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Under the Radar: An Adult Fiction Trio

Aug28

Giovanni Guareschi: Italian author Guareschi wrote a series of stories about a priest named Don Camillo and his arch-enemy, the Communist mayor Peppone. These stories were originally published in a weekly periodical in Italian between the years 1946 and 1960. The pieces tell the ongoing story of the clashing worldviews and evangelistic methods of the Communists and the Catholics of a small Italian village. Don Camillo has frequent conversations with Christ who speaks from a crucifix in Don Camillo’s little chapel and tells Don Camillo to fight atheistic Communism with grace and forgiveness, orders Don Camillo is often too proud and angry to follow. The stories are humorous and at the same time full of insight into human nature and the difficulty of fighting fire with . . . Christian humility. The six volumes of Don Camillo stories in English translation are:

The Little World of Don Camillo (1950)
Don Camillo and His Flock (aka Don Camillo and the Prodigal Son) (1952)
Don Camillo’s Dilemma (1954)
Don Camillo Takes the Devil by the Tail (aka Don Camillo and the Devil) (1957)
Comrade Don Camillo (1964)
Don Camillo Meets the Flower Children (aka Don Camillo Meets Hell’s Angels) (1969)

Sadly, I only have a copy of and have only read the first book, The Little World of Don Camillo, but surely the other collections are just as delightful. I found at least two websites dedicated to Giovanni Guareschi and his writings, so maybe he’s not completely “under the radar.” Nevertheless, if you haven’t been introduced to his “little world”, it’s time to home in on some funny little stories with a message of peace on earth, good will to men.

Samuel Shellabarger is a much different kettle of fish. He wrote, also back in the forties and fifties, historical fiction, popular and reminiscent of the work of Alexander Dumas or maybe your favorite historical romance author. However, Shellabarger knew how to write popular fiction with a thoughtful subtext. He wrote the following novels:
The Black Gale (1929)
Captain from Castile (1946) (1947 film starring Tyrone Power, Cesar Romero, Lee J. Cobb)
The Door of Death (1928)
The King’s Cavalier (1950)
Lord Vanity (1953)
Prince of Foxes (1947) (1949 film starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles)
The Token (1955)
Tolbecken (1955)

I’ve read Captain From Castile and Prince of Foxes. I enjoyed the former book, but probably won’t return to it. Prince of Foxes is one of my very favorite books ever. (I even talked my mother into reading my worn out copy just this week.) The novel tells the story of Andrea Orsini, a social climber during the Renaissance Italy times of the Borgias, Michaelangelo, and da Vinci. Orsini is determined to become a gentleman, to do whatever it takes to overcome his humble origins, including service to Cesare Borgia, the Machiavellian politician who plans to unite Italy by force if necessary. Orsini’s fate becomes entangled with that of his servant and erstwhile assassin, Mario Belli, and also with the fortunes of a beautiful young woman, Camilla Varano, and her elderly husband, the Duke Varano of Citta del Monte. Throughout the novel, Orsini is torn between the demands of his ambition and his sense of morality and honor.

W.H. Hudson: The final “under the radar” recommendation for today dates back to my college days. Green Mansions was actually published in 1904, way before my time, but I was introduced to this fine story of Mr. Abel and Rima the Bird Girl during my college days, in Dr. Huff’s Advanced Reading Survey class. (Wonderful class, wonderful professor, by the way.) The basic plot is simple: a young man meets a mysterious and beautiful bird-girl in the depths of the Venezuelan jungle. The two fall in love, but the perfect love between them is spoiled by the appearance of both primitive envy and fear and the encroachment of civilization. The plot summary doesn’t do the novel justice, however. Hudson was a distinguished naturalist, and his descriptions of the rain forest flora and fauna are beautifully done and, I assume, accurate. Hudson once said, “The sense of the beautiful is God’s best gift to the human soul.” He had a sense of the beautiful and the ability to describe beauty and the honesty to tell a story that included the tragic ending that mars all perfection in our world.

Gutenberg’s etext of Green Mansions. I think, however, you’re going to want to read it from a real book. Try your library or used bookstore.

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born August 28th

Aug28

I wrote about these picture book authors a couple of years ago, all of whom deserve your attention and that of your children:

Roger Antoine Duvoisin, b. 1904.
Phyllis Krasilovsky, b. 1926.
Allen Say, b. 1937.
Tasha Tudor, b. 1915

Also on this date, Leo Tolstoy was born in 1828.

Tasha Tudor and Family website.

My favorite Tasha Tudor books:

Actually, I rather like them all. Ms. Tudor is 92 years old this year, still living in her own home in rural Vermont.

Whenever I get one of those questionnaires and they ask what is your profession, I always put down housewife. It’s an admirable profession, why apologize for it? You aren’t stupid because you’re a housewife. When you’re stirring the jam you can read Shakespeare.” from The Private World of Tasha Tudor.

Under the Radar: Children’s Fiction

Aug27

I was planning to write about author and illustrator John Verney’s Callendar family series from the 1960’s, but I googled and found that Linda at A Cozy Nook to Read In wrote a much better plug for the series than I could, considering the fact that I haven’t seen most of the books in the series in thirty years. I did find a used copy of February’s Road a few months ago and re-read it; it was full of antiquated British slang, but otherwise quite readable. Maybe I liked the Callendars because they were a family with lots of urchins with unusual names: Friday, February, Abigail, Beryllium, Chrysogon, Desdemona, and Hildebrand, to name a few. The family and the names and the adventures all remind me a bit of Hilary McKay’s Casson family. Under the radar, out of print, and worth every minute.

I don’t know whether Penelope Wilcock’s The Hawk and the Dove trilogy, published in the 1990’s, are truly “under the radar” or not. Certainly, the books have many devoted fans, but they don’t exactly fit into a niche. The frame for the stories in the book has a mother telling her daughters stories about her medieval ancestor who was a Benedictine abbot. That makes the book sound like historical fiction for children, and it is. However, the stories deal with topics such as pain and suffering, chastity, faith, forgiveness, self-sacrifice, and finally euthanasia. Are these the subjects of children’s fiction? Maybe, but the novels, or stories, are definitely appropriate for an older audience as well. Wilcock can tell a story confined to the setting of a 14th century abbey and make it relate not only to a teenage girl at the end of the twentieth century but also to the universal human dilemma. The monks of St. Alcuin’s are a mixed lot, saints and sinners, usually within the same person. I’d recommend these books for children aged nine or ten through adults. Good plots, challenging philosophy and ethics.

Here’s another blogger, Danielle, who’s beaten me to the punch, reviewing two series of books that hold fond memories for me: the mysteries of Helen Fuller Orton and the series of historical fiction books set in post WW2 Germany by author Margot Benary-Isbert. The Ark by Benary-Isbert is a fascinating look at how ordinary German children may have experienced WW2 on the homefront —in Germany. The sequel, Rowan Farm, is just as good as the family of refugees from the first book go to live on a farm while the war comes to a close.

Orton books
Danielle says “today’s children are too worldly for this book” about one of Orton’s mysteries. But if you or your children enjoyed The Boxcar Children books, I’d suggest Orton’s mysteries as a follow-up. I own six of Ms. Orton’s mysteries: Mystery of the Hidden Book, Mystery Over the Brick Wall, Mystery in the Old Cave, Mystery of the Lost Letter, Mystery in the Pirate Oak, and The Secret of the Rosewood Box.. I re-read Te Secret of the Rosewood Box, and it’s much as I remembered. The story is set in the 1880’s. Charley’s family is moving from New York to the wild country of Michigan where Charley and his sister Mabel see all sorts of exciting things: bears, a beaver dam, a gristmill, deer, and a lumber camp. The language and the plot are simple, suitable for a confident second or third grade reader. Grandma’s special rosewood hatbox falls off the wagon on the way to their new home, and Charley takes responsibility for finding it. I don’t think my younger children would be “too worldly” to enjoy this story, and I doubt yours would either.

So there, with a little help from a couple of new blogger friends, is my list of recommendations from under the radar for children’s fiction. Stay tuned for tomorrow’s trio of adult fiction authors who have been sadly neglected or maybe even forgotten.

Today’s Recommendations from Under the Radar:

A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy: A discussion of author Ellen Emerson White and why she is “under the radar”

Big A, little a: Ingo by Helen Dunmore

Jen Robinson’s Book Page: The Changeling and The Velvet Room both by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Bildungsroman: Girl in a Box by Ouida Sebestyen

Finding Wonderland: A Door Near Here by Heather Quarles

Miss Erin: Girl With a Pen and Princess of Orange, both by Elisabeth Kyle

Fuse Number 8: The Winged Girl of Knossos by Erick Berry

Bookshelves of Doom: The Olivia Kidney series by Ellen Potter

Chicken Spaghetti: Natural History of Uncas Metcalf by Betsy Osborne

Writing and Ruminating: Jazz ABC by Wynton Marsalis

The YA YA YAs: Massive by Julia Bell

Also Becky of Becky’s Book Reviews is highlighting a childhood favorite, The Gorilla Did It by Barbara Shook Hazen.

Under the Radar: Picture Books

Aug27

Ursel Scheffler is a German children’s author who, according to Wikipedia in German, lives in Hamburg. I discovered her delightful picture book, A Walk in the Rain, several years ago while looking at books at a local college library with a good children’s collection. It was published in English by Putnam in 1986. Ms. Scheffler has a cute website, but it’s all in German, too. Anyway, as I recall, the book is about a grandfather and a child who go for a walk in the rain. Since I like walks in the rain and the book was beautifully illustrated, I liked the book.

Nothing To Do by Russell Hoban is a book about a father and daughter possum instead of about Frances the badger. But as much as I adore all the Frances books, Nothing To Do may be my favorite Hoban book. I say “may be” only because I can’t get my hands on a copy, and so I haven’t seen the book in twenty years. In the story, Little Charlotte is bored and can’t find anything to do until her father gives her a talisman that will always keep her busy.

Apricot ABC by Miska Miles is a beautiful classic alphabet book, published in 1969 and illustrated by Peter Parnall. Again, this is a case of an author’s having published a much more well known book (Annie and the Old One), but this delectable little book is not as familiar. It should be.

Another old book, lost to our children, is Louis Slobodkin’s One Is Good But Two Are Better. (Semicolon review here.) The simple text tells about all the activities for which it is necessary to have two or more people. The pictures, simple too, show children doing things together. Here’s a picture from the title page of my falling-apart copy:

The King at the Door by Brock Cole tells the story of a king who’s disguised as a beggar. Only one person believes that the ragged old man is really the king and treats him with the proper respect and care. It’s out of print, but worth searching for.

Also, for Christian parents interested in talking to their primary age girls about moral purity, Mrs. Rosey-Posey and the Chocolate Cherry Treat by Robin Gunn is a great book. The reading level is about second or third grade, and the tone is encouraging without being too preachy. We read it at a tea party at church a couple of years ago, and I need to find a copy of my own.

In fact, if anyone has copies of any of the books on this list that they’d be interested in selling or giving away, I’m your potential buyer.

Today’s Recommendations from Under the Radar:

Finding Wonderland: The Curved Saber: The Adventure of Khlit the Cossack by Harold Lamb
Chasing Ray: Dorothy of Oz from Illusive Arts Entertainment (the Dorothy comic you should all be reading!)
Bildungsroman: Christopher Golden’s Body of Evidence series
Interactive Reader: Christopher Golden’s Body of Evidence series as well
Not Your Mother’s Bookclub: An interview with Robert Sharenow, author of My Mother the Cheerleader
lectitans: The Angel of the Opera: Sherlock Meets the Phantom of the Opera by Sam Siciliano
Bookshelves of Doom: The God Beneathe the Sea, Black Jack & Jack Holburn all by Leon Garfield
Writing and Ruminating: An interview with Tony Mitton and a review of his book, Plum
The YA YA YAs: I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade by Diane Lee Wilson
Chicken Spaghetti: The Illustrator’s Notebook by Mohieddin Ellabad

To This Great Stage of Fools: Born August 24th

Aug24

Max Beerbohm, b. 1872, was an English satirist, critic and caricaturist. Quotation of the day: “Anything that is worth doing has been done frequently. Things hitherto undone should be given, I suspect, a wide berth.”

Mike Huckabee, b. 1955 in Hope, Arkansas. Are all presidential candidates from Arkansas born in Hope? Wikipedia: “Hope is also the birthplace of the former governor of Arkansas and current presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee; former White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty; attorney Vince Foster; former Louisville, KY mayor David L. Armstrong; former Arkansas Secretary of State Kelly Bryant (1908-1975), and actress Melinda Dillon.”

Under the Radar

Aug23

Starting on Monday, Colleen at Chasing Ray will be sponsoring a multi-blog round-up of posts about “books we all individually feel have been overlooked. Some of them might have been award winners in the distant past, and some are even out of print, but all of them are books that each of us have enjoyed and want to tell more people about. We’re calling the event ‘Recommendations From Under the Radar’ (or Radar Books for short) and we really hope you guys will check us out and, more importantly, track down some of these great books as well.”

Go here for list of planned posts and books and authors to be featured.

I’ll be writing about overlooked and underappreciated books and authors here at Semicolon next week, too. On Monday, I have some picture book titles you might have missed. Most of them, unfortunately, are out of print but well worth the effort required to track down and purchase or borrow from the library.

On Tuesday, I’ll feature some children’s fiction gems that were favorites when I was a child and have aged well.

Then on Wednesday I plan to feature three authors for adults who have been largely forgotten, even though all three were hugely popular in days gone by. The three are: Samuel Shellabarger, Giovanni Guareschi, and Guillermo Enrique Hudson. You get extra points if you are already familiar with any one of the three and can tell me in the comments the title(s) of any of their books.

On Thursday I’ll be featuring two authors who’ve enjoyed success in the world of Christian publishing but whose books deserve a much wider audience: Athol Dickson and Jamie Langston Turner.

I hope Collen’s idea will catch on throughout the litblogs, and if you post next week about a great book that flies “under the radar”, please link to your review on Saturday, September 1st, at the Saturday Review of Books.

Balance

Aug20

I got this question a long time ago and tried to answer it to the best of my ability. I wanted to think about it some more before posting, but I thought too long and couldn’t come up with a better answer.

Sometime I would love a glimpse into your daily life…how much time you give to reading and writing AND schooling your own children.

Do your children understand the time Mom gives to books and writing? Mine are 5-11 and I worry they see me staring at a book or screen more than anything else.

I have this theory that it’s important for children to see you doing something you love —for me that’s reading and blogging— at least some of the time. Not that I read and blog just to show my children how important those activities are, but I think for them to develop a love for reading, they need to see me reading. Engineer Husband Husband loves science and math, so as they see him doing science and math, they begin to enjoy those subjects, too.

My theory doesn’t do much to settle the question of how much time to spend on each activity. I spend a lot of time reading, but often I’m reading while sitting on the couch supervising schoolwork. I stop reading my book to read aloud to the urchins or to help with a math problem. Then, I take up where I left off in my book. I read while I eat lunch. I’m writing this post while eating breakfast, and the urchins are also eating breakfast, doing their morning jobs, and listening to Les Miserables. It’s sort of a juggling act, and sometimes I do it better than other times.

I don’t do housework very well, except in spurts of insiration which don’t occur often enough. We get school done, mostly, and I make meals, most days. All that means that I don’t have it all together, but I’m satisfied with the general way things are going. I only have the same worries as the questioner on alternate Mondays.

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.

Gleaned from the Saturday Review

Aug18

I found the Saturday Review links quite interesting, as I clicked through, in between preparations for Hurricane Dean. I figure if I prepare diligently, it will probably go somewhere else and leave Houston alone. And, yes, I know that’s superstitious and illogical thinking. I don’t really believe that anything I do will affect the path of a hurricane. (Do I?)

I found these titles to add to my ever-growing reading list:
The Secret Country by Pamela Dean. Recommended by MoominLight.
Witness by Whittaker Chambers. Recommended by Laura at Lines in Pleasant Places. I’ve been meaning to read this historical memoir for years, but now Laura’s reminded me with a gentle push.
Collision Course by Alvin Moscow. Recommended by Lynne.

I was also glad to see that someone else enjoyed some of my past favorites:

The Queen of Carrots says that The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins has “one of the best female characters I have ever encountered.” I agree. Also, the villain is “fascinating and charming despite his age, weight, and utter ruthlessness. An unforgettable villain.”
Semicolon review here.

Sage says Gilead by Marilynne Robinson “should be read slowly, taking time to savor the language and the scenes Robinson creates.”
Semicolon review here.

Abiding liked Enchantment by Orson Scott Card. I think Mr. Card is one of the most versatile and intriguing authors I’ve read in the past several years, and I’ve only read two of his books so far, Enchantment and Ender’s Game. Can any fans suggest the next book by Card that I should read? I definitely want more of his writing.
Semicolon review of Enchantment here.

And Jennifer says that The Kite Runner by Khaled Housseini is “a beautifully written account of one man’s hopes and dreams along with the bitterness of regret.” It is that and more.
Semicolon review here.

To this Great Stage of Fools: Born August 17th

Aug17

Poet and anthologist Myra Cohn Livingston was born August 17, 1926. Here’s a list of SOME of the books she edited or wrote before her death in August, 1996.

4-Way Stop, and Other Poems (ISBN: 0689500408)
Abraham Lincoln : A Man for All the People A Ballad (ISBN: 0823410498)
Animal, Vegetable, Mineral : Poems About Small Things (ISBN: 0060230096)
B Is for Baby : An Alphabet of Verses (ISBN: 0689809506)
Birthday Poems (ISBN: 0823407837)
Calendar (ISBN: 0823417255)
Call Down the Moon : Poems of Music (ISBN: 0689804164)
Cat Poems (ISBN: 0823406318)
Celebrations (ISBN: 0823405508)
The Child As Poet : Myth or Reality (ISBN: 0876752873)
Christmas Poems (ISBN: 0823405087)
A Circle of Seasons (ISBN: 0823404528)
Climb into the Bell Tower : Essays on Poetry (ISBN: 0064461009)
Come Away (ISBN: 0689304285)
Dilly Dilly Piccalilli : Poems for the Very Young (ISBN: 0689504667)
Dog Poems (ISBN: 0823407764)
Easter Poems (ISBN: 082340546X)
Festivals (ISBN: 0823412172)
Flights of Fancy : And Other Poems (ISBN: 0689506139)
Halloween Poems (ISBN: 0823407624)
Higgledy-Piggledy Verses and Pictures (ISBN: 0689504071)
How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear! : Edward Lear’s Selected Works (ISBN: 0823404625)
I Am Writing a Poem About…a Game of Poetry : Edited by Myra Cohn Livingston (ISBN: 068981156X)
I Like You, If You Like Me : Poems of Friendship (ISBN: 068950408X)
I Never Told : And Other Poems (ISBN: 0689505442)
If You Ever Meet a Whale (ISBN: 0823409406)
If the Owl Calls Again : A Collection of Owl Poems (ISBN: 0689505019)
Keep on Singing : A Ballad of Marian Anderson (ISBN: 0823410986)
Let Freedom Ring : A Ballad of Martin Luther King, Jr. (ISBN: 0823409570)
Light and Shadow (ISBN: 0823409317)
Listen, Children, Listen; An Anthology of Poems for the Very Young. : An Anthology of Poems for the Very Young (ISBN: 0152455701)
A Lollygag of Limericks (ISBN: 0689501048)
Lots of Limericks (ISBN: 0689505310)
The Malibu and Other Poems (ISBN: 0689303084)
Monkey Puzzle and Other Poems (ISBN: 0689503105)
My Head Is Red and Other Riddle Rhymes (ISBN: 082340806X)
New Year’s Poems (ISBN: 0823406415)
O Frabjous Day : Poetry for Holidays and Special Occasions (ISBN: 0689500769)
O Sliver of Liver (ISBN: 0689501331)
One Little Room, an Everywhere : Poems of Love (ISBN: 0689500327)
Poem-Making : Ways to Begin Writing Poetry (ISBN: 0060240199)
Poems for Brothers, Poems for Sisters (ISBN: 0823408612)
Poems for Fathers (ISBN: 0823407292)
Poems for Grandmothers (ISBN: 0823408302)
Poems for Jewish Holidays (ISBN: 0823406067)
Poems for Mothers (ISBN: 0823406784)
Poems of Christmas (ISBN: 0689501803)
Poems of Lewis Carroll (ISBN: 0690045409)
Remembering : And Other Poems (ISBN: 0689504896)
Riddle-Me Rhymes (ISBN: 0689506023)
Roll Along : Poems on Wheels (ISBN: 068950585X)
Sea Songs (ISBN: 0823405915)
Sky Songs (ISBN: 0823405028)
A Song I Sang to You (ISBN: 0152771050)
Space Songs (ISBN: 082340675X)
Speak Roughly to Your Little Boy; A Collection of Parodies and Burlesques, Together With the Original Poems, Chosen and Annotated for Young People. (ISBN: 0152778594)
Thanksgiving Poems (ISBN: 0823405702)
There Was a Place and Other Poems (ISBN: 0689504640)
These Small Stones (ISBN: 006024013X)
A Time to Talk : Poems of Friendship (ISBN: 0689505582)
Tune Beyond Us a Collection of Poetry (ISBN: 0152910980)
Up in the Air (ISBN: 0823407365)
Valentine Poems (ISBN: 0823405877)
The Way Things Are, and Other Poems (ISBN: 0689500084)
What a Wonderful Bird the Frog Are : An Assortment of Humorous Poetry and Verse (ISBN: 0152954007)
Why Am I Grown So Cold? : Poems of the Unknowable (ISBN: 0689502427)
Worlds I Know : And Other Poems (ISBN: 0689503326)

As a descriptor, prolific doesn’t quite seem big enough, does it? Ms. Livingston’s poems tend to be deceptively simple and accessible, but they stick. For example:

I Don’t Know Why
by Myra Cohn Livingston

I don’t know why
the sky is blue
or why the raindrops splatter through

or why the grass
is wet with dew . . . do you?

I don’t know why
the sun is round
or why a seed grows
in the ground

or why the thunder
makes a sound . . . do you?

I don’t know why
the clouds are white
or why the moon
shines very bright

or why the air
turns black at night…..do you?

Teacher resources on Myra Cohn Livingston.
The Myra Cohn Livingston Award for Poetry.

Poetry Friday Roundup is at Kelly Fineman’s LiveJournal blog today.