Reading Through History: Friendly Gables by Hilda Van Stockum (1958)

In the third and final book about the Mitchells, the family has moved to Friendly Gables, the new home they finally find at the end of Canadian Summer, and Mother has just given birth to twins. (There are no real-life counterparts for the twins as there are for the other Mitchell children.) While she recovers from childbirth, the children are subject to the rules and expectations of her nurse, Miss Thorpe. When they realize they cannot please her, the children, excluding Joan who suddenly seems like an adult herself, create a secret attic hideout called Homework, where they go to avoid being scolded.

This book is the strongest of the three Mitchells titles, possibly because it is the only book where the family bands together against an immediate outside enemy, as opposed to a larger problem, like a war, or having to rough it in rural Canada. The earlier stories involved many conflicts and difficulties, of course, but they usually presented themselves in a more episodic manner, where each chapter had a problem and resolution unto itself.  This book held together better as a novel, and it really gave each of the children the chance to respond to their new family circumstances in a way that is unique to their individual personalities. I felt as though each character became more real to me in this book than in the two previous, and that the overall family dynamic came fully to life.

This is a series that I very much hope will be favorites of my own children when they are of school age. The books foster a value system that I hope to develop in my family, and it depicts siblings as people who love and look out for one another, and not as annoying problems to be overcome or circumvented. While I have always felt a kinship with Mother, especially in the second book, I felt much more strongly for the children in this book, which is probably how it ought to be.

Reading with Little Miss Muffet and Little Bo Peep, July 2016

It has really been a book-filled summer for us so far! Here are some of the highlights:

• For the Fourth of July, we visited my mother in New York, and she had lots and lots of books waiting for us. While we were there, Little Miss Muffet enjoyed The Tub Grandfather by Pam Conrad, the Bing series by Ted Dewan, and Grandma Loves You: Stories to Share, among others, and we came home with Little Owl's Day, the final title we needed to complete our collection of Divya Srinivasan's owl books. Both Little Miss Muffet (2 years, 8 months) and Little Bo Peep (10 months) also got to visit the children's section of the library where I used to work, and it was wonderful to see everything come full circle as they played with toys and paged through board books.
• We signed up for the summer reading program in three different local library systems, but I quickly decided not to bother participating. One system expected me to track how many minutes it takes me to read each book, which was a nightmare from day one. Another offered lots of learning tracks, but none of them had anything to do with reading. I would have been okay with early literacy tasks, but I had a hard time seeing the value in finding my local fire station or visiting with a neighbor. The third system has a fine program, but we would have finished it in a day, and I didn't want the prizes badly enough to go through the motions. I suspect we will be coming up with our own challenge in future summers. 
• Possibly inspired by the publication of my book, Little Miss Muffet has started her own writing career. She has written and illustrated two titles so far: The Happy Deer, about a deer we saw while we were out walking, and Dear Butterfly, Happy to Meet You, about a butterfly we found by a tree, which we initially thought was injured but turned out to be fine.  
• Little Bo Peep is starting to appreciate books as more than just tools for teething. She enjoys turning the pages of board books and I notice her dropping everything to listen when I start to read aloud and she is in the room. She really liked Leuyen Pham's illustrations for All Fall Down, which I borrowed from the library recently, and she also likes the shiny foil accents in the My First books from Little Bee Books, which I reviewed back in May.
• Miss Muffet has many favorites these days, but the ones I have been reading most frequently are If the Dinosaurs Came Back by Bernard Most (which has inspired an interesting in learning everything there is to know about dinosaurs), the Little Miss and Little Mister books (which also came home up with us from Grandma's), and The Fourteen Bears in Summer and Winter by Evelyn Scott, which was my husband's when he was a kid.  I have also started sharing some longer easy readers with her, and she has become fond of Poppleton by Cynthia Rylant and Dodsworth in New York by Tim Egan.  When she listens to audiobooks, she often request the Frances series or Blueberries for Sal. All in all, I'm pleased with her good taste and enjoying seeing how these books influence her play.
• The other thing we have discovered this summer is the neighborhood pool. We used a book called Signs at the Pool to help prepare Miss Muffet for following the pool rules, and I have adapted many of our favorite songs and rhymes as pool games. We have done Old Joe, Go In and Out the Window and Ring Around the Rosie in the water, and Miss Muffet has really enjoyed it. 
• Finally, if you haven't seen it yet, I had a guest post at Pages and Margins all about the impact of books on young children. If you enjoy reading these posts each month, I think you will like what I had to say in my piece, The Influence of Books in Early Childhood. 

Reading Through History: The Wonderful Year by Nancy Barnes (1946)

Ellen's father has been ill recently, and the doctor has recommended some time away to regain his strength and mental health. Therefore, Ellen and her parents move west from Kansas to Colorado to start a ranch. Ellen has many wonderful and new experiences: sleeping in a tent while the house is being built, learning to ride a bicycle, getting lost in unfamiliar territory, and most important of all, developing a friendship with a much-older neighbor boy named Ronnie who happily humors Ellen's youthfulness and treats her as a pal and an equal. Through the day-to-day trials of planting and growing fruit and laying down roots in a new place, Ellen's entire family changes for the better and they finish their wonderful year with a fresh new outlook on life.

For any contemporary reader, the one element of this book that will immediately stand out is the friendship between Ellen and Ronnie. Our culture is so conditioned to believe that males are predators that the thought of an eleven-year-old girl palling around with a teenage boy instantly makes us uncomfortable, even when there is nothing in the text to suggest inappropriateness. Personally, I'm glad to see a purely platonic and fully wholesome relationship like this in a children's book. It's becoming more and more difficult to find books for tweens that don't incorporate crushes and romance in some way, so those of us who wish to avoid introducing a lot of those themes to our children have to seek out these older gems that take a more age-appropriate and innocent approach to boy-girl friendships. There truly isn't anything strange about Ronnie's connection to Ellen, and unless someone teaches them to read too much into it, kids won't think anything of it at all.

The other issue many reviewers seem to comment on is sexism. There is a lot in this book about rigidly defined gender roles. Ellen constantly thinks about the behaviors she needs to exhibit to be a worthy companion to Ronnie, and he comments now and then on how beautiful she will be someday. I tend to take these things with a grain of salt, especially with books like this one that were written in the 1940s and set even before that, and I think, as is mentioned in the review of this book from Semicolon, these old-fashioned ideals make great conversation starters for discussing the book with kids.

I enjoyed The Wonderful Year very much. It is similar in style to the Betsy-Tacy books, and in subject matter to books like Miracles on Maple Hill, Strawberry Girl, and The Open Gate. I look forward to sharing it with my girls when they reach the target age range.

Fumbling Through Fantasy: The Return of the Twelves by Pauline Clarke (1962)

Max Morley has just moved into an old farmhouse when he discovers a set of twelve wooden soldiers hidden beneath a floorboard. At first, he thinks they are just old toys, but when he begins to hear them speak and see them move, he realizes there is nothing ordinary about them. In discussions with Butter Crashey, their leader, Max learns that the twelves were once owned by four genii, whose imaginations gave them a long history of adventure and battle. The four genii turn out to be the Brontë, siblings - Branwell, Charlotte, Emily, and Anne - and the soldiers are so valuable and sought after that several parties would love nothing more than to take them from Max. Thankfully, though, the Twelves prove to have their own ideas about where they belong.

I did not plan ahead of time for this project to include so many Carnegie Medal books, but this is another one. The Return of the Twelves won the award in 1962. Though I normally would scoff at a book about sentient toys, this one drew me in right away. Max is a very believable and real character, and his relationships with his parents and siblings are similar to those most children have with their own families. He handles the magic of the wooden soldiers in a way that makes sense to kids, because it is how they are likely to imagine they would act in his position. The soldiers themselves are great fun to observe in action, and the ingenious ways Max looks after them without letting on that they are not completely independent are engaging and often funny.

I took a class in college where I was assigned Wuthering Heights, and I remember my professor providing a lot of background on the Brontës during the discussion, but of course I've forgotten the details and can't find my notes. Thankfully, though, this book doesn't require any knowledge at all of any of the Brontës' writings. Max himself wonders for a good portion of the book why his new neighbor calls himself a "brontyfan," and his interest in learning about the Brontë children, and the childhood writings that chronicle the adventures of the Twelves, stems entirely from his love for the soldiers. Readers might also take a sudden interest in reading The History of the Young Men after enjoying this book, but they don't have to have any prior background knowledge at all to appreciate the story of Max and the soldiers.

It's been a while since I've felt I could truly lose myself in the world of a book, but The Return of the Twelves gave me that experience. I was with Max throughout the story, and only once was I pulled out by a detail that didn't seem to fit. (One of the soldiers talked to a rat, and the rat talked back. As this was late in the story, and no other talking animals had been introduced, this really annoyed me. But I don't tend to like talking animals very much, so I acknowledge that this might be a quirk which is specific to me.) This is a book which holds up very well considering its age, and which all literary-minded families will want to share and enjoy together.

Book Review: On My Honor by Marion Dane Bauer (1986)

Despite feeling wary of making the trip, Joel begs and pleads with his father to be allowed to bike to Starved Rock with his best friend, Tony. On the way, Tony, a known risk-taker, decides to take a detour to the river. Once they're both in the water, Joel dares Tony to swim out to the sandbar, assuming he is a strong enough swimmer to make it. Tony accepts the challenge, but moments later, Joel looks around and realizes Tony is gone. At first, he is sure Tony must be playing a trick, but then reality sets in: his best friend has drowned. Now Joel is faced with the impossible task of telling his parents and Tony's the fateful consequences of their poor decisions.

Along with Bridge to Terabithia (which I have since read) this was a book I avoided in childhood because I knew it was a death book. I was very anxious about death as a child, and reading a book like this back then would have cost me many nights of sleep. I do have the sense that I read it at some point, or at least skimmed it, because the story felt very familiar, but I don't have a more specific memory than that. My best guess is that it was during library school when my children's literature professor only allowed us to read Newbery books, but again, I'm not certain.

In the book, Marion Dane Bauer uses few words to make a strong impact on the reader. Each scene of the story is described so vividly that the reader really experiences all of Joel's emotions as they occur to him. Joel's initial behavior after realizing what has happened to his friend may not be the most mature or even the most appropriate, but it is very true to how a young kid would react in such a shocking and unexpectedly terrible situation. Kids will understand Joel's reasoning as he struggles with what to tell the adults, and they will feel a sense of comfort when he does finally come clean and his father proves himself to be a supportive, strong, and kind parent.

On My Honor is probably not a pleasure read for most kids. It's not really a tear-jerker per se, so even kids who like a good cry may not choose to read it on their own.  The story is really an exploration of the way one small decision can have an irreversible impact on the life of a child, and the moral obligation people have to do the right thing even in the face of great tragedy. I do think it is healthy to have kids read books about death - perhaps if I had done so, I would have worked through my fears instead of obsessively researching every book I encountered to make sure no one dies before even considering it. For that reason, I think this book works well in academic settings and homeschools, and in families in general, to prompt discussion and help kids talk about their questions regarding mortality.

Reading with Little Miss Muffet and Little Bo Peep, June 2016

This post is a bit lengthy, but since I posted only board book reviews last month, I wanted to talk a little bit about what the girls are reading before launching into the spring picture book reviews so I don't fall too far behind.

Reading Mommy's Old Favorites

This past month, Miss Muffet (2 years, 7 months) has started to take an interest in five particular books, three of which were my favorites as a preschooler/early elementary reader, and two of which were special favorites of my sister, Miss Muffet's aunt and godmother. It started with We Help Mommy, which is included in a collection of books illustrated by Eloise Wilkin that my sister gave to us in order to ensure that her favorite book would be shared with her nieces. Miss Muffet knows just where to find that story in the book, and she asks for it frequently by name. Her favorite part, it seems, is when Martha, the little girl who is the narrator, makes a small pie for her father, and says, "Roll, pat. Roll, pat. I'm making a treat for Daddy." As it was just Father's Day, we have all been repeating these lines a lot, sometimes substituting the names of other people (and objects, like "lettuce") for Daddy's name.

With We Help Mommy on my mind, I was reminded of The Tub People, which my sister also loved as a kid, so I dug out the used copy we bought a few months ago. It's pretty wordy for a two-year-old, but Miss Muffet has listened to me read it, as well as an audiobook recording, and she has just fallen in love with it. A few times now, I have heard her yelling "Help!" from her bedroom only to check in and find that she is just "reading" the dialogue for this story.

The other three books Miss Muffet now loves, which were among my favorites at her age and a little older, are Mrs. Wobble the Waitress, Sarah's Unicorn, and The Pea Patch Jig. She refers to The Pea Patch Jig as "rig-a-jig-jig," which is very cute, and she has become very interested in learning the names of all of the vegetables shown on the endpapers. She has also become fond of saying "ptooie" which is the sound Baby Mouse's pea shooter makes in the story. She hasn't had too much to say about Mrs. Wobble yet, but she requests it a lot so I'm sure as she gets to know it better, she will have favorite moments in that story as well. Sarah's Unicorn is an easy reader, and I borrowed it from the library for nostalgia's sake, and not necessarily to share with Miss Muffet, but she asked for it once, and after that she was hooked. She can now name all the characters and even give an accurate summary of the plot. She seems a little bit concerned about the meanness of Sarah's aunt, Mag, early in the story, but she is not scared enough to avoid the book, so I think she is probably handling it okay.

The Indestructible Book

Little Bo Peep (9 months) is now crawling and almost pulling up to stand, and since she can get around and reach for things a bit better now, we now have to watch her more carefully around books. Thankfully, a friend had the idea to give us an Indestructible, so whenever she feels like biting, pulling, bending, or otherwise abusing a book, we just hand her Baby Peekaboo and let her give it her best. The book is fairly crumpled at this point, but the binding is still intact, and no corners have been chewed off, so I would say it lives up to its name quite well. Bo Peep is also very fond of the book, since it has a baby's face on the cover, and she does occasionally take a break from trying to tear it apart to have it read to her.

Spring Picture Book Reviews

Finally, we received several picture books for review during April, May, and June. Here are our reviews:

I requested The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits (9781499801040) for review mostly because of the author, Douglas Florian, but I didn't find it quite as clever as his well-known poetry books. The rhyming works fine - there are no awkward lines or gratuitous word choices - but there was something boring about the text overall. The book doesn't really teach a lot about rabbits. Rather, it gives a vague list of "habits," many of which could apply to nearly any species. Miss Muffet did ask for me to read it aloud to her a few times when it first arrived, but though it is still among her books in the living room, she doesn't look at it much now that the novelty has worn off. I did consider using it for my recent spring-themed story time, but ultimately went with the reliable favorite, Home for a Bunny.

I requested Cuddles for Mommy (9781499802030) also, this time because of the owl characters. The story is told almost entirely in dialogue between a mother owl and her child as they try to determine precisely which kind of cuddle the little girl should give her mommy. The illustrations are very sweet, and of course our owl lover, Miss Muffet, is drawn to those, but the plot seems to go on too long, and the owls are clearly awake in the daytime, which is jarring and strange. There is no real reason for the characters to be owls over anything else, so if they're not going to be nocturnal, I see no point in using them to illustrate the book. Still, though, the story would work for a Mother's Day story time, or one on an owl theme, and Miss Muffet regularly "reads" it to herself alongside Hoot and Peep and Owl Moon.

We received two copies of Blue Boat - the full-length picture book (9780451471413) and the abridged-by-one-page board book (9781101998533). This ended up being a perfect arrangement, as Bo Peep could hold the board book while Miss Muffet and I read the picture book uninterrupted. I liked the book initially for the artwork, and because it reminded me somewhat of Sail Away by Donald Crews. I've read the book aloud a few times now, too, and though some of the lines drag a bit, for the most part, the rhythm and rhyme of the text works well. I shared the book at a recent story time, and the kids were a bit young for it, but I think with the right group of three- and four-year-old boys who are really into transportation and rescue heroes, it would become an instant favorite. Miss Muffet is not that in to transportation right now, but I am keeping the book around for a while to see if she becomes more interested as she gets a bit older. And Bo Peep naturally thinks the spine of the board book is delicious!

The Perfect Dog (9781101934418) was a surprise hit with Little Miss Muffet. Though the book came to me unbound, which usually means I can't easily share it with her, we read it together multiple times, and every time I went to put it away, she would ask for it to come out again. I think what she liked most was learning the names of the different dogs shown on the endpapers. She also really responded to the predictable structure of the text, in which a little girl tries to find the dog of the perfect size, shape, and style, but determines that each one is too loud, too big, too fancy, etc. We are not a pet family, so there is never any chance we will go through the experience of the girl in this book, but Miss Muffet seemed to enjoy living vicariously through the book well enough. For me, this is a book I would use at story time because of how it is written, but it's not something I would choose to add to my personal collection.

Last, but decidedly not least, A Dark, Dark Cave is probably my favorite of the picture books we received this Spring. It follows two children into a dark, dark cave where they encounter creepy creatures crawling the walls, and yellow eyes lurking in darkness, all of which turns out to be the product of their imaginations. The illustrations are richly colorful, and once you realize what the cave actually is, there are details in the illustrations and on the endpapers that support that realization. The depiction of siblings who play nicely together is also a nice addition to the book, as many stories focus on rivalries instead of cooperation. Miss Muffet is not quite old enough to fully understand the book, but she has asked to hear it many times, and her little eyes grow wide each time something just a little bit more scary appears on the page. For story time, I might pair it with something like A Mighty Fine Time Machine by Suzanne Bloom or Not a Box by Antoinette Portis for a celebration of imagination.

I received finished copies of The Wonderful Habits of Rabbits and Cuddles for Mommy from little bee books, finished copies of The Blue Boat and A Dark, Dark Cave from Viking Books for Young Readers, and an unbound galley of The Perfect Dog from Crown Books for Young Readers. 

Fumbling Through Fantasy: The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner (1996)

Gen, a master thief, has been thrown in prison in Sounis after stealing the king's ring and bragging about it in a wineshop. He receives a reprieve from incarceration, however, when the king's magus enlists his help in stealing a prized artifact known as Hamiathes's Gift. Accompanying Gen and the magus on their journey to the deadly temple which protects this mysterious stone are  the magus's apprentices, Sophos and Armiades, and Pol, whose job it is to look after Sophos. Though the five men get along well enough and sometimes even joke and chat together, everyone understands that Gen must either secure the treasure or die trying. What each character does not realize, however, are the secrets harbored by the other members of the company.

The Thief is a superbly written novel by an author with a strong command over the English language. The story is well-plotted and unfolds very naturally. Turner slowly reveals smalls details about Gen's life and background over the course of many chapters, which creates an air of mystery around him and causes the reader to want to know more. The story as a whole is very descriptive, which makes it seem to move slowly in some places, but the more exciting scenes - especially when Gen is in the thick of trying to steal the stone and emerge alive from the temple - are utterly flawless and deeply engaging. Turner also deftly pulls off a plot twist, which is made possible only because of how carefully she chooses her words throughout the entire text. There is no sense, when the truth is revealed, that the reader has been duped or even manipulated. It feels more like the author suddenly turns on a light and particular details that have been in the story all along shine forth and reveal their truth purpose. The twist is impressive not because of how the reader has been fooled, but because of how well Turner hides the truth until it serves the story best to share it. 

This book was a pleasant surprise for me. It includes no real magical elements, which tend to be the hardest for me to connect with in fantasy novels, and is really very realistic aside from characters who talk to gods and goddesses and the overall re-imagining of history that serves as the backstory. The quest aspect of the story, and the properties of the treasure itself certainly place the book in the fantasy genre, but it is very different from the first dozen books I read for this project, and it is a book that will stick with me for a while. In the future, I hope to review the rest of the series: The Queen of Attolia, The King of Attolia, A Conspiracy of Kings and any future titles Turner adds to the list!