Book meme

Day 13 - Favorite childhood book OR current favorite YA book (or both!):

My favorite childhood book is a Czech one: Jaroslav Foglar's series "Rychlé šípy" (The Quick Arrows). It's a series that takes place between the two world wars and it's about five boys who call themselves The Quick Arrows. The series is set in two districts of an anonymous town, The Other Side and The Gallows. One day, The Quick Arrows from The Other Side find out that the boys from The Gallows, who call themselves The Vonts, are about to elect a new leader, The Great Vont. The Vonts have always been a mysterious bunch, a selective group whose members identify themselves by a yellow pin. The Quick Arrows are determined to find out more about them - and about the mysterious talisman called the Hedgehog in the Cage, a puzzle the candidate has to solve to become The Great Vont. The Quick Arrows namely know that there's a secret hidden inside the Hedgehog itself, a secret one boy died to protect a long time ago...

The Hedgehog in the Cage is the most famous Czech puzzle and according to Foglar, there's only one correct way to solve it. Of course, the new, cheap imitations are all bogus, but the proper puzzle should look something like this...



"The Quick Arrows" is a fascinating, gripping story that just doesn't let you go once you start reading it. It's amazing!

( Etc. )

ETA: According to this web, it's translated as "Rapid Arrows" and "The Shades", not "The Quick Arrows" and "The Gallows" - oh well, I was close ;)

The Glades 105

( The Girlfriend Experience )

BTW, this episode was co-written by William Rabkin, the author of all the Psych tie-ins! Neat, huh?