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The Wonderful Year by Nancy Barnes

I found this book at a local public library, and I was rather surprised to discover it in the middle of the vampires and the magical worlds and the middle school angst: a realistic, turn of the century setting story, published in 1946, about an only child, Ellen, who travels from Kansas to Colorado with her lawyer father and her adventurous mother to start a fruit-growing farm. The family is also in search of a rest cure and healthy situation for Father, who has been prescribed fresh air and exercise to alleviate the pain in his neck. Ellen, who is a worrier like her father, is reluctant to leave her friends in Kansas, but Mother is excited about the the new venture and soon talks Ellen into joining in her eager anticipation.

Ah, I see now why the book is still on the shelves at the library; it won a Newbery Honor in 1947. And I would say the honor was well-deserved. The pace and atmosphere of the story is reminiscent of Ruth Sawyer’s Roller Skates or of the Betsy books by Maud Hart Lovelace, especially the older Betsy books in which Betsy goes to middle school and high school. Ellen is eleven as the story begins, and she has her twelfth birthday near the end of the book, but as only children tend to be, she’s somewhat mature for her age. One of the themes of the novel is about growing up and staying a child and not growing up too fast nor being too impatient to leave one’s childhood behind. Ellen makes friends with a fifteen year old boy, Ronnie, who lives nearby, and there is some understated tension about whether the two can remain friends and comrades in adventure when Ronnie is so much older and interested in girls his own age while still enjoying Ellen’s company as a friend. The interpersonal give and take is very well written, and I would love for my early teen and pre-teen girls to read the story and then discuss the possibilities that are suggested about boys and girls being friends and not having to get jealous of one another or have crushes.

Another area for discussion would be the “sexist” and “feminist” stereotypes that the characters seem to take for granted. Boys don’t cry. Girls need to be more like boys, tough and hardy, if they are to be seen as equal partners in adventure. It’s important for a girl to “find her own place, stand on her her own two feet, and not cling to anyone.” Are these true lessons? How is Ellen “like a girl”? How is she “like a boy”? Are these really even useful descriptions?

At the risk of being sexist myself, I would recommend The Wonderful Year for girls ages eleven to thirteen who want to read more about girls in other times and places. Fans of Betsy-Tacy, the Little House books, the American Girl series, or other girls-in-history realistic fiction should enjoy this coming of age story. And Colorado readers would especially enjoy this look at the history of Colorado settlement and farming. The illustrations in the book are by author and illustrator Kate Seredy, and they are quite lovely in their own right. Pen and ink, or perhaps pencil, drawings show Ellen and her family and friends in the thick of their homesteading experiences, and the expressive faces and captured actions add a lot to the story.

I would love to have a copy of this book for my library, and I’ll be adding it to my wishlist, which is growing much too long for the available shelf space in my library.

1901: Music and Art

Music:
Richard Strauss: Feuersnot
Anton Dvorak: Rusalka
Scott Joplin: The Easy Winners Joplin had already had a hit in 1899 with the publication of the sheet music to his tune The Maple Leaf Rag. Over the next few years ragtime would become the most popular musical genre in the United States. Karate Kid, by the way, has been practicing The Maple Leaf Rag for a while, but he still doesn’t have it quite up to speed.

Art:
Nineteen year old Spanish artist Pablo Picasso presents his first exhibition in Paris in June, 1901.

Child with a Dove by Pablo Picasso, c.1901.

Child with a Dove, c.1901

1901: Books and Literature

Nobel Prize for Literature: Sully Prudhomme (Who?) French poet and essayist.

Fiction Bestsellers
1. Winston Churchill, The Crisis (not the British politician Winston Churchill)
2. Maurice Thompson, Alice of Old Vincennes
3. Bertha Runkle, The Helmet of Navarre
4. Gilbert Parker, The Right of Way
5. Irving Bacheller, Eben Holden
6. Elinor Glyn, The Visits of Elizabeth
7. Harold MacGrath, The Puppet Crown
8. Maurice Hewlett, Richard Yea-and-Nay
9. George Barr McCutcheon, Graustark
10. Irving Bacheller, D’ri and I

Critically Acclaimed and Historically Significant:
Frank Norris, The Octopus: A Story of California A fictional attack on the monopolistic stranglehold of American railroad tycoons over the business and life of the entire country.
E. A. Ross, Social Control. Ross was an American sociologist, eugenicist, political progressive, and supporter of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia.
Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery
George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman I read a lot of Shaw, including this play, back when I was in college, but I guess that I would find the humor and the ideas a lot more pernicious and at the same time superficial nowadays. I prefer Shaw’s arch nemesis and friendly combatant, Chesterton, these days.
George A. Gordon, New Epoch for Faith
Rudyard Kipling, Kim I tried to read this picaresque story of a British/Irish orphan boy who travels across India with a Tibetan mentor or guru, and eventually becomes involved in espionage as a small part of The Great Game. I just couldn’t make myself finish.
Anton Chekov, Uncle Vanya and The Three Sisters

Nonfiction set in 1901:
American Eve: Evelyn Nesbit, Stanford White, The Birth of the “It” Girl, and the Crime of the Century by Paula Ururburu. Recommended by Alyce at At Home With Books.

Fiction set in 1901:
Jocelyn, Marthe. Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance. (MG Fiction)
Turner, Nancy. These is My Words: The Diary of Sarah Agnes Prine, 1881-1901. (MG Fiction)
Death of Riley by Rhys Bowen. Recommended by Whimpulsive.

1901: Events and Inventions

January 10, 1901. Spindletop, the biggest oil well to date in the world, erupts, spewing a tower of oil nearly 200 feet into the air. The well will go on to produce 75,000 barrels of oil a day.

January 22, 1901. Queen Victoria of England dies at the age of 82. She was Queen of England and the British Empire from 1837 to the time of her death, for approximately sixty-four years. Her son Edward VIII becomes King of England.

January-July, 1901. Filipinos rebel against the U.S. occupation and annexation of the Philippine Islands, but on July 4th, William Howard Taft is installed as Civil Governor of the islands. General Arthur MacArthur, Military Governor since May 1900, sets sail for Japan.

Abraham Kuyper, b. 1837. Dutch pastor and theologian, he also becomes prime minister of the Netherlands in 1901: “Oh, no single piece of our mental world is to be hermetically sealed off from the rest, and there is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!’”

September 7, 1901. The Peking Treaty ends the Boxer Rebellion and gives huge commercial advantages to European and American interests.

September 14, 1901. William McKinley, the 25th President of the United States, dies eight days after being shot by anarchist Leon Czolgosz. His death was probably the direct result of a botched operation to remove the bullet(s) rather than being caused by the shooting itself. Vice-President Teddy Roosevelt becomes president.

December 10, 1901. The first Nobel prizes are awarded. Wilhelm Roentgen of Germany wins the Physics Prize for his discovery of X-rays.

December 12, 1901. Guglielmo Marconi sends the first ever telegraphic message across the Atlantic Ocean from the coast of England to Newfoundland, Canada.

Ping Pong fever swept Europe and the United States as families converted their tables into indoor tennis courts. The game, known as wiff-waff or Gossima at first, only caught on at about the same time that the name was changed by the manufacturer to Ping Pong. The first Ping Pong tournament was held in December, 1901.

PB&J: “The first located reference to the now immortal peanut butter and jelly sandwich was published by Julia Davis Chandler in 1901. This sandwich became a hit with America’s youth, who loved the double-sweet combination, and it has remained a favorite ever since…During the early 1900s peanut butter was considered a delicacy and as such it was served at upscale affairs and in New York’s finest tearooms.”