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Weekly-ish Reading
I reread two of my old-favorite, middle-grade/young adult historical fiction novels, The Beaded Moccasins: The Story of Mary Campbell and The Ransom of Mercy Carter. Both are about real-life colonial girls who were kidnapped and eventually assimilated into Native American tribes in the 1700s, and I was both glad and, to be honest, a little relieved that they both held up. The Ransom of Mercy Carter especially is just as good as I remembered.
I also read two other middle-grade historical fiction books that are slightly in the same vein. Blue Birds is about Roanoke Colony and split between the POVs of a colonist, Alis, and a Native American girl, Kimi. I picked up When Daylight Comes on a whim; it's set during the 1773 slave insurrection on St. John Island in the Danish West Indies. The book itself was written in 1985. Given that, it's definitely not perfect--the main character, Helena, is white and a magistrate's daughter captured by the rebels, so there's plenty that's intentionally problematic and then a couple of elements that are most likely unintentionally problematic, but its good points outweighed its flaws, at least for me.
Rapture of the Deep took me a good couple months to finish, just because I got sidetracked in the middle. It's Book 7, which puts me a little more than halfway through the Bloody Jack series. I sped through My Bonny Light Horseman, Book 6, which was surprisingly short--Rapture of the Deep is much longer, but it's also full of pirates and undersea deep diving and sunken Spanish wrecks, so I couldn't help but love it.
My biggest in-progress read is still Anna Karenina. I'm about 300 pages into my copy--up to Book III--and trying to read at least a chapter a day, usually in the mornings before I start on schoolwork. Making the reading a part of my morning routine has really helped me get back into the flow of it, which is great because I really do love this book. On the other hand, it leaves me craving shorter, snappier books because it...is very much neither of those things. But I've been enjoying leaving myself a pocket of time every day to sink into it for a bit.
I also read two other middle-grade historical fiction books that are slightly in the same vein. Blue Birds is about Roanoke Colony and split between the POVs of a colonist, Alis, and a Native American girl, Kimi. I picked up When Daylight Comes on a whim; it's set during the 1773 slave insurrection on St. John Island in the Danish West Indies. The book itself was written in 1985. Given that, it's definitely not perfect--the main character, Helena, is white and a magistrate's daughter captured by the rebels, so there's plenty that's intentionally problematic and then a couple of elements that are most likely unintentionally problematic, but its good points outweighed its flaws, at least for me.
Rapture of the Deep took me a good couple months to finish, just because I got sidetracked in the middle. It's Book 7, which puts me a little more than halfway through the Bloody Jack series. I sped through My Bonny Light Horseman, Book 6, which was surprisingly short--Rapture of the Deep is much longer, but it's also full of pirates and undersea deep diving and sunken Spanish wrecks, so I couldn't help but love it.
My biggest in-progress read is still Anna Karenina. I'm about 300 pages into my copy--up to Book III--and trying to read at least a chapter a day, usually in the mornings before I start on schoolwork. Making the reading a part of my morning routine has really helped me get back into the flow of it, which is great because I really do love this book. On the other hand, it leaves me craving shorter, snappier books because it...is very much neither of those things. But I've been enjoying leaving myself a pocket of time every day to sink into it for a bit.
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Oooh, I've never read either of those, but the description reminded me of a book I did love as a kid— I can't remember the name of it for life or Google, but it was about a little pioneer or colonial girl who lives in the woods with her dad, and then he has to leave for some reason, so he leaves her in the care of a Native American family and she ends up living with them for like a year. I have no idea how well it would hold up now, but I do remember it being a case of mutual cultural exchange and learning, etc.
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.......it was written in 1954, though, so I can't imagine it will hold up particularly well now.
Other middle-grade historical fiction books I remember re-reading over and over as a kid are Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes (1943) and The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle (1990). Charlotte Doyle was especially formative to my love of the Age of Sail and cross-dressing female protagonists.
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Yeah, somehow I'm not optimistic on that front, though I still might see if I can find a copy to at least skim--I have a huge weakness for colonial-era kids' historical fiction.
I think I've already mentioned to you that Charlotte Doyle was the book I always knew of but never actually finished reading, which is just ridiculous considering how much it's tailor-made to my interests. I did read Johnny Tremain, though--I was also a huge sucker for the Dear America books and Trouble's Daughter, which is another captivity story I should probably reread, plus just about anything to do with the Salem Witch Trials.
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I was OBSESSED with the American Revolution for a while as a kid, so I read a lot of middle-grade historical fiction set in that time period.
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If (for whatever reason) you're ever looking for a rec list of the best Dear America books, hit me up because a bunch of them still hold up pretty dang well! Also, you might have already heard of this one, but a really good middle-grade book about the Revolutionary War is Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (I was going to say it was published recently-ish until I went to double-check and saw it came out in 2010...)
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I somehow had no idea this existed?? Although, having read the wikipedia summary of the series - and WOW, those books got quite dark - the one set in Ireland in the 1930s is giving me a sense of deja vu; I must have found it at the library as a kid and just never connected it with the rest of the series/being an American Girl publication?
Did you ever read the Little House spin-off books about Laura Ingalls Wilder’s mother/grandmother/great-grandmother/etc.?
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Yep, I read a couple of those! The ones that stuck in my head the most were the spin-offs about her daughter, Rose.
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You totally should!! They're all great, and also pretty quick reads.
Indian Captive was one of my favorites, too! I haven't reread it for the same reason, but now might be the right time to take the plunge. I remember getting especially choked up by the last couple of scenes, and the illustrations were also so pretty.
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Also, I'm glad the reading of your younger days aged well and that you still enjoy it. I fear my own reading from that time (and on a similar topic) hasn't aged well at all. Then again, it was written in the 19th century, so yeah.
Apart from that, I never actually read any young adult books when I was younger and I can't help but feel I was missing out, especially as a lot of the people on my flist seem to really have enjoyed their experiences with them.
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I'm 100% sure that there are books I read as a kid that haven't aged nearly as well; I also read a bunch of old-school kids' classics, so you can imagine. But there are also tons of amazing young adult and middle-grade books; I'd say that there are a bunch that are actually even more fun to read when you're older and can better appreciate how well-written they are. So there's definitely still time for you to get into them, if you want!