Dispatches from the 60s #1
Constance C. Greene's A Girl Called Al
Al is a very interesting person. She is a year older than me but we’re both in the seventh grade, on account of she dropped back when she moved here. She has gone to a lot of different schools. She has a very high I.Q., she says, but she doesn’t work to capacity. She says things like this all the time but I don’t like to let on I don’t always know what she is talking about.
—A Girl Called Al, by Constance C. Green
Only in the 70s would you get a children’s book tagline that reads: A little on the fat side and a nonconformist. Or, well, technically it came out in 1969, but it has a very seventies feel, so I keep thinking of it as a 70s book.
ANYWAY.
So many—probably most, even—of these older titles maybe wouldn’t be my first pick for younger readers. The 70s sensibilities and the language used and so on—and particularly, in this one, the talk around fatness—haven’t aged in a way that is GREAT, per se. But they are a WICKED BLAST as an adult reader. They’re like little time capsules.
“I am a nonconformist,” she said, like she was saying she was a television star or Elizabeth Taylor or something.
“What’s that mean?” Here I go again.
“It means I don’t follow the herd. It’s the best way to be. You,” she said, looking over the top of her glasses at me, “have the makings of a nonconformist. There’s a lot of work to be done, but I think maybe we can manage.”
—A Girl Called Al, by Constance C. Green
A Girl Called Al features so much of what I love about chapter books from this era—the narrator’s voice makes me think of both Harriet the Spy and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth—in that she’s frank and somewhat wry and a kid-version of world-weary, and she’s not as mature as she thinks she is. Which is probably a big part of what makes it such a joy to read as an adult—you can read between the lines of what she’s saying to also understand the dynamics of what she’s missing. And then—especially as an adult—you can also pick up on what the adults around her are saying and NOT saying, heh.
Suddenly I am realizing that I don’t think the narrator ever tells us her name??
Who does this kid think she is, the second Mrs. DeWinter?? I love it.
Now I want to read it all over again to see if I’m right? Good lord, I didn’t think my googly eyes could get any bigger for this book, but here we are.
It clocks in at a cool 120 or so pages, and is a contemporary—of the era, obviously—realistic story about two girls who live in the same apartment building, as they become friends and navigate school and parents and their own friendship and ultimately, a loss.
There are a bunch more, I’m totally going to read them, and I’m sure I’ll share more tidbits as I go. (Heck, if I’m re-reading this one, I’ll probably feel the need to share bits from this one as well, who knows?)
A Girl Called Al
Amazon
Harriet the Spy
Amazon | Bookshop
Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth
Amazon | Bookshop
Oh! Let me know if you’ve got faves from this era; I’m compiling a list of titles to track down. Currently it is VERY Constance C. Greene-heavy, so I’d like to mix it up a bit!
Hope you are well,
Leila
The Silver Crown by Robert C O’Brien was one that always stuck with me as a kid. It both fascinated and scared me. I just checked and it’s also a 1968 book, but definitely a favourite from that era. One that I re-tracked down as an adult so I could always have it on my shelves. Also The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. Another book I discovered in the library as a kid and read and reread and then tracked down as an adult, haha!
I’ve just found a copy of Al on Abe books, so I’ll be reading that when it arrives!
Awwww! I remember Al! I pretty much *WAS* Al, with my penchant for wearing slacks and belted sweaters when I was EIGHT, and my love of throwing words like "epiphany" into casual conversation... (I kind of understand now why I mainly hung out with adults.) I vaguely remembered Ms. Greene passed away last year, but it was SUCH a vicious year for losing authors (insult to injury, loss upon loss upon loss) that it kind of passed in a blur - I'm glad you're reminding me of my love for this - and I remember reading Beat the Turtle Drum (one of those books you pick up solely for the title) and being just gripped by sadness... Constance Greene reminds me of the classic writers from Back In Ye Olden Days: Joan Aiken, Norma Fox Mazer, Paula Danziger, Robert Newton Peck, Robert Cormier and Paul Zindel. ::sigh:: Good times with library sales...