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Boys’ Books

Dec21

I’m writing a new book(let) about books for boys. I remember learning a long time ago in library school, I think, that someone had done research and learned the not-so-surprising fact that whereas most girls were willing to read books with boys as the main character(s), most pre-teen and older boys were not interested in reading books in which a girl was the protagonist. This finding translates into lots of children’s books with either a boy as the main character or a group of friends, boys and girls, as the characters. I’m making up an annotated list of either 52 or 100 classic and modern books that appeal especially to boys ages 7-11. (That doesn’t mean the girls mightn’t enjoy many of these, too.) I’ve already taken a survey around here, and these are a couple of the books that will be on the list:

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis Computer Guru Son, age 17, says this book and the series are the books that first come to mind when he thinks of his “childhood.” The main characters are four children, two boys and two girls, who travel into another place and time and experience an adventure to be envied by any red-blooded boy. Swords, battles, bravery, treachery, and the admonition “whatever happens, never forget to wipe your sword.”
Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective by Donald Sobol Encyclopedia, whose real name is Leroy, not only reads the encyclopedia, he also solves mysteries–everything from who swiped twenty-five cents to bank robberies and grand larceny. And you get a chance to solve the mystery in each chapter, too, before turning to the back of the book to find out whodunit.

Your turn. What are your boys’ favorite reads? Or what was your favorite when you were a kid of a boy?

Charles Wesley, b. 1707

Dec18

Here are the words to Charles Wesley’s lesser known Christmas hymn:

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
Hope of all the earth Thou art;
Dear desire of every nation,
Joy of every longing heart.

Born Thy people to deliver,
Born a child and yet a King,
Born to reign in us forever,
Now Thy gracious kingdom bring.
By Thine own eternal Spirit
Rule in all our hearts alone;
By Thine all sufficient merit,
Raise us to Thy glorious throne.

My Favorite Luddite

Dec18

Eldest Daughter is fast becoming a (nonviolent) Luddite. She says I make fun of her, but I actually think she has some good ideas. However, she might want to keep in mind who the original Luddites were:

The original Luddites claimed to be led by one Ned Ludd, also known as “King Ludd” or “General Ludd”, who is believed to have destroyed two large stocking-frames that produced inexpensive stockings undercutting those produced by skilled knitters of the time. The movement spread rapidly throughout England in 1811 with many wool and cotton mills being destroyed, until the British government harshly suppressed them. The Luddites met at night on the moors surrounding the industrial towns, often practising drilling and manoeuvres. The main areas of the disturbances were Nottinghamshire in November 1811, followed by West Riding of Yorkshire in early 1812 and Lancashire in March 1812. Pitched battles between Luddites and the military occurred at Burtons’ Mill in Middleton, and at Westhoughton Mill, both in Lancashire. It was rumoured at the time that spies employed by the magistrates were involved in stirring up the attacks. Magistrates and food merchants were also objects of death threats and attacks by the anonymous General Ludd and his supporters. “Machine breaking” was made a capital crime, and seventeen men were executed in 1813. Many others were transported to Australia. From The Free Dictionary

Tolkien, Caedfael, and Lewis make much better role models. And Middle Earth is a place worth being homesick for.

Quiet Enthusiasms

Dec17

While searching for something else, I forget what, I serendipitously stumbled upon a bimonthly Australian magazine/newsletter, Bikwil, subtitled The Home of Quiet Enthusiasms. This description will give you a taste:

Bikwil celebrates quiet enthusiasms, where “quiet” implies subtlety, restraint, minimum hype, while “enthusiasm” has its usual meaning of any pursuit or interest that beguiles us. A crucial corollary of the Bikwilian approach concerns our avoidance of negativity. What we emphasise here is involvement that is mainly “positive towards . . .” and “in praise of . . .”.

Bikwil first saw the light of day in Sydney in May 1997 as a “newsletter”. Although the idea of a magazine was that of editor Tony Rogers, in a way its genesis had actually occurred a few years earlier among a group of like-minded souls. They were talking over lunch and the phrase “small dinosaur” got coined to convey the meaning “we are small creatures who enjoy waxing passionate on topics of value that most of the modern world appears to deem ‘old-fashioned’ or even ‘extinct'”.

Bikwil includes poetry, fiction, essays, a section called “Quintessential Quirky Quotes” and various and other sundry rather quiet and quirky contributions. (The editor seems to be fond of q’s, and it’s catching.) You can subscribe to the magazine online in a downloadable version for free, or you can pay to get Bikwil mailed to your door.

This entry was posted on 12/17/2004, in General.

Jane Austen’s Birthday

Dec16

Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775 (exactly two years after the Boston Tea Party, apropos of nothing) I found a huge website devoted to everything Austen and had to link to this page of jokes, parodies, lists, and general Austen silliness. Here’s a sample joke:

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because it is a truth universally acknowledged that a single chicken, being possessed of a good fortune and presented with a good road, must be desirous of crossing.

Homespun Symposium V

Dec16

*What do you believe is necessary for true racial reconciliation to take place in American society?
*Does your solution involve coercive governmental remedies?
*Do you believe that Churches have an important role to play in this process?

This is the Homespun Bloggers’ question posed by Marc at Hubs and Spokes this week.

My answer is fairly simple. I don’t think we’ll ever have “true racial reconciliation” until we lose the useless concept of “race” altogether. The word is essentially meaningless. I looked it up in the dictionary and got this definition:

1. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a more or less distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. 2. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution: the German race. 3. A genealogical line; a lineage. 4. Humans considered as a group.

A more or less distinct group? A group of people classified together? Humans considered as a group? Well, that’s as clear as mud. My race is Baptist, I guess. Or if we’re talking about physical characteristics, then I’m a member of the short race.
The government and churches can both help in this process by refusing to classify people by physical characteristics, except for the obvious male/female classification. That’s the only meaningful or useful physical distinction that I can see between different kinds of people. When asked for my ‘race” on forms, I write “human.” And I teach my children to treat all people as humans.

This is not just a semantic discussion. As long as we continue to classify people by skin color, even with the best of intentions, we say that there is some essential meaning to “being Asian” or “African” or “Hispanic” other than country of origin or ancestral origin. And we tacitly continue to perpetuate the myth that dark-skinned people are somehow different from light skinned people. Middle Earth (a fictional place) had races: dwarves, humans, elves, and hobbits, among others. These groups were different kinds of beings with essential diffenences that went way beyond skin color. In our world, there are only humans. The sooner we all learn that fact the better. After that, we can begin to discuss cultural differences between people of different backgrounds and how those can be bridged, understood, or tolerated.

What we’re reading . . .

Dec14

Dancer Daughter, Organizer Daughter, and I: Ann Rinaldi She writes great historical fiction, and each book has this warning on the back cover: “WARNING: This is a historical novel. Read at your own risk. The writer feels it necessary to alert you to the fact that you might enjoy it.” So far, I’ve read two of her books, and I’m impressed. The girls have read more, and they’re hooked.
Brown Bear Daughter: Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. I read both when I was her age, and I can’t say it ruined my taste in literature. I really liked Trixie better than Nancy.
Karate Kid: Hardy Boys. He saw BB Daughter reading Nancy Drew and wanted something like it for boys.
Bee and Z-Baby: Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans. They checked out about three or four Madeline books from the library. We like Madeline. “She was not afraid of mice–she loved winter, snow, and ice. To the tiger in the zoo, Madeline just said, “Pooh-pooh.” She’s definitely a positive role model–brave, bold, and adventurous.
I don’t know what Eldest Daughter and Computer Guru Son are reading. Eldest Daughter just finished her finals, so maybe she’ll have time for some reading. And Computer Guru Son is supposed to have read Huckleberry Finn by January, so he’d probably better be reading that.

Communicating Christmas

Dec12

I wrote this short piece for an Advent devotional booklet that my church printed several years ago:

Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:6

I used to read my second grade classes the story by Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus.” The story describes Laura’s and Mary’s Christmas gifts in these words:

“They never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup and a cake and a stick of candy and a penny. There had never been such a Christmas.”

I always had to try to explain to my second graders that Laura and Mary were happy about their gifts. I’m fairly sure that many of those seven year olds never did understand how anyone could possibly be happy about a Christmas where the gifts were, in their eyes, so pitifully small and insignificant.
I think there’s a similar communication gap between Christians and the rest of the world. When you get right down to it, the birth of a baby in a stable is a fairly insignificant event. The fact that the baby grew up to be a man, taught and healed people for about three years, and then was killed, is not all that impressive, especially when you ignore or disbelieve certain parts of the story such as the resurrection. We Christians say that the birth and life of this particular child, Jesus, was a unique event, the focal point of human history. The rest of the world, perhaps not taking much time to investigate the matter, is mystified over all the joy and hope we Christians say we derive from our faith in Christ.
It’s a matter of values and expectations. To make at least some of my second graders begin to understand Laura Ingalls’ Christmas, I asked them some questions: “What do you expect to get for Christmas? What gifts have you received before that made you happy? Why did those gifts make you happy?” I got some interesting answers. Maybe, if we want others to begin to understand our faith and joy in Christ, we could ask some questions: “What gives you joy? Why do these things make you happy? What do you expect God to be like? Who do you think Jesus is?” We might get some interesting answers–and close the communication gap just a little.

Harmless Custom?

Dec11

While searching for more information about Solzhenitsyn, I came across an article at Bruderhof Communities about dating and courtship. I was trying to say this very thing to one of my children a couple of days ago, but I didn’t say it well.

We teach our young people that Christ must be the center of every relationship. For this reason, any relationship leading toward marriage naturally comes under the spiritual guidance of parents and pastors. Without this it is extremely difficult for two people seeking to build such a relationship to keep their priorities straight. Emotional and physical desire, which have their rightful place, can too easily take the upper hand and skew one’s judgment.

A healthy, growing relationship cannot be rushed. It takes time to see whether it will blossom or not and what kind of fruit it will bear. Because parents know their children best, they especially can help two young people discern if they are really meant for each other. Therefore, before spending much time alone, a couple is urged to spend time with each other’s families. They are also encouraged to write to each other and in this way begin to share their hearts openly and honestly. Only when the couple—and those they have confided in—feel that God has drawn them together for marriage are they ready to become engaged.

Young people should form friendships and spend time together in groups and as families. Then “courtship” can best be done within communities of like-minded believers, and it takes time and seeking of wisdom from others who are praying for God’s will to be done. Community and family are meant, not to be restrictive, but rather to support and protect young people as they grow into marriage and families of their own. There is no exact pattern for courtship, but some general rules are:

1. Young people should not “pair off” until and unless parents and families are aware of the special friendship that is developing and approve.
2. Families should get to know each other as families before two young people spend significant time alone together.
3. Everyone concerned should take enough time to be sure the relationship is honoring to God and enriching to the couple involved.
4. The couple and their families should share similar values and ideas.