The Anything Box

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These are really good short stories, most of them liminal fantasies involving children in small-town America; the most famous one apart from the title story is "Subcommittee", where a human woman and her child manage to find a channel for peaceful communication with aliens where the grown men (of both sides) have failed. I did not even realise that it was a collection, and after finishing the first story was expecting another 150 pages of adventures for the child and teacher with the Anything Box (and then found myself on an alien world). Really something out of the ordinary.

3/2013 I read Walking Aunt Daid through tears, oh, who am I kidding- through sobs, the other night to a teenaged boy. If I never do another thing in my life, it's okay. Henderson's that good. I've dipped and supped throughout the book in the days since I read that story and as always I marvel that Henderson isn't more revered, isn't celebrated with parades and sparklers on her birthday. There are so many brilliant stories in this collection alone. Seriously, READ ZENNA HENDERSON. Read her right now.




2008 Henderson was brilliant. I was looking in the mirror the other day, and the plethora of wrinkles got me thinking of her short story "Walking Aunt Daid", which had a profound effect on my teenaged self. I wondered what it would be like to show more read from middle age. I like to play with fire, you see.

And I read it, I did, and it tore great heaving sobs from me. The bitterness at the heart of it is so hurtful, so bruised and ultimately so universal. And one feels for the boys, generation upon generation of them.

I can't read this very often. Then again, I don't need to because I carry it with me every step of the way. show less

Brilliant collection of polished little SF/F gems with a thread of the strange moving through most of them. Some signature tropes like the teacher / student relationship and the limitless imagination of children, bordering onto the purely magical, repeat, though with enough subtle variations to keep the entire book engaging through to the end. If you can find this collection somewhere grab it, it‰ÃƒÂ›Ã‚ªs out of print and not commonly found at the secondhand stores. Highly recommended to fans of classic SF/F with a dash of some quiet horror, a bit of the weird and pinch of the strange all in the mix.

Zenna Henderson is probably the most underrated author in the SF&F field that I can think of. Although her stories are among my favorites, they are long out of print.
Why?
Well, she's deceased (died in 1983), was never very prolific, concentrated on short stories - and had her vision brought to the screen through a movie starring William Shatner, that, by all reports, was pretty bad. (I have avoided watching it.)

Some critics have said they find her work to be "too sentimental" - but I would say, rather, that it is emotionally powerful. She often deals with characters that feel 'different' or disenfranchised, and I have never encountered a writer who could better articulate the longing for something 'more' than this mundane existence... (a show more common feeling among sf&f fans, I'd say!). She also deals frequently with themes of youth and age, and mixes wistfulness and horror to wonderful effect.

I'd read several of the stories in this collection before, but not all of them. And hey, I have to say that any story that can make me cry not just on first reading - but the third time I've read it as well, has to be pretty effective...

• The Anything Box. 1956
• Subcommittee. 1962
• Something Bright. 1959
• Hush!. 1953
• Food to All Flesh. 1954
• Come On, Wagon!. 1951
• Walking Aunt Daid. 1955
• The Substitute. 1953
• The Grunder. 1953
• Things. 1960
• Turn the Page. 1957
• Stevie and the Dark. 1952
• And a Little Child -. 1959
• The Last Step. 1957 show less

I'm positive that Zenna Henderson and Ray Bradbury were the same person... that's how good their short stories are, and how lyrical each one writes. Of course, I know they're not, that's just silly. I love finding a book in your stacks and reading it for the first time, even after you've had it for years on end, and your father before that. My dad never liked short stories (as I've said before,) and so reading this collection was something different from what I normally do. Zenna Henderson writes about "The People," in most of her works. They are aliens that have become stranded here on Earth and are trying to find their way back home. The theme continues in this set of short stories, most of which are told from a teacher's point of show more view (that being the occupation of the writer). The children the narrator's meet are strange, often with unusual abilities that seem to be quite normal to the kids themselves. They feel like episodes of The Twilight Zone, each in brevity and theme, and I enjoyed most of the stories in this book. Orson Scott Card attributes Henderson as being an inspiration growing up, and indeed, those who enjoy OSC's work will find themselves at home in the pages of this book. show less

A great collection of stories, each one a mini-reality break. For weeks after first reading the Anything Box as a teen, I was scared to death to babysit--afraid of the life-sucking vacuum cleaner and the sled-runners it used to glide around the house.
Zenna Henderson's amazing storytelling ability takes you places you never imagined existed, such as a dark hole in the side of an aquaduct from which a boy and his donkey must escape. At the same time, some of her stories are of wonder and the innocense of childhood, which may be lost as we grow into adults.
Excellent reading!

The stories in the Anything Box vary wildly between the simply fantastic, the deeply moving, and the absolutely haunting. If you enjoy any kind of fantasy story, there is sure to be something in the box for you. I've read The Anything Box several times since childhood and am always pleasantly surprised to find that there's something I've missed or forgotten and the various themes are the kind that you find yourself reflecting on when you least expect it...a great collection!