Gem Books from 100 Years Past: 1924

Apr23

It was indeed a different era. What was going on in 1924 when these books were being published and read? The 1924 Paris Olympics, Leopold and Loeb murders, the premiere of Rhapsody in Blue by Gershwin. Vladimir Lenin died, and Mallory and Irvine disappeared while attempting to summit Mt. Everest. Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and crossword puzzles were all the rage after Simon snd Schuster published their first book of crosswords.

As far children’s literature was concerned, the field of books written especially for children was just coming into its own. The Horn Book Magazine, the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children’s literature, was founded in Boston in 1924. The Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” was only a couple of years old. The medal-winning book for 1925 (published in 1924) was Tales from Silver Lands, a book of Central and South American folktales, collected and recorded by Charles Finger. Two other 1924 books were “runners-up” for the Newbery: The Dream Coach by Anne Parish and Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by New York Public Library’s head children’s librarian, Anne Carroll Moore.

Unfortunately, all three Newbery-honored books from 1924 seem to me to be not horrible, but forgettable. The South American folktales are perhaps of interest to scholars and storytellers, but I doubt the average child would glom onto them. The other two books are more the sort of books that adults think children should like than they are the kind of story that children do enjoy.

Still, 1924 was a good year for children’s books. Here’s a list, with brief annotations, of eight real gems from 1924. Several of these are not in print, but I would love to see them come back.

To see more books from 1924, with links to reviews, check out this post from the beginning of our 1924 Project.

The New Moon by Cornelia Meigs.

Apr23

The New Moon: The Story of Dick Martin’s Courage, His Silver Sixpence, and His Friends in the New World by Cornelia Meigs. First published in 1924. Guest review by Terri Shown.

An orphaned boy, struggling in an overcrowded Ireland, embarks on a trip to the New World of America.
“What is a boy to do that has no kin or friends in all of Ireland?” he asked at the end of his tale. “Have you ever thought,” said the other slowly, “of sailing away to the Americas? There is a fair green country, so people tell me who have seen only the edge of it; and it has room, as it seems, for everyone.
After selling his home to a seasoned sailor, Dick Martin sets out on a coming-of-age story with his lucky sixpence in his pocket and his new best friend, Cormac, a loyal sheepdog.
He secures passage with a mysterious Captain Thomas Garrity by agreeing to care for the sheep on the trip across the Atlantic. Dick keeps in his heart a bit of advice the seasoned sailor gave him, “There is a thing you must remember when you are setting out for strange places—wherever you go—you must take your courage with you.” And indeed, Dick Martin does take his courage with him through many challenges in his new life.
I believe what made this book stand out to me was not just the adventure but the diversity of human character the author brought into the story. She contrasted many times the struggle between good and evil that exists in all cultures and how it takes courage and work to do the right thing. The first half of the story takes place in Ireland, and then sails on the Atlantic to the American colonies, then out to the western plains beyond the Mississippi. I became uncomfortable at the first mention of Indians because of the time period this was written. I held my breath waiting for the book to take a sharp racist turn but to my surprise, what I found was that Cornelia Meigs wrote about the Native Americans, not as ignorant savages, but as a unique, hardworking, smart people group who had much to teach Dick Martin as he was growing up. Here are a few quotes that capture the tone of respect for Indians in the story:


“Down the hillside, through the trees and underbrush, without a path or trail, came a slim, black horse at a headlong gallop. Upon his back was a lithe, dark-skinned rider, a boy of about Dick’s own age, who swayed easily with the plunging motion of the horse, as though the two were one. His black hair was flying, his brown hand held a lance with a fluttering pennon of scarlet feathers, while from his arm swung a round shield of painted buffalo hide. Save for his copper skin, he might have been one of the Irish heroes out of Thomas Garrity’s tales, an enchanted vision of the dim past.”
“To a dull or unpracticed eye, all Indians may seem to be alike, although they really vary quite as much as white people.”
“I think I have learned the most of friendship from the Indians themselves!”

Dick Martin develops deep mutual friendship with the Sac-and-Fox tribe, becoming exspecially close to a brother and sister, Katequa and Mateo.They each risk their lives to save the other. What is a stronger mark of love then to lay down ones life for the sake of another. While this fictional story wasn’t the reality for most pioneer and native interaction it gives readers a seed of what could have been and how we might be when we interact with strangers in our future.
As we are immersed in a world struggling with what to do with political correctness and old stereotypes, this book is not without some of these problems but you can undoubtedly tell that the author’s intention was one of respect for all mankind. This book should be used as it was intended as a work of fiction. It was never intended to be an anthropology book of history. This book gives children a picture of strong friendships to admire, hard work to aspire towards, and courage to stand up for what is right. I believe this is a book that should be raised out of the ashes of 1924 literature and be read once again to remind us, “Wherever you go, hold up your head and that will hold up your heart”.

The New Moon is not currently in print, but you can read it on Google books.

Carolina’s Courage by Elizabeth Yates

Apr12

Carolina and her family, the Putnams, are leaving their New Hampshire farm to go west to Nebraska Territory. It’s a long way, and there are many things they must take with them in their wagon to enable their new start in the wilderness. Therefore, many, many things, everything unnecessary or replaceable, must be left behind. Carolina can only take one very precious item, her beautiful china doll, Lydia-Lou.

This book is a short and easy to read novel about going west. It clocks in at 131 pages, and every page is delightful. I’m not sure how old Carolina is as the story begins, old enough to go to school but young enough to love and talk to her doll, maybe six or seven years old. She has an older brother, Mark, and a father who’s determined to start anew in Nebraska Territory, and a mother who’s willing to follow her husband’s lead despite the sacrifices that they all must make to get there.

I loved the fact that the Putnam family have a deep faith in God that becomes a natural part of the story. “In the village there was a white church with a slender spire, and the Putnam family went every Sunday morning.”

“[In] the safest place of all the space in the wagon, the driest, and the most accessible. There the Bible was laid, wrapped in a soft woolen shawl.”

“We’ll have need to keep an edge to our minds,” he said, ” and we’ll do it best with the Bible.”

“God blessed our coming into this house fifteen years ago,” John Putnam said, and it was hard to tell whether he was praying or making a last entry in some invisible book. “He blessed us with Mark, and later on with Carolina. Now may He bless our going out as we seek another land and work for our hands.”

Those are just a few of the times that the book mentions the prayers and faith of Carolina’s family as they travel across the country. And I thought that the story was well crafted to show that the Putnam family, although they had many wonderful adventures on their way to a new land, also had to make many sacrifices to get there safely. And perhaps Carolina is called on to make the biggest sacrifice of all.

Elizabeth Yates was such a talented and faith-filled author of beautiful books for children. I haven’t read them all yet, but I have the following books by this author in my library. And I do plan to read them all. Highly recommended author.

  • Iceland Adventure. Fifteen-year-old Michael and his fourteen-year-old sister Merry accompany their adventurous Uncle Tony to Iceland, where they explore the remote mountainous countryside in search of a long-lost relative of one of their uncle’s friends.
  • Swiss Holiday. A visit to Switzerland with their adventurous Uncle Tony brings Michael and Meredith new friends and an introduction to the art of mountain climbing.
  • Hue and Cry. Jared Austin, staunch member of the mutual protection society that defends his 1830s New Hampshire community against thieves, tries to temper justice with mercy when his deaf daughter Melody befriends a young Irish immigrant who has stolen a horse.
  • A Place for Peter. Thirteen-year-old Peter gets a chance to earn his doubting father’s trust when he successfully handles the important task of tapping the sugar maples to make syrup for their mountain farm.
  • Sarah Whitcher’s Story. The community searches for a young girl lost in a New Hampshire forest in the pioneer days. Based on a true story.
  • The Journeyman. One day a journeyman painter visits a quiet New Hampshire farm, and his unexpected offer sets Jared aglow with excitement. He starts off on an adventure that takes him miles from home and into experiences that bring him to manhood and deepen his faith.
  • Mountain Born. A boy in a family of sheep farmers raises a black lamb to be the leader of the flock. 1944 Newbery Honor book.
  • Amos Fortune, Free Man. The life of an eighteenth-century African prince who, after being captured by slave traders, was brought to Massachusetts where he was enslaved until he was able to buy his freedom at the age of sixty. 1951 Newbery Medal winner.

Yugoslav Mystery by Arthur Catherall

Apr11

This novel is the second or third of Mr. Catherall’s young adult novels I’ve read, and I’m beginning to get a feel for his style and genre. He reminds me of the adult spy novelists Nevill Shute or Alistair MacLean, or even Helen MacInnes, but a bit more tame with teen protagonists. I would guess that boys ages 13 to 16 would find Catherall’s novels quite intriguing.

This mystery takes place on an impoverished island off the southern coast of the former Yugoslavia. It’s several years post-World War 2, but the people who live on this island are still trying to recover from the war and all of its many depredations and consequences. One of those consequences of war is that our protagonist, Josef Piri, fourteen years old, lives with his grandfather and his mother, all of them believing that Josef’s father died in the war before Josef was born.

One day while Josef and his grandfather are out fishing, a police boat comes alongside to ask if they have seen an escaped fugitive on or near the island. Josef, in fact has and does see the escapee clinging to a rope alongside the police launch, out of sight and desperate to remain so. What is the right thing to do? Remain silent and help the man escape or give him up to the authorities?

The choice Josef makes leads him and his entire island village into quite an adventure. There are guns and hidden treasure and narrow escapes and various people who are not what they seem to be. Josef must draw again and again on his courage and his innovative ideas to protect his family and the other villagers and to understand his heritage as his father’s son.

The story takes place in Communist Yugoslavia in about 1960, and it was published in 1964. The Communist government is far away in this story, and is neither praised nor criticized. The villagers, including Josef and his family, live far from the day to day reach of the government, and their lives continue with very little government interference or help. There are a couple of mentions of government aid to the villagers, but it’s not significant. And the adventure that Josef’s encounter with the police boat and the escaped fugitive brings has little or nothing to do with Communism or Marshal Tito.

Across Five Aprils by Irene Hunt

Apr10

Across Five Aprils is a U.S. Civil War novel and another coming of age story.. When the story begins, Jethro Creighton is a nine year old farm boy, the youngest of a large family, in southern Illinois. It’s 1861, the war is about to begin, and any reader who knows anything about that war knows that Jethro is going to have to grow up fast. As Jethro’s three older brothers and his cousin leave to go to war, the burden of the farm falls on Jethro’s shoulders. His father becomes disabled, and even more pressure is put upon Jethro to act like a man.

I really like this photo realistic cover picture on the paperback reprint edition of this book, by the way. Jethro looks like a nine, ten, eleven year boy who is looking out into the future and becoming a man, with the war in the background pushing him forward.

Through letters to home from Jethro’s older brothers and newspaper accounts that Jethro follows assiduously, readers see the battles and the politics of the Civil War from the public perspective as well as from the point of view of a boy trying to understand the war and all of its ramifications. For Jethro it’s mostly a story of battles won and lost and generals who are one day heroes and the next, failures. And president himself, “Old Abe” or Mr. Lincoln in more polite terms, is first thought to be too slow and too careful and later not careful enough, until the book finally ends with the greatest tragedy of the war, Lincoln’s assassination.

The “five Aprils” of the title are the five Aprils of the war, 1861-1865, and Jethro does become a man over those five years, even though he’s only fourteen years old as the book comes to a close. The language might be somewhat challenging for some young readers. The characters speak in a southern dialect that feels authentic to me and adds to the atmosphere of rural farm people looking on and trying to fathom a war that was and still is in some ways beyond understanding. This book would be high on my list of recommendations for children studying the Civil War to get an overview of the war in a fictional format. Not graphically violent, but somewhat tragic, with hope underlying.

Edge of Manhood by Thomas Fall

Apr9

“Thomas Fall was born in the Ozark Mountains of Arkansas in a community with many Cherokee Indians. and grew up in western Oklahoma among many families of Plains Indians.”  The author may have had some Native American ancestry himself. Edge of Manhood tells the story of See-a-way, a Shawnee boy growing up in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) at the end of the nineteenth century.

“This story of a Shawnee Indian boy’s view of the end of the age of the American Indian does not depict the life of any person living or dead. All the episodes and characters are imaginary.

Such a story might actually have happened in the 1870’s. It was during this period that wester expansion overran the Indian Territory (now the state of Oklahoma) where dozens of Indian tribes from the South, East and North of the United States had already been pushed by the white man. It was here that railroads, and consequently commerce, finally caught up with the American frontier.”

~Author’s Note, Thomas Fall
Version 1.0.0

Cultural assimilation, the violent clash of cultures, colonization, war, peace, revenge, forgiveness—we are still discussing and debating these very issues in our own day and time. Edge of Manhood places these ideas and controversies within a specific place, the Indian Territory, and with an individual, See-a-way, in a specific culture, the Shawnee tribe of Native Americans. But the themes are universal.

See-a-way must decide, first of all, whether to cling to his own culture and traditions, to the exclusion of the new ways of the white man. At first, it seems to be an easy decision. See-a-way is determined to never go to the white man’s (Quaker) school or learn their ways. In fact, See-a-way’s burning desire is to shoot a white man, even though he has never met any white people. Even his frenemy from the Pottawatomie tribe, Blue Eagle, tells him: “See-a-way, you are still more stupid even than the sheep and the cow. You should have been born a naked Indian of the plains, so you could run around in a breechclout and do war dances and raid the white people all your life. The poor Plains Indians will be wiped out completely if they do not realize that they must learn the white man’s way.” But See-a-way is “furious” at this reprimand and becomes even more so when his family experiences even more tragedy and injustice at the hands of the white men.

Now See-a-way has another choice to make: revenge or surrender and forgiveness. Again, See-a-way chooses to act as most of us would act, at the behest of his anger and desire for retribution. I won’t spoil the ending for you, but suffice it to say, See-a-way does creep toward the edge of manhood with some help from his own people and from his people’s enemies, the Pottawatomie and even the white men.

This coming of age story is short, only eighty-eight pages long, but it is full of wisdom and excellent storytelling. Students who are studying the U.S. western expansion and the defeat and the near destruction of the Native American tribes who lived in the Great Plains would do well to be introduced to See-a-way and his growth into manhood. The book would be especially good for boys, and as I said before, it could apply to current day clashes and issues, although no situation in history is exactly analogous to another or reenacted in exactly the same way again. Bethlehem Books’ In Review, Winter 1996, The Move West–Exploration and Frontier Life in North America lists this book and recommends it as “of interest for grades 5-8.”

The House of Sixty Fathers by Meindert DeJong

Apr8

Even though all ends well, this novel, based on the author’s own experiences in China during World War II, is darker and more scary than any of the other books by DeJong that I have read.

“The House of Sixty Fathers is based on Meindert DeJong’s actual experience. During World War II Mr. DeJong was official historian for the Chinese-American Composite Wing which was part of Chennault’s famous Fourteenth Air Force. A young Chinese war orphan, the Tien Pao of this story, was adopted by DeJong’s outfit. The boy chose DeJong as his special “father,” and the two were devoted to one another. Mr. DeJong wanted to bring the boy back to the United States with him, but because of legal complications, he was unable to do so. However, the men in the outfit left the youngster well provided for when they returned to America. The Communists then took over that section of China, and DeJong has never heard what happened to the boy.”

I read that note after I finished reading the novel about Tien Pao, a young Chinese boy who becomes separated from his family during the Japaneses invasion of China with only his pet pig to keep him company. Tien Pao’s story is harrowing. He becomes lost behind the Japanese lines, almost starves to death, is shot at, nearly captured, and pursued for rescuing an American flyer. Tien Pao is a very small boy lost in a sea of soldiers and refugees and casualties of war. Nevertheless, there are friends and helpers along the way: the Chinese guerrilla leader who carries Tien Pao across enemy lines, the man who pulls Tien Pao onto a train at the last minute and hides him in a tall basket, and the American airmen (Flying Tigers) who become his “sixty fathers” when Tien Pao cannot find his own parents.

It’s a war story and people are killed, but the descriptions of the war itself are not too graphic. It’s the effects of the war on the civilian population that are the focus of the story, and that part is difficult to imagine and to read about. The children, who are starving, eat grass and mud to fill their stomachs. People target Tien Pao for the sake of his pig companion, Glory-of-the-Republic, and Tien Pao struggles to keep Glory-of-the-Republic from being eaten. Refugees flee the city of Hengyang when it is taken by the Japanese, and Tien Pao is caught up in the flight of the people from the dreaded Japanese army.

If a child is looking for a war story about heroes and daring deeds, The House of Sixty Fathers might be an appropriate recommendation, even though the heroes in this story are quiet, understated heroes, and the daring deeds are ones of persistence, patience, and continued, careful resistance. Tien Pao’s story is one small slice of life in the midst of a complicated war, but it does satisfy the desire for a story of what might happen to a child caught in a war that is beyond his comprehension or control.

What can a lost boy do, other than keep trying to find his home and his parents? I do really wonder, though, what happened to the Chinese boy that Meindert DeJong and his fellow soldiers befriended in China during the war.

Ribsy by Beverly Cleary

Apr6

To be completely honest and upfront, I must say that I am and always have been a big fan of Beverly Cleary’s many middle grade fiction books. I don’t think that the characters–Henry Huggins, Beezus and Ramona Quimby, and all the rest of the crew on Klickitat Street—are egregiously disrespectful or naughty or that they provide bad role models for children. It doesn’t bother me that they use the words “dumb” and “stupid” frequently, as children did in the 1950’s and 60’s, before those became bad words, not to be uttered by good children. Stories aren’t meant to be treatises on good behavior in disguise; they are meant to be stories that help us understand the world around us and ourselves and others and sometimes make us laugh (or cry).

So, in spite of the fact that I am not a dog person, I loved reading this deceptively simple story about Ribsy, “a plain ordinary city dog, the kind of dog that strangers usually called Mutt or Pooch. They always called him this in a friendly way, because Ribsy was a friendly dog.” The book, appropriate for ages seven to eleven, tells the story of how that friendly dog, Ribsy, who belonged to the boy Henry Huggins, got lost and found his way home. It could be allegorical: Ribsy is like all of us humans who get lost sometimes, partly because of our own stupid mistakes and partly through no fault of our own. Ribsy searches diligently for Henry at first, but a dog’s memory is inconsistent. Sometimes Ribsy forgets all about Henry Huggins and his true home. Then, something happens to make Ribsy remember that Henry is his true owner and that he needs to get home.

So, yes, an adult reader (like me) could find allegory or lessons in the story, but I think most people will just enjoy Ribsy for what it is, a funny dog story, and one in which the dog protagonist does not die or suffer serious injury. Ribsy wanders about, looking for Henry, in a world that’s mostly friendly to him because he’s a friendly dog. There’s always someone around to share a sandwich or a hot dog with Ribsy until he finally manages to get back to Henry.

Our twentieth century world is a scary place, and maybe children do need to encounter dragons and monsters and even the suffering of animals in books where they can learn how to face those dangers and griefs inside a story. But the world can also be a friendly place, and full of humor, and helping hands, and joyful reunions. And maybe we need to see that side of things even more than we need a vision of the darkness. Ribsy, published in 1964, during my own childhood, recreates that friendly world in which a stray dog could wander into a classroom at the local elementary school, take up residence in the second grade, and be fed and loved for a while before going off on his way home.

The Wheel on the School by Meindert DeJong

Apr4

This winner of the 1955 Newbery Award Medal is a winner indeed. The children of Shora, a small village on the Netherlands coast, all six of them, realize one day that the storks never come to Shora to nest. Storks nest on the roofs of houses in other neighboring villages, but not in Shora.

So, the children, along with their schoolteacher, team up to find out why the storks don’t nest in Shora and to fix it so that they do. The project is a difficult one, and the children intend to work hard to bring the storks, or at least one stork, to Shora as the birds begin to migrate to the Netherlands from their homes in Africa. Their teacher tells them to begin by wondering:

“We can’t think much when we don’t know much. But we can wonder! From now until tomorrow morning when you come to school again, will you do that? Will you wonder why and wonder why? Will you wonder why storks don’t come to Shora to build their nests on the roof the way they do in all the villages around? For sometimes when we wonder, we can make things begin to happen.”

p.6

Meindert DeJong has such a way with words, and the black and white drawings in this book by Maurice Sendak are just right, not too intrusive so that readers have room to wonder and create their own pictures of the story but with enough detail so that we can know what a stork looks like or what kind of wheel the children are looking for.

Such a good read aloud selection! But if you don’t have time to read it aloud, introduce the first chapter or two at least, and I believe most children would be drawn into the story. The culture is a bit different from American twenty-first century culture. The children are more “free range”, and the adults are both more irascible and more helpful and approachable than adults are in my city/suburban community. Shora is a small village, after all. But children are children everywhere, and these six Dutch children are imaginative, cooperative, and most of all persistent. And sometimes children with those qualities can make things begin to happen.

Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska

Apr3

This Newbery Award winning novel, set in Catalonia, in Spain, introduces readers to a culture and way of life that is foreign to most American children and may even be faded or fading fast in Spain itself. It’s an honor culture, and Manolo’s honor and that of his family depend on his becoming a great bullfighter like his deceased father before him.

“When Manolo was nine he became aware of three important facts in his life. First: the older he became, the more he looked like his father. Second: he, Manolo Oliver, was a coward. Third: everyone in the town of Arcangel expected him to grow up to be a famous bullfighter, like his father.”

p.1

I wonder what it would be like to grow up in the shadow of a famous parent. I have the advantage of not knowing from experience what that would feel like. But I’m sure it must be suffocating. Shadow of a Bull shows the difficulty of such expectations as they impact the growth of a nine to eleven year old boy in a small town in Spain. But the lesson is universal. The expectations of others cannot be the determining factors in the maturing decisions of an individual. Community and culture are important, but so is individuality and one’s own moral judgment. Finding a way to reconcile a person’s own inner desires and ambitions with the expectations of community and family is one possible path to maturity.

The book is also about bull-fighting, but the bullfight is a device. Although bull-fighting is controversial—in Spanish bullfighting, the bull is almost always killed at the end of the bullfight—Shadow of a Bull never tries to make a case against bullfighting itself. All the details are there, and they are somewhat gory (animal lovers beware!), but the conflict is not Manolo against the sport of bullfighting. Manolo’s conflict is within himself: how can he prove to himself that he is not a coward and yet not be forced to become, in essence, a reincarnation of his famous father? Manolo must fight his first bull in order to show himself that he is courageous, not a slave to his fear, but if he does fight the bull, he has started down a path that will lead only to more and more bullfights, not Manolo’s goal at all.

Finally, Shadow of a Bull is a story about a boy who finds his courage to become the person he is meant to be.