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Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow

Mar10

Simon Sort of Says is funny, and well written, and at the same time thoughtful and trauma-sensitive. It also features mild profanity, inappropriate jokes and sexual innuendo, and post-traumatic stress disorder. And it’s written for middle grade readers, with a twelve year old seventh grader as the protagonist. So not for everyone.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading my first volume of middle grade fiction published in 2023. Simon and his parents move to Grin and Bear It, Nebraska, a place with “no internet and no cell phones and no TV and no radio.” Why they move to this place, a National Quiet Zone where scientists study radio waves from outer space, is a complicated story, and if you want the story to unfold gradually (as I think the author intended it to do), don’t read the blurb on the inside front dust jacket. I would certainly have preferred to figure out what happened to Simon and his parents that brought them to Grin and Bear It over the course of the story instead of being hit with the big reveal in the blurb.

And I would have preferred that the book itself left out the sex jokes, which seem a little too informed for twelve year olds, and the few instances of profanity. Honestly, the humor in the book overall is really funny, but again seems a little too witty and mature for a bunch of even very intelligent twelve year olds. Simon’s new friends in Grin and Bear It are Agate, an autistic girl who lives with her large and quirky family on a goat farm (also ducks and bees), and Kevin, a Filipino-American boy whose mom and dad are astrophysicists. (But Kevin’s dad runs a coffee shop.) If that’s not enough for comedy to ensue there are, in the story, alpacas, emus, a stabby peacock, dead bodies (Simon’s mom is an undertaker), and a squirrel who eats . . . Well, I’ll let you find out what the squirrel eats in the Catholic church, should you decide to read this book.

I am placing this one in the category of “I liked it but can’t recommend it.” There’s some bad or incomplete theology stuck in there, too, but I can’t give specifics without spoilers. So, read it if you’re curious, and give it to the kids if you think it’s harmless. It would have confused my kids–and made them laugh out loud. I’m always looking for clean and humorous stories for middle grade readers, by the way, so if you have suggestions, please comment.

Children’s Books from 100 Years Ago

Jan10

Here’s a list of children’s books published in 1923. See if one of these catches your fancy, and if so, let me know what you thought. (I have not read most of these books, but I do plan to read and review some of them this year.)

The Arabian Nights: Tales of Wonder and Magnificence by Padraic Colum. A selection of stories from the Arabian Nights, using the direct translation by Arabic scholar Edward William Lane. Colum selected and abridged some of the tales to make up his own version of the timeless stories of Shahrazad.

The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes. 1924 Newbery Award book. This novel is a tale of adventure and piracy in a seventeenth century sailing frigate, The Rose of Devon. Semicolon review here. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

A Boy of the Lost Crusade by Agnes D. Hewes. Free to read online at Internet Archive, with illustrations by Gustaf Tengren. A story of The Children’s Crusade.

The Burgess Flower Book for Children by Thornton Burgess. Stories about common wildflowers as they appear in the spring. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Buster Bear’s Twins by Thornton Burgess. The adventures of bear twins, Boxer and Woof-Woof. Free to read online at Internet Archive. Listen at Librivox.

Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office by Hugh Lofting. The third of Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books. Listen at LIbrivox. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring by Josephine Lawrence. The sequel to The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann. In this second book seven year old Elizabeth Ann, who is visiting her three aunts in turn while her parents are in Japan, goes to stay with Great Aunt Hester. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The first in a trilogy of books about Emily Byrd Starr. Listen at Librivox. Free to read online at Internet Archive. I read these books a long, long time ago. Maybe I’ll reread in honor of 100 years.

The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins. The story of Filipino twins, Ramon and Rita, who live in Manila, Philippines. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Honey Bunch: Just a Little Girl by Helen Louise Thorndyke (Josephine Lawrence).

Honey Bunch: Her First Days on the Farm by Helen Louise Thorndyke (Josephine Lawrence).

Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the City by Helen Louise Thorndyke (Josephine Lawrence).

Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides by Rudyard Kipling. A collection of adventure tales and poems. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

A Little Singing Bird by Lucy M. Blanchard. Out of print.

Mary Jane at School by Clara Ingram Judson. An autumn story about Mary Jane’s third grade school year. (She gets to skip second grade to join her friends in third.) This book is part of a multi-volume series about Mary Jane.

The Perilous Seat by Caroline Snedeker. Set in ancient Greece, the main character is a high priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi.

The Pony Express Goes Through by Howard R. Driggs. Based on interviews conducted with boys who actually served as couriers for the Pony Express.

The Rose of Santa Fe by Edwin L. Sabin.

The Rover Boys at Big Bear Lake by Arthur M. Winfield.

The Six Who Were Left in a Shoe by Padraic Colum. The Story of “what happened to the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” Illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker. Free to read on Internet archive.

The Story of a Woolly Dog by Laura Lee Hope. A storybook by the author of the Bobbsey Twins series. Librivox audiobook.

Sunny Boy and His Games by Ramy Allison White.

Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar R. Burroughs. Free to read at Internet Archive.

Tom Swift and His Flying Boat by Victor Appleton. Free to read at Internet Archive.

William Again by Richmal Crompton. Very popular in England in its day. Available for checkout from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. Free to read at Internet Archive.

A Yankee Girl at Antietam by Helen Turner Curtis. Free to read at Internet Archive.

Ten (or Eleven) Best Nonfiction Books I Read in 2022

Jan4

The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William L. Shirer and The Mysterious Voyages of Captain Kidd by A.B.C. Whipple. These two Landmark books, written for children, tied for tenth place in my “best of nonfiction” list. Both were well-written, contained many interesting facts and stories that I didn’t know about before I read the books, and generated much conversation among the “Library Ladies” of whom I am privileged to be a part.

Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey Towards Sanctification by Cindy Rollins (re-read) What I wrote a few years ago when I read this book for the first time still applies: “I laughed. I cried. I identified. Cindy Rollins, mother of nine homeschooled children, mostly boys, has written an honest, but also encouraging book about what it was really like to homeschool a large family in the 1980’s and 1990’s homeschooling culture. Cindy is honest about the things she’s learned along the way, but never jaded or dismissive of her younger self or of homeschooling families who work every day, although imperfectly, to get it right and teach their children to know the Lord.”

Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep by Tish Harrison Warren. Compline prayer from Prayer in the Night: “Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love’s sake. Amen.”

The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom by Andrew Peterson. “Solitude is a choice. . . Isolation is finding yourself alone when you don’t want to be.”

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. (Re-read)

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang.

Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng. Another memoir of the Cultural Revolution and the reign of terror under Mao in China. Both this book and Wild Swans were difficult to read, difficult to believe that man could be so inhumane, so cruel, and that a society could devolve into such chaos and horror.

Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey.

The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan.

Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey. These last three books on the list are the best books I read in 2022. I will be thinking about and returning to all three many times, I am sure. Yancey’s spiritual autobiography is heart-rending at times, but ultimately hopeful.

Little Vic by Doris Gates

Jan1

Pony Rivers is an orphan boy about 15 years old who loves horses. He is especially interested in working around racehorses, and even more especially, one particular horse, Victory, son of the famous racehorse, Man o’War. So, after the death of his mother, Pony goes to Kentucky in search of the stables where Victory lives. And he gets there just in time to witness the birth of one of Victory’s many offspring, a colt that Pony names Little Vic.

This story is the tale of a boy and the horse he grows to love. Pony is rather obsessed with Little Vic. I grew up around lots of “horse lovers”, and I never did really understand the fascination. However, I can enjoy a good horse book, and Little Vic is that, with a little something extra.

Pony follows Little Vic from owner to owner, believing that Little Vic has the makings of a winning racehorse. Pony works as a stablehand at first, but later when he is separated from Little Vic, who is shipped to a horse farm in Arizona, Pony decides to pursue a career as a jockey so that someday he will be qualified to ride Little Vic in races.

Only on page 107 of a 160 page story do we readers find out something about Pony Rivers that makes this novel more than just another horse and his boy story. I have to believe that the author, Doris Gates, intended the information about Pony not to be revealed until two-thirds of the way through the story, so I won’t spoil the surprise. But such an insightful and beautifully written story, published in 1951, was indeed a surprise.

Another surprise is that the importance of prayer and of knowing the Bible are both woven into the story in a lovely way, and the entire narrative leads to the uprooting of prejudice in one character and to kindness and reconciliation between two of the characters in the book. Little Vic is a good horse story, but it goes deeper than that to show how faith and perseverance and humility can win out in the end.

“The way I see it, Mr. Baker, everybody has got to have some trouble in this world. I just got the feeling I would rather have the kind of trouble Little Vic will pick out for me than any other trouble I can think of. And you know something?” Pony moved so that he could look into the colt’s eyes. ” The way I see it, as long as I can be with Little Vic, nobody can hand me any trouble anyway.”

She decided to begin with the Book of Job. “He had a lot of things to put up with, too,” she told Pony, “and his faith in the goodness of God gave him the strength to bear with every one of them. People like us need a lot of faith to bear some of the things we got too.” She fixed him with her eye. “And faith in something besides horses,” she added as she pushed a pair of glasses onto her broad nose.

A book for horse lovers and for those who just love a good story, Little Vic also has the advantage of being illustrated by Kate Seredy. Little Vic is a winner.

Content considerations: At one point in the story, Pony decks a jockey who mistreats Little Vic. The story also has characters who exhibit racial prejudice, condemned in the story, not condoned, and the African American characters in the book are designated as “colored people”, a commonly accepted term in the 1940’s.

Mystery at Plum Nelly by Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West

Dec29

I read and enjoyed many of the books in this series of mystery books many, many years ago when I was an avid consumer of all things Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden and the Boxcar Children and Helen Fuller Orton. The books feature a group, actually two groups, of children who form two clubs: The Cherokees and later, The Lookouts. The children, who live in southern Tennessee near Lookout Mountain, are first called The Cherokees, but when the older members of the club “became less active because Mickey, Bitsy, Ted, and Buzz had new teenage interests, Jimmy, the youngest member, began a new club, the Lookouts.”

In this particular mystery, Mystery at Plum Nelly, the Lookouts and the Cherokees are all helping with the annual arts and crafts exhibit that is hosted at art teacher Miss Manning’s mountain cabin called Plum Nelly. “When people would ask how to get to her house the mountaineers would say, ‘It’s down the road a piece–it’s plum nearly out of Tennessee and plum nearly out of Georgia.’ Only they say ‘plum nelly’–so the place just got to be called Plum Nelly.” The book is full of dialect, mountain talk, and quaint sayings and aphorisms, but it’s not enough to overwhelm or confuse readers, even young readers. The mystery involves kidnapping, spies, government secrets, and midnight disturbances. It’s great, published originally in 1959, and very fifties in tone, characters, and setting.

This series of books would appeal to fans of the Boxcar Children original series (I don’t recommend the modern Boxcar Children mysteries which were written and published more recently.). However, Cherokee/Lookout series of mysteries is out of print, hard to find, and very pricey when you can find them used. If your library has them or if you happen to find them in the wild at a reasonable price, I highly recommend you check them out. None of these books are to be found in my huge, big-city library system. I have not re-read all of these mysteries for content considerations, but the only thing I found that might be objectionable in Mystery at Plum Nelly is a little bit of good-natured teasing of one of the Lookouts, Billy, who calls himself “fat” and loves to eat.

The entire series consists of sixteen books:

The Mystery At Shingle Rock (1955) 
The Mystery At the Mountain Face (1956) 
The Mystery At the Shuttered Hotel (1956) 
The Mystery At Moccasin Bend (1957) 
The Mystery At the Indian Hide-out (1957) 
The Mystery At the Deserted Mill (1958) 
The Mystery of the Vanishing Stamp (1958) 
The Mystery At Plum Nelly (1959) 
The Mystery At the Haunted House (1959) 
The Mystery At Fearsome Lake (1960) 
Mystery At Rock City (1960) 
The Mystery At the Snowed-in Cabin (1961) 
The Mystery of the Dancing Skeleton (1962) 
The Mystery At Ghost Lodge (1963) 
The Mystery At the Weird Ruins (1964) 
The Mystery At the Echoing Cave (1965) 

Just Harriet by Elana K. Arnold

Dec27

Harriet begins narrating her book by telling the readers a few things about herself:

  • She just finished third grade.
  • She has a perfect cat named Matzo Ball.
  • She sometimes has nightmares.
  • She doesn’t always tell the truth.
  • And sometimes, when she’s embarrassed or mad or gets caught in a lie, Harriet becomes (what her Mom calls) “out of hand.”

Harriet really is a bit of (what I call) a pill. She frequently and impulsively tells little lies and obviously transparent lies either to get what she wants or to escape the consequences of her behavior. I don’t really have much of a tolerance for lying, so I had trouble sympathizing with Harriet at first. But . . . she kind of, sort of won me over in spite of myself. The author does a good job of telling this story from Harriet’s immature and emotionally unregulated point of view. I could have done a better job as a parent in understanding my own children’s immaturity and lack of impulse control. And maybe this story would be helpful to parents as well as comforting to children in that respect.

Anyway, Harriet has a lot on her plate. Her mother is pregnant, expecting a little brother for Harriet, even though Harriet thinks a family of three is just the right size. What’s more Mom’s been put on bed rest, and Harriet is being sent to spend the summer with her Nanu, who runs a bed and breakfast inn on Marble Island off the coast of California. Harriet refuses to go. But Mom and Dad don’t take no for an answer.

The story involves a mysterious key, a look into Harriet’s dad’s boyhood, and a “gingerbread house” full of treasure. Harriet continues to be a handful throughout the story, but most of her lies and misadventures are good-natured misunderstandings, the result of confusion and inability to express her feelings properly. Harriet’s parents and grandmother don’t condone the lying, but they don’t really confront it either. I would probably be a bit more strict with a child like Harriet, but God didn’t give me a Harriet. Like all of the children, even the fictional ones, she’s one of a kind.

The book is 196 pages long with fairly large print, so about a second or third grade reading level. I’d recommend it, not as bibliotherapy for children who tell lies, but just as a good story.

The Christmas Anna Angel by Ruth Sawyer

Dec6

The Christmas Anna Angel by Ruth Sawyer, illustrated by Kate Seredy. Viking Press, 1944. (Christmas in Hungary, c.1918)

“Here is one of those heart-warming tales that never grow old but take their place on the Christmas shelf to become year after year a part of the family Christmas. Ruth Sawyer heard the story from a friend named Anna, whose little girlhood was spent on a Hungarian farm where her own Christmas Anna Angel came to her. Miss Sawyer’s text and Kate Seredy’s lovely drawings retell the tale with a feather-light touch that would not brush away the loveliness of a dream or of a little child’s belief in Christmas.

~New York TImes

This book is absolutely beautiful. The story is great, but the text combined with the illustrations make the book a children’s masterpiece. Miklos and his older sister Anna are growing up on a farm during the later years of World War I. The book begins on St. Nicholas Eve, “the day that begins the Christmas time,” and ends on Christmas Day. In between, Anna tells Miklos about Christmases past, before the war, when there was plenty of flour and honey and eggs and fuel for the baking of Christmas cakes to hang on the Christmas tree. And as the children welcome St. Nicholas on his day, celebrate St. Lucy’s Day, and wonder at the marvels of the Christmas Eve celebration, Anna maintains her faith that the angels in heaven, especially her own Christmas Anna Angel, will see to the baking of Christmas cakes in spite of the war conditions and privations.

This story is Hungarian Catholic in its culture and setting; Protestant readers may have to explain about talking and praying to saints and going to Mass on Christmas Eve. However, it’s also a very Christian book, with an emphasis on the true wonder and meaning of Christmas and the coming of the Christ Child while holding onto a child’s ability to imagine and embroider even in wartime. I wish I could send a copy of this story to every child in Ukraine this Christmas, along with a copy of the gospel of Luke, to give them hope and imagination and joy in their time of war.

Whatever war or harshness is in your life this Christmas, I wish for you, too, some hope and joy and Christmas cakes. If you get a chance to read The Christmas Anna Angel this Christmas and you like it, I recommend Kate Seredy’s books, The Good Master and The Singing Tree, both also set before and during World War I in Hungary and quite reminiscent of Ruth Sawyer’s Christmas story.

The Christmas Pony by Helen McCully and Dorothy Crayder

Dec3

The Christmas Pony by Helen McCully and Dorothy Crayder, illustrated by Robert J. Lee. Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. (Christmas in Nova Scotia, Canada, 1912)

Catching the apple, Helen had been tempted to smile, but since the best way to enjoy the marsh was to be unhappy, she was determined to remain so.

The McCullys and the cats coexisted with the understanding that people were people and cats were cats and it was neither possible nor desirable for it to be otherwise. This understanding made for mutual enjoyment.

Mrs. McCully did not believe in her children’s being sick and consequently they very rarely were. And when they were, they were never allowed to be very sick. Being sick was for people who had nothing better to do.

Every year, two days before Christmas the doors to the Big Rooms and the dining room were closed tight and were not to be opened until Christmas morning. To the children, it was always as if a stage were being set behind those closed doors and when at last they were opened, the play would begin.

The children now began a two-day siege compounded of excitement, fidgets, and the need to be on their best behavior or Santa Claus might have some second thoughts. Deep down in their hearts, the children believed that Santa Claus was a loyal, generous friend who accepted the good with the bad, but they were leery of making a test case of it.

Helen McCully, one of the authors of this brief Christmas novelette (101 pages), is also one of the three children who celebrate a Christmas to remember in this story set in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. The tone and writing of the story, which is sampled in the quotes above, reminded me of old-fashioned magazine story writing from the 1950’s and 60’s, and indeed Ms. McCully and Ms. Crayder both had experience writing for women’s magazines as well as radio plays and television. The Christmas Pony tells about Helen, her brother Robert, and her little sister Nora and the surprise gift that they received one Christmas.

This book would make a wonderful read aloud story sometime during the Christmas season, but there is a rather big risk. The book begins with the statement, “Every child should have a pony.” If you think you can read the story and remain indifferent to the desire for a real, live pony of your own, or if you think your children can contain themselves, then this book is a delight.

The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream by B.B.

Nov25

This book is the sequel to B.B.’s award-winning gnome novel, The Little Grey Men, and I am happy to say it’s just as exciting, just as nature-loving, and just as good as the first book. Sneezewort, Baldmoney, Dodder, and Cloudberry are the last gnomes living in England, maybe in the world. They live in an old hollow tree on Folly brook sharing their lives and their fortunes with the birds, especially their owl friends, and the otters and the other wild beasts, and their special friend Squirrel–the Stream People. But the Folly has been diverted into an underground drain upstream, and now all of the Stream People, including the four gnomes must decide what to do about their homes.

Can the gnomes rehabilitate their old boat, the Jeanie Deans? Will there be enough water in the Folly to float the boat if and when they do? Where can the four old gnomes go to live safely and comfortably away from the eyes and ears of men?

In the first book the gnomes went upstream to search for their lost brother, and in this sequel they are traveling downstream to find a new home. But the adventures are the same. The gnomes have to keep the boat afloat, avoid predators and enemies, and most of all, agree on a plan for a new living situation. Unfortunately, one of the four gnomes is listening to his own evil pride and jealousy while another has some wild ideas about how to proceed. And Dodder, the oldest of the gnomes, is hard put to keep the Little Men safe and all together as they go on their dangerous journey downriver.

Content considerations with SPOILER: In this sequel, as in the first book, the gnomes and their animal friends pray to and receive help from Pan, the god of the beasts. Pan, in this story, reads to me like another name for God, the Lord of all as the animals know him (kind of like Aslan in the Narnia stories). There are no incantations or pagan sacrifices, only prayer and a faith that Pan will guard and guide. Also, one of the characters in the book (SPOILER!) plans to murder the others, and the depth of evil that lurks in this character’s mind was a surprise to me. It might be disturbing to more sensitive readers. However, goodness and perseverance win out in the end, and the bad guys get their just deserts.

This book and the one before it are absolutely full of nature lore and beautiful descriptions of the English flora and fauna, and it’s all worked into an exciting story that doesn’t lag or lose appeal. It may move a little more slowly than most contemporary adventure books for children, but I found the pace to be fast enough to keep me reading for hours. The gnomes have to survive through flood and fire and enemies without and within to make it to their new home, which turns out to be both a surprise and just what they expected and wanted it to be.

If I lived in England with children, this book and The Little Grey Men would be must-reads, read-aloud. For Anglophiles like me, the same is true. For everyone else, I would still recommend that you at least try out The Little Grey Men, and if you like it at all, pick up The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream also.

A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga

Nov16

Resilience and his twin Journey are Mars rovers, built to be the best robots ever to explore the Mars surface. They have a mission, and Res is determined to complete that mission no matter what. However, as Res and Journey go through testing in the lab at NASA and learn more about what their mission is to be, Res develops something like feelings, human emotions like affection, worry, happiness, determination. Journey says that these human feelings are not useful and might very well impede the mission. But Res is determined and resilient.

I had a hard time, for some reason, believing in rovers in our own time period that had emotions and communicated among themselves. Res not only talks to Journey, he also talks to his little drone helicopter, Fly and to the large satellite in orbit over Mars, named Guardian. Each of these robots or machines has a distinct personality. Fly is flighty. Guardian is businesslike and rather grumpy. Journey is a bit conceited. And Res is persistent and lovable. And there never was any explanation for how the various robotic entities got their ability to communicate using human terms and to feel human emotions. In the world of the novel it’s odd, but it just happens. Still, when I was able to turn off the part of my brain that kept asking the same questions (did the programmers somehow program emotions into Res? how can a rover know what non-concrete words in English even mean?), I enjoyed the story.

The funny thing is I have no problem at all with books like The Runaway Robot by Lester Del Rey–because it’s set in the future? Do I think that robots in the future will be able to take on human characteristics, but not now? And the ending, although it’s happy, sort of reminds me of Klara and the Sun by Kashuo Ishiguro. What is to be done with a robot that’s completed its mission successfully? I know this is a children’s book about the exploration of Mars by a resilient rover, and I’m overthinking it.

About a third of the book is taken up with a series of letters from the daughter of one of the scientists who works on code for Res. This daughter grows and matures over the years that it takes Res to reach Mars and complete his mission, and she writes letters to Res that he never receives. It’s a bit odd as a device, but I suppose it’s meant to tie Res and his Mars mission into the world of children and humanity in general. The letters were OK, but they could have been left out, and the story would not have suffered.

I did enjoy this novel despite my questions and misgivings. If you are interested in robotics or space exploration or NASA or Mars, this one might be just the thing. Christina Soontornvat is quoted on the front of my copy of the novel, “Res taught me what it means to be fully alive.” So, there’s that.