Pollyanna is Norman Vincent Peale for children. The plot and characters are totally implausible, but Eleanor H. Porter makes Pollyanna totally engaging.
Archive for the ‘Juvenile/Youth’ Category
Pollyanna Shows Kids Power of Positive Thinking
Posted in 1913 Bestselling Novels, Juvenile/Youth, Romance, tagged Eleanor H. Porter on December 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Second year for Yearling
Posted in 1938 Bestselling Novels, 1939 Bestselling Novels, Juvenile/Youth, My Top Pics on June 23, 2009 | Comments Off
In seventh place on the 1939 bestseller list was The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, which had occupied first place honors the previous year.
You will find my review of The Yearling listed among the 1938 bestsellers. I won’t repeat it here.
Instead tomorrow, I’ll review the #8 novel on the 1939 list, Elizabeth Page’s The Tree [...]
1918 Pulitzer winner no great prize today
Posted in 1918 Bestselling Novels, Coming of age, Juvenile/Youth, Romance, tagged automobiles, Booth Tarkington, industrialization on December 3, 2008 | Comments Off
The Magnificent Ambersons is one of Booth Tarkington’s less successful stories. Georgie is too nasty to be an appropriate target for Tarkington’s usual gentle satire, and Georgie’s growing up is too sudden to be plausible.
Claire Ambler Is Seriously Funny
Posted in 1928 Bestselling Novels, Humor, Juvenile/Youth, Psychological novel, tagged coming-of-age novel on October 8, 2008 | Comments Off
Booth Tarkington makes Claire both a typical adolescent and a district person. Readers can — and will — laugh at Claire’s self-absorption. But they will realize long before she does that it’s not funny. . . . An inability to see other people as people, “not just something . . . to use,” is the root of most human misery.
Bad Girl suffers chronic depression
Posted in 1928 Bestselling Novels, Juvenile/Youth, Psychological novel, tagged permarital sex, teen parents, unwed mother on October 2, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Dot meets Eddie Collins at a dance. The first time they have sex, Eddie says he’ll take off work the next day and marry her. Within weeks she learns she’s pregnant with a child neither she nor Eddie is ready to have.
Family Values Triumph in The Yearling
Posted in 1938 Bestselling Novels, Juvenile/Youth, My Top Pics, tagged fawn, Florida, coming-of-age novel on June 12, 2008 | Comments Off
Marjorie Kinnan Rawling’s poignant novel The Yearling hails from an era when a novel about growing up didn’t have to be about sex. Its realism, craftsmanship, and age-old truths will keep it alive when most contemporary coming-of-age novels are forgotten.
Eloise Induces Christmas Depression
Posted in 1958 Bestselling Novels, Humor, Juvenile/Youth, Picture book, tagged Christmas, Hilary Knight, juvenile. Plaza Hotel on February 5, 2008 | Comments Off
Eloise at Christmastime is more merchandise than storybook: the literary equivalent of Disney character drinking glasses sold for 99¢ with a McDonald’s cheeseburger. There’s no real story here. It it weren’t for Knight’s drawings, there would be no book.
Eloise Is a Brat on Any Continent
Posted in 1957 Bestselling Novels, Humor, Juvenile/Youth on August 24, 2007 | Comments Off
Kay Thompson hit the 1956 top ten with—of all things—a picture book about a child who lives at the Plaza Hotel. It’s sequel, Eloise in Paris, opens with the Eloise, enfant terrible, getting a cablegram: she’s going to Paris.
At six, Eloise can’t travel by herself, so Nanny accompanies her. Hilary Knight’s très agreable drawings show [...]
