Diana Wynn Jones help needed please

[Merran]

I remember reading Diana Wynn Jones as a child and loving her books. My dd is eight in March and I would like to get her one but cant remember them with any clarity. I loved Witch Week but I see now its part three of a series that I didnt have, and Fire and Hemlock is probably too old yet.

Which is a good one to start with?

Witch Week is one of the Chrestomanci series, but can be read as a stand alone book. Try 'The Lives of Christopher Chant' or 'Charmed Lives'.

Also 'A Tale of Time City' and 'The Ogre Downstairs' (they're not Chrestomanci books).

'Archer's Goon' is fabulous (it makes me laugh every time I read it) but it may be a little too old. I'd agree that 'Fire & Hemlock' is probably best left for a couple of years.

DD is seven and loved Earwig and the Witch. Not sure how good your DD is at reading, I'd only recommend the Chrestomanci series for good readers really.

Looking forward to getting DD to read Howl's Moving Castle!

Witch Week is definitely a good place to start, it's quite young and accessible. I can never remember the correct chronology of the Chrestomanci books but I don't think it matters - they interlock rather than following on from each other.

Howls Moving Castle is excellent for a very confident reader but your DD may be a shade young.

And there's a set of short stories (Mixed Magics?) which are a great start.

I would start with Charmed Life myself, of all of them. Dd liked it around that age, though IIRC I read it to her rather than her reading it herself. I read her Dogsbody around the same time & didn't think it was unsuitable.

I agree Witch Week would also be fine as a standalone, no need to read the Chrestomanci books in order.

Basically all her children's books are fine as far as I can remember for an 8 y/o in content (rather than reading difficulty, obv. that depends on the child) but don't give her Hexwood! (Not as silly as it sounds, I find its often a bit hard to tell which are written as adult books simply from the covers/blurb.)

The ones I started with when I was that age were "power of three," "cart and cwidder," and "the ogre downstairs." I think she also intended "Wilkins tooth" for a younger audience. Cart and cwidder was written as a standalone book originally but she then went back and wrote the dale mark quartet around it, but a bit like chrestomanci you can read the first three in any order ( the last one, the crown of dale mark has more teenage themes so I'd leave it anyway). Cart and cwidder was for a long time my favourite, and was the one I chose to ask her to sign when I met her (along w Christopher chant, but at least I kept myself to two!).

I also agree with others that witch week is also good place to start. I personally think tale of time city and homeward bounders are definitely worth waiting a bit for, better for early teens, homeward bounders in particular is devastating (when I met dwj she told me she was destroyed writing it).

Sorry for the "when I met dwj" bit, it felt ok in context and it was one of the most rewarding days of my life so mice to have a moment to remember it!

I think 8 is a bit too young for DWJ. Not to decode them but the themes and characters are pretty rich and complex and it might be worth waiting for a couple more years so she doesn't get bored and reject them. If she did she'd be missing out bigtime as DWJ is a genius imo!

You met Diana Wynne Jones, thalia? I am v jealous!

yes scummymummy. I was doing a postgrad course at oxford when one of the colleges did an evening w her and philip pullman. I remember coming back from london on the train, cycling madly across oxford to get there, and ending up slap bang in front of her as it was the only seat left. Bizarrely (it was during the height of golden compass fame) there were only about 30 ppl there so at the end (I'd asked 2 questions during the formal session) I decided not to be shy and went and offered to bring dwj a drink, she said yes to red wine and after I fetched it I just sat at her feet in best acolyte manner and about 5 of us chatted for another 30 minutes. The marvellous thing was that she was just as fantastic as I needed her to be - well worth the worship all those years! When she signed my copy of C&C she wrote - 'thank you for reading this' - I nearly died with pleasure!

Main things we spoke about that evening were her loathing for 'and it was all a dream' kind of fantasy novels, or the ones where things are logically inconsistent (eg in magician's nephew why diggory can cure his mother with something from another world), and her terror about forgetting things (I then asked her whether that was why nick mallory hid all the tapes so he would not forget going to the upper room, and I think she was slightly surprised by the question, but said yes). We also spoke about which of her books she planned versus just wrote and the characters came to her - turns out the only one she knew how it was going to end was castle in the air which I think is one of the weaker ones. PP agreed w her on that - apparently the sentence which introduces lyra's daemon just came to him without knowing what a daemon was going to turn out to be.

OMG I love(d) her so much, so sad there will be no more books....

I am also in awe! DWJ is my all time favourite author, I've probably read her books more than any other books in my house (and am a total bookworm, so that's saying something!). Very sad to hear that she had died.

I would say for an eight year old that DWJ are read to books rather than read on your own books. I think my two were about that age when I started reading them, I read The Ogre Downstairs, Charmed Life, Archers Goon, Dogsbody and Eight Days of Luke. All of which I think are suitable for an eight year old. They have since both read most of the others, although not the adult ones as yet (they are 12 and 11). Cart and Cwidder and the Power of Three were my favourites when I was younger, and Howl's Moving Castle is my all time 'read when I'm feeling low' book. I think that the Homeward Bounders and Fire and Hemlock are probably the most powerful.

You could start your DD on Susan Cooper and "work up" to DWJ maybe?
The only one of DWJ's that I remember reading as a child, that stuck with me for years until I went and tracked it down to re-read as an adult, was Homeward Bounders.

Thanks for the great advice! :o I think I will start with Witch Week and see how we get along.

Interesting PomBear that you suggest Susan Cooper as a precursor to DWJ. I had them the other way around in my memories. Might get her Over Sea, Under Stone as well, see how she gets along. We will probably read much of them to her so we can share them.

She is at that very useful age where she talks about her books so its easier to judge.

I would def at least start DWJ before Susan Cooper, those books are spooky.

PS did you see the Dark is Rising Film? It was AWFUL and nothing like the books. So disappointing.

Although The Dark is Rising should be given on Christmas Eve and Over Sea, Under Stone as a summer holiday read, perhaps in Cornwall. I could take this a little too far... :o

Oh that film, I could have wept!

I called my son Will...

...bit late for not taking it too far methinks! :o

Ah, I have read The Dark is Rising so many times at Christmas!

My favourite DWJ books are Hoeward Bounders and Fire & Hemlock, but I came to her as a teenager, whereas read Susan Cooper earlier. I also loved Ursula Le Guin's Earthsea books.

DWJ fan here from childhood -something like dogsbody may be good for your dd.Howls moving castle is an all time favourite of mine and my dsisters.

She died recently, you know.

The Ogre Downstairs or Witch Week would be fine, IMO.

Have ordered Witch Week, thanks for your suggestions everyone!

Susan Cooper wrote other books apart from The Dark is Rising - The Boggart and it's sequel and I forget the exact title, am old gimmer is good for younger readers and if you like DWJs Homeward Bounders, SCs Seaward is similar in several ways.
King of Shadows is good too, and good for when they do the Tudors at school, and Victory is a good historical one too, I used that for "school" when I was homeschooling no2 son.