Looking forward to the 1962 Club

Twice each year, Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy’s Bookish Ramblings host a readalong celebration of books published in a carefully chosen year and it starts on Monday. At first, I didn’t think 1962 was such a great year, although I have quite a few friends born that year. What about books? Here are a few I have already reviewed:

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats (my review). This might be the best-known children's book published in 1962, capturing the joy of a boy playing in newly-fallen snow in New York. As importantly, Keats changed children’s books by putting an African-American child on the cover. The Ezra Jack Keats Foundation created a wonderful documentary on diversity in children’s literature, which you can watch here.

So Great a Love by Gladys Malvern (my review). This 17th-century YA historical is about a lady in waiting to Queen Henrietta Maria who is betrothed to an elderly Royalist but falls for a young man she has known since childhood, despite his newly-acquired Puritan ideals. Malvern wrote more than 40 books and this is one of the most obscure, but fun for anyone who likes the English Civil War.

A few well-known 1962 books have appeared on my Six Degrees of Separation posts:

Light a Single Candle by Beverly Butler (March 2021

A Time for Tenderness by Betty Cavanna (July 2021)

The Return of the Twelves by Pauline Clarke (aka The Twelve and the Genii) (October 2020)(May 2022) Oh dear, I didn’t realize I had used it twice!

Do you know The Winter Princess by Mary Treadgold? I did not think this book merited a review but I loved the Puffin cover!

I am not reviewing any of these below but they’d be easy to find if anyone needs good suggestions:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken (I practically know this book by heart and am eager to see what others think!)

The Mirror Crack’d From Side to Side by Agatha Christie (this is a disturbing one I reread not long ago)

The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (wasn’t there a well-reviewed miniseries a few years ago? Did anyone see it?)

Seven-Day Magic by Edward Eager (another favorite of mine; this is a standalone so it would be a good choice for anyone curious about Eager and, like Wolves, is a 5-star choice)

The Nonesuch by Georgette Heyer (there is almost always a Heyer or an Agatha Christie to choose from, but I know this book so well it will be more fun to pick something else)

Hand in Glove by Ngaio Marsh. I like this Superintendent Alleyn mystery because courtesy is part of the plot but decided I had reread it too recently.  

See you next week!