B is for Bittersweet
B is for Bittersweet
It’s day 2 of
the A to Z Challenge!
Otherwise known as the letter B Day.
A reminder that my theme for 2017 is
Young Adult Novels and Novels with Young Adult Narrators.
Presenting three novels suited for young adults that explore the sweet with the bitter:
Black Beauty by Anna Sewell
Black Beauty is a magnificent horse with a big heart. Sewell’s novel follows Beauty as he matures from a colt to an adult. As a young horse, he learns to love his mother and dear friends along the way. But he also endures great pain as, one by one, he loses many of his loves. His life is bittersweet.
Bless Me, Ultima by Rudolfo Anaya
Young Antonio grows up with a dilemma–choose the course his mother sets for him as a priest, or choose the cowboy lifestyle his father expects him to pursue. Through the shaman Ultima, Antonio learns that life is not an either/or proposition. He will also learn to open himself to magical possibilities even though that exposes him to forces of evil as well as good.
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
From the beginning of her young life, Liesel knows the bitterness of loss. As a foster child, she pieces together her own concept of family and experiences love (and loss) again. Set in Germany on the verge of war, this novel has won numerous awards and is a joy to read. The language and imagery are luminous.
Three recommended novels detailing the joy of love and the sadness of lost love. Bittersweet.
Have you read any of these? Which is your favorite?
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12 thoughts on “B is for Bittersweet”
Great selection. “Black Beauty” stays a firm favourite 🙂 Happy A-to-Z-ing.
Black Beauty is such a noble character. He loves absolutely and has a great capacity for empathy. Thank you for visiting!
I read Black Beauty a long, long time ago – I was never much of a fan. Didn’t have the horsey phase like many of my friends. 🙂
Tasha
Tasha’s Thinkings – Shapeshifters and Werewolves
Interestingly, I re-read Black Beauty recently as part of a reading challenge (the category was a book published more than a century ago). It’s darker than I remembered when I read it as a youth. Before I re-read it, I heard that it was an anti-slavery allegory. I went through the book with that in mind, which contributed to its dark overtone for me.
Loved The Book Thief. I’ve never read Black Beauty. I don’t do animal books, especially if they might be sad – and aren’t they all? I hadn’t heard of the third book here. I’ll have to look it up.
I loved The Book Thief also. That’s funny about you and animal books. Black Beauty does have a happy ending, but he goes through a lot before he gets there…so maybe not the best choice. Bless Me, Ultima is a coming-of-age novel mixed with magical realism. If you read it, let me know what you think.
The Book Thief is beautifully heartbreaking. What an original concept–being told from Death’s point of view.
I agree. Such a beautiful book…and at times darkly comic as well. A complete original.
Oh, Black Beauty! And The Book Thief! I’ve read them both and loved them. But Black Beauty is a sentimental favourite, which I first read in my childhood. I have downloaded it from Project Gutenberg and reread it. I believe it had a huge influence on animal treatment in 19th century England, including the RSPCA.
So glad you loved those books. You might give Bless Me, Ultima a try as well. That makes sense about Black Beauty influencing animal treatment. There’s a famous quote by Anna Sewell, which some of my students use in argumentative essays: “We call them dumb animals, and so they are, for they cannot tell us how they feel, but they do not suffer less because they have no words.” I can see how this quote might cause some people to think about treating animals humanely.
I loved The Book Thief for reasons similar to your own:Language and Imagery. I think that novel is just one of the reasons I’m writing YA. My #AtoZchallenge is anything writer(ly) http://theglobaldig.blogspot.com/2017/04/d-is-for-discovering-free-events.html
That’s so cool that a book inspired you to write your own! I think most, if not all, writers started out as readers. I know I did!