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Yuletide Reveal
For this Yuletide, I wrote a fic for the Danny Dunn children's book series:
Danny Dunn and the Detective's Secret (7880 words) by geri_chan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Danny Dunn Series - Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Danny Dunn, Mrs. Dunn (Danny Dunn), Carl Ellison (Danny Dunn)
Additional Tags: Humor, Pre-Relationship, Family
Summary: Detective Carl Ellison has been finding excuses to visit the Dunn household with suspicious frequency--or so it seems to Danny. He isn't sure what the detective is up to, but he's determined to find out.
I loved the Danny Dunn books when I was a kid, so I was thrilled to be matched on this fandom! My recip and I had actually chatted a bit about the books on the Be the First comm a few years back, so I was doubly happy to be matched with them.
I was quite intrigued by the characters and the prompt: as a child, I just enjoyed reading about Danny and his friends' adventures, but as an adult, it was interesting to look at things from Mrs. Dunn's POV and appreciate what a great character she is. She's a single mother (widowed when Danny was a baby) raising a child alone, albeit with help from her employer and Danny's mentor, Professor Bulfinch, for whom she works as a housekeeper. She's a loving mother who recognizes Danny's intelligence and scientific aspirations and allows him a lot more leeway than most parents would, but stern when she needs to be.
I also appreciate now that though the books are dated in some ways, they are surprisingly progressive for their time (written during the 50s through the 70s). Although Mrs. Dunn seems like a typical homemaker, often seen making or serving delicious meals, she is, as mentioned above, a single mother working to support her son. The books focus mostly on Danny, but in Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint, we see a hint of her worries: when Danny gets in trouble for daydreaming during class, she says that she will manage somehow to put him through college, but he has to do his part and get good grades at school. I am sure the Professor would be happy to help with Danny's tuition, either by helping him get a scholarship or outright paying for it, but equally sure that Mrs. Dunn wouldn't feel comfortable asking him for that help.
There is also Danny's friend Irene. She is equally science-minded, and as far as I recall, no one makes a big deal about a girl wanting to be a scientist; it's accepted as matter-of-factly as Danny's interest in science. Someone commented on the fic, saying they liked the strong female role models in the series, and in hindsight, I realized that they are right. Interestingly enough, it's Danny's male friend Joe who is the artistic one (he's a poet).
There is also Detective Carl Ellison, one of the characters my recip requested. He appears in Danny Dunn and the Scientific Detective, and encounters Danny while investigating a case. He is a Black police officer in a small town, but this is not treated as anything out of the ordinary. Of course, serious discussions of racism would seem out of place in these lighthearted adventure books, but at the same time, it seems like the author made a deliberate choice to write the character as Black.
Getting back to the Yuletide prompt, it was for shippy or friendship bonding between Mrs. Dunn and Mrs. Ellison. They interact only briefly in that one book, but they do make a nice connection, bonding over their enjoyment of good coffee. And I also like that Mr. Ellison gets to see a hint of Mrs. Dunn's steely strength when she politely but firmly insists on knowing why he has come to question them about the Professor's whereabouts.
So I ran with that idea, and had Mr. Ellison find excuses (not entirely untrue) to drop by to see Mrs. Dunn: for her good coffee and delicious baked treats, and to check up on Danny, though of course the real reason is just to see her. It was fun to write from his and Mrs. Dunn's POV, but also equally fun to write from Danny's as he tries to figure out what's going on, since romance is the last thing on his mind.
It was such a joy to re-read some of the books in canon review and to write in this universe--as I told my recip, it was like visiting with old friends. Hopefully I will be able to revisit them in fic again one day, but at the very least, I will be re-reading more of the books.
Danny Dunn and the Detective's Secret (7880 words) by geri_chan
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Danny Dunn Series - Jay Williams & Raymond Abrashkin
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Danny Dunn, Mrs. Dunn (Danny Dunn), Carl Ellison (Danny Dunn)
Additional Tags: Humor, Pre-Relationship, Family
Summary: Detective Carl Ellison has been finding excuses to visit the Dunn household with suspicious frequency--or so it seems to Danny. He isn't sure what the detective is up to, but he's determined to find out.
I loved the Danny Dunn books when I was a kid, so I was thrilled to be matched on this fandom! My recip and I had actually chatted a bit about the books on the Be the First comm a few years back, so I was doubly happy to be matched with them.
I was quite intrigued by the characters and the prompt: as a child, I just enjoyed reading about Danny and his friends' adventures, but as an adult, it was interesting to look at things from Mrs. Dunn's POV and appreciate what a great character she is. She's a single mother (widowed when Danny was a baby) raising a child alone, albeit with help from her employer and Danny's mentor, Professor Bulfinch, for whom she works as a housekeeper. She's a loving mother who recognizes Danny's intelligence and scientific aspirations and allows him a lot more leeway than most parents would, but stern when she needs to be.
I also appreciate now that though the books are dated in some ways, they are surprisingly progressive for their time (written during the 50s through the 70s). Although Mrs. Dunn seems like a typical homemaker, often seen making or serving delicious meals, she is, as mentioned above, a single mother working to support her son. The books focus mostly on Danny, but in Danny Dunn and the Anti-Gravity Paint, we see a hint of her worries: when Danny gets in trouble for daydreaming during class, she says that she will manage somehow to put him through college, but he has to do his part and get good grades at school. I am sure the Professor would be happy to help with Danny's tuition, either by helping him get a scholarship or outright paying for it, but equally sure that Mrs. Dunn wouldn't feel comfortable asking him for that help.
There is also Danny's friend Irene. She is equally science-minded, and as far as I recall, no one makes a big deal about a girl wanting to be a scientist; it's accepted as matter-of-factly as Danny's interest in science. Someone commented on the fic, saying they liked the strong female role models in the series, and in hindsight, I realized that they are right. Interestingly enough, it's Danny's male friend Joe who is the artistic one (he's a poet).
There is also Detective Carl Ellison, one of the characters my recip requested. He appears in Danny Dunn and the Scientific Detective, and encounters Danny while investigating a case. He is a Black police officer in a small town, but this is not treated as anything out of the ordinary. Of course, serious discussions of racism would seem out of place in these lighthearted adventure books, but at the same time, it seems like the author made a deliberate choice to write the character as Black.
Getting back to the Yuletide prompt, it was for shippy or friendship bonding between Mrs. Dunn and Mrs. Ellison. They interact only briefly in that one book, but they do make a nice connection, bonding over their enjoyment of good coffee. And I also like that Mr. Ellison gets to see a hint of Mrs. Dunn's steely strength when she politely but firmly insists on knowing why he has come to question them about the Professor's whereabouts.
So I ran with that idea, and had Mr. Ellison find excuses (not entirely untrue) to drop by to see Mrs. Dunn: for her good coffee and delicious baked treats, and to check up on Danny, though of course the real reason is just to see her. It was fun to write from his and Mrs. Dunn's POV, but also equally fun to write from Danny's as he tries to figure out what's going on, since romance is the last thing on his mind.
It was such a joy to re-read some of the books in canon review and to write in this universe--as I told my recip, it was like visiting with old friends. Hopefully I will be able to revisit them in fic again one day, but at the very least, I will be re-reading more of the books.