them all but not in either the published or chronological order, but I can definitely try to do that before sign-ups.

[mmmdraco]

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

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

[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.

[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 .....

[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.

[jadelennox]

There's a fair chunk on AO3, actually. Not a ton, but some good stuff.

[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.

[katherine]

The Borrowers absolutely.

[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

[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?)

[nocowardsoul]

Yes, I like Rebecca.

[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?

[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.