People I'm Going to Miss

I'm sorry to say that one of the ways I deal with loss is denial and avoidance. Some of my all time favorite authors passed away last year and I have been furiously burying my head in the sand in an attempt to make the whole issue go away. However, as most people know, this method doesn't work forever. It is with a heavy heart that I finally acknowledge that Russell Hoban, Diana Wynne Jones and Anne McCaffrey passed away in 2011. Here, to honor their memories, are some of their books that I loved.

Russell Hoban is best known (to me) for his children's picture books featuring Frances, a precocious little girl badger. Frances is a wonderful character - one with all sorts of human characteristics, from stubbornness to creativity. Over the course of several books, Frances has all sorts of common childhood adventures. I adored Frances because I recognized in her some of the same characteristics I saw in myself. In particular, I loved the little songs Frances made up and sang whenever she was struggling to understand a particular issue - be it a new baby sister or friendships. I received my first Frances book when I became a big sister (just like Frances!) and I can't tell you how much it comforted me to know that other people (and badgers) went through the same thing. I often recommend Frances books for beginning readers or kids who enjoy reading along to a picture book. Another wonderful aspect to these picture books was that Hoban's wife illustrated them - what a wonderful partnership. Whenever I leaf through one of Hoban's picture books, Frances still charms my socks off all these years later. Russell Hoban, thank you for your lovely 'every-girl' character - you will be missed.

If there was one author I was genuinely devastated about, it was Diana Wynne Jones. Jones was an incredibly prolific children's fantasy author and one of my all time favorite writers. She wrote with a deft hand and produced fantasies that were not only lyrical and creative, but also smart. Jones never fell into the trap of assuming that children would be satisfied with (or wouldn't notice) lazy writing. Although the books were geared towards children, they appealed to readers of all ages. Just look at the book "Howl's Moving Castle", which inspired Hayao Miyazaki to make a gorgeous film adaptation. Jones wrote fantasies that were unique and spoke to issues we have all faced, including prejudice and finding one's own place in the world. Long before I read Harry Potter, I read about Jones' Chrestomanci - a powerful enchanter who could move between realities and had nine lives. If you want to start from the beginning, Jones' Chrestomanci stories have been collected in volumes. Begin with "The Chronicles of Chrestomanci Volume I", although I will have to admit that two of my favorite stories in the Chrestomanci universe come much later.

The first is "The Pinhoe Egg", in which a young student of the Chrestomanci finds that a small village has been suppressing good magic and snarling up the balance of nearly everything. This young student (Cat) and a girl from the village must work together to bring things back into balance again. This is another one of those stories where the seemingly smallest and least important people become the most important (I love stories like these). The eventual, triumphant wild breaking out of magical beings is all thanks to Cat and his friend from the village. My other favorite book is "Enchanted Glass", where a young orphan seeks shelter with a magician. This orphan discovers family, friends and his own strength - and he also finds out about the curious nature of a magical stained-glass window. Diana Wynne Jones was one of the first fantasy authors to awaken my imagination. Indeed, she is one of the reasons that I love fantasy - world building, hidden truths and all. So, Diana, thank you - from the bottom of my heart - for writing furiously and keeping me in wonderful, complex fantastical stories.

My final farewell goes to Anne McCaffrey, dragon-lady and creator of the wonderful world of Pern. I owe all of my youthful dragon riding fantasies to Anne McCaffrey (although, really, who wouldn't love a friendly dragon who adores you and flies you about?). As famous as that world was, Anne McCaffrey was not just about dragons. She also wrote about Acorna the unicorn girl, a group of people called Talents who flew ships and had amazing mental powers, survivors on alien worlds, miners with powerful connections to their gemstones and many other wonders. McCaffrey's books were my bridges, both to the genre of science-fiction and a little bit more mature reading. Her books are also what we in the library world call "stretches". I had never enjoyed science-fiction until I read one of her books - thereafter, I knew that science-fiction could be enjoyed (and even loved). I tend to be a huge fan of world-building and McCaffrey builds wonderful places by the score. Although I'm only going to list two books that I loved, I must stress that I loved most of her other books as well.

"Freedom's Landing" is the first book in a quartet and a fairly recent discovery by yours truly. Kristin Bjornsen lived a normal life in Denver, Colorado until a hostile alien race called the Catteni moved in and conquered planet earth. Being a resourceful woman, Kristin escapes slavery and flees into the woods. Her bare existence is threatened when she runs into a rogue Catteni. The two are captured and then abandoned with hundreds of other slaves on a new planet. The Catteni wish to see if the planet is fit for colonization. The slaves all work together to make this strange place into a survivable home. However, soon it becomes apparent that Kristin, her Catteni ally and the rest of the slaves must be prepared to defend their home from more than just the Catteni overlords.

I am a mighty revamped cover. Fear me.

"The Rowan" is the other book that I absolutely adored. This book is the first in a series where people called Talents are among the most valued citizens in the universe. The Talents are able to transport everything from cargo to people between planets with their mental powers. The Rowan is a young orphan with an incredibly powerful Talent who is discovered in the ruins of a settlement. She grows up isolated because of the incredible strength of her Talent. It isn't until The Rowan is a young woman that she makes a connection with another similarly strong Talent on a distant star that she escapes from her self-imposed isolation and decides to trust in the love of another person. **Side note: Don't judge the book by the cover on the right. Had I seen that cover, I may never have picked up the book in the first place. The cover girl has crazy eyes.