Excellent! Space-western is appealing, and not often written for teens -- I bet that, after "Firefly" on TV, more people will be looking for good reads in that genre. How do the zombies get involved?
I agree -- looking forward to getting to know other children's authors better, here, and hearing what they have to say. :-D
Whoa. I guess they *are* old now, aren't they? I'm not going to think too hard about that.
I remember reading them when I was younger; about a year or two of intense book-consumption before I switched gears. I was always really bothered that the ages weren't realistic -- parents hiring 11-year-olds to babysit large groups of kids, and 13-year-olds doing things like starring in school plays that most kids don't do until high school, and then, don't usually star til they're juniors or seniors. But aside from that, I pretty much devoured those books like candy. I loved that there was a character who was devoted to becoming an artist, like I was (er, am!), and another who learned sign language, and wanted to be a dancer. I think Ann M. Martin did something really good by showing people pursuing creative careers that require a unique path -- something she must have encountered as an author -- and weighing the pros and cons of those situations. It gave her readers a sense of what it would really be like to follow those paths, and it never treated them as less or more important than other future plans. I also liked that her characters had parents and siblings who were important to them and got involved in the plots; they weren't living in a void like so many book characters.
