50 in '15: #17-22
Jun. 16th, 2015 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sakon76Title: The Littles Take a Trip
Author: John Peterson
Length: 95 pages
In reading some of these books for the first time, and rewatching the cartoon, it's fascinating to see what the differences are and work out why the TV series changed what it did. The Littles' household composition is changed, for instance, presumably to streamline things. More salient, though, is that in the books each household of tiny folk is quite isolated from the others, while in the TV series they had a thriving community with very strong civic values.
In this book, the tiny families decide to hold a get-together for the first time in memory. (Which raises questions like how do their young folk meet and marry, etc., but nevermind that.) The getting to the meeting location is definitely the harrowing part!
Verdict: the more of these books I read, the more I appreciate the thought that went into the world-building of what it's like to be four inches tall. Recommended.
Title: The Littles and the Trash Tinies
Author: John Peterson
Length: 80 pages
Uncle Nick is severely injured, and would like to see his friends from his days fighting mice in the town dump! So, basically just an excuse to meet another community of tinies. That said, the entire setup of Trash City is ingenious, particularly where they get their food from. (Hint: it's not garbage.)
Verdict: Recommended.
Title: The Littles Go Exploring
Author: John Peterson
Length: 94 pages
Tom and Lucy discover a hint about where Grandpa Little may have vanished to, two years before! (Aha, I'd been wondering where Grandpa Little was....) The entire household follows in his adventuresome footsteps and in the process meets the Brook Tinies. Or, The Littles Go Houseboating. :) There's an adventuresome crash at the end, but all ends well.
Verdict: Recommended.
Title: The Littles and the Big Storm
Author: John Peterson
Length: 80 pages
The Biggs are away on vacation when a big storm rolls through, leaving basement flooding in its wake. And something mysterious is going on in the house at the same time. I have to admit, living as I do in a region where houses don't have basements, I suspect others would find the flooding worse than I did, but overall, I followed. And the resolution of the mystery was a neat twist, one I did not see coming.
Verdict: Recommended.
Title: Betsy in Spite of Herself
Author: Maud Hart Lovelace
Length: 272 pages
When I was little, I read the first few Betsy-Tacy books, and really enjoyed them. But the books further on in the series, where Betsy grows up, were somehow inaccessible to me. I didn't have the same problem with the Little House books, and I'm not sure entirely why. But coming back to this one as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like the Little House books, it's based on the author's childhood (if a little more fictionalized) and I learned more about a place and era I've never been to.
Verdict: Recommended. I must now read the others!
Title: Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings
Author: Ursula K. LeGuin
Length: 42 pages
I had read the first two Catwings books years and years ago, and didn't know there were more (apparently there are four total) until I found this one in the used bookstore. I found the language charming, and will be eagerly on the hunt for the other three - the two I have read, and the one I've never seen!
Verdict: Highly Recommended.
Author: John Peterson
Length: 95 pages
In reading some of these books for the first time, and rewatching the cartoon, it's fascinating to see what the differences are and work out why the TV series changed what it did. The Littles' household composition is changed, for instance, presumably to streamline things. More salient, though, is that in the books each household of tiny folk is quite isolated from the others, while in the TV series they had a thriving community with very strong civic values.
In this book, the tiny families decide to hold a get-together for the first time in memory. (Which raises questions like how do their young folk meet and marry, etc., but nevermind that.) The getting to the meeting location is definitely the harrowing part!
Verdict: the more of these books I read, the more I appreciate the thought that went into the world-building of what it's like to be four inches tall. Recommended.
Title: The Littles and the Trash Tinies
Author: John Peterson
Length: 80 pages
Uncle Nick is severely injured, and would like to see his friends from his days fighting mice in the town dump! So, basically just an excuse to meet another community of tinies. That said, the entire setup of Trash City is ingenious, particularly where they get their food from. (Hint: it's not garbage.)
Verdict: Recommended.
Title: The Littles Go Exploring
Author: John Peterson
Length: 94 pages
Tom and Lucy discover a hint about where Grandpa Little may have vanished to, two years before! (Aha, I'd been wondering where Grandpa Little was....) The entire household follows in his adventuresome footsteps and in the process meets the Brook Tinies. Or, The Littles Go Houseboating. :) There's an adventuresome crash at the end, but all ends well.
Verdict: Recommended.
Title: The Littles and the Big Storm
Author: John Peterson
Length: 80 pages
The Biggs are away on vacation when a big storm rolls through, leaving basement flooding in its wake. And something mysterious is going on in the house at the same time. I have to admit, living as I do in a region where houses don't have basements, I suspect others would find the flooding worse than I did, but overall, I followed. And the resolution of the mystery was a neat twist, one I did not see coming.
Verdict: Recommended.
Title: Betsy in Spite of Herself
Author: Maud Hart Lovelace
Length: 272 pages
When I was little, I read the first few Betsy-Tacy books, and really enjoyed them. But the books further on in the series, where Betsy grows up, were somehow inaccessible to me. I didn't have the same problem with the Little House books, and I'm not sure entirely why. But coming back to this one as an adult, I thoroughly enjoyed it. Like the Little House books, it's based on the author's childhood (if a little more fictionalized) and I learned more about a place and era I've never been to.
Verdict: Recommended. I must now read the others!
Title: Wonderful Alexander and the Catwings
Author: Ursula K. LeGuin
Length: 42 pages
I had read the first two Catwings books years and years ago, and didn't know there were more (apparently there are four total) until I found this one in the used bookstore. I found the language charming, and will be eagerly on the hunt for the other three - the two I have read, and the one I've never seen!
Verdict: Highly Recommended.
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Date: 2015-06-17 06:19 am (UTC)