Christmas in North Platte, Nebraska, 1941

“The whole effort started by mistake. Several days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, people in North Platte, Nebraska heard that their own Company D of the Nebraska National Guard would be passing through town on its way from an Arkansas training camp to the West Coast. A crowd gathered at the Union Pacific train station to greet the boys with cookies, candy, and small gifts. When the train arrived, it turned out it was transporting a Company D from Kansas, not Nebraska. After a moment of disappointment, someone in the crowd asked, ‘Well, what are we waiting for?’ And they began handing their gifts to the war-bound soldiers.
The next day Miss Rae Wilson wrote the North Platte Daily Bulletin to suggest that the town open a canteen to greet all troop trains stopping there. ‘Let’s do something and do it in a hurry!’ she wrote.
Beginning on Christmas Day 1941 and continuing through World War II, the town offered itself as the North Platte Canteen. For 365 days a year volunteers from the remote community of 12,000 and surrounding hamlets provided hot coffee, doughnuts, sandwiches, and encouragement for young soldiers passing through. Hundreds of families, churches, schools, businesses, and clubs pitched in to help raise money, buy supplies, and make food. They greeted every soldier on every train with gifts and good wishes. By April 1, 194 its last day, the North Platte Canteen had served more than 6 million GI’s.”
Taken from The American Patriot’s Almanac, compiled by William J. Bennett and John T.E. Cribb. Semicolon review here.

What small act of kindness or charity is God asking you to do today? Do it. Don’t delay or find excuses; just do it. Who knows how God may multiply your small effort?

Giving Books from All Around the Blogosphere

Twas about two weeks before Christmas and all through the blogosphere, bloggers were recommending books for holiday gifts:
Semicolon Suggested Audiobooks for Kids.
For Tween Adventure Seekers
For Tween Romantics
For Tween Dystopian Fiction Readers
For Tween Mythology BuffsTween Fiction/Nonfiction Pairs
For Tween Sports Fanatics
Nine series for nine year old boys.
Books for wannabe architects, engineers, veterinarians, doctors, dancers, artists, writers and entrepreneurs.
Tween Graphic Novels
For Tween Baseball fans.
Mother Reader’s 105 Ways to Give a Book.
Semicolon’s Addendum to the Mother Reader list.
Books for eight and twelve year old girls.
Survival stories for adults and teens.
Ten Books on Scientific subjects for the scientist in our midst.
Picture Books for little boys.
More picture books for little boys.
Poetic Gift Giving.
For Teenage Drama Queens.
For Young Musicians.
Books for Boys, old and young
More books for Twilight fans
Children’s books paired with movies.
Nonfiction picture books.
For spirited and precocious kindergartners.
Classic books and movies for boys.
Books for teenaged girls.
Books for people with pets.
For little dancers.
Cool cookbooks for kids.
Horrible horror books.
For Christian readers
Buying poems for the holidays.
Crime fiction.
Books about books for booklovers.
Bookish gifts from Etsy.
Semicolon’s 100 68 Best Fiction Books of all Time.

Hymn of the Week: Angels We Have Heard on HIgh

Lyrics: Traditional French carol, Les Anges dans nos campagnes. Translated to English by James Chadwick, 1862.

Music: GLORIA arranged by Edward Shippen Barnes.

Theme: Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
“Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

Angels we have heard on high……………..or…………….Angels we have heard on high
Sweetly singing o’er the plains……………………………..Singing sweetly through the night
And the mountains in reply………………………………….And the mountains in reply
Echoing their joyous strains…………………………………Echoing their brave delight.
CHORUS:
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!
Gloria, in excelsis Deo!

Shepherds, why this jubilee?……………..or………………..Shepherds, why this jubilee?
Why your joyous strains prolong?……………………………Why these songs of happy cheer?
What the gladsome tidings be…………………………………What great brightness did you see?
Which inspire your heavenly song? …………………What glad tidings did you hear?

Come to Bethlehem and see
Him Whose birth the angels sing;
Come, adore on bended knee,
Christ the Lord, the newborn King.

See Him in a manger laid
Whom the angels praise above;
Mary, Joseph, lend your aid,
While we raise our hearts in love.

RBC Ministries: “Back in the Middle Ages in the hills of southern France, shepherds tending their flocks had a custom on Christmas Eve of calling to one another, each from his own hilltop, singing “Glo—ria in excelsis Deo, Glo—ria in excelsis Deo!” Just as angels had made that announcement to shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem two thousand years ago, so a thousand years ago these French shepherds announced again the birth of Christ to one another on Christmas Eve.”

True Believer: “I picture tough, grizzled shepherds with their hearts melting under the light and song of praise. Think of how they reacted. They aren’t giving a newspaper account … think of how you’d react when you run and tell your friends, ‘I just saw angels, and they were singing! It was so powerful, it seemed like the mountains were singing back when it echoed!’”

Top 10 Versions of Angels We Have Heard on High by Christian & Gospel Artists

Giving to the Troops at Christmas

Check out this website: Books for Soldiers. You can send books and other materials to U.S. soldiers around the world by signing up at this website and following the instructions.

Operation Paperback is another organization that gives you an address to which you can send a box of books for soldiers in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Notes of thanks or holiday greetings for soldiers can be posted at this Department of Defense website.

AnySoldier.com gives addresses for soldier contacts requesting care packages. You can sign up to get one or more addresses and then send the care package with specific stuff that the soldiers have requested.

At HomefrontHugs USA you can adopt a service person for a six month committment and agree to “send 2 packages a month- they can be small…accompanied by 2 cards or letters.”

You can also sponsor a care package through the USO for $25.00.

The American Red Cross sponsors Holiday Mail for Heroes, but cards must be postmarked by tomorrow, December 7, 2009. Send cards to:

Holiday Mail for Heroes
P.O. Box 5456
Capitol Heights, MD 20791-5456

Any of these would be a great Christmas project, and even if the package or card doesn’t get there until after Christmas, don’t you think it will be greatly appreciated?

Photo: U.S. Army Pfc. Harry Lewis reads a book between missions at a patrol base in As Sadah, Iraq, April 8, 2007. Lewis is from 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment (Airborne Recon), 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division out of Fort Bragg, N.C. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. JoAnn S. Makinano) (Released)

Poetry Friday: Christmas by George Herbert

The shepherds sing; and shall I silent be?
My God, no hymn for Thee?
My soul’s a shepherd too; a flock it feeds
Of thoughts, and words, and deeds.
The pasture is Thy word: the streams, Thy grace
Enriching all the place.
Shepherd and flock shall sing, and all my powers
Outsing the daylight hours.
Then will we chide the sun for letting night
Take up his place and right:
We sing one common Lord; wherefore he should
Himself the candle hold.
I will go searching, till I find a sun
Shall stay, till we have done;
A willing shiner, that shall shine as gladly,
As frost-nipped suns look sadly.
Then will we sing, and shine all our own day,
And one another pay:
His beams shall cheer my breast, and both so twine,
Till ev’n His beams sing, and my music shine.

Giving Books: Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Nominees

Mother Reader has a list of 105 Ways to Give a Book, and I think it’s a great list. All book-givers should check it out. I am shamelessly copying her idea, but I’d like to give you some ideas about some stuff you could pair with one of the Cybils books that I’ve read for this year’s judging.

1. Mother Reader herself had this one on her list: Pair Operation YES! with green army men. I just read Operation YES! by Sara Lewis Holmes, and I haven’t managed to review it yet. But it’s a great book about art and drama and soldiers and those who love them. Perfect for anyone who has a friend or loved one in the armed services.
More Cybils books featuring members of the armed forces and their families.

2. Give The Beast of Blackslope (Sherlock Files) by Tracy Barrett (Semicolon review here) with the 221B Baker Street Mystery Game. We have this game, and my kids have enjoyed playing it and trying to figure out the mysteries.

3. Dani Noir by Nova Ben Suma (Semicolon review here) would go great with a DVD of this movie or this one. Or any noir film that you love and want to share with a film fan.

4. Some of the Cybils nominated books just go with other books:
William S. and the Great Escape by Zilpha Keatley Snyder (Semicolon review here) plus The Complete Works of Shakespeare. (Only for a kid who already likes Shakespeare)
When You Reach Me by Rebecca Stead (Semicolon review here) plus A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle.
Callie’s Rules by Naomi Zucker (Semicolon review here) plus Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.
If the child you’re giving to already loves the second book in one of these pairs, he or she will probably like the first one, too, since the protagonist in each story really likes the second book in the pairing.

5. Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez (Semicolon review here) could be a hit with aspiring astronomers if it were given with an inexpensive telescope. (Last year’s Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass would also go well with the telescope idea.)

6. Extra Credit by Andrew Clements plus a box of stationery, boy-themed or girl themed, or offer to help your gift recipient go online and find his or her own pen pal, just like the kids in the book.
ePals: the Internet’s largest global community of connected classrooms.
Student Letter Exchange.
Kids’ Space Connection.

7. Born to Fly by MIchael Ferrari (Semicolon review here) would be a perfect match with this InAir E-Z Build Model Kit of a P-40 Warhawk, the same WW II plane that’s featured in the book.

8. Give a baseball and maybe a bat with any of the following baseball stories:
Mudville by Kurtis Scaletta. Semicolon review here.
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies by Mick Cochrane. Semicolon review here.
All the Broken Pieces by Ann E. Burg. Semicolon review here.
The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz.

9. Make the Double Decker Chocolate Bars recipe in the back of the book and give a dozen of them along with Hallie Durand’s Dessert First. Semicolon review here.

10. If you know a girl who loves funky socks, either or both of these books would go well with a gift of some special socks.
Confetti Girl by Diana Lopez. Semicolon review here.
Standing for Socks by Elissa Brent Weissman.

11. Give My Life in Pink and Greenby Lisa Greenwald (Semicolon review here) with a gift certificate for a makeover or a make-up session at a local boutique or department store. Or you could just buy some appropriate-for-the-age makeup for your favorite pre-teen to go with this story about growing up and taking responsibility.

12. Eleven Birthdays by Wendy Mass seems to me to be a remake of the movie Groundhog Day. Well, sort of a remake, similar premise. Anyway the movie and the book together would make a good gift for an eleven year old, maybe even one who’s celebrating a birthday at Christmas time. Brown Bear Daughter was born two days before Christmas, and it’s hard to figure out what to get her for her birthday and for Christmas at the same time.

So there you go: ten+ gift ideas from me and one from Mother Reader, and you can check out Mother Reader’s list for 104 more ideas. Give a book to every child on your Christmas list. Books are cool!

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover or a link here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.

Christmas in Washington, D.C., 1862

On December 1, 1862, Abraham Lincoln sent a long message to Congress which was largely routine, but ended with these famous words:

Is it doubted, then, that the plan I propose, if adopted, would shorten the war, and thus lessen its expenditure of money and of blood? Is it doubted that it would restore the national authority and national prosperity, and perpetuate both indefinitely? Is it doubted that we here–Congress and Executive–can secure its adoption? Will not the good people respond to a united, and earnest appeal from us? Can we, can they, by any other means, so certainly, or so speedily, assure these vital objects? We can succeed only by concert. It is not “can any of us imagine better?” but, “can we all do better?” The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise — with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this administration, will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance, or insignificance, can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation. We say we are for the Union. The world will not forget that we say this. We know how to save the Union. The world knows we do know how to save it. We — even we here — hold the power, and bear the responsibility. In giving freedom to the slave, we assure freedom to the free — honorable alike in what we give, and what we preserve. We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth. Other means may succeed; this could not fail. The way is plain, peaceful, generous, just — a way which, if followed, the world will forever applaud, and God must forever bless.

The Beast of Blackslope by Tracy Barrett

The Beast of Blackslope is the second in The Sherlock Files series by Nashville author Tracy Barrett. (Interesting side note: Eldest Daughter knows Ms. Barrett since they both teach in the language department at Vanderbilt University.) Xena and Xander are American kids living in England with their parents, part-time detectives, and descendants of the famous Sherlock Holmes. Because they are Holmes’ great-great-great grandchildren, Xena and Xander have inherited his casebook with his cold case files, notes on cases that the great detective failed to solve. One of those unsolved cases, similar to The Hound of the Baskervilles, is the Case of the Beast of Blackslope, a beast that Sherlock Holmes himself was unable to locate or capture.

Now a hundred plus years later, the Beast has reappeared in the small village of Blackslope, and Xena and Xander are determined to solve the case this time. Is there really a Beast? If so, why has it returned to Blackslope? Why are the people in Blackslope so secretive about the Beast? What is everybody hiding? Does the Beast carry off humans who disappear never to be heard of again? Who will be next?

I would give The Beast of Blackslope to the younger end of the Middle Grade Fiction age spectrum: eight, nine, ten and eleven year olds who are reading well and are mystery fans. The book reminded me of Alfred Hitchcock’s Three Investigators series, a series I’ve not thought about in ages.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.

Petronella Saves Nearly Everyone by Dene Low

First we meet Petronella:

“I preferred to be called Petronella. Eunice is such an unfortunate name, and I cannot imagine what came over my dear but deceased parents when they gave it to me. Perhaps some sort of simultaneous apoplectic fit.”

Then we are introduced to her unfortunate uncle and guardian Augustus T. Percival:

Uncle Augustus frowned. . . . “It seems I have an enormous appetite for all things of the insect and arachnid varieties.” He caught a passing fly in one swift movement of his hand, popped it into his mouth, and chewed happily.

James Sinclair is the hero of the piece and Petronella’s love interest:

James’s eyes twinkled, and his mouth curved in a smile that had smitten me since I was five and he was nine. If only he were not Jane’s brother—brother of my bosom friend—he might consider me as more than a younger sister. But fate plays cruel games with hearts and show no remorse. If I were to have him notice me at all, it should have to be as a sister, and I should have to be content with that or nothing, and to have nothing of James would be the cruelest fate of all.

And Jane, James’s sister, is Petronella’s bosom friend:

“Jane walked up to me and slipped her arm through mine. How she managed to look exactly the same as she had before the calamity I shall never know. But then, Jane always appears to have stepped out of a band box.”

In the end, Petronella does save nearly all of the above and, in addition, rescues Mother England itself from a nefarious plot to do incalculable harm to the entire population.

As the perceptive reader will have already discerned, the novel is set in Victorian England. The style and humor of the book owe something to Oscar Wilde and P.G. Wodehouse and maybe Lemony Snicket(?). I can’t imagine that this book will enjoy the same level of popularity as wimpy kids and vampire lovers, but for a certain sort of child with a certain sort of humor (and a large vocabulary), Petronella might just fit the bill.

Amazon Affiliate. If you click on a book cover here to go to Amazon and buy something, I receive a very small percentage of the purchase price.
One or more of these books is also nominated for a Cybil Award, but the views expressed here are strictly my own.