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Zilpha Keatley Snyder (1927–2014)

Autor(a) de The Egypt Game

51+ Works 13,033 Membros 253 Críticas 31 Favorited

About the Author

Zilpha Keatley Snyder was born in Lemoore, California on May 11, 1927. She received a B.A. from Whittier College in 1948. While ultimately planning to be a writer, after graduation she decided to teach school temporarily. However, she found teaching to be an extremely rewarding experience and mostrar mais taught in the upper elementary grades for a total of nine years. After all of her children were in school, she began to think of writing again. Her first book, Season of Ponies, was published in 1964. She wrote more than 40 books during her lifetime including The Trespassers, Gib Rides Home, Gib and the Gray Ghost, and William's Midsummer Dreams. She has won numerous awards including three Newbery Honor books for The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid and The Witches of Worm and the 1995 John and Patricia Beatty Award for Cat Running. She died of complications from a stroke on October 08, 2014 at the age of 87. (Bowker Author Biography) mostrar menos

Séries

Obras por Zilpha Keatley Snyder

The Egypt Game (1967) 4,673 exemplares
The Headless Cupid (1971) 1,051 exemplares
The Witches of Worm (1972) 894 exemplares
The Gypsy Game (1997) 603 exemplares
The Velvet Room (1965) 494 exemplares
Gib Rides Home (1998) 369 exemplares
The Changeling (1970) 361 exemplares
Black and Blue Magic (1966) 317 exemplares
Below the Root (1975) 299 exemplares
The Trespassers (1995) 276 exemplares
Cat Running (1994) 274 exemplares
The Treasures of Weatherby (2006) 260 exemplares
Libby on Wednesday (1990) 260 exemplares
Gib and the Gray Ghost (2000) 236 exemplares
And All Between (1976) 234 exemplares
The Bronze Pen (2008) 231 exemplares
Until the Celebration (1977) 197 exemplares
The Famous Stanley Kidnapping Case (1979) 184 exemplares
The Unseen (2004) 174 exemplares
The Runaways (1999) 159 exemplares
Blair's Nightmare (1815) 148 exemplares
Song of the Gargoyle (1991) 145 exemplares
The Truth About Stone Hollow (1974) 126 exemplares
And Condors Danced (1987) 107 exemplares
Season of Ponies (1964) 106 exemplares
William S. and the Great Escape (2009) 101 exemplares
Fool's Gold (1993) 93 exemplares
Janie's Private Eyes (1989) 89 exemplares
A Fabulous Creature (1981) 87 exemplares
Eyes in the Fishbowl (1968) 77 exemplares
The Ghosts of Rathburn Park (2002) 65 exemplares
Spyhole Secrets (2001) 56 exemplares
The Magic Nation Thing (2005) 55 exemplares
The Birds of Summer (1983) 40 exemplares
William's Midsummer Dreams (2011) 35 exemplares
The Changing Maze (1985) 33 exemplares
The Box and the Bone (1995) 21 exemplares
The Diamond War (1995) 17 exemplares
The Princess and the Giants (1973) 12 exemplares
Squeak Saves the Day (1988) 11 exemplares
Heirs of Darkness (1978) 10 exemplares
Secret Weapons (1995) 8 exemplares
Ghost Invasion (1995) 8 exemplares
Today is Saturday (1969) 7 exemplares
Come On, Patsy (1982) 6 exemplares
The Green Sky Trilogy (1985) 4 exemplares

Associated Works

Funny You Should Ask (1992) — Contribuidor — 18 exemplares

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Zilpha Keatley Snyder's marvelous Green Sky Trilogy, begun in Below the Root and continued in And All Between, comes to a conclusion in this third and final installment of the story. Opening shortly after the events of the previous book, in which Uniforce returned to the Kindar in the form of the children Pomma and Teera, and the secret society of Geets-kel renounced their opposition to the Rejoyning of the Kindar and Erdling peoples, the story here kicks off as the leaders of Orbora are informed of the astonishing history that had been kept from them. All does not go quite as the Rejoyners hope however, and the book chronicles the first year after these revelations, as the Erdlings are released from their subterranean prison, and gradually join the above-ground Kindar world. The ongoing tensions between the two groups, and the challenges faced by those hoping for their integration—resistant factions on both the Kindar and Erdling sides, the seeming disappearance of Pomma and Teera, and the theft of the dangerous tool of violence—are chronicled, as events lead up to the Celebration—the one year anniversary of Green Sky's Rejoyning. Can Raamo and his friends triumph, and finally defeat the ancestral specter of violence their society was founded to escape from, and what price must they pay to do so...?

Although there are some flaws in Until the Celebration, as well as in The Green Sky Trilogy in general, I nevertheless enjoyed this conclusion to Snyder's story immensely. As with its predecessors, I found the world of the Kindar and Erdlings to be a fascinating one, appreciating all of the details regarding customs, rituals and beliefs, and the way these varied between the two groups. I thought Snyder did an excellent job depicting the disillusionment experienced by the Kindar, when some of the central tenets of their belief system—the evil nature of the Pash-shan, the infallibility and goodness of the Ol-zhaan—fell away. The way in which they subsequently latched on to the two children, Pomma and Teera, as figures with spiritual meaning, was astutely captured, revealing the way in which people need and desire symbols of hope and strength. Raamo's perceptive understanding that there is a danger in this veneration of the children may be proved correct in the end, but it also reinforces the original idea, that belief and ritual, especially of a spiritual and/or religious nature, is often necessary for peaceful and just societies. I was also greatly impressed by the storytelling decision Snyder made, in killing off her hero. Other great stories have flirted with the idea—a prime example being the Harry Potter books—but I think in general it is very unusual to see this outcome, in a work intended for children. Which isn't to say that children's fiction never addresses death, but when it does, it is usually the focus of the story, which tends to center around grief and loss. Here the focus is on sacrifice, even if done inadvertently, and I think it was a bold choice on Snyder's part. I have read that she regretted the end of this book, so it may be that she changed her mind after the fact, but in the telling, she clearly felt that sacrifice and loss were an essential part of her tale.

All of this being said, despite my great enjoyment of and appreciation for this series, I must admit that it suffers from some structural issues that prevent it from being quite as outstanding as it would otherwise have been. I think the trouble starts in the second book, And All Between, which covers much of the same material as in the first book, Below the Root. While I didn't dislike this "repetition" as much as some other online reviewers—I enjoyed seeing some of the same events from the Erdling perspective—given the fact that I found this third book somewhat rushed, covering too much in too few pages, I think that either this decision in the second book to go back and retell part of the story ought to have been reconsidered, or that this third book ought to have been expanded, and made into two books. There was simply too much going on here, and not enough attention paid to any of it, to truly satisfy. I also felt that the conclusion of the book was somehow off. Raamo's death, which should have been the climax of the story, was overshadowed by the return of Pomma and Teera. The latter also felt rushed, in and of itself, and I couldn't help feeling that the experiences of the two girls ought to have been its own storyline, within the book, rather than relayed briefly after the fact. Of course, despite these structural flaws, I do truly love this series as a whole, and consider the first book (Below the Root) practically perfect. Highly recommended to any younger (or older) reader who enjoys fantasy, science fiction, dystopian fiction, or just thoughtful, more philosophical fiction in general.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
AbigailAdams26 | 6 outras críticas | Nov 12, 2023 |
kept me in suspense, and about as good an ending as you could hope for
 
Assinalado
ansate | 6 outras críticas | Nov 6, 2023 |
Opening in Erda, the underground civilization and home of the Erdlings, whose ancestors had been banished from the arboreal Kindar world high above, this second book in Zilpha Keatley Snyder's Green Sky Trilogy covers some of the same ground as its predecessor, Below the Root, but is told (at least at first) from the perspective of Teera, the little Erdling girl found on the forest floor by Raamo and D'ol Neric in the earlier book. Running away from home when her pet lapan, Haba, is threatened—it is a time of great food scarcity amongst the Erdlings, and pets are to be sacrificed to the people's hunger—Teera finds herself on an extraordinary journey, escaping through the magical root that imprisons her people, and eventually taken in by a Kindar family. As she learns about life in the treetops of Green-sky, and becomes close friends with Pomma, the daughter of the family with whom she now resides, Raamo, D'ol Neric, Genaa and D'ol Falla must decide what to do about the central dilemma uncovered in the previous book. Namely, the truth that the monstrous Pash-shan feared by the Kindar were none other than their brethren—the banished Kindar who had come to be Erdlings—and the question of how to reveal that truth to Kindar society. As Genaa and D'ol Neric set out on a mission to Erda, Raamo and D'ol Falla confront an even more terrible truth: some amongst the priestly Ol-zhaan are willing to use violence, even against children, to protect their secrets...

Judging from most of the reviews online, many readers find And All Between a somewhat unsatisfactory sequel to Below the Root, chiefly because its first half is devoted to a recap of what occurred in that earlier book. While I can certainly see why some would think this title suffered from "Middle Book Syndrome," and while I didn't love it quite as much as the first book, for my part I nevertheless found it an immensely enjoyable continuation of the story. It's true that there is less narrative excitement and suspense in the first half, as we already know what is going to happen. That being said, the exploration of life in Erda was fascinating, just as the exploration of life amongst the Kindar in the first book was so engrossing. The more emotional nature of the Erdlings, the way in which they governed themselves, the way their families were structured—all of it was very interesting to me, both the first time I read this book, some years ago, and now, upon this reread. The second half of the book was more gripping, as it advanced the overall story, and I found myself on the edge of my seat on more than one occasion. The conclusion, in which the much revered uniforce reappears in the world of Green-sky as a result of the bond between Teera and Pomma, as the result of an Erdling and Kindar child working together, points the way to developments in the third and final book. All in all, although I do agree that there are some structural issues with the Green Sky Trilogy overall (something I will discuss in my review of the third book), I think this is a worthy follow-up and second title. I enjoyed reading it, and (much as with it predecessor) found the accompanying artwork from illustrator Alton Raible (who worked on the entire trilogy) just lovely. Recommended to anyone who has read and enjoyed the first book.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
AbigailAdams26 | 5 outras críticas | Oct 9, 2023 |
I picked up a copy from a Little Free Library, I read and enjoyed a few of her books as a kid but I had not heard of this one. It was not as successful as others. I'll leave aside the highly dated dog-eat-dog world of raising and teaching children in 1936 (let the bully beat him up, it will be good for him) and mostly complain that I never really connected with the two main characters, Amy and Jason. I expected Amy to be the thoughtful dreamer kid with the wild imagination and she just didn't turn out that way. Jason was just shown to be really strange, not much reason given, then it all just ended. I may go back to The Egypt Game instead.… (mais)
 
Assinalado
amyem58 | 2 outras críticas | Sep 11, 2023 |

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1990s (1)

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Estatísticas

Obras
51
Also by
3
Membros
13,033
Popularidade
#1,787
Avaliação
3.8
Críticas
253
ISBN
396
Línguas
8
Marcado como favorito
31
Pedras de toque
232

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