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Bringing Back Kate, or What’s Up, Professor Grant?

Apr2

Brown Bear Daughter and I watched the 1938 Katherine Hepburn/Cary Grant movie Bringing Up Baby the other night, and I realized about halfway through the movie that one of my other favorite movies, What’s Up Doc?, made in 1972 with Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal, was just a take-off on Bringing Up Baby, practically a remake. Absent-minded professor meets lunatic girl who brings his ordered life crashing down around him—and coincidentally ends his engagement to the wrong, boring girl. Screwball comedy. Innocent mayhem. Lots of laughs in both movies.

I like Katharine and Cary better than Barbra and Ryan, but for some reason I think What’s Up Doc? is the funnier movie. Madeleine Kahn, as Ryan O’Neal’s boringly hilarious fiance, adds a new layer of comedy to the second movie and almost steals the show. Hepburn would never have let herself get upstaged by anyone. Don’t you wish The Great Kate were still around to make more memorable movies? I’d love to see What’s Up Doc?, revised and updated, but starring magically young again Katharine Hepburn and Cary Grant.

Newbery Project: 2008

Jan1

I think in terms of projects rather than resolutions. I’m posting the plans for some of my projects here so that I can keep track of them and for your edification.

I’ve been working on this project off and on since last year. I managed to cover three years last year: 1922, 1923, and 1924. I would like to read, in addition to the Newbery Award book for each year, as many of the Honor books as I can find. Many, if not most, of them are out of print and inaccessible. Anyway, here are the Newbery Award and Honor books for 1925-1935. Perhaps I can read several of these this year.
Some of the titles of these old and award-winning books are fascinating: Spice and the Devil’s Cave? Vaino? Queer Person? Runaway Papoose?

I think it’s something of a treasure hunt into the recesses of the history of children’s literature in the United States.

1935 Medal Winner:Dobry by Monica Shannon (Viking)
Honor Books:
Pageant of Chinese History by Elizabeth Seeger (Longmans)
Davy Crockett by Constance Rourke (Harcourt)
Day On Skates: The Story of a Dutch Picnic by Hilda Von Stockum (Harper)

1934 Medal Winner: Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
Honor Books:
The Forgotten Daughter by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)
Swords of Steel by Elsie Singmaster (Houghton)
ABC Bunny by Wanda Gág (Coward)
Winged Girl of Knossos by Erik Berry, pseud. (Allena Best) (Appleton)
New Land by Sarah Schmidt (McBride)
Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)
Glory of the Seas by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
Apprentice of Florence by Ann Kyle (Houghton)

1933 Medal Winner: Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze by Elizabeth Lewis (Winston)
Honor Books:
Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
The Railroad To Freedom: A Story of the Civil War by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)
Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia by Nora Burglon (Doubleday)

1932 Medal Winner: Waterless Mountain by Laura Adams Armer (Longmans)
Honor Books:
The Fairy Circus by Dorothy P. Lathrop (Macmillan)
Calico Bush by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
Boy of the South Seas by Eunice Tietjens (Coward-McCann)
Out of the Flame by Eloise Lownsbery (Longmans)
Jane’s Island by Marjorie Allee (Houghton)
Truce of the Wolf and Other Tales of Old Italy by Mary Gould Davis (Harcourt)

1931 Medal Winner: The Cat Who Went to Heaven by Elizabeth Coatsworth (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Floating Island by Anne Parrish (Harper)
The Dark Star of Itza: The Story of A Pagan Princess by Alida Malkus (Harcourt)
Queer Person by Ralph Hubbard (Doubleday)
Mountains are Free by Julie Davis Adams (Dutton)
Spice and the Devil’s Cave by Agnes Hewes (Knopf)
Meggy MacIntosh by Elizabeth Janet Gray (Doubleday)
Garram the Hunter: A Boy of the Hill Tribes by Herbert Best (Doubleday)
Ood-Le-Uk the Wanderer by Alice Lide & Margaret Johansen (Little, Brown)

1930 Medal Winner: Hitty, Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
A Daughter of the Seine: The Life of Madame Roland by Jeanette Eaton (Harper)
Pran of Albania by Elizabeth Miller (Doubleday)
Jumping-Off Place by Marion Hurd McNeely (Longmans)
The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales by Ella Young (Longmans)
Vaino by Julia Davis Adams (Dutton)
Little Blacknose by Hildegarde Swift (Harcourt)

1929 Medal Winner: The Trumpeter of Krakow by Eric P. Kelly (Macmillan)
Honor Books:
Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo by John Bennett (Longmans)
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gág (Coward)
The Boy Who Was by Grace Hallock (Dutton)
Clearing Weather by Cornelia Meigs (Little, Brown)
Runaway Papoose by Grace Moon (Doubleday)
Tod of the Fens by Elinor Whitney (Macmillan)

1928 Medal Winner: Gay Neck, the Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerji (Dutton)
Honor Books:
The Wonder Smith and His Son by Ella Young (Longmans)
Downright Dencey by Caroline Snedeker (Doubleday)

1927 Medal Winner: Smoky, the Cowhorse by Will James (Scribner)
Honor Books:
[None recorded]

1926 Medal Winner: Shen of the Sea by Arthur Bowie Chrisman (Dutton)
Honor Book:
The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery by Padraic Colum (Macmillan)

1925 Medal Winner: Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger. (Doubleday)
Honor Books:
Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Annie Carroll Moore (Putnam)
The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish (Macmillan)

Postscript: I looked for all of these books in my library system, and aside from the obvious ones, the winners and the Wanda Gag titles, my library had next to none of them. I did find a copy of Davy Crockett by Constance Rourke and Calico Bush by Rachel Field (which I’ve already read). And they have Swift Rivers by Cornelia Meigs; I reviewed that one here.

So, I’ll go to the local university library next. They may have some titles since they have a fairly decent children’s iterature collection.

Advent: December 7th

Dec7

Every year on this date, my mom would ask me, “Do you know what today is?”

“Christmas? Almost Christmas? The beginning of Christmas?”



I eventually learned that December 7th has nothing to do with Christmas. Go here for an article by Maggie Hogan on commemorating this “date which will live in infamy” in your homeschool.

The book Early Sunday Morning: The Pearl Harbor Diary of Amber Billows, Hawaii, 1941 by Barry Denenberg is one of the Dear America series from Scholastic. Go here for more information on the book and some activities to accompany it.

Other books for children and young adults:
Air Raid–Pearl Harbor!: The Story of December 7, 1941 by Theodore Taylor

A Boy at War: A Novel of Pearl Harbor by Harry Mazer

World War II for Kids: A History with 21 Activities by Richard Panchyk

Links:
Phil at Brandywine Books: The Last Survivors of Pearl Harbor.

Michelle Malkin: Remembering Pearl Harbor.

George Grant posts Franklin Roosevelt’s December 8th “Date Which Will Live in Infamy” speech, broadcast on radio worldwide.

From Hawaii, Palm Tree Pundit comments and links to a few others who remember this date.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance by Eleanora E. Tate

Nov16

I like historical fiction. I liked this book set partly in Harlem, New York City, 1921 and also in Raleigh, N.C. But I must say that the author is a namedropper. Every single famous or semi-famous black American who could have been expected to show up for a cameo appearance in Harlem in 1921 is in this book: Caterina Jarboro, Duke Ellington, Bert Williams, Marcus Garvey, James Weldon Johnson, even Madame C.J. Walker, who was dead by the time of the story, but living on in her prosperous business of providing hair care products for “Colored folks’ hair.” Then, too, the author uses historical events and places to lend authenticity to her story: the lynching of two black men in North Carolina in 1921, the North Carolina Negro State Fair, the first musical produced on Broadway starring black entertainers called Shuffle Along, and many historical markers and occasions.

I did feel as if I were in a Black history class every once in a while when I read the book, but then the story would come along and pick me back up and deposit me inside a narrative about family and friendship and forgiveness that was absorbing and universal in its themes. Celeste, the main character, lives in Raleigh with her father and her Aunt Society. Celeste’s mother died four years before the beginning of the story. In the first part of the book we spend some time getting to know Celeste (shy and quiet, but talented at playing the violin), Aunt Society (grouchy and strict), Celeste’s Poppa (hard-working and indulgent toward his only daughter), and Celeste’s almost mythical Aunt Valentina who lives in a mansion in Harlem, an actress who drives a big car and wears fancy clothes.

Then, everything changes for Celeste when her beloved Poppa must go to a sanatorium to rest and recover from tuberculosis. Aunt Society can’t take care of Celeste, and the only option left is for Celeste to go to Harlem and live with Aunt Val. Harlem life isn’t anything like what Celeste expected, and later the book changes course once again when Celeste must leave all the friends she’s made in Harlem to go back to North Carolina. The characters in the novel are complicated and multi-dimensional, and Celeste must learn, as she grows up physically, to grow in her assessments of other people, to forgive, and to understand, even as she becomes more confident in her own decisions and abilities.

I think I’ll give this book to my sixteen year old daughter who’s studying twentieth century history this year. We’re covering the decade of the twenties, and even though my dear daughter is a little older than the target audience for this book, she could learn something and enjoy reading it.

Other views:

Celebrate With Books: “This is a delightful book, rich with a strong female character, who is witty and very self reliant. The author (Tate) makes the reader feel as though you are there in 1921 Harlem, New York.”

A Fuse #8 Production: “It’s so frustrating that I liked this book. I liked it so much. I thought the story of Celeste was fascinating and that the arc of the story said some wonderful things. But there were at least 75 pages that could and should have been taken out right from the start.”

Eleanora Tate’s website (including a study guide for Celeste’s Harlem Renaissance)

Sadie Hawkins Day

Nov3

Anybody here old enough to remember the origin of this holiday?

Al Capp, cartoonist, wrote the comic strip Lil Abner and created the characters of Daisy Mae, Lil Abner, Pappy and Mammy Yoakum, Joe Btfsplk, Schmoo, and, of course, Sadie Hawkins.

From the official Al Capp website:

Sadie Hawkins Day, an American folk event, made its debut in Al Capp’s Li’l Abner strip November 15, 1937. Sadie Hawkins was “the homeliest gal in the hills” who grew tired of waiting for the fellows to come a courtin’. Her father, Hekzebiah Hawkins, a prominent resident of Dogpatch, was even more worried about Sadie living at home for the rest of his life, so he decreed the first annual Sadie Hawkins Day, a foot race in which the unmarried gals pursued the town’s bachelors, with matrimony the consequence. By the late 1930’s the event had swept the nation and had a life of its own. Life magazine reported over 200 colleges holding Sadie Hawkins Day events in 1939, only two years after its inception. . . . When Al Capp created the event, it was not his intention to have the event occur annually on a specific date because it inhibited his freewheeling plotting. However, due to its enormous popularity and the numerous fan letters Capp received, the event became an annual event in the strip during the month of November, lasting four decades.”

Sadie Hawkins Day is often celebrated on the first Saturday in November, but you can have your own Sadie Hawkins event anytime in November. You single ladies have any plans?

Terms from Mr. Capp’s famous comic strip were an integral part of my childhood, and I never even knew that most of them came from L’il Abner. How many of you are familiar with: Kickapoo Joy Juice, Lower Slobbovia, Fearless Fosdick, Jubilation T. Cornpone, “if I had my druthers”, and “double whammy”? All of those familiar-to-me characters and phrases and places came from the creative mind of Al Capp. I think my parents must have been weaned on L’il Abner and Co.

Children’s Fiction of 2007: Someone Named Eva by Joan M. Wolf

Oct29

There’s probably more than one reason that I enjoy reading fiction written for children, but one of those reasons is that even the best of children’s fiction is somewhat simple and straightforward. Children, and adults like me, want a story, a beginning-to-end, satisfying, well-written story that gives us something to think about in the process. Someone Named Eva was such a story.

The novel is appropriate for any child who’s mature enough to deal emotionally with the essential plotline: a Czech child is stolen from her home and sent to a school for training young Aryan Nazis to serve the Fatherland. Milada qualifies for this “honor” because she is blonde, blue-eyed, and her nose is the right length. Before she leaves, her grandmother tells her: “Remember who you are, Milada. Remember where you are from. Always.”

Easier said than done. Milada, whose named is changed to the German Eva, hears so many lies, repeated so often and so convincingly that she begins to lose her grip on truth and her sense of her own identity. Her German teachers tell her that her parents died in an air raid, and even though she knows that they were arrested by the Germans themselves and that she was taken away from them, Eva begins to doubt her own memories. Could such “brainwashing” really happen? Of course, it could; Someone Named Eva is based on a true story of a Czech village burned to the ground for supposed collaboration with the the Allies and Aryan-looking children given in adoption to German families during World War II. Many of those children did forget their own native language and their family and cultural heritage.

I was reminded of Hitler’s famous dictum (not actually formulated by Hitler, but attributed to him anyway): “people will believe a big lie sooner than a little one; and if you repeat it frequently enough people will sooner or later believe it.” I thought, too, of Satan, and how his colossal lies are repeated over and over again throughout our society and of how we eventually begin to doubt the truth in favor of the oft-repeated lie:

Money will make you happy. Lots of money and stuff will make you supremely happy.

People and relationships can wait. Pursue the urgent rather than the eternal.

God can be mocked. You will not really reap what you sow.

You are not loved. God cannot be trusted. Live for the moment because that’s all you’ve got.

We believe the lies, act upon them, and lose our own souls in the process.

I’ve gone a bit far afield from the book Someone Named Eva, but a book that can make me think about such important issues is only simple in the sense that it is honest and direct. Oh, the power of a simple story.

Someone Named Eva was nominated for the Cybil Award for Middle Grade Fiction. Read more about author Joan M. Wolf here.

Other reviewers write about Someone Named Eva:

Elizabeth Bird at A Fuse #8 Production.

1904: Music

Oct8

George M. Cohan published Give My Regards to Broadway and Yankee Doodle Boy both in 1904. My students had never even heard of Cohan, and one of them had never even heard of any of his songs. Not the two above. Not You’re a Grand Old Flag. Not Over There. Someone has neglected these urchins’ musical education.

Go here for an NPR profile of Cohan and his music.

My family watched the movie Yankee Doodle Dandy with James Cagney as George M. Cohan. Cagney won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of the song and dance man, and I thought it was delightful film.

1902: Twentieth Century Music

Oct1

I am studying twentieth century history with a couple of the urchins this year, and I thought it would be fun, and perhaps instructive, to listen to some popular tunes as we study through the century. We started in 1900, but the first songs I introduced were both published in 1902. 1902 was, of course, pre-recorded music and pre-radio for all practical purposes. Music back then was sold, not on CD or tape or even LP record, but as sheet music. Yes, this idea of not being able to purchase a recording of the latest musical composition, but rather having to buy the music and produce your own rendition or go to a concert hall somewhere to listen, was a new concept for the urchins.

At any rate, a couple of popular songs published in 1902 were:

In the Good Old Summertime lyrics by Ren Shields and music by George Evans. George “Honey Boy” Evans was originally from Wales, but he joined a minstrel show when he was a young performer of about twenty years of age. After that, he performed in blackface for much of his singing career, just ike Al Jolson. (We watched the movie The Jolson Story, and the urchins and I agreed that it was interesting, but much too long.) To get back to Honey Boy, he and Mr. Shields were fooling around one day when George mentioned the “good old summertime” and out of that chance remark came a hit song —or what passed for a hit in 1902. It was published, sung on Broadway, and people played it on their pianos and sang about the good old summertime for many years thereafter. Still do sometimes, I suppose.
Information from Vaudeville, Old and New: An Encyclopedia of Variety Performers in America by Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman, Donald P. McNeilly.

In the good old summertime,
In the good old summertime,
Strolling thru’ a shady lane
With your baby mine.
You hold her hand and she holds yours,
And that’s a very good sign
That she’s your tootsie wootsie
In the good, old summertime.

Tootsie wootsie????? The urchins got a kick out of that one. (Complete lyrics and music.)

The Entertainer by Scott Joplin. Wow, I didn’t know that Scott Joplin was from Texas! He was born in East Texas and grew up in Texarkana, of all places. When he published The Entertainer in 1902, he had already had a success with his Maple Leaf Rag. Of course, I know The Entertainer from the movie The Sting, and my urchins know it only because Eldest Daughter played it for recital once a upon a time. (Isn’t it amazing how memorable those recital pieces become after having been practiced ad infinitum.) Mr. Joplin’s music is one of the earliest examples of “ragtime”, a musical genre that became all the rage in the first decade of the twentieth century. Ragtime is “music characterixed by a syncopated melodic line and regularly accented accompaniment, evolved by black American musicinas in the 1890’s and played especially on the piano.” You can listen to a really quick tempo version of The Entertainer here.

Can you tell that I’m not an expert on music, classical, popular, or otherwise? But I’m having fun. Those of you who are music people, how would you describe a piece of music played fast?

A Madeleine L’Engle Annotated Bibliography

Sep9

l'engle books
1. 18 Washington Square South: A Comedy in One Act, 1944. Ms. L’Engle actually wrote several plays and was an actress herself before her marriage, but this is one of the few that appears in the bibliography at her website.
2. The Small Rain, 1945. Madeleine L’Engle’s first published novel tells the story of young Katherine Forrester, daughter of two famous musicians, who discovers in herself her own musical talent. This one is a beautifully realized coming-of-age novel set in Europe and New York City in the years before World War II. Semicolon review here.
3. Ilsa, 1946. Has anyone read this? Is it a novel or a play?
4. And Both Were Young, 1949, is another boarding school story starring artist Philippa Hunter who is miserable until she meets Paul and learns from him how to confront the past and overcome her self-doubt. I read this book a few months ago as a part of my Madeleine L’Engle project, but I never got around to writing about it here on the blog, maybe because I didn’t like it as much as I do her other books.
5. Camilla Dickinson, 1951. Republished in 1965 as simply Camilla, probably reworked to some extent. Semicolon review here.
6. A Winter’s Love, 1957. Semicolon review here.
7. Meet the Austins, 1960. The first in the Austin family series of books.
8. A Wrinkle in Time, 1962. Madeleine L’Engle’s most famous book, winner of the Newbery Award in 1963, is deserving of the praise it gets. Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace the genius, and her friend Calvin “tesser” through space and time to rescue Meg’s father from IT.
9. The Moon By Night, 1963. The Austin family goes on a cross-country camping trip, and Vicky, age 15, meets some interesting characters, including Zachary, a poor little rich boy who is alternately fascinating and alarming. This one moves into Young Adult territory with romance, but nothing salacious.
10. The Twenty-Four Days Before Christmas, 1964. Christmas with the Austins.
11. The Arm of the Starfish, 1965. Polyhymnia (Polly) O’Keefe is the daughter of Meg (Murry) and Calvin O’Keefe from A Wrinkle in TIme. She becomes involved, along with a young student, Adam Eddington, in a complicated episode of scientific espionage.
12. Camilla, 1965. Semicolon review here.  
13. The Love Letters, 1966. The story of a woman who is running away from a difficult marriage. She runs to Portugal, of all places, where she learns about love and responsibility and commitment from a 17th century Portuguese nun who broke her vows for the sake of a handsome French soldier. My favorite Madeleine L’Engle novel. (Adult) Semicolon review here.
14. A Journey With Jonah (a play), 1967.
15. The Young Unicorns, 1968. The Austin family is living in New York City; however, the story focuses on a couple of new friends of the Austins, pianist Emily Gregory and former gang member Dave Davidson. It’s a very sixties YA novel, featuring street gangs, lasers, and mad scientists.
16. Dance in the Desert, 1969.
17. Lines Scribbled on an Envelope and Other Poems, 1969
18. The Other Side of the Sun, 1971. The setting is early twentieth century South Carolina. English bride Stella Renier must come to live with her new husband’s famiy while he goes travelling on business. Sort of Gothic in good way with spiritual/Christian themes. (Young adult or adult)
19. A Circle of Quiet, 1972. Autobiography about Ms. L’Engle’s life in a village, her familly and her early writing life.
20. The Wind in the Door, 1973. The second of the Time Quartet books. Instead of travelling through time and space, Meg must travel inside Charles Wallace to diagnose and cure a problem with Charles Wallace’s mitochondria. Semicolon review here.
21. Everyday Prayers, 1974
22. Prayers for Sunday, 1974
23. The Risk of Birth, 1974
24. The Summer of the Great Grandmother, 1974. Nonfiction counterpart to the fictional A Ring of Endless Light, the two books deal with the task of dying with dignity and role of families in the process of death and dying.
25. Dragons in the Waters, 1976. Murder, smuggling, and blackmail in Venezuela. This YA novel features Polly O’Keefe.
26. The Irrational Season, 1977. A follow-up to Circle of Quiet and Summer of the Great-Grandmother.
27. A Swiftly Tilting Planet, 1978. The third book in the so-called TIme Quartet, this novel is one part science fiction, one part historical fiction, and another part just plain weird —in a wonderful sort of way.
28. The Weather of the Heart, 1978
29. Ladder of Angels, 1979
30. The Anti-Muffins, 1980. A short book about the Austins and nonconformism.
31. A Ring of Endless Light, 1980. Vicky Austin and her family must come to terms with the impending death of Vicky’s garndfather, and Vicky must decide who she is and whom she can trust.
32. Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, 1980. These essays on the intersection of faith and art are quite helpful and thought-provoking for Christian artists in particular. JR at brokenstainedglass has been blogging about the insights he has gleaned from this book for last couple of months (August-September, 2007).
33. A Severed Wasp, 1982. Katherine Forrester from A Small Rain returns as an elderly retired concert pianist who becomes entangled in the life of the characters who ive in and around the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City.
34. And It Was Good: Reflections on Beginnings, 1983.
35. A House Like a Lotus, 1984. Polly O’Keefe, nearly seventeen years old in this novel, travels to Cyprus and learns both discernment and acceptance in her relationships.
36. Trailing Clouds of Glory: Spiritual Values in Children’s Literature, 1985 (with Avery Brooke). Another excellent book about the art of writing particularly for Christian writers.
37. Many Waters, 1986. A fictionalization of the Biblical story of Noah and the ark, with time travel, unicorns, and nephilim thrown in. The main characters are Meg Murry’s twin brothers, Sandy and Dennys.
38. A Stone for a Pillow: Journeys with Jacob, 1986
39. A Cry Like a Bell, 1987
40. Two-Part Invention, 1988. The story of Madeleine’s marriage to actor Hugh Franklin.
41. An Acceptable Time, 1989. Polly O’Keefe returns in her fourth story, and the plot and themes hark back to those of Time Quartet: time travel, peoples and cultures of the past, healing, the power of love.
42. Sold Into Egypt: Joseph’s Journey into Human Being, 1989.
43. The Glorious Impossible, 1990.
44. Certain Women, 1992 is an adult novel about the Biblical King David and about a modern-day David, an actor who engages in serial polygamy in about the same way that David of the Bible loved many women and had many wives. Semicolon review here.
45. The Rock That is Higher, 1993
46. Anytime Prayers, 1994
47. Troubling a Star, 1994. Vicky Austin and Adam Eddington are in Antarctica where they resist those who are trying to exploit the continent’s natural resources. YA.
48. Glimpses of Grace, 1996 (with Carole Chase)
49. A Live Coal in the Sea, 1996. This adult novel returns to the character Camilla from the book of the same name and tells the story of her famiy, especially her son Taxi and granddaughter Raffi.
50. Penguins and Golden Calves: Icons and Idols, 1996
51. Wintersong, 1996 (with Luci Shaw). Poetry.
52. Bright Evening Star, 1997
53. Friends for the Journey, 1997 (with Luci Shaw). Reviewed here by Carol of Magistramater.
54. Mothers and Daughters, 1997 (with Maria Rooney). Maria Rooney is Madeleine L’Engle’s daughter.
55. Miracle on 10th Street, 1998
56. A Full House, 1999. A Christmas story about the Austin family and an unexpected Christmas baby.
57. Mothers and Sons, 1999 (with Maria Rooney)
58. Prayerbook for Spiritual Friends, 1999 (with Luci Shaw)
59. The Other Dog, 2001
60. Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life, 2001 (with Carole Chase)
61. The Ordering of Love: The New and Collected Poems of Madeleine L’Engle, 2005.

Multicultural Soldier Boys of World War II

Aug19

Eyes of the Emperor by Graham Salibury. A Japanese-American boy in Hawaii, Eddy Okubo, experiences the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor, lies about his age, and joins the Army. Because of his ethnic background, Eddy is given a special assignment that tests his commitment, patriotism, and endurance.

Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac. A Navaho boy, Ned Begay, hears about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, disguises his age, and joins the Marines. Because of his ethnic background and fluency in the Navaho language, Ned is given a special assignment that tests his commitment, patriotism, and endurance.

I read both of these in quick succession and found them to be similar in tone and in plot, but I liked both anyway. I would imagine that if you know any boys who are WWII buffs, these would be great to recommend.