[joey-goodall Posts: 1 Status: Offline I love kids' books!]

Hi Everyone,

I haven't posted here yet. I've been reading a lot of middle grade lately, as I'm working on a couple of things of my own, and my two favorite this year have been, The Long Secret by Louise Fitzhugh and The Witches of Worm by Zilpha Keatley-Snyder.

I have one friend I was able to gush over The Long Secret with, but the only person I know who's read The Witches of Worm read it as a child, so they don't remember the specifics.

Anyway, I think they are both just masterful.

Anyone else love these?

-Joey

[andracill Posts: 6,695 Status: Offline Worlds within...screaming to get out! WWW]

I haven't read THE WITCHES OF WORM in years (I was a young kid), but I love much of ZKS' writing. My favorite by her is BENEATH THE ROOT. That's part of a trilogy, but I didn't like the final book (one of my favorite characters died?!!).

I did read THE LONG SECRET, but I prefer HARRIET, THE SPY. I've read the latter a few times (all when I was a kid), but TLS only got one read from me. I still enjoyed it, though.

[writerjenn Posts: 355 Status: Offline WWW]

I've read both, though TLS more recently. I think I developed a new appreciation for TLS over the years--that it wasn't until I thought the story over and reread it that I really "got" Beth Ellen. One cool thing about reading the 3 books Fitzhugh wrote about those characters--HARRIET THE SPY, THE LONG SECRET, and SPORT--is that you get to see the same characters through different characters' eyes.
I liked THE WITCHES OF WORM, but I remember feeling at the end like we never really found out who Worm was or where he came from? Is that right? (It's possible that my childhood self missed something.) My favorite ZKS was THE HEADLESS CUPID, a book I loved as a kid and found that it held up well when I reread it as an adult.