I was planning to write about author and illustrator John Verney’s Callendar family series from the 1960’s, but I googled and found that Linda at A Cozy Nook to Read In wrote a much better plug for the series than I could, considering the fact that I haven’t seen most of the books in the series in thirty years. I did find a used copy of February’s Road a few months ago and re-read it; it was full of antiquated British slang, but otherwise quite readable. Maybe I liked the Callendars because they were a family with lots of urchins with unusual names: Friday, February, Abigail, Beryllium, Chrysogon, Desdemona, and Hildebrand, to name a few. The family and the names and the adventures all remind me a bit of Hilary McKay’s Casson family. Under the radar, out of print, and worth every minute.

I don’t know whether Penelope Wilcock’s The Hawk and the Dove trilogy, published in the 1990’s, are truly “under the radar” or not. Certainly, the books have many devoted fans, but they don’t exactly fit into a niche. The frame for the stories in the book has a mother telling her daughters stories about her medieval ancestor who was a Benedictine abbot. That makes the book sound like historical fiction for children, and it is. However, the stories deal with topics such as pain and suffering, chastity, faith, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and finally euthanasia. Are these the subjects of children’s fiction? Maybe, but the novels, or stories, are definitely appropriate for an older audience as well. Wilcock can tell a story confined to the setting of a 14th century abbey and make it relate not only to a teenage girl at the end of the twentieth century but also to the universal human dilemma. The monks of St. Alcuin’s are a mixed lot, saints and sinners, usually within the same person. I’d recommend these books for children aged nine or ten through adults. Good plots, challenging philosophy and ethics.

Here’s another blogger, Danielle, who’s beaten me to the punch, reviewing two series of books that hold fond memories for me: the mysteries of Helen Fuller Orton and the series of historical fiction books set in post WW2 Germany by author Margot Benary-Isbert. The Ark by Benary-Isbert is a fascinating look at how ordinary German children may have experienced WW2 on the homefront —in Germany. The sequel, Rowan Farm, is just as good as the family of refugees from the first book go to live on a farm while the war comes to a close.

Danielle says “today’s children are too worldly for this book” about one of Orton’s mysteries. But if you or your children enjoyed The Boxcar Children books, I’d suggest Orton’s mysteries as a follow-up. I own six of Ms. Orton’s mysteries: Mystery of the Hidden Book, Mystery Over the Brick Wall, Mystery in the Old Cave, Mystery of the Lost Letter, Mystery in the Pirate Oak, and The Secret of the Rosewood Box.. I re-read Te Secret of the Rosewood Box, and it’s much as I remembered. The story is set in the 1880’s. Charley’s family is moving from New York to the wild country of Michigan where Charley and his sister Mabel see all sorts of exciting things: bears, a beaver dam, a gristmill, deer, and a lumber camp. The language and the plot are simple, suitable for a confident second or third grade reader. Grandma’s special rosewood hatbox falls off the wagon on the way to their new home, and Charley takes responsibility for finding it. I don’t think my younger children would be “too worldly” to enjoy this story, and I doubt yours would either.

So there, with a little help from a couple of new blogger friends, is my list of recommendations from under the radar for children’s fiction. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s trio of adult fiction authors who have been sadly neglected or maybe even forgotten.

Today’s Recommendations from Under the Radar:

A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy: A discussion of author Ellen Emerson White and why she is “under the radar”

Big A, little a: Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Jen Robinson’s Book Page: The Changeling and The Velvet Room both by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Bildungsroman: Girl in a Box by Ouida Sebestyen

Finding Wonderland: A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles

Miss Erin: Girl With a Pen and Princess of Orange, both by Elisabeth Kyle

Fuse Number 8: The Winged Girl of Knossos by Erick Berry

Bookshelves of Doom: The Olivia Kidney series by Ellen Potter

Chicken Spaghetti: Natural History of Uncas Metcalf by Betsy Osborne

Writing and Ruminating: Jazz ABC by Wynton Marsalis

The YA YA YAs: Massive by Julia Bell

Also Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews is highlighting a childhood favorite, The Gorilla Did It by Barbara Shook Hazen.