Three authors well-known for their past successes have written new novels that will delight young readers with relevant themes and characters that share their own `growing up' problems and lives.
Twenty-four years ago, Paul Zindel's "The Pigman" was acclaimed as a "prototype of the modern teenage novel." This was followed by "The Pigman's Legacy" in 1980. While these two have remained on reading lists for many junior and senior high readers, he finally explains `pigman' in THE PIGMAN AND ME (Harper and Collins/A Charlotte Zolotow Book. 1992.)This is admittedly his own autobiography during the teenage years, "Nonno Frankie seemed to already have a meaning to his life . . . I was sure he once had been a bumbling teenager like myself, but he had probably been through the mill and learned the hard way . . ."
Resplendent with photographs from his life-and-times, Zindel shares memories of his emotionally unstable mother, his own insecurities and those of an older sister. This is no "poor me!" autobiography. It combines humor, sadness, triumph and above all a tribute to Nonno Frankie who is Zindel's `pigman.'
In my estimation "The Pigman and Me" should be read before the other two and then followed by his brilliant "A Begonia for Miss Applebalm."
Zindel has written many young adult books and is also the author of "The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds," winner of the 1971 New York Drama Desk Critics Circle Award and the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
WHO WAS THAT MASKED MAN, ANYWAY? by Avi (Orchard Books, 1992) is set in 1945, Brooklyn, New York. Frank (Franklin D. Wattleson) and Mario (Mario Calvino) are obsessed with radio broadcasts of Captain Midnight, the Green Hornet, the Lone Ranger and the Shadow and try to rectify the wrongs of the world based on these fictionalized characters' tactics. In the path of their imagination are Franklin's parents, a brother returning from shock from the war, an upstairs renter and their sixth-grade teacher.
This is a piece of nostalgia where some young readers may be lost on the subtleties of the radio programs (certainly lacking the visuals of TV of which they are so accustomed). But the humorous antics of Franklin and Mario are universal, such as `spacing out' during class (he was in radio land) and putting a board between windows of the boys' rooms so they can go back and forth.
It is the dialogue that will captivate the reader. In this case the whole book is dialogue and transcripts from radio broadcasts. That is an extraordinary feat considering how the storyline is never lost.
"Who Was That Masked Man, Anyway?" is fast-paced, slightly zany and certainly fun, if you remember Ovaltine and "what lurks in the dark!"
Another book that will speed the reader along is LIARS by P.J. Petersen (Simon and Schuster, 1992). If readers are looking for characters that seem to be the kids-next-door, P.J. Petersen's novels are good recommendations.
Sam lives in Alder Creek, and his favorite terms are SOT (Same Old Thing) and MOST (More of the Same Old Thing) until he discovers that he has the power of dowsing (locating water with the stick) but more than that, he possesses the ability to tell when someone is lying.
The townfolk do a lot of lying; for example, when Uncle Gene (eveyrone's uncle) has his house burn to the ground and is tied and gagged in an old mine shaft.
Mystery upon mystery makes "Liars" a real page turner. Two others by Petersen have been named as American Library Association Best Books for Young Adults: "Would You Settle for Improbable?" and "Nobody Else Can Walk It For You."
Marilou Sorensen is an associate professor of education at the University of Utah specializing in children's literature.