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The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

Sep30

Definitely not for everybody. Robert Galbraith’s (J.K. Rowling’s) first book in her crime series about private detective Cormoran Strike is gritty and contains quite a bit of bad language, mostly F-bombs. (By the way, I really like that name, Cormoran Strike. It feels quirky and detective-like and memorable.) I wish Rowling could have toned down the language, but I must admit that in the world of celebrities and super-models where this particular mystery takes place, the dialog probably accurately reflects the characters and their common everyday use of language.

Cormoran Strike is a tortured soul, as most detectives usually are these days. Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple were rather ordinary and well-adjusted, except for their exceptional detecting abilities. Lord Peter Wimsey had a somewhat complicated background and some psychological issues, but nothing like what modern detectives of stage, screen, and literature have to deal with. Cormoran Strike has a dysfunctional childhood and a vengeful ex-girlfriend, and he’s lost one leg to a land mine in Afghanistan. And he’s practically homeless with his detective business about to go bankrupt due to a lack of clients.

So, when the wealthy brother of legendary super-model Lula Landry asks Cormoran to investigate the death, apparent suicide, of his sister, the detective is willing even though he doubts the police could have missed anything in the case, considering all the publicity surrounding Lula’s death. The case itself is a look into the lives of the rich and famous, a world that is not completely foreign to Cormoran Strike, whose mother was a “super-groupie” following his rock star father around for a while back in the 70’s.

The novel is well plotted, and I didn’t figure out whodunnit or how until the very end. There is also a lot of good character development as the story slowly introduces Cormoran Strike, his background, and his personality as well as his detecting methods and habits, learned through his time in the army as an army investigator. We also meet another character who will show up in subsequent novels, I’m sure: Robin Ellacott, the temp secretary and office manager that Cormoran can’t afford to keep on but finds invaluable in ferreting out clues and information for him to use in his investigation. The story is told in third person, but mostly from the viewpoint of either Cormoran Strike or Robin Ellacott, so we get to be privy to some of Strike’s thoughts as well as Robin’s, understanding how they react to one another and to the suspects and witnesses to Lula Landry’s suicide–or murder. The duo work together well, but frequently misunderstand one another in small ways that make the story intriguing and keep the reader guessing as to what will happen next.

I liked it well enough to request the next book in the series from the library, and if the language and grit don’t get any worse, I’ll probably continue to read the entire series. The other books in the series so far are:

  • The Silkworm
  • Career of Evil
  • Lethal White
  • Troubled Blood
  • The Ink Black Heart
  • The Running Grave
  • The Hallmarked Man? (not yet published)

Again, the content is dark, including foul language, drug use, sexual immorality (not described explicitly in this book), and violence (somewhat gritty, but not too much detail). This is a book for adults, not children or teens. But the characters are engaging, and the mystery was satisfying in its conclusion. J.K. Rowling is a good writer with a talent for more than fantasy writing.

Jane and the Year Without a Summer by Stephanie Barron

Aug31

I was looking for new mystery detective fiction, having read all of the Agatha Christie, Rex Stout, Dorothy Sayers, and Erle Stanley Gardner that I could find, as well as many more in the genre. A friend suggested the Jane Austen Mysteries by Stephanie Barron. I looked for the first book in the series, Jane and the Unpleasantness at Scargrave Manor, but my library didn’t have it on the shelf. So I just picked one that sounded interesting and thus read Jane and the Year Without a Summer, set in the summer of 1816 when “the eruption of Mount Tambora in the South Pacific caused a volcanic winter that shrouded the entire planet for sixteen months.” (Climate change, indeed!)

The real Jane Austen died in 1817 at the age of 41, so this book portrays a fictional Jane well toward the end of her short life. Jane is feeling unwell with chronic fatigue and stomach upset, and she and her sister Cassandra decide to sample the waters at Cheltenham Spa in Gloucestershire. These books are said to be “based on the author’s examination of Austen’s letters and writings along with extensive biographical information.” But of course, a mystery is inserted into the biographical story to spice things up a bit.

In this particular book, the mystery involves a several of the Misses Austen’s fellow boarders at the lodging house in Cheltenham where they are staying. The actual murder (or unexplained death) doesn’t happen until about three quarters of the way through the book, but the atmosphere and setting that the author creates makes up for the lack of action in the first half of the book. The characters, aside from Jane herself, are somewhat one-dimensional, and the mystery and resolution there of require some suspension of disbelief. Why and how the murderer does the deed is a bit unlikely. Nevertheless, the Regency setting with period details and information about the real Jane Austen’s life and times is, as Jane might say, quite enjoyable.

I liked it well enough to seek out another book in the series, preferably the first, and maybe I’ll read them them all. Stephanie Barron has written fifteen of these books with Jane as the sleuth and protagonist, and the fifteenth one is called Jane and the Final Mystery. So I assume the series is complete. It might be a nice adventure to travel through all fifteen.

The Hidden Treasure of Glaston by Eleanore M. Jewett

Aug21

In twelfth century England the feud between Archbishop Thomas Becket and King Henry has ended in the murder of Becket, forcing the boy Hugh’s noble father, an ally of the king, into exile in France. Young Hugh, crippled by a childhood disease, is left behind in the care of the Abbot of Glastonbury. Glaston soon becomes Hugh’s sanctuary and his beloved home as he finds both mentors and friends as well as a quest to find remnants and reminders of King Arthur’s and perhaps even Joseph of Arimathea’s presence, centuries prior, in that part of the country.

Hugh’s first friendship formed at Glaston is with Dickon, a young oblate at the monastery of Glaston. (oblate: a person dedicated to a religious life, but typically having not taken full monastic vows.) Dickon’s peasant family has signed him over to the monks of Glaston, but Dickon aspires to become a knight, or at least to serve knight. Hugh wishes he could be a knight and make his father proud, but his crippled legs make this dream an impossibility. The two boys become friends, with very different personalities, but also with a common goal of finding or at least seeing a vision of the legendary Holy Grai

Hugh’s mentors and adult friends are Brother John, the monastery’s librarian (armarian), and Bleheris, a seemingly mad hermit who shares Hugh’s and Dickon’s interest in the vision of the Holy Grail. The story moves rather slowly, but the picture of Hugh’s growth and healing and of the friendships he makes is compelling. I kept reading, not to see whether Hugh and his friends would find the Grail, but rather to see whether and how Hugh would find healing for his physical and spiritual wounds.

Honestly, although I enjoyed this Newbery honor-winning novel, I’m not sure what group of children or young people would be the audience for it. Perhaps those who are deeply interested in the whole Arthurian legend would enjoy this Arthur-adjacent story, or maybe fans of Rosemary Sutcliff’s historical fiction. The plot and characters remind me of the Newbery Award book, The Door in the Wall by Marguerite de Angeli; however, The Hidden Treasure of Glaston is a much more intricate and involved look at life in a medieval monastery and the difficulties facing a young boy with a disability in that society–at a much higher reading level. If The Door in the Wall was a favorite for an eight to eleven year old reader, this book might be a good follow-up for ages twelve and up.

I read this book as a part of the 1964 Project. A reprint edition of The Hidden Treasure of Glaston is available from Bethlehem Books.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

He Went With Hannibal by Louise Andrews Kent

Aug16

He Went With Hannibal is everything you ever wanted to know about Hannibal and his wars with Rome, encased in the story of a fictional Spanish companion and spy named Brecon. Brecon comes to Hannibal in Spain as a hostage at the age of thirteen and remains Hannibal’s loyal friend and servant throughout his life. Hannibal’s famous crossing of the Alps—with elephants–and his march to the gates of Rome as well as all of the battles, both victories and defeats, are all described vividly and in detail, but not so much detail as to get bogged down in minutiae. Brecon gathers information for Hannibal and goes everywhere and meets everyone of note, including Archimedes, Hannibal’s brothers, Hasdrubal and Mago, Fabius Maximus, Marcellus, Flaminius, Scipio Africanus, and of course, Hannibal himself. These are all historical figures whose adventures are chronicled in Roman history, and Brecon becomes the thread that ties all their stories together and makes them come alive for the reader.

I read this story for my 1964 Project, and I’m very glad I did. I really didn’t know much about Hannibal the Carthaginian general, and now I know a little. (I could definitely have learned more with the aid of a map or two, of Italy, North Africa, Spain. But alas, there are no maps in this book.) In her Author’s Note, Louise Kent Andrews writes, “One of the striking things about Hannibal is that we know him only through the eyes of his enemies. There are no Carthaginian accounts of his life.” Andrews read the the Roman histories of the Punic Wars (wars between Carthage in North Africa and Rome in Italy and Spain), particularly Livy’s Annals and Polybius’s history as well as many other modern and ancient books about the time period and about Hannibal and his exploits. She lists several of the books she read in the Author’s Note. Although I’m not a Roman or Latin scholar by any means, it seems to me that she was quite thorough in her research. And the story becomes a fictionalized attempt to tell the history from Hannibal’s point of view. He Went With Hannibal is also the only historical fiction book that I know of that showcases this particular time of the Roman Republic and the Punic Wars. (Biblioguides does list one other historical fiction book about Hannibal, I Marched With Hannibal by Hans Baumann.)

Louise Kent Andrews wrote several other books in her series of books about famous explorers and soldiers, and I am anticipating adding all of them to my reading list. Her style of writing is detailed and descriptive, but she uses mostly short, simple or complex, declarative sentences, no rambling purple prose to be found. The story of Hannibal, which includes quite a lot of his battle tactics and musings on warfare and politics, should appeal especially to those middle school and high school boys who are keen on such subjects. The ending is rather bittersweet/sad, but of course, Ms. Andrews was constrained by the historical facts from giving the story a completely happy ending.

“I hope that some of my readers will feel, as I did, that reading about Hannibal makes them wish to learn more about the great change that took place when the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire. The war with Carthage was one of the causes for that change.” ~ Author’s Note

Other books in the series by Louise Kent Andrews:

  • He Went With Champlain
  • He Went With Christopher Columbus
  • He Went With Drake
  • He Went With John Paul Jones
  • He Went With Magellan
  • He Went With Marco Polo
  • He Went With Vasco da Gama

All of the books in this series are available in reprint editions from Living Book Press.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Knights Besieged by Nancy Faulkner

Aug13

This historical fiction novel, published in 1964, is set on the island of Rhodes during the siege of Rhodes in 1522. The Knights of St. John, or Knights Hospitallers, whose headquarters is on the Greek island of Rhodes, are besieged by the Ottoman Turks under the leadership of Suleiman the Magnificent. The battle will decide who will control trade and commerce in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for the immediate future as well as its being a religious war between the Muslim Turks and the Christian (Catholic) Knights.

Our protagonist, Jeffrey Rohan, is an English merchant’s son, fourteen years old, and an escaped former slave of the Sultan Suleiman. After his escape from Constantinople, Jeffrey ends up by accident on the island Rhodes and finds that he cannot leave since the city of Rhodes is under siege. Jeffrey takes solace in his prayers and his belief in the courage and piety of the Knights Hospitallers, but he is also aware, in a way that his friends are not, of the strength and overwhelming numbers of the Turkish force.

I found this story to be intriguing, partly because I didn’t know how it would end. I didn’t know much about the Knights Hospitallers, and I certainly didn’t know whether the Turks or the Knights would have the victory in this particular battle and siege. I would love to discuss the ending, but I won’t spoil it for you. Suffice it to say that Jeffrey is brought to question many of his beliefs and presuppositions over the course of a very long and wearing siege, and yet in the end his faith in God and in chivalry are validated in an unusual way.

This 1964 novel is still fresh and relevant today. The attitudes in the novel are those of sixteenth century people: the Knights are sworn to kill all Muslim infidels, and they do so without mercy. (No gore, just plainly stated facts.) The Turkish besiegers are more inclined to kill those that they must, but rather to enslave and tax the population if they can —and to require allegiance to Suleiman and to the Islamic religion. These are all very medieval attitudes. Now we are trying as a Western post-Christian civilization to come to some sort of compromise and peaceful co-existence with the Muslim world, and they are what? I’m not sure, and this children’s/YA novel certainly didn’t have the answers to our modern problems. However, it did make me think about the complicated and fraught relationship between Westerners and Christians and Muslims and Easterners over the course of history.

Anyway, Knights Besieged would be an excellent introduction to the history of Middle East and the Mediterranean in the late Middle Ages and a great springboard for discussion of past and current events in that part of the world. You will probably want to learn more about the Ottoman Empire, the Knights of St John, and the history of Europe and the Middle East in general after reading the story. I certainly did. And some boys will just be in it for the war and the knights and the intrigue. That’s fine, too. Not every work of historical fiction has to be a history lesson in disguise, even if it is.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Dodsworth in New York by Tim Egan

Aug8

Egan, TIm. Dodsworth in New York. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

This easy reader with four short chapters is the first in a series of easy readers about Dodsworth and his friend, the duck. The duck is never given a name, and I thought when I read some of the other Dodsworth books that Dodsworth was a mole. He still looks like a mole to me, but I am informed by reliable sources that Dodsworth is, indeed, a mouse. (I can still think of him as a mole. I prefer moles to mice.)

Character identity confusion aside, Dodsworth first encounters the duck in this book in the first chapter at Hodges’ Cafe. The duck is at first Hodges’ duck, and he’s a crazy, pancake-throwing, runaway duck who stows away in Dodsworth’s trunk. Dodsworth is on his way to New York City, from thence to embark on a journey to see the world. But Dodsworth can’t get rid of the crazy duck who becomes the key to adventure in a series of books: Dodsworth in Rome, Dodsworth in Paris, Dodsworth in London, and Dodsworth in Tokyo.

Dodsworth is the straight man in this world-traveling comedy duo. The duck is a rather bizarre comedian who gets lost a lot. I happen to think that easy readers are often perfect for reading aloud to precocious preschoolers, and that idea was confirmed when I loaned these Dodsworth books to my then-three year old grandson. He was smitten by the stories and by the humor. He got the jokes. And we had to read Dodsworth over and over and over again. He got a kendama (from Dodsworth in Tokyo) for his fourth birthday, along with his own set of Dodsworth books.

I read these books out of order, all the while mistaking Dodsworth the mouse for a mole. But I thoroughly enjoyed them anyway. I would recommend beginning with Dodsworth in New York because New York is the beginning of this zany journey. Yankee Stadium. The Brooklyn Bridge. The Statue of Liberty. Radio City Music Hall. And one crazy duck. What’s not to like?

Dodsworth in New York has been added to the updated edition of Picture Book Preschool for the week on United States–Travel.

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Giant Jam Sandwich by John Vernon Lord

Aug1

Lord, John Vernon. The Giant Jam Sandwich. With verses by Janet Burroway. Houghton Mifflin, 1972, 2000.

The setting is the English village of Itching Down. The characters are a full cast of English villagers: Mayor Muddlenut, Baker Bap, Farmer Seed, and more. The problem is wasps, millions of wasps.

They drove the picnickers away,
They chased the farmers from their hay,
They stung Lord Swell on his fat bald pate,
They dived and hummed and buzzed and ate,
And the noisy, nasty nuisance grew
Till the villagers cried, “What can we do?”

Tis’ a puzzlement . . . until Bap the Baker proposes a giant strawberry jam trap. Funny and clever at the same time, this tall tale in rhyme plays out with grace and humor and ties up all the loose ends on the final page.

John Vernon Lord is an award-winning illustrator and a professor of illustration at the University of Brighton in England. Janet Burroway is an American author who collaborated on The Giant Jam Sandwich by taking Lord’s story and putting it into verse. The illustration style is not exactly my favorite: it’s very busy with lots of activity and caricature characters. The pictures feel British somehow, maybe because the architecture of the village and the look of the countryside is very British or European. Nevertheless, perusing those illustrations would give readers, and listeners, a lot of details to explore as they absorb the rollicking story of how the villagers of Itching Down disposed of four million wasps, give or take a few.

This one is in print, but only in paperback. It’s been popular enough that it’s been in print since 1972. And composer Philip Wharton wrote a narrated orchestral work based on the book. Watch out Peter and the Wolf–here comes The Giant Jam Sandwich! Maybe readers and fans could make up their own tunes for Burroway’s verses and sing the story.

The Great Jam Sandwich has been added to the new edition of Picture Book Preschool. This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Letter on the Tree by Natalie Savage Carlson

Jul31

Carlson, Natalie. The Letter on the Tree. Illustrated by John Kaufmann. Harper & Row, 1964. Read for The 1964 Project.

“Albert Caron is really my name but everybody calls me Bébert . . . . ‘It rhymes with gray bear,’ I taught them. Then they liked to say, ‘Hey, there, Bébert, the gray bear.'”

Bébert is a ten year old French Canadian boy who lives with his family on a small dairy farm in Quebec. The family is poor, and although Bébert longs for an accordion like the one he has heard played on the family’s radio, his Papa says that they are too poor to buy one from Pére Noel (Father Christmas). Mamie says that it is God’s will that they are so poor, but perhaps if they work hard, it won’t always be God’s will to keep them in poverty. Bébert tries to think of ways to make the cows that they have give more milk or ways for Papa to earn more money, but none of his ideas work out—until the day that Bébert goes with his Papa to cut Christmas trees to sell. Bébert gets the wonderful idea of writing a letter to whoever gets one of the trees, asking for an accordion for the poor little French boy in Canada whose family is too poor to provide a Christmas gift. Of course, the poor little French boy is Bébert himself.

So, the rest of the story is a lesson, clothed in story, about contentment and hard work and creative problem solving and honesty, but it’s not a preachy or didactic lesson. The book also gives readers a glimpse into a year in the life of a French Canadian farm boy of the mid-twentieth century, with church holy days to celebrate, friends to play with, and always, every day, twice a day, the cows to milk. Bébert is a stolid little boy with ideas that carry him into difficulties sometimes, but also other ideas that truly are a help and support to his family. Bébert learns gratitude for what he has and not to make snap judgements about people over the course of the year, and in the end Bébert has made new friends and grown to love the life that he has instead of longing for what he does not.

The Letter on the Tree is only 116 pages long, and the reading level is about third grade. Boys and girls will enjoy the story of Bébert and his life on the dairy farm, and the book would make a good read aloud bedtime story any time of the year, but maybe especially around Christmas or birthday time when it is easy for children (and adults) to become discontented and greedy and anxious about the gifts that are given and received.

Natalie Savage Carlson wrote several books set in Canada, among the French Canadian people, perhaps because although she was American, born in Virginia, she was of French Canadian descent. Her first published book was The Talking Cat and other stories of French Canada, a collection of folk tales and family stories. She also wrote Jean-Claude’s Island, about a French Canadian boy, living on a small island in the St. Lawrence River, and Chalou, the adventures of a lost farm dog in French Canada. Some of Ms. Carlson’s other stories are set in France, including the Newbery Honor winning book, The Family Under the Bridge and the series about a group of French orphans, The Orphelines.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Lola Loves Stories by Anna McQuinn

Jul18

McQuinn, Anna. Lola Loves Stories. Illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw. Alanna Books, 2009. Charlesbridge, 2010.

This picture book is the second in a series of nine books about Lola and her family and their love affair with books and libraries and reading. The first book, Lola at the Library, is more informational, showing how Lola goes to the library with her mommy and checks out books and listens to the librarian tell stories during story time. In Lola Loves Stories, we get to read about and see how the books Lola borrows from the library work themselves into her imagination and her playtime.

Every Saturday Lola and her daddy go to the library where Lola finds some “excellent books.” When they come home, they read the books together, one book each evening. And every day as she plays with friends and alone, Lola acts out the many themes and characters in the stories she has read. She becomes a fairy princess, an adventurer, a tiger, and one day just a girl with sparkly shoes. There’s even a not-so-subtle nod to Max and his imagination in Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak.

I love that this picture book is so simple, with brief, large print sentences, and yet so stimulating to the imagination for even the youngest (and oldest) readers. I like that Daddy takes Lola to the library in this book, and that Lola and her friend Ben have a play tea party with their baby dolls in strollers beside them.

The Lola Reads series is originally from a British author, written for a British audience, but either it’s been Americanized or the concepts and vocabulary are simple enough to reach across the ocean. The original British title is Lulu Loves Stories. I didn’t catch any Anglicisms that would need to be explained to an American child. Just a simple story about a child reading with her parents and acting out what she hears and reads.

Other books about Lola include:

  • Lola at the LIbrary
  • Lola Plants a Garden
  • Lola Gets a Cat
  • Lola Reads to Leo
  • Lola Meets the Bees
  • Lola Goes to School
  • Lola Sleeps Over
  • Lola’s Nana-Bibi Comes to Visit

This Picture Book Preschool book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

Flame Over Tara by Madeleine Polland

Jul7

“The year was A.D. 432, and Patrick, for Bishop from Rome to Ireland, arrived in a pagan land whose spiritual life was completely in the power of the Druid Priests and their ‘magic.’ A mild, warm-hearted, humorous man, Patrick, with his handful of followers, began what seemed an impossible task.

For all her training by the Druids, Macha found herself strangely drawn by Patrick’s words. Torn between the new ideas and the bright, safe life planned for her, Macha struggled to find a way to resolve her future.”

Macha is the daughter of the Chief Judge of the High King Leary, fourteen years old, and soon to be wed. So in our culture, Macha would be a child, and in the book she acts like a child, but in her era and culture she is expected to be ready to take on the responsibilities of an adult wife and homemaker. It’s a coming of age novel as Macha grows from an impetuous fourteen year old with divided loyalties into a woman who has learned to follow the God that Patrick preaches and to depend on Him to work out her other debts and responsibilities.

Flame Over Tara is also a novel about a time of change and about how to work through the taking off of the old and putting on of the new. There are several exciting and dramatic scenes in the novel: Patrick does not try to challenge the Druids immediately, but the clash between the Christian God and the magic of the Druids is inevitable. Patrick lives under threat of assassination from the High King and from his Druid priests. Many of the IrIsh people expect Patrick to use his God’s “magic” to counter that of the Druid priests, but Patrick relies on simple prayers and the wisdom of the Holy Spirit to preserve his life and to ensure the spread of the gospel of Christ. (One of Patrick’s disciples does die as a martyr, and his death is mourned in a Christian fashion–with the hope of the resurrection to come.)

This 1964 novel was assigned in the Sonlight homeschool curriculum that we used a long time ago. I don’t know if it still is a part of that curriculum, but it would indeed be a good introduction to a discussion of the spread of Christianity during the early Middle Ages. It might be best enjoyed as a read aloud book so that some of the issues and scenes could be discussed and digested together. Middle school and high school students could certainly read and appreciate the book for themselves, however. Either way, it’s a good fictional treatment for older children of the life and times of St. Patrick.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.