Monday, June 24, 2013

Ten top dynamic duos in fiction

Elizabeth Wein has lived in Scotland for over ten years and wrote nearly all her novels there. Her first five books for young adults are set in Arthurian Britain and sixth century Ethiopia. The most recent of these form the sequence The Mark of Solomon, published in two parts as The Lion Hunter (2007) and The Empty Kingdom (2008). The Lion Hunter was short-listed for the Andre Norton Award for Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction in 2008.

Wein's more recent novels for teens mark a departure in a totally new direction. Code Name Verity is a World War II thriller in which two young girls, one a Resistance spy and the other a transport pilot, become unlikely best friends. Her latest book, Rose Under Fire, set towards the end of the second world war, also features a young heroine with plane-flying skills.

For the Guardian, Wein named her top ten dynamic duos in fiction, including:
Pooh and Piglet (from Winnie the Pooh and The House at Pooh Corner by AA Milne)

Here come the stuffed animals! I suppose that Piglet could be called a sidekick rather than a legitimate team member, but "Pooh-n-Piglet" rolls so trippingly on the tongue, and they have been with me for so long - longer than I can in fact remember - that I feel they ought to be included. Occasionally their adventures take them in opposite directions - the adventure of the Heffalump comes to mind - but ultimately, when Piglet's house is destroyed he moves in with Pooh and that is that. They belong together.
Read about another dynamic duo on the list.

Piglet is on Clara Vulliamy's list of five of the best children's book protagonists. AA Milne and EH Shepard made Chris Riddell's top ten list of author/illustrator double acts. When We Were Very Young by A. A. Milne is on Glen Roven's list of seven poetry books to ignite your imagination. Milne's The House at Pooh Corner is a book to which Jonathan Kozol will always return; and Winnie-the-Pooh is one of the Barnes & Noble Review's top five books featuring toys and a book Walter Mosley hopes parents would read to their children.

Visit Elizabeth Wein's website and blog.

Writers Read: Elizabeth Wein (January 2008).

Writers Read: Elizabeth Wein (July 2012).

--Marshal Zeringue