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The Black Fawn by Jim Kjelgaard

Jan30

Jim Kjelgaard was a prolific author of over forty novels for children and young adults, mostly animal stories. His most famous and best-selling book was Big Red, the story of an orphan boy and his beloved Irish setter.

The main character in The Black Fawn is also an orphaned boy, Allan “Bud” Sloan. Bud comes to live with Gramps and Gram Bennett in an attitude of guarded fear and determination.

“With his little bundle of belongings wrapped in a spare shirt and tucked under his right arm–the orphanage did not furnish suitcases when they farmed you out–Bud started up the drive with his head held high and with what he hoped was a fearless, manly tread. But his insides felt like jelly that has stood too long in a warm place and his feet seemed to weigh five hundred pounds each. If he had been sure no one was looking, he would have burst into tears. He could not be sure, and not for an instant must he forget that weakness made him easy prey for whoever saw it.”

Slowly, over the course of the novel, Bud responds to the open-hearted love and care of Gram Bennett and the measured and careful teaching and example of Gramps, and the three become a family even as Bud learns to be a man. The black fawn is something of a touchstone that Bud first saves when the fawn is almost orphaned in infancy, and then watches in brief glimpses as he grows to be a mighty buck that Bud reluctantly hunts along with Gramps. 

So the book showcases the love of animals, but also the thrill of hunting and the satisfaction to be found in farming and animal husbandry. Bud learns “the ways of nature and the meaning of true sportsmanship.” It’s a balanced view of all three of these ways that man interacts with nature and the animal world.

I’m just starting a re-read of James Herriot’s All Creatures Great and Small, and I couldn’t help comparing the two books. Herriot’s Yorkshire farmers care for their animals, but they also know that farm animals are meant to be of use, sometimes for food. The attitude in Kjelgaard’s story is the same. The deer are meant to be respected and admired for their beauty and animal sense, but also to be hunted for food and for sport as well. Gramps sees the black buck as a magnificent and wily adversary, and himself as an elder with lessons worth teaching to young Bud. Some of those lessons come through the medium and process of deer hunting.

The ending to the story is perfect for hunters and animal lovers both, although animal welfare activists and vegetarians might not love it so much. Kjelgaard balances a respect for wildlife and nature with a deep appreciation for the sport of hunting and the lessons that it teaches. This blog post by Daniel Schmidt, a deer hunter, explicates the basic idea contained in this story: Humble Appreciation: A Deer Hunter’s Prayer.

Incident at Hawk’s Hill by Allan W. Eckert

Jan14

Benjamin MacDonald is the six year old younger son of William and Esther MacDonald. The year is 1870, and the place is somewhere to the north of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. In this prairie land the MacDonald family own a farm, and Ben, a child who in today’s parlance would certainly be called “neurodivergent”, has lived his life so far on that farm, exploring those prairie lands. In 1870, folks just say that Ben is “dreadful queer,” “some sort of monster or throwback, an animal-boy.” Ben seldom speaks to people even in his own family, and he has a strange attraction to and affinity for all sorts of animals–farm animals, wildlife, even birds and insects. He spends most of his days following, observing, and mimicking the creatures he finds on the farm and out on the prairie. And the animals seem to respond to Ben and accept his overtures of friendship, even kinship.

So, this Newbery Honor book from 1972 is a nature story with lots of close description of wild creatures and how they live. Although the Newbery Award and Newbery Honor are intended to be awards for children’s literature, Incident at Hawk’s Hill was originally published as an adult novel. Many older children would still appreciate the book. However, sensitive readers should be warned that the Nature pictured is indeed “red in tooth and claw.” Eckert doesn’t shy away from describing–in detail– predators hunting and eating their prey, animals fighting and and defending their young, and eventually the deaths of some of those predators at the hands of men.

The author prefaces his story with this note, “The story which follows is a slightly fictionalized version of an incident which actually occurred at the time and place noted.” An historical magazine, Manitoba Pageant, in 1960 published an article entitled “The Boy Who Lived in a Badger Hole”. The article tells about an 1873 reported incident of a lost boy, found after ten days living in a badger hole. Eckert may have based his Ben’s story on this magazine report. In the book, one day in June, Ben becomes lost on the prairie, and the story becomes a tale of his survival. It’s a somewhat grisly and nearly unbelievable survival story as a wild badger befriends Ben and shares its den and its food with him, and ultimately Ben almost forgets his humanity as he becomes absorbed in badger life.

The ending is a bit disturbing, too, with a fight between two men, almost to the death. If violent death and threats of death, for both animals and people, are too much for you or your child reader, this book is not for you.

Nonetheless, I found this 1972 Newbery Honor book to be fascinating thought-provoking, and quite well written. The language is descriptive and evocative of a prairie world, almost a fantasy world. In fact, at one point in the story, the storyteller writes about Ben’s getting lost, “It was certainly well past midafternoon now but still nothing looked at all familiar to him and he had the momentary panicky feeling that somehow, like the little girl in the story his mother had read to him, he had stepped into another world.” (Alice in Wonderland, published in 1865?)

The cover blurb calls Incident at Hawk’s Hill “a poignant story of human courage and change, a simple fable rich with wonder.” I’m not so sure about the “fable” part, but the story is rich with wonder. Several characters call Ben’s survival a miracle and attribute it to God’s intervention. I like the way the story points, without preaching, toward tolerance and understanding for people whose engagement with the world does not fit inside the “normal” template. Those readers with an interest in nature, wildlife, and natural history will also find the descriptions of the habits and ways of various animals in the story to be quite engaging and informative.

Marge’s Diner by Gail Gibbons

Oct28


Gail Gibbons has written and illustrated a multitude of nonfiction picture books about everything from road building to quilting bees to spiders, penguins, and trucks (oh, my!). I have many of her books in my library, and I love them all. But my favorite Gail Gibbons book is Marge’s Diner, the story of a simple, small town diner restaurant run by a lady named Marge.

“Everyone in town knows Marge. She runs Marge’s Diner.” The book continues after these opening sentences to tell about and show how a twenty-four hour day at Marge’s Diner plays out. It’s not only a book about how a restaurant works and about the people who work in a 24-hour diner, but also about community and how all different kinds of people come through Marge’s Diner. The diner is an old-fashioned community hub, and readers get to see how a small business, like a diner, can be a service to people as well as provide jobs and support to the people who work there. It’s capitalism in action.

As an adult, I like to see how businesses and organizations work, behind the scenes. I think children enjoy that kind of story, too, which is why Marge’s Diner is one of the books in “Week 45: Food”of Picture Book Preschool. Marge’s Diner is, as I said, about more than just food, but it does give children a bit of an idea of where our food comes from and what it takes to run a restaurant. Maybe reading this book together as a family could make us a little more grateful for the people that cook and clean and serve us food in our own favorite eating places.

For other picture books about diners or restaurants or food service, check out:

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool/kindergarten curriculum which consists of a list of picture books to read aloud for each week of the year and a character trait, a memory verse, and activities, all tied to the theme for the week. You can purchase a downloadable version (pdf file) of Picture Book Preschool by Sherry Early at Biblioguides.

Rilla of Ingleside by L.M. Montgomery

Sep2

Rilla of Ingleside is L.M. Montgomery’s eighth and final book about Anne Shirley Blythe (Anne of Green Gables) and her family. Rilla is Anne’s youngest daughter, named for Marilla of Green Gables, but affectionately called Rilla, or sometimes Rilla-my-Rilla. The time setting is 1914, just at the beginning of World War I, which makes this book a perfect read for teens who are interested in that time period or in finishing out the story of Anne and her family.

As the book begins Rilla is fourteen years old, and according to her mother, “her sole aspiration seems to be to have a good time.” Over the course of the book and of the war, Rilla grows to become a woman of courage and perseverance as she accepts responsibilities far beyond her years. News about the war is interspersed throughout the story, but that news is digested by the family at Ingleside and by their friends and neighbors as it applies to their own lives and to the men they have sent off to war.

I would call Rilla of Ingleside a gentle romance story and also a coming of age story. Rilla herself is a fine character, and her growth into womanhood provides a model for young adults, teen girls in particular, to think about and perhaps even emulate in some aspects. Susan, the Blythes’ cook and housekeeper is something of a counterweight to the seriousness of the wartime novel with her wry humor and optimistic attitude that persists throughout the book.

Rilla’s romantic interest, Kenneth, is a rather vague character, not too well fleshed out, just as the war itself is rather vague and far away over in Europe, even though the war news is almost a central character in the story. Nevertheless, the man that Kenneth becomes will have a lasting influence in Rilla’s life just as the events and tragedies of a war far across the ocean will change the lives of all those who live at Ingleside.

Rilla of Ingleside is much more of a serious novel than Anne of Green Gables or any its other sequels. Rilla gets into “scrapes” and there are various humorous incidents and characters, but the war and its battles and casualties hang over the lives of the family at Ingleside like a dark cloud. It’s an old-fashioned young adult novel, nothing gory or ugly, and even the description of the death of one of the characters in battle is more tragic and sad than it is bloody and violent.

Rilla of Ingleside is recommended for Anne Shirley fans and for anyone looking for a tender but unshrinking introduction to the difficulties and sacrifices required of a young girl who is living through a major war while growing up and becoming a mature adult. Warning: this story may evoke both tears and admiration.

City Spies and The Sherlock Society by James Ponti

Aug23

Ponti, James. City Spies. Aladdin, 2020. Book 1 of 6 in a series by this author. Other books in the series: Golden Gate, Forbidden City, City of the Dead, Mission Manhattan, London Calling.

Ponti, James. The Sherlock Society. Aladdin, 2024. This series is new and possibly as yet uncompleted. Book #2 is called Hurricane Heist.

Because I have seen James Ponti’s middle grade novels suggested and praised in multiple places, I wanted to check them out for myself –and for possible inclusion in my library. I have only read the first book in each of the two series, but I would like to read more. So that’s my initial reaction.

City Spies, Ponti’s bestselling series starter, is indeed a good read. When Sara Martinez is sent to juvie for hacking computers, it’s really a revenge arrest initiated by her abusive foster parents. However, Sara is a computer whiz, and her hacking abilities have not gone unnoticed. A British spy, sent by M16, rescues Sara from the clutches of the New York juvenile justice system and recruits her to join a secret team of juvenile spies instead of going to jail. The City Spies are five kids from around the world who live now in Scotland, attend an elite school, and in their spare time, go on spy missions for the British Secret Intelligence Service.

It’s an intriguing set-up, and the book delivers on its premise. The City Spies, along with their handler, code name Mother, are sent to Paris to infiltrate an international youth competition on the science of rainmaking (seeding clouds and such), while they are really there to protect the reclusive millionaire who’s sponsoring the competition. And there are a few side missions and quirks and turns in the main mission such that Sara is initiated into the team in an exciting and adventurous operation. The assignment is resolved satisfactorily, but there are plenty of remaining questions about the team and its future to lead to another book (and another and another, it seems).

The writing is adequate. The plotting is the same. And the characters are interesting enough, as I said, to make me want to read at least the next book in the series. I can see why this series has gained such popularity. I have no content considerations, really, although there is a murder involved, off-stage, not explicitly described. And the kids do spy stuff: lies, deception, computer hacking, breaking into buildings, false identities–all in pursuit of catching and stopping the bad guys.

Ponti’s second series (that I read), The Sherlock Society, begins with a book not quite as exciting as City Spies, but promising. Instead of international intrigue, this one is about a group of American kids in Miami who are looking for a way to earn some money during the summer break. Babysitting is boring and mowing lawns is hot and sweaty, so Alex Sherlock and his friends Yadi and Lina, inspired by Alex’s surname and the famous predecessor of that same name, decide to start a detective agency. Then, Alex’s older sister, Zoe, and his retired journalist grandfather become involved, and the search for Al Capone’s hidden money becomes a crazy and dangerous chase after environmental polluters and current day criminals.

I liked this one almost as much as I did City Spies, but the pacing was a little off. There’s a lot of Miami history interspersed between the adventure, and any kids’ library in Florida would do well to have a copy of this book just for the history aspect. The characters in this one were fun. Grandfather is just crazy enough to be believable, and Alex’s parents are actually involved in his and Zoe’s lives and in the story, not absent, and that’s a breath of fresh air. Alex and his friends are nerdy, and lovable, and Zoe is a bit harder to get to know and love but worth it in the end. I look forward to reading Hurricane Heist soon, just in time for height of hurricane season here in Houston and in Florida.

Bored–Nothing to Do by Peter Spier

Aug19

President Franklin Roosevelt declared in 1939 that August 19, Orville Wright’s birthday, would be National Aviation Day – an annual occasion to celebrate the importance of aviation. So, today I’m featuring my favorite book about aviation and imagination and the cure for summer (or autumn) boredom—if you can be flexible enough as a parent to withstand the mess.

Peter Spier’s Bored–Nothing to Do is a Picture Book Preschool selection, and it’s one of the best books in the entire list. Two boys build an airplane out of junk found around the house. Then, they have to un-build it and put everything back. That’s the entire plot of the book. And the dialog is sparse, just the two boys brainstorming in brief phrases about how to build their airplane with a few comments from their parents at the beginning and the end of the book. (“Go do something. I was never bored at your age.” “Put it all back where it belongs.”)

Nevertheless, this is a book to read and pore over and examine and laugh with again and again and again. Spier’s illustrations are detailed and delightful. Look at each picture carefully List together all of the materials that boys use to build their airplane. Ask questions: what do you need to build an airplane? What did the Wright brothers use to build their first airplane? What makes it fly? Would an airplane like the one in the book really fly? How does the plane land safely?

I don’t really know enough about aeronautics and airplanes to answer most of the questions that the book raises, but I do know that as a springboard to imagination Bored–Nothing to Do is top flight. Maybe your children will want to research the first airplanes and the men who flew them after reading this story. Or maybe they will make and fly some paper airplanes. Or maybe they will want to try to build their own really, truly flying machine. (Guard the bedsheets and fence posts!)

Bored–Nothing to Do is out of print, fairly inexpensive as a used paperback, a bit expensive in used hardcover. If you find a copy at the library book sale or the thrift store, grab it. Otherwise, it’s definitely worth the $15 or so that the paperback copies are selling for at present. You will read this one over and over.

The Foreigner by Gladys Malvern

Aug6

When I was a young teen, I became captivated by a genre I called “Biblical fiction”—novels that took the characters and events of the Bible and enriched them with fictional backgrounds, motivations, and settings. Books like The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare and Moses by Katherine B. Shippen opened up a whole new world for me. I began to realize that the Bible stories I’d heard all my life weren’t just stories—they were history. The characters were real people who lived real, full lives.

By that age, I was old enough to understand the difference between fiction and fact, and I knew the Bible well enough to recognize when a story was embellishing or imagining details. I loved discovering Biblical truths embedded in these fictionalized accounts of what might have been.

My favorite author in this genre was Gladys Malvern, and The Foreigner was one of my favorite books of hers. It’s a retelling of the story of Ruth, enriched with descriptive details, imagined relationships, and added events that don’t contradict the Biblical narrative—but do expand it in thoughtful ways. In Malvern’s version, Ruth and Orpah are sisters, daughters of a wealthy Moabite family. Their parents are indifferent to their well-being and only interested in the bride-price offered by Elimelech, the Hebrew patriarch. As the story unfolds, Ruth comes to love and appreciate the customs and kindness of her new Hebrew family. Out of loyalty and love for Naomi, she undertakes a difficult journey from Moab to Bethlehem.

One of the most powerful aspects of Malvern’s version is her description of that arduous journey. She devotes two chapters to Naomi and Ruth’s trek across Moab and into Judea, traveling on foot with no protection and little provision. Along the way, they encounter wind and dust storms, wild animals, dehydration, and scorching desert sun. It helped me understand just how much Ruth must have sacrificed to follow Naomi to an unfamiliar land—where she would be seen as both a foreigner and, possibly, an enemy.

Malvern also fills in the gaps in the story of Ruth and Boaz—their courtship and eventual marriage—with plausible details that make their relationship more understandable. The original story, while beautiful, can feel puzzling. Why did one relative refuse to marry Ruth, while Boaz embraced the opportunity? Why did Naomi instruct Ruth to go to the threshing floor at night and lie at Boaz’s feet? While not every question is answered, Malvern offers possibilities that invite readers to think more deeply about the cultural and personal dynamics at play.

The final chapters read as a gentle, respectful romance—the story of two people falling in love and becoming the great-grandparents of King David. It’s completely clean and faithful to the Biblical account, at least in terms of the details Scripture actually gives us.

One element I found slightly odd was Ruth’s lingering memory of a childhood idol of Chemosh, the Moabite god. She remarks that Boaz somehow resembles this idol she once prayed to before converting to the Hebrew faith. It’s a minor detail, but it stood out in an otherwise lovely and respectful retelling.

I recommend The Foreigner for teens ages 12 and up—particularly those who enjoy a gentle romance and have enough Biblical background to distinguish fact from fiction. For me, it made Ruth and Naomi come alive with renewed admiration and compassion.

The Bounces of Cynthiann’ by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

Jul15

The Bounce family consists of four siblings: Matthew (14), Markia (12), Luke (10), and Johanna, the baby of the family. As the book begins the Bounces are on their way to their uncle’s home in Cynthianna, Oregon. They have left, and sold, their own home in Rhode Island after the sudden death of their mother. With her death the Bounces are now orphans, and Uncle Seth is their only remaining relative (except a fifth cousin somewhere in Maine). But the Bounces are in for a surprise, indeed many surprises, when they arrive in Cynthianna. How will they fulfill their promise to their dying mother to keep the family together when it turns out that Uncle Seth is not there to help?

The story takes place in the late 1800’s, around 1870 or 1880, perhaps, but the book never divulges an exact date. The Bounces travel by ship from Rhode Island to Oregon and by stagecoach from the coast to Cynthianna. Cynthianna itself is a small town with small town values and prejudices, but the townspeople take the children in and provide for them until a relative and guardian can be found. Slowly over time, the Bounces become a part of the town family of Cynthianna, and when it’s time to leave, there are hard decisions to be made.

The town is full of “characters.” Doc Kinsey is self-taught, and he needs Luke to drive his horse and buggy because Doc tends to fall asleep on his rounds. Mrs. Weddle, who takes in Markia, is sharp-tongued and crochety, and it’s touch and go whether Markia will be able to get along with Mrs. Weddle and perform all the tasks that the older lady assigns. The other two Bounces, Matt and Johanna, are parceled out to other homes in town. Then there are the minor characters, Peaches Charley and Feng and the Widow Morrison. Peaches Charley is introduced:

“Standing in the middle of the kitchen floor, regarding them with dull, black, expressionless eyes, was an Indian. He wore a pair of ragged pants, a tattered old hat, and a dirty blanket which he clutched about his shoulders like a shawl. Rain trickled in small streams from the hat brim and dripped from the blanket to the clean planks or the kitchen floor.”

Peaches Charley and his fellow Native Americans who live near Cynthianna are seen through the eyes of the townspeople and characterized as lazy, beggarly, dirty, and also something of an oddity and a spectacle. And Feng, the “Chinaman” that Markia finds hiding in the barn loft, is also shown as a foreigner and a curiosity, although much cleaner than Peaches Charley. The counter-narrative to this characterization of non-whites in their midst is subtle: Peaches Charley becomes one of the heroes of the story when he finds a lost boy and bring him home. And Feng becomes an integral and respected part of the community of Cynthianna as he exercises his own gifts for service and homemaking. As the townspeople come to love and accept the Bounce family, they also, despite their prejudices, love and accept that Peaches Charley and Feng and the Widow Morrison, the recluse who lives alone and smokes a pipe and never participates in any community events, are also a part of the family, the community that is Cynthianna.

The Bounces of Cynthiann’ is an honest book. It doesn’t try to solve all of the problems of homelessness or prejudice or family tensions. It doesn’t try to show all sides of the issues that come up in the story. (I wonder how Peaches Charley and Feng thought about the white people in Cynthianna.) It just tells about some children and their absorption into a community full of quirky, imperfect people who somehow manage to get along and care for each other in spite of their imperfections. The book would make a really good read aloud, with lots of good discussion to be had about family and adoption and community and caring for strangers.

For more content considerations, check out the entry for this book at BIblioguides. If you are interested in learning more about Evelyn Sibley Lampman and her books, check out this podcast episode from Plumfield Moms. This book is available for check out to patrons of Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

By and By: Charles Albert Tindley, the Father of Gospel Music by Carole Boston Weatherford and Bryan Collier

Jun25
If the world from you withhold of its silver and its gold, 
And you have to get along with meager fare, 
Just remember, in His Word, how He feeds the little bird, 
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. 

Refrain: 
Leave it there, leave it there, 
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. 
If you trust and never doubt, 
He will surely bring you out, 
Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there.

My mama used to sing this song to me when I was little, but I never knew anything about the man who wrote it, Reverend Charles Albert Tindley. In this picture book biography, written in verse, and illustrated with beautiful paintings of scenes from Rev. Tindley’s life by Caldecott Honor illustrator Bryan Collier, I learned a little about the African American preacher and self-taught musician who wrote that song and many more standard gospel tunes and lyrics.

One sign of a great picture book biography is that it gives a child a snapshot of an admirable person’s life and work while engaging an older reader and causing him to want to know more. After reading Carole Boston Weatherford’s poetic biography, I immediately turned to my computer to find out more: more about Tindley himself, more of his songs, more about Tindley Temple where Reverend Tindley pastored and sang. I learned from the book and from my further researches:

  • Tindley was born in 1851 to an enslaved father and free mother, making him free by the standard of the law at that time.
  • As a boy he taught himself to read, and later he studied Hebrew at a synagogue and Greek by correspondence with Boston Theological School.
  • Tindley became pastor of the East Chapel Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia, later (after Tindley’s death) renamed Tindley Temple United Methodist Church.
  • Tindley wrote at least 46 published hymns, lyrics and music, and is known as the Father of Gospel Music.
  • “Tindley’s wife Daisy passed away on the day [his] congregation moved to a larger sanctuary. He was reportedly heartbroken at her death, and later admitted about her death that ‘one day I will understand it better by and by’. Several of the children Tindley had with Daisy would help him publish his hymns and compositions.” (Wikipedia)

Tindley’s songs and hymns include We’ll Understand It Better By and By, Leave It There, The Storm Is Passing Over, What Are They Doing in Heaven?, and I’ll Overcome Someday. That last hymn is credited as the inspiration for the civil rights anthem, We Shall Overcome. Weatherford quotes snippets from several of Tindley’s songs embedded in the text of her picture book poem. I only wish that I could sing those lyrics as I read the book aloud to children, just as Reverend Tindley broke into song in the midst of his sermons.

By and By: Charles Albert Tindley, the Father of Gospel Music by Carole Boston Weatherford and Bryan Collier is a book well worth introducing to your family and leading to further exploration as you appreciate the music of this talented, God-educated man.

The Peppernuts by Maud and Miska Petersham

Jun24

Published in 1958, The Peppernuts tells the story of a slightly eccentric family and how they came to live in a house in what they call Paradise Valley. The Peppernut children, introduced in the first short chapter of the book, are:

  • Flitter Peppernut, who likes to pretend that she is Princess Irmegard who lives in a castle,
  • Captain Peppernut, named for his great-grandfather, a famous sea captain who may have also been a pirate, and
  • Tua A and Tua B, twins, whose “mother had given them the same name because when she called, they both came anyway. But their father had thought this was confusing and he had added the A and the B for his own convenience.”

Father is an author, who according to the children spends his time reading and typewriting. Father is also “very clever and could fix anything he wanted to.” but Mother Peppernut knows that “he never wanted to do it today, always tomorrow.” Still, the Peppernuts move into a beautiful, almost enchanted, but broken down house in Paradise Valley. They are renting the house in Paradise Valley for the summer, but the family soon decide that they never want to leave. Will they find a way to stay in Paradise Valley?

This early chapter book, eight short chapters and 63 pages long, is a perfect story for beginning readers who are ready to graduate from the controlled vocabulary of the easy readers. It’s a story that features imaginative play, love and exploration of nature, hard work, and sacrifice for the sake of the family community. It’s a gentle story, but there are issues to be decided and problems to be overcome.

Maud and Miska Petersham formed the talented and prolific married team who wrote and illustrated together more than 50 children’s books in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. They collaborated on fiction and nonfiction stories, mostly for younger children with Miska and Maud Petersham both providing lovely illustrations to complement the text. Miska and Maud Petersham also illustrated many, many books written by other authors. The Petershams were one of the runners-up for the Caldecott Medal for An American ABC in 1942, and they won the 1946 Medal for The Rooster Crows, a collection of American nursery rhymes and jingles.