These were the first 'Big Kid' books I read. I can't remember much other than the importance of tangerines in the book, but man, I was obsessed with the series.
Actually, I never read these growing up, but discovered them a couple of years ago when my daughter first started getting into chapter books. She loved them.
I did some real-time edits as I read, but overall they seem to have held up remarkably well. They are full of just plain odd details and plot elements :)
Oh I'm so glad you found them to read to your daughter! I sure do hope she loved them.
A good friend of mine who read them when she was younger recently picked them up and said they weren't nearly as exciting as she remembered them. I suppose those little 'odd details' that you mentioned really paint a vibrant picture in the imaginations of young ones. I'll probably read them to my kids ... in a million years :P
My Father's Dragon actually reminded me of an early-generation text adventure in that he filled his backpack with an odd assortment of things (chewing gum, lollipops, rubber bands, boots, compass, toothbrush, compass, six magnifying glasses, hair ribbons, and so on), then used each of those items in turn (none left over!) to solve puzzles in the story.
You've hit the nail on the head! I think that may exactly be the reason why I liked them so much. While I'm a bit to young to be part of the whole text adventure phenomenon, I certainly played adventure games such as Monkey Island, Kings Quest, Legend of Kyrandia before I got really into reading.
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These were the first 'Big Kid' books I read. I can't remember much other than the importance of tangerines in the book, but man, I was obsessed with the series.
I did some real-time edits as I read, but overall they seem to have held up remarkably well. They are full of just plain odd details and plot elements :)
A good friend of mine who read them when she was younger recently picked them up and said they weren't nearly as exciting as she remembered them. I suppose those little 'odd details' that you mentioned really paint a vibrant picture in the imaginations of young ones. I'll probably read them to my kids ... in a million years :P