April 2026 Reading

My best reads in April were The Paris Novel by Ruth Reichl and three rereads - Spring Magic by D.E. Stevenson (the ultimate in comfort reads as April was chilly and reading required a cozy blanket) and The Ivy Tree and Marry in Haste for the 1961 Club.

When Love Speaks by Amelia Elizabeth Walden, for the 1961 Club and Reading the Theatre Month

Walden (1909-2002) was a pioneering young adult author I read frequently as a teen and pre-teen, so in 2010 I was pleased to learn about the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents’ (“ALAN”) Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award.* With some exceptions, her books fell into three categories: girls playing sports, girls/young women involved in theater, or young women drawn into espionage. In the 1940s and 50s when her books were first published, there were very few people writing about girls in sports and there weren’t as many opportunities for girls to play. I was never a good athlete but it was still fun to read about these sporty girls who experienced challenges with teammates, coaches, school, families, and friends. In the 70s, she began writing about young women co-opted into espionage, and these must have been popular because several were published in paperback by Scholastic Book Services.

Marsha On-Stage by Amelia Elizabeth Walden

Title: Marsha On-Stage
Author: Amelia Elizabeth Walden
Publication: William Morrow & Company, hardcover, 1952
Genre: YA fiction

Description: Lovely Marsha Blake, a senior at New Sharon High School in Connecticut, has always been acknowledged as the star of a talented drama department, led by Mrs. Graham, who studied at the American Academy (like Walden herself).  For years, Marsha and her older brother Ricky, now at college, had hoped to launch their own production at the local community theater, which closed ten years ago. 

Six Degrees of Separation - From Good Girl, Bad Girl to A Chelsea Concerto

It’s time for #6degrees, inspired by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. We all start at the same place as other readers, add six books, and see where you end up.   This month’s starting point is whatever book you last read.   I just finished Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (2019), an Australian author who lives in Sydney, although the story is set in Nottingham (shades of Robin Hood).  This is a very suspenseful novel about a psychologist with a past of his own, caught between a girl who needs to be saved, Evie, a teen without a past, and Jodie, a girl who needs justice. I can't wait to read more by this author (although I did guess whodunnit)!

Debutante Hill (Book Review)

Title: Debutante Hill
Author: Lois Duncan

Publication Information: Lizzie Skurnick Books, 2013, trade paperback (originally published 1958)

Genre: Young Adult

Plot: Pretty blonde Lynn Chambers anticipates a fun senior year although her boyfriend Paul and her older brother Ernie have left for college.  Then a pushy neighbor organizes a debutante season of parties for the 12th graders from the more affluent part of town, the Hill.  Lynn’s egalitarian father persuades her not to participate, leaving Lynn depressed and excluded from the social whirl. 

June 2010 Reads

June was a good month for suspense fiction but less memorable in terms of the children's books I read. I recommend Robert Goddard and Linwood Barclay, and I always suggest Patricia Wentworth as a comfort read for mystery fans. Here are my June reads, and a look below at the beautiful bookplate used by the Concord Public Library many years ago. I had been there a couple times before but it is always a pleasure to be in such a historic library. Concord is a delightful town even apart from the thrill one gets from being near the homes of Louisa May Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and Jane Langton. I drove by the Diamond in the Window House on my way home...

Sunnycove by Amelia Elizabeth Walden

In this 1948 YA novel, Sunnycove, by Amelia Elizabeth Walden, Vicky Lind is a quiet teen from a West Virginia mining town where even the families who own their homes do not have running water. Vicky has something priceless, however, an older brother who recognizes her acting talent and is determined she will get her chance in the real world - the chance he wasn't talented enough to pursue. Gus returned to Pittstown after college to teach, and gave Vicky drama lessons every day. After she graduates from high school, it is Gus who secures her place at Sunnycove Playhouse in Connecticut for the summer where she will have the opportunity to appear in student productions and possibly earn a role with professional actors.

Amelia Elizabeth Walden, YA author

I thought few people remember Walden’s teen novels these days so I was surprised and pleased when I read last fall on Kristin Cashore’s blog that she had been nominated for the Assembly on Literature for Adolescents’ (“ALAN”) inaugural Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award. I read every one of Walden’s 40+ books I could find in the 70s and enjoyed them, although admittedly some were very formulaic. They are quite dated now and at times seem sexist because while her message ostensibly is that young women can do anything, her male characters often belittle them and say that until they learn how to be womanly women they cannot truly be successful/know themselves/succeed, etc. Despite this, which annoyed me even as a teen, I liked her books a lot. She wrote several different genres: spy novels, sport themes (of these my favorite is My Sister Mike), drama theme (I enjoyed a trilogy about a young woman named Miranda, although the man she ends up with was one of the most condescending creatures ever, her director/producer), and a few general (Waverly, about a girl who leaves her beloved family ranch to attend the all women's college her deceased mother had loved so much). Her characters love the outdoors and, long before Title IX, enjoyed sports ranging from skiing, basketball, tennis, horseback riding, softball, swimming, field hockey, and scuba diving.