Find by Audience Age:
Find by Vintage
Find by Genre:
Tag Archives: coming-of-age
What would you do if your parent left you and your siblings in the car and never came back? That’s the start of Homecoming, a classic YA novel by Cynthia Voigt
The first in the Tillerman series, Homecoming follows the four Tillerman children after they are abandoned by their mentally ill mother in a car park. When she doesn’t come back they set out to find other relatives several states away. … Continue reading
Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, Young Adult
Tagged 1980s, adoption, American, boats, camping, character-driven, coming-of-age, courage, family, fiction, hardship, learning difficulties, mental illness, north-eastern United States, overcoming adversity, resourcefulness, siblings, single mothers, survival, Tillerman series, well written, YA classic
Leave a comment
Take themes of bureaucracy and greed, add non-stop word-wit and shellfish-references, throw in the waning of magic and a very old dragon and you have The Last Dragonslayer: teen fantasy Jasper Fforde-style
The Last Dragonslayer by Jasper Fforde is a story about magic, dragons and red tape. After reading it I concluded that my ideal pet would be a quarkbeast (no fur, funny-looking, loyal and affectionate, not exactly huggable but still better … Continue reading
Adventure for kids, humour for grown-ups: Dragon Boy by Dick King-Smith
Dragon Boy by Dick King-Smith is another classic dragon story from my childhood by one of my favourite children’s authors (he also wrote The Sheep-pig aka Babe). Orphaned John is found crying in the forest by a dragon, Montague Bunsen-Burner. … Continue reading
Posted in 20th Century Children's, 7 years and up, Children's, Fantasy
Tagged 20th Century, 7 and up, action, adventure, animals, British, coming-of-age, courage, Dick King-Smith, drama, fantasy, fiction, food and fighting, good out loud, humour, orphaned hero, parody, there be Dragons, wolves
Leave a comment
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones is a YA fantasy book. I knew it was a winner as soon as I saw that it has chapter titles like “In which Howl expresses his feelings with Green Slime”. It follows … Continue reading
Posted in 13 years and up, 20th Century YA, British, Fantasy, Young Adult
Tagged 20th Century, adventure, better than the movie, British, coming-of-age, convoluted plot, Diana Wynne Jones, fantasy, fiction, humour, John Donne, magic, mild romance, seven league boots, whimsical, Wizard Howl, YA classic, young adult
Leave a comment
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder
These Happy Golden Years by Laura Ingalls Wilder is the last of the Little House books that Wilder completed and also my favourite. At the end of Little Town on the Prairie Laura received her teaching certificate. Now Laura has … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century YA, Young Adult
Tagged 10 and up, 19th Century, American, character-driven, children's classic, coming-of-age, courtship, education, farming, fiction, good out loud, historical, Little House Book, North Dakota, pioneering America, prairies, school, semi-autobiographical, YA classic, young adult
Leave a comment
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
Little Town on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder continues the Little House books. The Long Winter is over, the prairie is filling up and Laura is old enough to get summer work sewing in the growing town. When winter … Continue reading
Posted in 10 years and up, 20th Century Children's, 20th Century YA, Children's Classics
Tagged 10 and up, 19th Century, American, character-driven, children's classic, coming-of-age, education, farming, good out loud, historical, Little House Book, North Dakota, pioneering America, prairies, school, semi-autobiographical, young adult
Leave a comment
Light a Single Candle by Beverley Butler
Light A Single Candle by Beverley Butler is a great book written in the early 60s that I discovered in high school. Cathy Wheeler becomes completely blind in her early teens when surgery to treat glaucoma goes seriously wrong. As … Continue reading
Posted in 11 years and up, 20th Century YA, American, Coming of Age/Rites of Passage, Light Fiction, Novel, YA Realism, Young Adult
Tagged 1960s, 20th Century, American, animals, blindness, coming-of-age, disability, dogs, fiction, guide dogs, high school, instituationalisation, society, young adult
Leave a comment
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr is a semi-autobiographical account of her family’s flight from Germany in 1933 because of her father’s opposition to the Nazi party. They move to Switzerland, then Paris and finally England. The story … Continue reading
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Mary Barton is a story that looks at the difficulties of lower class people in manufacturing towns during the Industrial Revolution. It has some really engaging characters and charming story-telling. My enjoyment was up there with North and South and … Continue reading
Posted in British, General adult audience, Romance, Social Novel, Victorian
Tagged 19th Century, British, character-driven, classic, coming-of-age, drama, fiction, industrial revolution, realism, society, working class
Leave a comment
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild is a book that I loved growing up and still enjoy. It is the story of Pauline, Petrova and Posy Fossil, orphans adopted and sent to England by a travelling collector of fossils and raised … Continue reading