R: Ray Bradbury & ALL SUMMER IN A DAY

“Oh God, the terrible tyranny of the majority. We all have our harps to play. And it's up to you to know with which ear you'll listen.” -Ray Bradbury, FAHRENHEIT 451

Ray Bradbury's short story, ALL SUMMER IN A DAY, was first published in the March 1954 issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION. The story is about a group of nine year-old schoolchildren living on Venus, where it rains 24/7. On this planet, the sun appears very briefly only once every seven years. Most children living here don't remember having ever seen the sun, which feels almost like a myth to them. Margot, one of the schoolchildren, knows the sun because she lived on Earth before moving to Venus. On the long-awaited day when the cherished sun is supposed to appear on Venus, Margot dreamily shares her memories of the sun with her classmates. It is clear that she misses the sun and her old home on Earth. The children accuse Margot of lying about the sun's existence and forcibly lock her inside a closet. The teacher is unaware that Margot is missing and the children soon forget about her. When the sun finally appears, the children enjoy a couple of glorious hours playing outside. When the sun disappears and it rains again, the children remember Margot and let her out of the closet. The sun will not return here for seven years. 

Contrary to the notion that victims of bullying are often lacking in a prized area, I feel that bullying victims are often quietly regarded to have an advantage over others in some way. I believe the kids were hating on Margo because she has known the bliss of being regularly pampered with the sun's light and heat while they have not. Her knowledge and experience might've made the others feel inadequate. 

Have you read ALL SUMMER IN A DAY? What do you think is a suitable punishment for the children, perhaps even the teacher, in this story? 

Q: ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE

"In 1941, [former editor-in-chief Frederic Dannay] explained his manifesto for ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE as being to "raise the sights of mystery writers generally to a genuine literary form," to "encourage good writing among our colleagues by offering a practical market not otherwise available," and to "develop new writers seeking expression in the genre." -from www.themysteryplace.com/eqmm/

By now, you might've noticed that I liked to read in the suspense and mystery genre when I was younger (still do, among other stuff). A magazine I occasionally thumbed through was ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE. Lots of short murder mysteries and opportunities for writers to submit stuff. Regretfully, I haven't kept most stuff, including magazines, I owned in my youth. So I don't presently have any ELLERY QUEEN magazines to refer to specifically. Sifting through vintage EQ covers online, I chose this cover. Though I don't remember reading this particular magazine, the cover is interesting enough for me to perhaps look into purchasing a used copy. Many EQ covers come with a cryptic tone, and this one's no different. The holiday decorations and the man in the chef hat hint at a seasonal food themed mystery. In my writing life, I'm working on a food novel with a mystery component, though it's not a murder mystery, as is what's shown here. 

Have you ever read the ELLERY QUEEN'S MYSTERY MAGAZINE? What magazines did you read when you were younger?

P: Susan Beth Pfeffer & THE YEAR WITHOUT MICHAEL

"Playing with an idea is completely different from writing a book. I've been playing with an idea for a book that wouldn't even be all that hard to write for months now, and I haven't noticed myself scurrying to the computer and setting up a brand new doc. But I do love playing with ideas, so I've been letting myself enjoy this one." - Susan Beth Pfeffer @ susanbethpfeffer.blogspot.com

Susan Beth Pfeffer's THE YEAR WITHOUT MICHAEL is about a girl named Jody and her family trying to survive an unexpected loss. In the beginning of the story, Jody's brother Michael leaves home for the softball field but he disappears along the way. At first, the police believe Michael ran away. But of course, he could've also been kidnapped. The parents hire a private detective, but no leads turn up. The family is tormented and heartbroken as they wait for Michael's return...or news. But nothing comes. After a year without Michael, Michael hasn't returned. The tone of the ending suggests that he would probably never return. 

I read this book a number of times. I liked reading the parts when Michael was still physically present in the story...When I was in junior high, I did an oral report on this book.  When I finished giving my report, a few of my classmates shared that they thought, from the book's title, that Michael would return after being missing for a year. I told them no, my story was about how a family survived the first year after one of their own goes missing. I still remember the room was quiet for a moment as my junior high classmates processed that some stories don't have happy endings.

Have you read THE YEAR WITHOUT MICHAEL? How does one heal from a terrible tragedy? 

O: Joyce Carol Oates & FOXFIRE

This month, I'm doing the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme: authors whose work I read when I was younger.

"Any kind of creative activity is likely to be stressful. The more anxiety, the more you feel that you are headed in the right direction. Easiness, relaxation, comfort- these are not conditions that usually accompany serious work." - Joyce Carol Oates

FOXFIRE (Dutton, Adult)  is the first novel I read by Joyce Carol Oates, and it's one of the darker stories I'm sharing here this month. The story takes place during the 1950s in upstate New York. One of the first scenes depicts a junior high girl named Rita who is lured by her younger brothers to a clubhouse built by older neighborhood boys. Once inside, it's implied that Rita is gang raped. She returns home alone, bleeding and crying. Her mother takes a look at her and slaps her, refusing to hear about what has just happened. Rita goes on to join Foxfire, a girl gang led by a charismatic girl named Legs. Later, when a male teacher fondles Rita during detention, the Foxfire girls vandalize his car and call him out for his behavior. The teacher soon retires.

The story is told from the perspective of Maddy, another Foxfire member. Maddy wants a typewriter. While bargaining with a man to sell her the typewriter that he intends to throw away, the man tries to sexually assault Maddy. Maddy tells the Foxfire girls about what happened and then she returns to this guy. While he undresses, the girls emerge. They beat him until he passes out. Maddy leaves some money behind and then snatches the typewriter. 

Told with a gritty honesty, FOXFIRE challenges the 1950s as being a gentler time when parents were thought to be more nurturing, families were more solid, and girls were more docile and safe from sexual assault. Reading this book also made me think of Lois Duncan's DAUGHTERS OF EVE, though I'd say that FOXFIRE is darker with much more sexually explicit language and content. Interestingly, I found this book in the MG section of a library when I was a teen. It is currently marketed as adult fiction, though it could also be considered YA. But a MG book this is not. 

Have you read FOXFIRE?  What do you think about when you think of the 1950s?
Have you ever strongly felt that a book's intended age group has been wrongly classified?

N: Natalie Babbit & TUCK EVERLASTING

"The question of what it might be like to live forever is something that everyone thinks about. And I think you think about it more when you find out you can't do it. It's an idea that's been sitting around in my head for a lot of years."  -Natalie Babbitt

Natalie Babbit's TUCK EVERLASTING is about a 'tween girl named Winnie who meets the Tuck family and learns they have been cursed with immortality after drinking water from a magical spring near her home many years ago. The elders in the Tuck family warn Winnie about drinking the water, that not being able to die and being stuck living forever was really a wretched thing. Still, Jesse Tuck, who is forever 17, secretly asks Winnie to wait until she is his age to drink the magic water so they could be together. When the Tuck family have to go on the run, the moral dilemma Winnie encounters is whether she should drink the water. 

The epilogue shows Winnie's tombstone 60 years later. She went on to be a wife and a mother... and she didn't drink the water. It was a wise choice on Winnie's part, and possibly not an easy one to make. Sometimes wise choices are not necessarily easy choices. 

Have you read TUCK EVERLASTING? How would your life change if you found out you are immortal?

M: Marilyn Sachs & HELLO...WRONG NUMBER

"When I grew up, I found that I had become a great expert on bullies, and my books are full of them." -Marilyn Sachs 

I read Marilyn Sachs's HELLO...WRONG NUMBER (Scholastic, YA) when I was in grade school. The story, told strictly in dialogue, starts with Angie calling for a hot boy she likes named Jim. The boy she calls is named Jim, but she dialed a wrong number. This Jim and Angie attend the same high school, but haven't met. Angie keeps calling Jim to talk. Two weeks into these phone calls, Jim sings a song to Angie and confesses his love. Around this time, Angie jokes about a boy with a big nose at her school who has been following her around. She's unaware of how uncomfortable her shallowness makes Jim. 

Angie finds out that the boy with the big nose is Jim, her phone buddy. She also learns from talking to Jim's ex-girlfriend that Jim lied to her about some stuff. The ex-girlfriend said she broke up with Jim, but Jim told Angie he broke up with his ex-girlfriend. Jim also told Angie he is a professional musician, but in reality, he is too shy to even try out for chorus. That sort of stuff.  Angie angrily confronts Jim. Jim says he wanted her to think he was someone special. At the end of the story, the two meet and talk for nine hours. After their talk, they talk on the phone again and Angie tells Jim she loves him too. 

This book is one of many light teen romances I read back in the day. For both their sakes, I'm relieved that Jim isn't a sex offender and Angie isn't a Fatal Attraction-type stalker. 

Have you read HELLO...WRONG NUMBER? Could you be in a relationship with someone who once shallowly judged you by your appearance or lied to you to make themselves look cooler?  

L: Lael Littke & PROM DRESS

"I usually know how a novel will begin and end, but in between I more or less fly by the seat of my pants. I hate outlining."- Lael Littke

Ready for another creepy prom story? In Lael Littke's PROM DRESS (Scholastic Point, YA), an old lady shares that she has a scar on her face from wearing a bad luck prom dress. Nonetheless, her prom dress is stolen or "borrowed"  from her attic by a girl, a talented dancer. The dancer wears the dress to her prom and gets into an accident that severely injures her legs. From hereon, every time a girl sees that prom dress, they end up stealing it and then something bad happens to them. At the end of the story, the old lady who owned the dress confessed that many years ago, she started making the dress for her prom. But the guy she was crushing on asked her twin sister, considered prettier, to prom instead. She cursed the dress while she finished making the dress for her sister. When her sister returned from prom, she threw acid at her sister's face so her sister would be less attractive than she was. Here, readers learn she is not the sister who got the scar from wearing the bad luck prom dress. That sister died in a fire years ago and the creepy sister returned to their old home pretending to be the other sister...At the end of the story, we see that the dress ends up in a store and a girl who wants it badly shoplifts it...

For some high school girls, prom is the quintessential event that acknowledges their elevation from girl to woman. But the event can come with a lot of planning. Who will my date be? What if the guy I want to go with asks someone else? Where will we have dinner? Should we book a limo? What will I wear? What if someone wears the same dress I do and wears it better? How will I afford all this? This novel takes some of these questions and blows it up into something bigger and darker.

Have you read PROM DRESS? Did you attend your prom? If so, what memories do you have?