The characters were sassier, more alive and often conniving. And nary an elf lord in sight.

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I follow some aspiring novel authors on X.com (#writers), and they talk about the struggle to sell stories.

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They discuss who has found an agent. Who has sent a pitch to a publisher. Who has written how many words today on a WIP (work in progress.) And many deal in YA (young adult) fantasy and its sub-branches, romantasy and horromance.

The results are often rehashed Tolkien: story after story about elves, dark wizards, dragon-gods, sacred crystals and always in YA a strong and virtuous youngster, the type of kid Tom Sawyer would have tossed into the frog pond. Often some environmental theme. Art from a bad tattoo. I see all this in bookstores when I shop for young relatives.

But some writers of youth fiction a century and more ago did it so much better. Their characters were sassier, more alive and often conniving.

An easy example is Huck Finn, who meets two con men, a king and a duke. The king tells him: “Yes, my friend, it is too true — your eyes is lookin’ at this very moment on the pore disappeared........

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