Your First Novel

[sara]

I was about to post this on Tdyans' television nostalgia thread, but I decided this merited it's own section.

The first novel I ever read was Madie and the Cherokee Legend. I don't remember much of the plotline, save that it took place in either North or South Carolina (I though ti was California - lol) and the heroine, Mandie (or Mandy, forgot which) was 1/4 Cherokee indian. It was the second in a series about her, and it was written by something Leopard. I got it, with a bunch of other novels, for about a dime at some children's book sale.

One of the other novels which I got at that sale, which was a faviorite when I was about nine years old was "The Secret Carousel". I read it so many times, I still remember a lot of the plotline. Takes place in Iowa, and it's about a girl who is currently in the 5th grade who discovers a hidden, maginificent carousel (hence the title). Ironically, it was around the 5th grade I started losing intrest in it.

I also got "The Wizard of Oz" at that sale - a version printed in the mid '50's. Pity I didn't read it much later, but when I did, I thought it was wonderful.

All three of these novels I still have. They are bits of preserved memories.

EDIT : Even though I had cherished "The Secret Carousel" for so long, I never paid attention to the author or the date it was published. Pulling out my old battered copy, it was copyright in 1983, I discovered the author was Claudia Mills, "author of Boardwalk With Hotel" it says on the cover. I did a search on her on the internet, and she's written a LOT of books, especially a series about "Dinah", The Secret Carousel was her third book published. Pity I'm outgrown for her, but from what I read about her, it's fascinating. I thiink I forgot how good the book was - after all, it had me enchanted for so long...

[Kiddo]

The first novel, eh? Red Planet by Heinlen. My dad read it to me way back before I started kindergarden. I still love that book.

[Tdyans]

The first novel I read was something like "Jamie and the Mystery Quilt." Obviously not a classic or masterpiece of literature or anything, but still the first novel that I ever read, and as a first or second grader, I thought it was very good. I can't remember much about it except that there was a quilt and some mystery that Jamie had to solve, something involving gold.

EDIT: Heh, I actually found it at Amazon, although it's out of print and there's not much information on it other than the author and a positive review from an 11-year-old.

[sara]

Claudia Mills short autobiography is very interesting - this paragraph takes the cake

I began writing professionally when I left graduate school impulsively in mid-year to take a secretarial job at Four Winds Press in New York City. I had a two-hour commute each way by bus, and I used that time to write novels and picture books. I began submitting these to Four Winds Press, using a fake name, so I could observe their fate undetected. On two occasions, I had the sad task of having to type rejection letters to myself. But finally a story proved promising enough that the editor who was my boss asked me to read it for a second opinion. I took the challenge and wrote an objective, balanced report on my own story, including suggestions for needed revision. The editor then sent the author (me) a copy of my report and said that if the manuscript was revised as suggested, she would like to see it again and consider it for publication. And so I took all the advice that I had had the good sense to give myself and reworked my story accordingly. It became At the Back of the Woods. And I became a published writer.

Read the whole thing at www.childrensbookguild.org/auth_ill/mills.htm

Tdyans said:

The first novel I read was something like "Jamie and the Mystery Quilt." Obviously not a classic or masterpiece of literature or anything, but still the first novel that I ever read, and as a first or second grader, I thought it was very good. I can't remember much about it except that there was a quilt and some mystery that Jamie had to solve, something involving gold.

EDIT: Heh, I actually found it at Amazon, although it's out of print and there's not much information on it other than the author and a positive review from an 11-year-old.

Madie and the Cherokee Legend was also a mystery novel ... historical mystery, that is.

[noremac9]

Hmmm... This is going to take some serious thinking. I THINK it was a "Hardy Boys" book, but I can't recall which one. I read about, oh, 20 of them before I got tired of them. They're the best thing you can get when reading isn't exactly something you know back and forth.

[Gelquie]

What's a novel?

[mushroom]

I can't ever remember a time when I couldn't read. I know that the first book series I obsessed over was The Baby-sitters' Club, by Ann M. Martin, back in first grade. It was about (surprise, surprise) a bunch of girls who made a baby-sitters' club so that clients would have an easier time finding a baby-sitter...

[missy]

Gentle_Lil_Queen:

A novel is like a chapter book.

[Gelquie]

Cheshire said:

Gentle_Lil_Queen:

A novel is like a chapter book.

You said like! Only...

[missy]

[Gelquie]

Nevermind.

[Linnen Malfoy]

I can't remeber my first one, but I belive Bunnicula ranked among the first 5.

I loved that book, and I quickly bought every single book in that series...
I still have them all, and the little story books and activity games.
*Loves fluffy bunnies*

[sara]

Linnen said:

I can't remeber my first one, but I belive Bunnicula ranked among the first 5.

I loved that book, and I quickly bought every single book in that series...
I still have them all, and the little story books and activity games.
*Loves fluffy bunnies*

I also liked the Bunnicula series - my faviorite was Howliday Inn. But I liked the Sebastian Barth mysteries by the same author better

[Tdyans]

Bunnicula! I almost forgot about those books.

[Gelquie]

What's Bunnicula?