I'm trying to think of examples of really annoying excessively cheerful optimists from classic (or at least famous) literature.

Miss Bates in Emma.

Mr Micawber in David Copperfield.

Little Nell in The Old Curiosity Shop.

(Hell, there's one in virtually every Dickens novel!)

For the advanced 11YO:

At 13, I had no trouble whatsoever with Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, and Erle Stanley Gardner (Perry Mason). Could never figure out whodunit, but that didn't stop me.

For the 11-year-old: The Changeling, The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid, or really anything by Zilpha Keatley Snyder. I don't know what's in print right now, but she was my favorite writer at that age. (okay, technically Ann M. Martin was -- but you want to know about *good* books, right?) Also, I second the Westing Game rec.

How about E Nesbitt? I think I was adoring her stuff at that age.

How about E Nesbitt? I think I was adoring her stuff at that age.

I was adoring her in every age since I started reading her, which was a little younger than 11, now that I think about it, so this post is pretty much meaningless.

I could never get into E Blyton. I'm not sure why. It's not that her characters always seemed to be eating or that they all seemed to have some sort of clever pet, or the sexism (like Deb wrote), because I think I got along with these fine in other books (meaning: failed to notice them until re-reading at a later age). I don't know.

It's amazing how many of the books Kat (who is amazing in her reading, in and of herself) had mentioned I don't know. It seems like a lot doesn't filter all the way across the ocean and into Hebrew.

Thirding or sixthing the Westing Game rec! And I totally dug Zilpha Keatley Snyder around that age, too.

Now my own question: My brother, who generally does not like to read, has developed a love of Philip K. Dick and William Gibson in the last couple of years (he's 19 now). I don't know which books he has by them, and I'd like to try to expand his horizons, however minutely, so I'm looking for books by similar authors for his Christmas gift. Help?

Kate, you could try Neal Stephenson -- I'd think Snow Crash and The Diamond Age rather than the latest super-sized books.

It's hard to triangulate similar authors from those two points -- Gibson and Dick don't have much in common besides from writing near-future SF that's been recognized as "literary" (and they're both good, of course). Do you know what your brother likes about them?

Going on just the names: you could try some other authors whose reputations Vintage is trying to rehabilitate -- Samuel R. Delany and Theodore Sturgeon -- or authors who are well-known for appealing to mainstream readers, like Ursula K. Le Guin. For Delany, I'd recommend starting with The Trouble on Triton or the recent short story collection, and for Sturgeon, I'd recommend starting with More Than Human or the recent Selected Stories (the Vintage collection, not one of the North Atlantic Complete Stories volumes, which are really aimed at the Sturgeon completist). For Le Guin, the obvious choice is The Left Hand of Darkness, and I wouldn't argue with that.

If you want something more similar to Gibson, other cyberpunk authors from the same time frame worth checking out include Bruce Sterling and Pat Cadigan. Dick is harder and more peculiar, but Jonathan Lethem's first novel (Gun, with Occasional Music) might suit, or Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next novels (which I know a lot of people here liked, although I didn't). You could also try one of the authors Dick mentored late in his career, K.W. Jeter, James Blaylock, or Tim Powers, although I don't think they're much like Dick myself. (Good, yes; like Dick, no.)

bruce sterling is a way to go -- some of his stuff is cyberpunk and some of it goes in a completely different direction ( he wrote one on tornado hunters)

Neverwhere might also appeal unless he hasa big hate on for fantasy - then it might be to far out of his interests

For the 11-year-old: The Changeling, The Egypt Game, The Headless Cupid, or really anything by Zilpha Keatley Snyder.

She was the best. Even as a kid, I loved how her stuff was slightly darker than the other children's books.