…to follow Alliance Rising.
We know where we take up.
Jane and I have been given the unofficial goahead for another novel….
by CJ | May 11, 2018 | Journal | 108 comments
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Woohoo!
Excellent, excellent news! My pre-orders for the ebook and hardbound of Alliance Rising are in, and I will be looking forward to the second volume!
(Tonight, I’ll be rereading in Finity’s End.)
Great news! Really looking forward to it.
….mmmm, my gravitar seems to have flown the coop. Got to look into that.
I always wanted to know what happened after we kite off into the deep dark at the end of… Tripoint, I think?** Obviously there’s Something Out There and we’re going to run into it… my hypertrophied Node of Extrapolation wants to link that to pre-events of the Chanur set.
** The entire Alliance-side history merges into one huge story in my head, so I can never remember title vs story.
Oh, that’s SUCH wonderful news … Congratulations! I started re-reading the Fortress books a few weeks ago, got through Book 1 before getting transferred to “The Ark” for all of last week, and some rest at home afterward. I may have to switch to re-reading Alliance books. Good thing I’m a fast reader.
The Ark, you ask? My daughter’s house. Build date 1898, renovated, sits on 2 acres in the middle of PA cow, corn and horse fields, and is inhabited by 2 ducks, 2 bunnies, 2 dogs (plus ours made 3), 2 sourdough starter cultures, 2 wild fox who live in the neighbor’s barn, and … 2 Walters, one big grandpa and one 11 year old grandson. 2 x 2 plus visitors … owls, an occational coyote, toads, frogs and more … hence “The Ark”. My intrepid daughter made it through 24 hours of husband seriously ill in hospital, job and the ark before begging for help. Our days consisted of getting the boy to school (late every day lol; it’s an immersion bi-lingual school, so we apologized every morning in English and Spanish), chasing the hound dog out of the compost bins, escorting giant spiders out of the bathroom, a swarm of black beetles that covered the side of the house and tried to move in … a little reading, a little Pokemon, a lot of worrying about Daddy, a little cooking … Good fortune, good doctors, and 2 surgical interventions and Daddy is home and feeling great, we’re home trying to figure out if we still remember how to breathe LOL. We loved every minute. It’s boring here. Our dog is still exhausted :).
If anyone has reading recommends for almost 11 year old boy I’d be grateful. He is an ice hockey player with 2 speeds: “RUN, SKATE, HYPERDRIVE” and “sleep … if we’re lucky”. He “hates” to read, and all week he couldn’t put the books down. He was banned from screens again so that may have played a part 🙂 His tastes run to Diaries of Wimpy Kids, Treasure Hunters, but he’s whip smart with a burning curiosity, and has already read through all the Harry Potter books, The Hobbit and full Lord of The Rings multiple times, and is begging me to supply more books. We added Sherlock Holmes/Doyle to his library for Christmas; he likes it. Count of Monte Christo will be for his June birthday. His mom is a multi-degreed university library director. I brainwashed her into loving books; brainwashing version 2 small boy is coming along nicely.
Cathy, if his reading level is good enough that he can handle those books, then wow, try anything he might like. — When I was a kid, there were at least two very nice young reader level books (How To Golden Books, I think was one; I don’t recall the other series name) and these had all sorts of science and curiosity things that would attract kids: dinosaurs, the solar system, all sorts of things. They might even be a little under his reading level, but I really enjoyed them as a kid, and my reading level was already a few grades higher. It sounds like his is. Dinosaurs and prehistoric mammals, prehistory or any history, biology…in my case, I got interested in languages and the history of writing.
Science fiction and fantasy and adventure classics might suit him. Edgar Rice Burroughs or Andre Norton or Heinlein’s juveniles. Jules Verne…..
Around that age, I went through a phase one summer, reading junior high (middle school) to high school level biographies, people like Lincoln, Grant, and Lee, and I think a few others. (It wasn’t especially Civil War interest, but there were several YA biographies in one section between the kids’ and adults’ books in one of the two library branches we went to. These might foster an interest in the story part of history. Any historical period would do if he likes it. All of them; why not?
Somewhere around then, I also read the first Flinx book by Alan Dean Foster; I’d already read his Star Trek novelizations.
If he’s doing well in, and likes Spanish — He could try beginning short stories in Spanish, or translations of books he likes, something at a level he could tackle OK.
How about Charles Dickens? — Oh! Duh. Mark Twain, nearly anything by him.
I loved Rudyard Kipling’s Kim when I was a young teen, and liked his Just So stories when I was around my pre-teens. Kipling’s other books would be good. You’d already said he’s read Treasure Island. Try the Swiss Family Robinson.
Something that actually worked well for me: My parents made sure I loved books, both the library and bookstore, by saying things like, all human knowledge was written down in books and free to read at the library, for anybody who wanted to read on any subject. (Or words to that effect.) I graduated early from the kids’ section of the library to the adults’ section, still reading some in the kids’ section for a while. I got a library card to test this out, and any adult books had to be checked out by my mom or dad for a while, about a year or less. The librarians asked questions and found out, hey, I really was reading those, and conscientious about it, and interested when I checked them out. So I got into a full adult library card fairly early. (And I would guess CJ’s and Jane’s other fans here did too.)
My point being, past a certain point, as long as I ran the books I wanted to check out, past my mom or dad for approval, it was somewhat like letting me have the full run of the swimming pool, but not throwing me right in the deep end. So I could look up what I wanted to or ask for help finding it, and roam more or less freely. (I am sure whichever parent, occasionally both, knew right where I was and therefore what I might be looking at.)
So if he gets motivated enough by curiosity and hobbies or love of certain genres, he’d likely be fine to do the same. For now, if he’s still reluctant to read, then yeah, guide him through and perhaps test him out on subject areas to see which he might like. — And having a mom who’s a librarian is a major plus in this for him.
Kids today get inundated with computer devices (on their desk or tablet, phone, gaming, TV, everywhere). This is both good and bad, in that it can keep them from interacting with other kids, playing outside, or reading, unless they will read on a Kindle or other device.
Hmm, you could also try audiobooks as a gateway into interest in reading. But reading is essential.
One good point about the constant connection kids now have with phone, tablet, computer, and web is, they have to be able to read and write some, to be able to interact with friends online, or view and read and listen to content.
Maybe 30 minutes to an hour a day/night reading an actual book or an ebook? If he sees there are things he likes, I’d think he’ll warm up to reading more. With parents and grandparents who are big readers, it’s likely he’ll gravitate to it with a bit more nudging.
I wasn’t a very sports-minded kid, but if he is — sports and sports history, martial arts, camping and outdoorsmanship and scouting, whatever book subjects might parallel his favorite activities. Gardening? Art? Sculpting? Photography? — Some of my (guy) friends growing up had phases with magic tricks, ventriloquism, monster movies and makeup and special effects. Chess interest? Anything. Farming. Veterinarian and other info about animals like horses, dogs, cats, other animals around him.
I’m not sure what’s out there for kids in books about computer programming or robotics, things like that, but there should be some geared for younger / secondary school age kids.
Heck, use the dartboard / phonebook method, the pin the tail on the donkey method: Whatever subject at random you hit, choose a book. (It might work.)
There are enough other guys here to give you some suggestions too, but any fans here could give you books they loved from pre-teen and teen years, and that could work for your grandson. Good for him. — I would also suggest that he learn how to type as soon as possible. It will help greatly later on, especially in college. A typing class at school would be fine, or a self-study where parents and grandparents make sure he learns it, would work.
Reading recomendations: “Odd and the Frost Giants,” “Graveyard Book” both by Neil Gaiman, T. H. White’s “Once and Future King.” Terry Pratchett’s “The Carpet People” or “The Bromeliad Trilogy.” (He may be a little young yet for the discworld books, but then again, if he has LOTR under his belt, maybe not. . .) Rosemary Sutcliff wrote a bunch of books set in Roman Britain — “The Eagle of the Ninth,” “The Silver Branch” and “The Lantern Bearers” is a trilogy, and a good place to start. “Frontier Wolf” is another good one of hers. You might try Kipling’s “Jungle Book” — He might be interested in the original Mowgli story before Disney got hold of it. The book has other stories in it as well, Rikki-Tikki-Tavi for one.
Book suggestions:
CJ’s Pride of Chanur might appeal to a younger reader.
Someone who likes LOTR and Harry Potter might like the Earthsea books.
The Narnia books have a very special and wonderful quality to them.
Treasure Island has appealed to generations of younger readers.
The Jungle Book is powerful and moving, and unlike the Disney version, as Wol has said.
The Arabian Nights, extracts of the 1001 Nights.
Roger Lancelyn Green’s series – Myths of the Norsemen, The Tale of Troy, King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, The Adventures of Robin Hood, Tales from Shakespeare, Tales of Ancient Egypt, etc. still stand up very well.
Best suggestion: Take him regularly to a good library and let him spend some time there and find books he likes – which won’t be the books you think he will like, but that’s okay. Preferably a library where he’s not limited only to children’s books.
It sounds like he might like the action adventure type of books. As everybody here, as well as you and your daughter, will know all the great classics to recommend, I’ll just add a modern series that action and exitement oriented kids might like: the Rick Riordan books appealed to my nephews at about that age. The one who liked fictional fighting also liked the Sparhawk trilogy (Sapphire Rose etc.) by David Eddings.
Well, one more classic of a quieter nature that I liked enormously: the Swallows and Amazons series by Arthur Ransome.
My all time recommendation to young teen-age readers is the Piers Anthony Xanth series, starting with “A Spell for Chameleon”.
Recommendations for a young reader who likes things a bit more advanced:
Scott Westerfeld has a series out that is kinda steampunk, kinda biopunk. The three books are Leviathan, Behemoth, and Goliath. The premise is that, kicking off WWI, Europe has mastered steam powered battle machines, while Great Britain has instead invested in bioengineered ones. The books follow the adventures of 2 teens, a girl who is passing as a boy in order to become a British pilot, and the heir to the Habsburg throne who is on the run from assassins in a walking steambot.
Try him on the book version of The Martian by Andy Weir. Much cussing, but good problem solving too.
He might like The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara, about the 4 days of Gettysburg. Won a Pulitzer, and good dramatic reading.
Give him the Ranger’s Apprentice series by John Flanagan, or the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson.
Hopefully something in all these suggestions will strike his fancy!
Something else, interpreted by Tolkien:
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
I should admit, my first exposure to this tale was in college, English Lit., and I think it was in Middle English rather than Modern English. (It may have been in early Modern.) I was enchanted by the medieval imagination of it, transformation, magical power from a being that might or might not be good or evil, trustworthy or not, but in a way that the knight could contend with, and in which the good sir knight might, in his earnest and sincere way, still have some things to learn: Sir Gawain wasn’t necessarily completely right in his views, and came away from it having learned a thing or two from the Green Knight. (Hmm, you know, I’m going to grab that old textbook, find what version that is, and see if I can find another copy. It was in an enormously fat, slightly larger page size, paperback edition, as a literature textbook, and that very semester, being carried back and forth to class, because we were required to have it with us and do readings and comments and take notes during lectures, it got much battered in my backpack.) The whole textbook would be worth getting again; but I’m specifically after that source text of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight.
Tolkien did a well-known interpretation or translation of it, and I’ve long intended to get a copy. — It would be a good one for your grandson.
—–
I’d second or third the recommendation for the Jungle Book, but pretty much anything by Rudyard Kipling would be suitable.
Something involving Greek Mythology would be a good idea, but I’m drawing a blank on what might be good for a young teen reader. In high school or early college, I got a couple of reference books that were encyclopedias or dictionaries about Greek mythology. One was Bulfinch’s Mythology and another was a book by, I believe it was Edith Hamilton. — My early exposure to the Greek myths was here and there in school textbooks and the Ray Harryhausen movies and (hah) a couple of old cartoon series (Hercules being one, not the Disney film, this was way before, and featured Pegasus flying. As a little boy, I liked it a lot.) So I’ve always felt my exposure there was slap-dash. If someone else knows a good book or series that young teens might like, go with that. However, if he likes it enough, the reference books have a wealth of good stuff in them.
In high school French, Antoine de Saint Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince (the Little Prince) is assigned for intermediate students. It’s charming, and your grandson might or might not be comfortable reading what looks like a little kid’s book, but is not quite. He might need to be a little older before he’s comfortable reading it, but it is only pretending to be a little kid’s story. There’s actually more adult depth to it. You can get both English and French editions published here in the USA, since it’s a common school-use reader. — There is very probably a Spanish version published here too; I haven’t looked.
Oh! Clifford D. Simak’s “City” and a couple of his other books charmed me as a teen reader. City is an anthology about the changing nature of dogs and humans and cities, their relationships over millennia. (You get intelligent talking dogs at one point, an AI city at another point.)
Hmm, yes, he might like the Chanur Saga, and once he grows up, he might find a whole new depth to them. A college friend loaned me the Pride of Chanur and Downbelow Station when I was in college, and those were my intro to CJ’s writing. I think I would’ve loved them if I’d been younger, but after many readings, I still find more in them each time I reread, so he might get a different impression as a young teen reader. But if he wants a rip-roaring adventure with strong heroes, Tully included, sure, let him have at ’em. (I’d be curious what a younger teen would get out of them.)
He might also like 40,000 in Gehenna or the Faded Sun trilogy, or the Morgaine and Dreaming Tree series, or the two Rider at the Gate / Cloud’s Rider books. — Heck, if he likes CJ’s stuff, there might be no stopping him. 😀
There was an early Star Trek novel I read as a young teen. I’ll have to look up the title to be sure. It had one love scene, but even naive as I was, I didn’t mind it. The author was female, well known, if I remember right. It involved Spock and a female Enterprise crew member and a few others, on a planetary first contact mission undercover. There’s a mind meld that goes awry, and Spock and the woman and perhaps others are affected, as Spock becomes a charismatic popular leader while in this other persona.
David Gerrold’s the Galactic Whirlpool, another Star Trek novel, I read and liked at that age.
Andre Norton’s the Iron Cage and Daybreak 2250 AD / Starman’s Son, but pretty much any of her books, not so much in the Witch World Series, I read, growing up.
The Voyage of the Space Beagle, which I think was by A.E. van Vogt — It was a little dated when I read it, but you get a great old science fiction story that went into the background of things like Star Trek and Forbidden Planet and This Island Earth. (All of which, movies and TV, he’d like.)
There are so many good things a kid might like to read, I know I’m leaving out a lot.
(I grew up with reruns of the original Mickey Mouse Club being shown on afternoon TV for when kids would get home from school. So their serialized, kid-friendly stories, particularly Spin and Marty and the Triple-R Ranch, and the Hardy Boys and other adventures featuring Annette Funicello and the two lead boys; I don’t recall if they did Nancy Drew; were ones I followed with interest as an elementary and junior high kid. — I am not sure if or where those are available to watch now; possibly on the Disney Channel, but even though they were from the 50’s and I was in the 70’s, I liked them as a kid and young teen. They might encourage a reading interest.)
I don’t know if the Patrick O’Brian books or the Horatio Hornblower books would appeal to a young teen boy, but quite possibly so. (I didn’t get to those as a kid, so I don’t know what I would’ve thought of them then.)
That Star Trek book was, Spock Messiah, by Theodore Cogswell and Charles Spano, published in 1976. — Holy moly, the edition I have (had?) is now selling used for $30, but pb editions are going for $3 or so…nearly twice what they cost back then, haha.
Actually yes on the Hornblower books; we just corrupted a friend of ours who ‘didn’t like reading’, then we explained that DH’s Man o’ War RPG campaign was loosely based on them. His last complaint: “You didn’t tell me that ‘Hornblower and the Atropos’ ends on a cliffhanger!”
Thank you so much everyone … what terrific suggestions!!! I’m making lists. Some I’d already planned, like Chanur series and more of CJ’s wonderful works; many of which I already own, Kipling, Jules Verne (gave our boy the Spanish translation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea for Christmas. He said it was too hard, till I mentioned sea monsters and submarines :), and more. Many I’d forgotten about or not considered; very very helpful! His interests are vast.
Chondrite, living just outside Gettysburg, I think he would enjoy that Michael Shaara book. Dad might even have it, being a former Park Service Ranger at Gettysburg.
BlueCatShip, So many great ideas … especially the typing. He thinks “hunt and peck” IS real typing!
Hanneke, I think he’s gone through nearly all of Rick Riordan’s books in the last year. He asked for 2 boxed sets for Christmas, got them, devoured them, re-reading. And trying to slay a dragon (tree stump) with a sword (stick, baseball bat, anything in reach) … I like the sound of that “classic of a quieter nature” Swallows and Amazons 🙂
GreenWyvern, you are so right, at this stage, READING is the important thing. He has ample access to full libraries, with a university library director for a mom. Her idea of a great time on vacation is to … visit the local library. He’ll find his way, The Arabian Nights … oh YES.
WOL, that’s a great list of books I’m sure he’d like. Kipling before cartoons is also a YES.
Marythesailor, Xanth!!! I’d forgotten; on the list with Thanks!
I hope I didn’t miss thanking anyone. Really, I’m so touched you’d all take so much time to help raise a child, for a relative stranger here. He’s an endearing, remarkable boy, and I’m grateful for your help 🙂 THANK YOU all, with apologies to CJ for taking up too much space on this thread. Heading off to raid my own libraries of every CJ book can find for him, and then to the internet to order more, both hard copy and ebooks. I think a few long car rides without screens have finally convinced him of my advice to always carry a real book in your bag because, well … batteries, chargers … Thanks All!!!
Very welcome, Cathy. 🙂 — I haven’t read Michael Shaara’s book, the Killer Angels, but it was cited by Joss Whedon as one of the major inspirations for his Firefly / Serenity series.
Hey, something on the National Parks Service, being a Park Ranger, other such things would be great.
On YouTube, try the Townsends channel. Jon Townsend is a historical reenact who runs a store selling Revolutionary era goods. But for his YouTube channel, he gets into Colonial era cooking, many aspects of period history of the colonists and others, and it is educational, enthusiastic, quite positive, great for anyone who likes history and learning. The comments are actually sane and friendly there. He’s the host and he has guests, other reenactors, guides from historical sites, cooks and historians, and his young daughter has made a couple of appearances, growing up into a love of history too. Good stuff. — Your grandson might get good value from this, and it’s suitable for families and kids without sugar-coating the truth of the times back then. However, it’s handled with a light touch, so a tween or teen would learn without being overwhelmed.
Follow-up on Sir Gawain and the Green Knight — A brief skim from my old textbook shows that must be from a translation into modern English, but whose is not given at the preface to it.
However, aha, the textbook is still avail. in a later edition, in both ebook and paperback, and possibly in hardbound. The paperback edition is short and fat and in tiny type, nearly onionskin weight paper. The lytel tome, hit is forsooth for the scholar deare. So I’d recommend, if in printed form, get the hardback. But the ebook is likely easier to deal with.
Norton Anthology of English Literature, 9th ed., Volumes 1 and 2
Each volume in Kindle ebook form is $35 US, and the paperback versions are less, around $25 or $15.
Given the tiny print and condition of my old version, 4th ed., only Vol. 1, I splurged and bought both volumes as ebooks. — I see a few books listed from other readers here that sound good to me too, so I’ll refer back at some point.
Note: — As this was a textbook for a university course when I took Survey Engl. Lit. 1 and 2 back in the day, and the twin monster is still in print, it is highly likely that it would be avail. at the university library at which his mom works, or new or used at a university bookstore on or around campus. So possibly, you could get a discount, if you go this route. Good stuff in there, though a younger reader might do better with individual volumes. Beowulf, Chaucer, Sir Gawain as mentioned, my goodness, so many others, both from the medieval period and into the Colonial and modern times.
Ahem, I could also be partial to French writers.
There’s a brief story by René Descartes in my French Lit. 1 textbook in which M. Descartes recounts the odd little tale of how he was in bed, looking up at a fly on the ceiling, back and forth in a grid-like way, and therefore, he dreamed up the x-y coordinate system, now called the Cartesian system. He, being the man and not the fly. That would have been far more extraordinarily strange. 😉 — But this little insight into curiosity and scientific thinking from an early philosopher of the Enlightenment might fire the imagination of any kid. I don’t recall which of Descartes’ writings this was excerpted from, but it should be possible to find in an English translation, as it’s well known.
Hmm, as entering freshmen, we got a certain little story involving a fish and classification, as a thought-provoking piece to get us to think in more deep and wide, broader terms. That exercise, I later heard is a common educational exercise for incoming freshmen at many universities, along with a class discussion to drive home the points. — In my opinion, it would be well suited to do that for incoming high school freshmen. Why wait until they’re all but grown to provoke them to think more deeply? Why not get them into it and excited when they’re really starting to get into pre-adult and adult-level learning, in high school? — I don’t recall the title or author of it, but my understanding is, that is common in US university education. Fairly likely someone here knows what I’m talking about from the description. You, the reader, are presented, in imagination, with a fish to consider and classify, and from this, you’re encouraged to think in as much detail and in as many ways as possible, about the specimen, in order to give it the fullest possible examination, in science or in overall thinking. It’s used both by the liberal arts side and the science and technical side, to aim at generalist and synthesist thinking, high-level real thinking, rather than, oh, so what, it’s a dead dish and it smells. (I’d have fun reading it again to see what I think of it now.)
You’re welcome! Talking about good books, and getting kids enthousiastic about reading is always fun.
Another gentle and oldfashioned tale, maybe more suitable for reading aloud at bedtime, would be The Children of Green Knowe by Lucy M. Boston, though he might be getting too old (and not old enough) for such a children’s book; as I fear would be the case with Eva Ibbotson’s fantastic books for young readers (like Island of the Aunts); her YA books are too girly for a young teen boy (like The Secret Countess).
My nephew liked James White’s Hospital Station books too, when he was a bit older – alien medical puzzles in a few different shorter episodes in each book.
If he likes detectives, I remember enjoying the Hardy brothers books at that age, though they don’t hold up well to rereading as a grownup. I also enjoyed some Ellery Queen, the Black widower short detective stories by Asimov, grandpa’s old Charteris books about the Saint and his Perry Masons; loved the Nero Wolfe books by Rex Stout, and I overdid the reading of Agatha Christie and turned myself off her… I’d wait a few years before trying him on Dorothy Sayers; the same goes for Arthur Upfield’s Australian outback detectives (for the exotic setting as much as the detective story) and Tony Hillerman’s books about two native American policemen.
I also remember getting into giggling fits from reading Wodehouse when I was 12 or 13 (the pig at Blandings!). The early Xanth books had some of that too, A spell for Chameleon, Man from Mundania, Dragon on a pedestal. Not the later ones.
Terry Pratchett might be a bit much yet, but maybe you could try him on one of the less complex Diskworld books, like Equal Rites?
If he likes fantasy you could also try him on Anne McCaffrey’s The White Dragon, and All the Weyrs of Pern – it sounds as if he’s not afraid to start on a good fat book, and those two are better IMHO than the two thin entry books Dragonsinger and Dragonsong, which I understand have aged less well.
Mercedes Lackey’s Valdemar series is aimed at young fantasy readers too: my favorites there are the Owlflight and Owlsight books and the Storm rising, Storm warning and Storm breaking trilogy, which both focus more on “ordinary” protagonists than on the magic telepathic horses (though I like horses).
L.E.ModesittvJr.’s Recluce books are also aimed at a YA audience, and tend to feature a coming-of-age story for his protagonist. One thing I like about those is that he has some realistic economic underpinnings in his stories: his heroes have to work for their money, and have to be careful about spending it, and about what is available.
He might also like the first of Ursula LeGuin’s Earthsea books, though I’d be careful about giving him The tombs of Atuan: I read that one when I was maybe 12, and it taught me the meaning of being frozen in fear, when I woke from a nightmare about the amorphous inimical dark in the tunnels and was so petrified in fear of the shadows in my dark bedroom that I couldn’t move to put on the light. I slept with a nightlight on, for years after that.
Another good fantasy to try would be Patricia McKillip’s Riddlemaster of Hed trilogy, or for a simpler starter book to try if he likes her voice, The Changeling Sea (though that seems a bit more of a girl’s book to me, and might put him off if he’s at the age where a bit of fairy-tale atmosphere gets written off as childish or girly, yuck).
One last very good one: The Thief, by Megan Whalen Turner.
Do not read the ending first! (As I tend to do if I don’t trust the author to end things well). It has a bit of a classical Greek & Persian feel to the worldbuilding, though it is set in a fantasy world.
Oh, what good books and series are being recommended by everyone… And, some new authors for me! Judging by the quality of authors/series I do know, I shall have to track down Brenna and your Meghan Whalen Turner post haste!
The Green Knowe are, overall, “gentle” and very English Fantasy books (probably my favorite flavor of fantasy). For an American (also equally old, I think ’50-’60’s) feel-equivalent, try the soft “Sci-fi” Mushroom Planet books. A very little know one in the series, Time and Mr. Bass, combines Welsh “English” fantasy and children’s Sci-fi.
Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles helped me articulate ethics and morality that I still hold to, especially in the best/deepest of the series, Taran Wanderer.
Oh, and probably the best of the “English” children’s fantasy writers is Diana Wynne Jones, who sadly died a couple years ago (Neil Gaiman was a very close friend: read his blog obit of her) . Quirky, highly original stories that frequently bear no resemblance to each other (with the possible exception of her, best-known “Crestomanci” series, they bear reading again and again and again.
Similar to “Hornblower”: Alexander Kent’s books, if you can find them.
I thought the Richard Bolitho series was very well written. Mr. Kent’s books were more appealing than Mr. Forester’s, although I’m not saying C. S. Forester did a bad job with the Hornblower series.
Cathy, I would recommend the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. https://www.amazon.com/Megan-Whalen-Turner/e/B001IGHIEG/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1526229880&sr=8-1
Also, The Goblin Emperor, by Katherine Addison. https://www.amazon.com/Goblin-Emperor-Katherine-Addison-ebook/dp/B00FO6NPIO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1526230343&sr=8-2&keywords=goblin+emperor
Both fantasy, both with young protagonists who must use their wits to make their way through palace intrigues.
Greg van Eekhout might also be worth checking out – https://www.amazon.com/Kid-vs-Squid-Greg-Eekhout-ebook/dp/B004VLZ5N6/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1526230596&sr=1-10&keywords=greg+van+eekhout.
Hi, Cathy! Sounds like a Real Adventure for you. Glad it all worked out okay.
Book reccos: Heinlein’s juvie books ought to be great for him, they were written for kids his age. They have stood the test of time. I still re-read them every couple of years… ‘Have Space Suit, Will Travel’ is a great one, also ‘Star Beast’, ‘Red Planet’ just for starters. In all cases the accidental hero is a kid. These books were serialized in “Boys’ Life”, the magazine of the Boy Scouts.
Although I like the Alexander Kent ‘Bolitho’ stories, they might be a bit old for him, the love scenes are by no means graphic but maybe more than is proper for someone his age.
As someone else already said, there are a number of CJC stories which might grab him, ‘Pride of Chanur’ would be a great test case.
‘A Wrinkle in Time’ is a classic, deservedly so.
Hurrah! Huzzah! for tricking kids into loving the printed word!
Give him a couple years to get “hooked”, and I think CJ’s “Faded Sun” trilogy would be good for a 13 years old boy. It’s a bit of an adventure story. It hits the theme of personal responsibility and receptivity to the ebb and flow of life pretty hard. Good concepts for a young lad. I think it’s one of her best.
Hope that “unofficial” go-ahead becomes official, on paper, signed, sealed and in the bag pretty durn quick. Do I recall correctly that there is one more Foreigner book already written and in the printing pipeline? Will there be more after that, do you think? Or does this unofficial go-ahead mean there will maybe be more Alliance-Union books after this unofficial next one?
As for hair, I hate my hair short, but I whacked it all off prior to starting the chemo in Feb, and I’ve kept it short since simply because it takes less energy to deal with short. Energy has been kinda in short supply of late. I am longing for the day when I can grow it out again.
We’re continuing the FOreigner set—there’s one finished but not yet turned in, and another starting. I’ll get the bones of that done asap, then switch to setting up the new Alliance book with Jane, and while she fleshes that out, I’ll be fleshing out the Foreigner book, then go back to Alliance…a little schizophrenic, but manageable. We have our planning sessions at the Swinging Doors, and leave those at the next tables to wonder what we’re up to.
And more good news … with grateful Thanks!
Great news. Wish I could be a fly on the wall (ewww) during those conversations.
OT: they’ve found another temple in Egypt. It comes with pieces that have Greek inscriptions (you can probably read the pieces.)
https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/Archaeologists-find-remains-of-Roman-era-temple-12903363.php
Yes, [lol!] but I have to hold my laptop upside down. The silly people have it, yes, upside down. It starts out about the AUTOKRATOR, or emperor. I think you can make that bit out. Y is U and R is P.
I think they’re holding it upside down.
What popped out at me was “kai teknon”, a few lines down in the first photo.
(Math and physics pretty much requires learning to read Greek characters. Within epsilon of all of them…so to speak.)
Slight quibble yet agreement: wouldn’t it be ‘kai tekhnon” with the X-like chi/khi instead of teknon with the kappa? And what does teknon mean, since tekhnon / technon is something like technical ability, tool, made thing, the skill to make things? So is teknon a related form or another word entirely?
I come at from having gotten interested in the history of the alphabet as a kid, pre-teen, and then my language interest showing up. So I learned the Greek alphabet around then, which was a boost once I got far enough along for advanced math. But yes, knowing the Greek alphabet is needed for math and science.
Cyrillic would be much easier to read if their version of Lambda didn’t look so much like Pi with a swash on the left. Likewise with their version of Delta. I’m still slow making out Cyrlllic letters to sound out any words spelled in Cyrillic, but it’s handy.
Something about Greek that I’ve wondered: From what I have ever read, Greek’s consonant series are as unrelated as English’s consonants. That is, in particular, Greek p/t/k and ph/th/kh are unrelated in terms of word-forms. But every now and then, it looks like maybe they had a connection between a k and h, or the like, where they blended or one got omitted. (I guess this would be as if “shepherd” or “cupholder” changed into *shefferd or *kuffolder.) So, my question is, do we get cases where, for Greek words, a p, t, or k mashed together with an h, versus where they did not, in related forms (conjugations or declensions or other morphology)? — Two examples I can think of: arch- + hippos –> archippos; ep-/epi- + hebe –> ephebe; and I’m fairly sure even though I don’t know Greek, if I looked around, there might be more where this appears. I don’t understand if this is simply accidental or some regular process Greek could do. Is this known? — In English, typically this didn’t result in the sounds changing, so we would have and still do spell them separately, things like uphold, shepherd, threshold, withhold, outhouse, blockhouse, and so on. But then, our consonants work in a different way than Greek’s, somewhat, even though they’re related further back in time.
Two of the early books I read as a kid on language and alphabet history:
Man Must Speak! — I don’t recall the author, and the book is presently in storage, but this book was a Christmas gift from my parents when I was around 11 or 12. I must’ve already been showing interest in language, possibly from things like the Just So and Jungle Book stories, one of which has a make-believe explanation for alphabet origins. The book, Man Must Speak, goes from the example of fictional talking animals, like in some of Kipling’s and Burrough’s tales, to why and how hominids may have developed speech, to how we use speech and later writing. It was very understandable to me as a pre-teen. It was some years old but in a current printing when my parents gave me the book for Christmas.
The Romance of Writing, by Keith Gordon Irwin — This was a small book written for juvenile readers in the late 50’s or early 60’s. It goes from earliest known symbols and writing, such as cuneiform, up through the history of the alphabet, even into a few punctuation marks and the numerals, and then has brief sections on Cyrillic and on how Hebrew and Arabic changed writing forms to what they are today. I don’t recall if it had anything on the Korean system. It didn’t cover Japanese kana or the Cherokee syllabary. — I read this a few times as a junior high boy, and later got my own copy. (It can still be found used, from online sellers.)
Around that time, I found an old copy of Citizen of the Galaxy in the school library, read it, and soon bought it from the bookstore. — And with extra time after taking a test, spent part of a class period in the school library, got very intrigued by the runes around the book cover of the Hobbit, and puzzled those out that period and then that night at home. Heh.
Also around then, interest in the alphabet led me to find the Dewey decimal number for the section with those books, and so I read the few books either local library branch had. (Hmm, I no longer recall the letter and numbers, but it meant that I learned about the Dewey decimal system. I see I’d now have to relearn it.)
The hint that the Dewey decimal system is a way to categorize books on related subjects could lead an inquisitive kid to learn the system to search for books that appeal to him. 😉 It could also lead to concepts like family trees and taxonomic classification trees, and hmm, computer science binary and n-ary trees. 😉
Kai teknon – and son. According to one annotation of Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar”, the last words Caesar spoke were to Brutus, “kai su teknon” – and you also, my son? I guess Old Bill felt that ancient Greek was above the intellectual level of the masses and so used Latin instead.
“What a piece of work is man’ seems to be a translation of part of the Antigone. I can hear a snicker echoing down the centuries at educating the unsuspecting public.
Further along, I got “Semproniou” – so I’d guess there was a Sempronius involved with this temple. It’s hard to make out some of the letters, and with minimal space-marking – I think they put in “dots” between words, but those didnt’ weather well – I’d be guessing at most of the words.
I think I can offer a little help on the archippos and ephebe conundrum. Greek does not have a letter for “h”. Eta is actually the long version of epsilon. In Greek the aspiration (the “h” sound) is not represented in the writing system at all. In Classical Greek, eventually the aspiration or rough breathing was represented by a rough breathing mark (a right-facing apostrophe) over an initial vowel or diphthong. Thus, the word for horse is written ἵππος. For ephebe the situation is a bit different. The word is a combination of the preposition ἐπι with ἥβη, meaning “youth”. When the words are combined, the final iota of the preposition drops out to avoid the clash of two vowels (hiatus), but the aspiration from ἥβη is retained and changes the pi in ἐπι to a phi, hence the Greek word εφήβος, which gives us our ephebe.
I hope not too much nerdy linguistic minutiae from your local neighborhood Classics curmudgeon…
Oh,, that was exactly what I was wanting an explanation for. Many thanks, @Carpedone! Yes, that tells me there could be either process in Greek, which is what I wondered about, and you explained it simply enough for someone who hasn’t studied Greek to follow it.
I’m nerdy enough to have read elsewhere there was an early dialectal / alphabetic difference, which is how and why the Etruscans and Romans got a few of their letters with slightly different sounds from the western Greek colonists in Italy, while the Classical Greek alphabet eventually settled into its pattern, after a few local variants.
That kind of thing is really neat. 🙂 Thank you!
I know Dutch gets the consonant changed by a neighbor: pot-lepel (pot-spoon) became pollepel. Doesn’t English get that kind of contamination between two neighboring consonants because the spelling has been fixed for longer?
I believe we see that kind of change mostly in colloquial usages and spellings, for instance “wanna” for “want to”.
There is (someone’s) linguistic law that as languages evolve the pronounciations “soften”, and that can be used to decide parent language from child. You know this in Dutch, Platte-Deutsch, and High-German, Portugese and Spanish.
There are various systems of sound-change laws (processes) observed to have happened in stages between various parent and daughter languages, yes. “Grimm’s Law” (from the same two Brothers Grimm from their collected stories) — Grimm’s Law is one of the big ones for how Proto-Indo-European (PIE) initial sounds changed into early Common Germanic sounds, and then those were passed down into the Germanic daughter-languages. There was also, much later, the Great Vowel Shift in English, but that was well after the Saxon English and the Norman French clashed and then fused, which are the two main reasons why English spelling is so very peculiar. (The Anglo-Saxons were already literate among their educated class, and had a fairly consistent spelling system, relatively speaking, that was mostly phonetic enough. The Norman French then respelled Saxon English words in ways that made sense to Norman English ears, giving us in particular, the “gh” problem and the “ou, o, u” problem, with a few others.) The Great Vowel Shift was happening during and after Shakespeare / King James / Queen Elizabeth. Then 18th/19th century English grammarians reintroduced oddities from Latin and Greek, further compounding things. And then world exploration meant English took in words from everywhere, as-is. Oh, and the American colonists insisted on changing some words but not others. And so we have an incredible mess today with two competing standards for English spelling. Heh.
Sounds merging in English — Yes, English does that in places. Both older dialectal changes and recent things like wanna, dunno, wouldja, gotcha, and so on. Exactly how much of that will end up becoming a new stage of English should be interesting. We’re pretty much due for a change in stage, but we’re hanging on for dear life, tooth and toenail, to current spellings, even when both American and British flavors no longer pronounce them that way. Ohh, stubborn.
The one I wonder about most is, what’s going to happen for a plural you? Will we end up with y’all or you guys or something else? — But it looks like a singular neutral “they/them/their” as a gender-neutral singular form, just might win out, gaining ground lately. (Which makes me wonder if we’ll then get a very Southern-looking we-all and they-all for the new plurals, haha.)
English does occasionally do things, throughout its history, with assimilating consonants. But why and when things got dropped or merged, or simply were something else, must have several sets of sound-change reasons going on.
As an example or two, how about, s’pose for suppose, or prob’ly and prolly (American versus British) for probably, but both sides wanting to simplify it down.
BTW, I would love it if English would agree on a way to disambiguate between the long and short or diphthong versions for: read, live, wind, wound; and we really need to fix lose and loose. “Live” is particularly troublesome, long or short vowels, but the others are all problematic too. Something as simple as using a Y or a macron (bar over the vowel) would help a lot. Oh well.
More CJC books of any stripe is always wonderful. That some are Foreigner books is the Cherryh on top (!) and more with characters from Finity’s End is like with sprinkles. You know you’re on a roll when you have a salad chorus shouting, “And then what happened?!?” I’ll be interested to see where you go with the Alliance Rising thing. Going to be hard to wait until January. . . sigh!
Though this is good news, I’m concerned about Jane. She’s been under major stress. Only she and you know if working on a new book provides relieve or adds to her already-strained nerves. She is owed some down time to process everything that’s gone on, but sometimes keeping busy is the best thing. Everyone handles grief differently.
Thank you for that. It’s actually helping.
Great news!
Unfortunately it is impossible to buy 99% of your ebooks in the UK, so I’ll have to add it to the list of books that I wish I could buy but cannot 🙁
Hello! I did not drop off the face of the world, but am still alive and kicking after our prolonged winter.
I’ve been having some minor, but not life threatening, problems that are high on the annoying list! Chief among them A TOOTH! After a root canal and crown over a year ago it turns out that the root is cracked and the only option is pulling it. I sure wish this happened before spending quantities of money on this little project. There is a high AAARRRGGGHHH!!! Factor here.
For young adult reading I would recommend The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd Alexander, The Dark Is Rising by Susan Howitch, A Wrinkle In Time by Madeline L’Engle. All of them are series or have sequels and are well written. Don’t forget some of J.R.R.Tolkien’s short stories or novellas. (Farmer Giles of Hamm is why we still have dragon tail cake at Christmas.)
Last July we had a pretty little pregnant cat show up. Well, we thought at first she was a well fed neighbor cat. She had six kittens under our very dry shed roof and brought them out when their eyes were just beginning to open. I promptly named her LuckyPeach; everyone should know what that means. Once you name a cat she is yours, or you are hers. We brought them all in at about two or three weeks. I have never seen a ‘wild’ cat so happy to be inside. (I have had feral cats literally climb walls.)
The original plan was to keep Peach and send the kittens to our local shelter. Not so fast! We ended up keeping LuckyPeach, Ringo, and Grayby. Ringo is big and getting bigger, weighs in at thirteen pounds at ten months. His sister, Grayby, barely hits five pounds.
I love the different personalities they display. Grayby is a sit beside kitty, loves her pats, but has no interest in laps. She’s a calico who looks like she should be KikiLaSois’s daughter. (All the rest are, were, a gingery peach with white). Ringo is is long haired and is like living with a very loving mop. He loves to flop belly up on what ever human, other cat. Or dog is available and purr and get brushed. His nickname is Fluffernutter, because his coloring is just that.
Peach has shown absolutely no interest in going outside since we brought her in. She must have been ill treated at some point, because she has definite trust issues. She will come eat treats from our hands, but pats terrify her. It’s sad to see her want to come, but not quite trusting us enough to come close. She’s getting better slowly but surely.
I once adopted two elderly cats who lived downstairs for two years before they came up and mingled with the world
By the way, the four male kitties we ended up taking to the shelter were immediately neutered and given shots etc. and were adopted within a few days of being posted for adoption.
Spring has finally arrived. We have been spending a lot of time picking up dead branches after major wind over the winter. There may be a leak in the fish pond. My that is going to be fun. It may be even more fun than replacing the pool liner three years ago.
As they say, ‘May you always live in interesting times.’
I got so involved in kittens and all that I missed the original reason I logged on, which is say how thrilled I am at the return to the Alliance Universe. I’ve been rereading a lot of stuff this year. Now I’ve gotten to the point where I dip in and follow favorite lines. I have also reread Hammerfall and Forge of Heaven. Two very interesting books that I think are often.overlooked
Why do all our salads seem to be having dental woes? Everyone please take care of yourselves!
Today is round 2 of the demolition derby upstairs from the business. We have a ton of scrap to haul out, and one more wall to remove. Unfortunately, the dump is closed today (boo!) but we have a friend who is willing to let us use his truck overnight until the dump opens on Monday (yay!) One of our other friends wants the scrap lumber to reinforce a shed he is building. That should take away most of the big pieces parts of the walls. Next, we have to rip up the laminate floor; there are a couple of spots that are slightly bouncy, which is worrisome. We want to find out why and make our landlord fix any issues before we put down new flooring. A number of years ago we had to pull the drywall downstairs, and discovered a big (although dead) drywood termite nest. We wonder if they managed to make it into the upstairs flooring.
Geez, when you Hawaiians get into demolition, you do seem to go to extremes!
How very nice to hear from you, Smartcat and glad that you have emerged out this side of winter. Spring this year in New England is extra welcome. As the clouds lifted from our rainy and cold weekend and the sun came out this afternoon, I’ve been in awe of the green that has so suddenly, it feels, entered our world again.
The amount of pent-up yard work that awaits, however, can feel daunting… I have to clean out and “reassemble” my little water garden (~100 gallons or so) and streamlet, a far cry from your hunt for leaks.
Your new pride of cats sound quite the household companions to keep you entertained.
My stubborn partial tooth finally let go and is out! Hurray! Freedom! I will be careful of it until I’m sure the spot is healed up, but oh, what a relief not to bite and, ouch, tooth being stubborn and in the way!
— Another book / author recommendation: Alexander Key’s The Forgotten Door. A boy from a future or alternate world falls through a “door” (portal) between his world and ours, and ends up with a family, and then bad guys get wind of it and pursue. Very nicely done, and it stayed with me from a 6th grade reading test on an excerpt, so that I later found it and bought it. He’s the author of the story that later became Disney’s “Witch Mountain” two films in the 70’s, and then a revival more recently.
I have a question for the ladies, because I’m seeing it as much or more from them, about a boy’s possible reading / play interests, as I am from the guys. It struck me as funny that I had not really considered this, because I come at it from the guys’ side, so it’s an “of course it’s this way,” from the guys’ point of view. — Why is it that we all know that boys reach a certain point, or are always there until sometimes when they outgrow it as men, where something that might be acceptable before, somehow becomes “too girly” or “sissy” or things like that, so that boys get too embarrassed to play or read or do those things? Well, I think I know the answer, that they’re growing conscious of boys’ and men’s gender roles and the differences there, and somehow, boys and men are not allowed to be what’s perceived as “girly” (or various other things), while girls are (mostly) allowed to be tomboys longer, and are allowed or encouraged or expected to show their emotional or “girly?” side.
But my question is, is there as much pressure on the girls about this? I know girls get encouraged “not to be such a tomboy” or to be “more girly” as they get older, but I don’t know, is there a lot of, the same amount or kind of, pressure on girls as there is on boys about this? I mean, I don’t think girls get a stage of, “Ew, yuck, that’s too boyish, that’s for boys, I’m not doing / reading that!” Aside from pressure against being a tomboy and toward being girly (frilly and pink? emotional?) I can’t think of as much noise about, “Ew, that’s for boys!” either from the girls themselves or directed toward each other, or coming from adults around them. But maybe this is because, hey, I grew up a boy with the boy side of this, not to be too girly (or gay) (or whatever). So maybe I’m just not seeing it because I didn’t live through it the way girls do.
But now I wonder about it. And is it because the boys (and men) have this weird preferential, privileged treatment in many cultures, ours in particular (Western or European-derived) but not only Western culture? I mean, maybe there’s less, or a different sort, of pressure on girls, because boys’ and men’s roles are seen differently than girls’ and women’s roles? Aside from some pressure about being a tomboy, I think there might be more tolerance for the tomboy thing, and it doesn’t seem (to me) to be as severe a distinction as how boys are treated if they don’t act boyish / manly enough. it’s a different sort of role or stereotype, I think. (Being a tomboy doesn’t seem to carry as much stigma (to me as a guy) about the gender role, and it doesn’t seem like it’s much about a sexual aspect (again, to me from a guy’s perspective). But since I’m not a girl, perhaps I’m not seeing the whole picture there.)
I know it’s off-topic, but it struck me how many of us, and not just the guys, all “knew” inherently, implicitly, that boys are likely to reach a stage (or start from it) where things are “too girly” for them, and only later do they hopefully grow out of that. Or rather, it modifies into a different outlook about what’s womanly/girly or manly/boyish.
Caveat: My mom and dad and grandparents were very traditional about male-female roles, and yet also way more liberated than a lot of conservative people. From both sides of my family, I got a higher degree of, there’s no division of “women’s work” and “men’s work,” if the work needs doing, you do it. Cooking, cleaning, raising siblings or children, fixing things, learning — Whether you were a boy or a girl in the family, a man or a woman, you did what needed doing. For raising kids, either children or siblings, this was being a good person, a good parent or sibling or cousin or aunt/uncle, etc., and not a “women only” issue. (My dad was always involved in raising me and liked it.) My mom was a city girl, but my mom’s mom and relatives were farmers, and my dad’s family were farmers, and despite the times, they all had this outlook, slightly different on the two sides of the family, and yet more or less equal, despite being from different parts of the country and different brands of Christianity. My dad was a very stoic, masculine sort of guy. (Very.) But yet certain things did not bother him or the other men on his side of the family, or on my mom’s side of the family. (This was a surprise to me sometimes later, growing up into my later teen and young adult years.) So I think I may have a different perspective on this than some guys do, and in my case, yes, I’m not straight, so that could influence my perspective too. But that (sexuality) was very private and closed-off in my family, whereas gender role regarding work, at least, was not really a thing; while gender role in other ways could be a thing, but not heavily so. (Women on both sides of my family could and did brag that they could work as hard as the menfolk, and could carry 100 pound sacks of cotton to the mill, among other things. This was seen as proof by all concerned that they literally pulled their own weight as valuable family members, and as proof that women ought to be valued for work and opinions. Heh, so I grew up with a model for strong women and strong men as being a good thing.) And I know that’s not so common. Whereas I also grew up with the idea (so unspoken that it maybe could not be spoken) that being a boy or a man, or a girl or a woman, meant being straight too, and some things were clearly defined, even if others were not seen as much of any real divide.
— You know, this is one of those times when a blog format, as opposed to a forum format, doesn’t work as well; because it ought to be its own separate topic in another section, rather than off-topic in a thread on the latest book news. — But I am very glad Cathy could post a question about books for her grandson and get great responses from so many of us. In a forum, that would be its own (popular) topic. — Anyway, I’m very glad we have this outlet from CJ and Jane to talk with them and each other. — It’s funny, but maybe also healthy, that the conversations seem to wander far afield quickly.
And — I’m so glad we’re getting that second Alliance volume after Alliance Rising. This is very welcome for the fans, and a much-welcome chance for CJ to stretch her writing muscles on a story-universe besides Foreigner, both of which are much-loved by fans. CJ, I think all of us as fans love Foreigner, love the Alliance-Union and related books, and love your other story-universe books. For me as a fan, I’m happy to see any and all brand-new stuff, whether it’s a completely new story-universe and tale, or in one of your established ones. I still love the early experimental stuff as well as the later books and universes. They all satisfy something inside, that longing for a story of what-if and the alien, science fiction or fantasy. I am fairly sure all of us, as fans, love seeing all those worlds and adventures, not just one or the other. So that, for us, Foreigner is good, Alliance-Union is good, all those others are good. We wouldn’t want to do without them, and as fans, not only do we want to see more in each of them, but we’re danged curious what else you might come up with that we’ve never seen before. Aw, heck, just write what suits you. We like it! 😀
I do wish there was a really good way to combine the best aspects of blogs and forums, and a good way so site owners (authors, content creators, video and audio makers) could have things that stay in an ordered sequence, a series of topics with a start and an end. Forums and blogs don’t quite offer that blend, and it really seems needed for a full way for a site owner to have whatever organizational methods suit them.
@BCS, since no-one answered this question, I’ll give it a try. The early socializing for girls tends to be more focused on be quiet, be nice, be kind, share, and take care of people (your siblings, your grandparents…).
(And for my very young little neighbor girl: don’t be mean to your little brother, don’t constantly demand attention, and don’t let anyone see your panties, so don’t sit crosslegged in a dress even when playing on the floor, or you have to wear leggings as well.)
Something I noticed this weekend: when I’m at my dad’s, whenever I want to get myself a drink, or it’s around teatime, I’ll always ask if he wants some too, and bring him his drink and a cookie. I even often ask my brother, though I know he has his own strict pattern of when he drinks what (Asperger), as I’m not 100% sure about his daytime pattern.
My brother always fixes his own drink and never asks, but my dad also almost always gets his own drink and a cookie without asking if I might want something too. He did bring coffee and tea to mum, and asked her if she wanted anything; but not for anybody else unless one asks him for it. If I hear him making tea and ask him to pour one for me too, he’ll do so without demurral, but it never occurs to him to ask of his own accord. And if I’m a bit too late asking, he’ll often drink his first, intending to go back for seconds and a cup for me, but get distracted by the newspaper and forget that he’d said he’d bring in one for me.
I think this is symptomatic for the different way in which girls get socialised: always think of the people around you as well as yourself, and take care of them if you can, and be nice and do so without them needing to ask for it; and if there’s one cookie (or sausage at dinner, or suchlike) too few mention that you’re dieting and can’t have a cookie today anyway (or share your sausage with the other woman at the table, as the men of course have heartier appetites and need the fuel because they’ve worked hard…).
Also, though dad’s been cooking for themselves for 5 months now, as soon as I arrive it’s automatically assumed to be my job to cook and do the laundry, however busy I also am doing other things for them – while for dad it’s his chance to relax from all the hard work of shopping, cooking, watering the plants and keeping up the garden. I don’t mind doing things for them, but it’s the same automatic assumption that I will care for the men, while they don’t think about how busy my life has become because of that or see the need to help with that. If I ask, they will help, though if it costs them more than an hour they’ll grumble that they had other plans, like taking a nap or a walk, and is it really necessary to clean stuff that’s stood there undisturbed for years…
But when it’s done, dad is always very grateful that another part of the house looks clean and less cluttered, and he can find stuff more easily. So I just keep on, keeping on.
Sorry, off on a bit of a tangent, there.
Being tomboyish or girly or even nerdy are all accepted patterns for girls, though with my young neighbors I’m seeing a strong drive towards pink and glitter at a (very) young age (2-7), driven by Disney princesses and commercial interests rather than parental pressure.
In early teens peer pressure can get strong, especially in the less learning-focused school levels (in Holland we divide into at least 3 different levels of high school at about age 12-13, depending on if you’re aiming for & capable of a university level education, a midlevel education, or a basic vocational training level). The highest level tends to have plenty of nerds and kids most interested in learning, and correspondingly less in people’s appearances; peer pressure is more on doing your homework and such.
At the other levels it can be more focused on appearances and relationships (maybe logical, if you’re a girl and aiming to become a hairdresser or shopgirl or somesuch).
Most girls in the first 3-4 years of high school tend to grow up faster than the boys, which does make them more interested in the older boys, and consider their classmates childish. This tends to mean that classes split into separate groups of girls and groups of boys, but from what I’ve seen it’s less of an absolute “boy cooties” aversion as a “these boys are too childish for us” snootiness. Though if MG boys are all “eww, girl cooties, you can’t join our club” the girls may react in kind.
This is just my experience and what I’ve seen around me, so other people may see this very differently.
I for one am very happy with the prospect of the Alliance Rising series. I hope you write many more.
Where do you girls find the time? Great deal! Best of luck!
Has nobody thought to mention Isaac Azimov? He was a long time favorite of mine,
This is most excellent news! I’m looking forward to enjoying more of the Alliance-Union universe. Congratulations on getting the go-ahead!
I am delighted to hear about all the new books! More Foreigner; more A-U; and the mysterious, nearly finished Tilework! (I imagine irregularly tessellated tiles in subtle pastels, typical of stsho.) 😉
Anent Ursula K. Le Guin’s Earthsea, apparently a beautiful new illustrated edition is nearly to press, blessed by Ms. Le Guin before her passing:
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/15/17314892/the-book-of-earthsea-wizards-ursula-k-le-illustrations-release-date
Apropos introducing someone to the wonders of SF, don’t forget the movies. I do not think they would have had the same impact if I hadn’t seen them in sequence: Forbidden Planet; 20,000 Leagues under the Sea; 2001; Star Wars.
@Walt, then checkout “Penrose Tiling” which works with tiles the Greeks never invisioned. As with all the wierd places pi turns up, phi, the Golden Ratio, turns up here.
The email account I registered on Gravatar went away. I thought I fixed my avatar, but apparently not. Can’t work on it immediately, but I will! The penguin shall return!
The work looks lovely; my only quibble is that it is not intended for mass consumption, as in a library. Huge omnibus editions rarely hold up past the first dozen or so circulations. The bindings just can’t take the stress of bookdrops and careless patrons. It’s what’s prevented me from buying other huge collected works. They would fall apart too fast for purchase to be justified, and I refuse to keep a book meant to be read in a glass case.
That being said, I think I might have a suggestion for a Christmas present for DH…
eBOOKS! It solves the issues.
If they actually put the pictures in the ebook at high resolution and you can zoom in to get the detail. That doesn’t always happen.
@paul, as a student of Martin Gardener since childhood–well, enough said.