She-ra (available on Netflix) is gay as hell and has a communist horse, so it's pretty cool.
Infinity Train is excellent, and has real Over the Garden Wall vibes.
Avatar: The Last Airbender is the only kid's show I think still holds up as you get older (though it definitely has flaws). In that same setting I also like The Rise of Kyoshi, which is a book written by some random YA author and I have no idea how that partnership managed to come about.
What, in your view, are the flaws with ATLA? Is it Katara as a sidekick/love interest? Treatment of fascism in the fire nation?
I do think romance in general is a weak point of bryke, not really specific to any of their characters. The biggest flaw in the story, though, in my opinion is (obviously spoilers) how they kind of circumnavigated the conflict at the end. Aang should have had to come to terms with the fact that nonviolence simply cannot always work. Still, I understand what they were going for, and I wouldn't have any major problems with it if they had just set up the method by which Aang could defeat Ozai without killing him earlier. Then the debate would have been focused more on, "Is it worth the risk of failure to do this without killing him?" Which is a much more reasonable thing to answer either way. As opposed to the debate they were actually faced with, in which Aang was wrong and everyone else was right (if not for the interference of an unknown, undocumented, primordial magic beast). The message, in the end, is that it is more important to root yourself firmly in your cultural beliefs than it is to literally prevent genocide. Which is a very unfortunate conclusion for a victim of genocide to come to and to teach.
It's been a little bit since I last saw it, but I thought the portrayal of fascist imperialism was generally solid. Do you have any particular complaints about that aspect?
Lord help me, I loved it as a child and I never looked at it with a critical eye. I will always complain about a magical turtle beast coming out of nowhere and provide a convenient solution. I don't really have any complaints. The most critical analysis I get from it is looking at it through world building perspectives with Hello Future Me on YouTube. In that sense, I think they did a good job on Azula's characterization, their magic system, etc. I think, with the amount of effort they put into these elements of story telling, it was destined to disappoint. It takes a lot of bandwidth to create a tight story that encompasses the full breadth needed to take on a political philosophy like antifascism. It's hard to fit in sea monsters, kyoshi warriors, penguin sledding, etc. and then pivot into that.
Hunger games is legit good. I've read only 1 book of the Percy Jackson book so far, but it's already better than Harry Potter. Finally, The Hate U Give is genuinely good for a soft intro to police violence for libs, plus it's famous so the libs are more accepting of the subject matter. I've only read the book so idk how the movie is.
Also: calvin & hobbes remain to be good
Stuff by Diana Wynne Jones, though idk if the politics holds up in hindsight. She was really good at writing about familial dysfunction and shitty adults without preaching or condescending to her audience. Also an impressively tricky plotter.
Gotta read her (nonfiction) writing guide/fantasy critical history for adults in conjunction with her children's books. The dimwitted tourists in the fake fantasy world in... one of her books, forget which, are clearly supposed to be her adult readers, trying to learn how to write from a book without accessing their inner child/creativity. Pretty cool Paul Auster-style meta-fictional flourish for a kids book.
Okay I have never encountered anyone who has read these novels but The Bartimaeus Sequence is one of my favourite works of children’s literature. I guess since it came out at the same time as Harry Potter and has a boy wizard main character it kinda fell under the radar but other than that it’s nothing alike. (It’s actually good, for one). It’s been a long time since I read it but iirc the basic premise of the setting is that it’s set in a British Empire ruled by magicians who summon (enslave) spirits to do their bidding. And it’s always implied that the only thing that separates magicians from commoners is their hoarded knowledge and willingness to exploit & enslave the spirits — there’s no like hereditary bullshit or inherent superiority or anything. Pretty cool for a kid’s book. Also they’re really funny.
Wow, you just lit up a weird part of my brain. I've also never met anyone who's read these books. Was Bartimaeus one of the djinn? I'm going to have to do some digging in closet, I remember the covers had those really cool illustrations of the djinn.
Yes! He’s a djinn and the main narrator I think. Glad to see someone has heard of these books!
I was all about the Alex rider series as a tween. I think it's funny how basically all the villains were like Elon Musk tier capitalists or just rich minority billionaires who hated the west for being too racist. But yeah basically just a bond ripoff for kids but without the rapey tropes
I read the Adrian Mole books when I was young which is apparently somewhat unusual for an American, but I could definitely relate to him despite being much poorer and growing up in a completely different country. The 80s fucking sucked if you were a kid and he had a lot of the same questions about why adults were so ridiculous as I did.
I also read those growing up in the US! I was very grateful for the glossary of UK terms presented as a letter to his American friend in the back of my edition. I was also very grateful for the books as an exploration of what growing up was like for a young man without shying away from any of the embarrassing and stupid parts. It was stuff that was hard to talk to with adults in my life and that my peers also didn't know what the fuck to do with. Adrian dealing with everything like an absolute mess was also very entertaining and helpful in pointing out some common pitfalls.
Reading the Wiki article on it right now since it's been three decades since I even thought about it and man, think I might need to go back for a re-read because apparently I missed out on a lot. Also holy shit what is this!?
Artemis Fowl was my shit in middle school. I was really in to the mythical society and how they combined magic and technology.
really dig the name of the wind i think it a good fantasy book and i think that count as YA media
hahah, had a good laugh at this since the 2nd one is like half fucking
I really loved The Babysitter's Club series when I was growing up, so I watched the Netflix show when I came out. It's a terrific series that tackles a lot of social issues like gender identity, chronic illness, and wealth inequality in a relatable way. Plus the adult cast is great - Marc Evan Jackson, Mark Feuerstein, and Alicia Silverstone!
