If you enjoy reading what I write here at Semicolon, I am both appreciative and humbled. If you’ve commented, even once or even negatively, I thank you for the contribution. If you read and never comment, I thank you, too, for making it fun to blog. Without readers, even if it’s only one, I am the proverbial tree falling in the forest. Maybe the tree would fall and make a sound anyway, but it wouldn’t make nearly as satisfying a boom. Communication and sharpening of thoughts and ideas are what blogging is all about for me.
I hope to continue blogging for as long as the process satisfies something within me and keeps me thinking. I hope you’ll continue reading for whatever your reasons are. In addition to the links above, here are some of my favorite posts from the past six years. Enjoy.
In this recent episode of Law and Order, based loosely on the murder of abortionist George Tiller, a TV show seems to present a fair and balanced and truthful view of abortion. What’s up with that?
If you have the time, you can watch the entire episode here by clicking to close the advertisement in the box above.
All three of these very silly stories were nominated for the Cybils Middle Grade Fiction Award. The Dunderheads is almost a picture book (56 pages), very silly, about a class of dunderheads whose teacher, Miss Breakbone hates kids. She also confiscates contraband, including a one-eared toy cat that Theodore aka Junkyard found in the trash and planned to give to his cat-loving mother for her birthday. Dunderheads to the rescue! The gang of multi-talented misfits finds its way to Miss Breakbone’s house to reclaim the cat and show Miss Breakbone that she can’t get away with stealing from the Dunderheads.
Fleischman says of his story, “Behind The Dunderheads lies not only Ocean’s Eleven and Mission: Impossible but also The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship, The Five Chinese Brothers, and similar folk tales from deep in our past.” I was also reminded of Harry Allard’s Miss Nelson Is Missing.
Becky on The Dunderheads: “The premise of this is fun. And most readers will probably enjoy it more than I did. What with the plotting, pranking, and spitting.”
Dessert First features a teacher, Mrs. Howdy Doody, with quite a different personality from that of Miss Breakbone. In fact, I would guess that Miss Howdy Doody’s middle name is Pollyanna, and she says things like “I am inspired!” and “My dear happy learners.” A little too much sugar in Mrs. Howdy Doody’s make-up, and it turns out that sugar is Dessert Schneider’s problem, too. She likes dessert, talks her family into serving dessert first, and finds it hard to resist any dessert available. When Dessert’s mom makes Double Decker Chocolate Bars and leaves a note instructing everyone to leave them alone, Dessert is sorely tempted. What’s an eight year old dessert lover to do when there are Double D’s in the refrigerator “sitting together neatly on Mummy’s shiny turquoise paper”?
I enjoyed this little tale about temptation, and repentance, and confession, and forgiveness, and restitution–all in a shiny, easy to read package! I may have to read this one to Z-baby who has her own issues with sugar, and dessert and resisting temptation.
Reading Zone on Dessert First: “Dessert reminded me a lot of another fun early middle grade character- Clementine. She’s spunky, spirited, happy, and even a little “fresh†at times. Even better? She’s real! She reminded me a lot of the 3rd graders I student taught a few years ago.”
The Problem with the Puddles is the silliest of the three Sillies. Norton Juster (author of one of my favorites, The Phantom Tollbooth) contributes a blurb on the back of the cover extolling the wordplay and the “lively boisterous manner” of this book, and I would agree. However, it’s just not The Phantom Tollbooth. The Puddle family leaves the country for the city and accidentally leaves their two dogs, both named Sally, behind. Hilarity and confusion ensue. The dogs set off for the city on their own; the Puddles try to get back to the country to retrieve the dogs. Chronic disagreements, complications, a messy misunderstanding, and a dog-collecting secret catcher get in the way of the ultimate reunion.
I really think some kids would love this story, and others would just think it was . . . silly. You probably know already which of the two categories fits your reading interests.
I’ve decided that on Mondays I’m going to revisit the books I read for a course in college called Advanced Reading Survey, taught by the eminent scholar and lovable professor, Dr. Huff. I’m not going to re-read all the books and poems I read for that course, probably more than fifty, but I am going to post to Semicolon the entries in the reading journal that I was required to keep for that class because I think that my entries on these works of literature may be of interest to readers here and because I’m afraid that the thirty year old spiral notebook in which I wrote these entries may fall apart ere long. I may offer my more mature perspective on the books, too, if I remember enough about them to do so.
Author Note: George Eliot was the pseudonym used by author Mary Ann Evans, esteemed by some as the most distinguished English woman novelist. She used a male pen name to ensure that her works were taken seriously. Mary Ann was an educated woman, and as a young woman she fell in with a set of free-thinkers and liberal Christians and subsequently “lost her faith.” In 1854, she met George Henry Lewes, her companion for twenty-four years. Lewes was already married and cold not obtain a divorce, so he and Mary Ann lived together and regarded themselves as husband and wife despite the lack of legal sanction and despite adverse public opinion.
Characters:
Adam Bede: a carpenter.
Seth Bede: Adam’s brother.
Dinah Morris: a Methodist preacher.
Hetty Sorrel: a beautiful young woman.
Arthur Donnithorne: a gentleman.
Martin Poyser
Mrs. Poyser
Mr. Irwine: the village vicar.
Summary: Adam Bede, a salt-of-the-earth village carpenter, falls in love with Hetty Sorrel, a flighty young woman whose lack of judgement and whose yielding character bring her to ruin. Adam’s brother, Seth, loves another woman, Dinah, whose sterling character and devotion to God preclude her commitment to any mere man.
Quotations:
Adam: “God helps us with our headpieces and our hands as well as with our souls.”
Although he would probably have declined to give his body to be burned in any public cause, and was far from bestowing all his goods to feed the poor, he had that charity which has sometimes been lacking to very illustrious virtue —he was tender to other men’s feelings and unwilling to impute evil.
Imagination is a licensed trespasser: it has no fear of dogs, but may climb over walls and peep in at windows with impunity.
Dinah: “It seems as if I could be silent all day long with the thought of God overflowing my soul—as the pebbles lie bathed in the Willow Brook.”
People who love downy peaches are apt not to think of the stone, and sometimes jar their teeth terribly against it.
The human soul is a very complex thing.
Sleep comes to the perplexed—if the perplexed are only weary enough.
The beginning of hardship is like the first taste of bitter food—it seems for a moment unbearable; yet, if there is nothing else to satisfy our hunger, we take another bite and find it possible to go on.
God’s love and mercy can overcome all things—our ignorance and weakness and the burden of our past wickedness—all the things but our willful sin, sin that we cling to and will not give up.
Sonderella: “This was Mary Evans’ first published novel under the pseudonym George Eliot. An amazing first novel I might add. She has an uncanny ability to paint beautiful pictures with her words as she brings characters to life on the pages.”
Chris at Bookarama: “I did feel for Adam but I was aggravated with him for not seeing Hetty for what she really was. Most of the female characters were either harpies or whiners. It wasn’t enjoyable to read those parts.”
Incurable Logophilia: “Thankfully, there wasn’t a kitten to be seen in those last 100 pages of Adam Bede – my opinion of George Eliot remains firmly positive.”
Lyrics: Attributed to Saint Dallon Fargaill (6th century)
Translated to English by Mary E. Byrne (1905)
Versified by Eleanor Hull (1912)
Music: Irish folk melody, SLANE.
Theme:
After this, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” Genesis 15:1.
For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. Proverbs 2:10
And there before me was the glory of the God of Israel, as in the vision I had seen in the plain. Ezekiel 8:4.
And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Joel 2:28.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. Ephesians 1:17.
Eleanor M. Hull, in her 1912 Poem Book of the Gael wrote this poetic translation of the old Irish hymn dating back to the eighth, perhaps the sixth, century:
Be Thou my Vision, O Lord of my heart;
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.
Thou my best Thought, by day or by night,
Waking or sleeping, Thy presence my light.
Be Thou my Wisdom, and Thou my true Word;
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord;
Thou my great Father, I Thy true son;
Thou in me dwelling, and I with Thee one.
Be Thou my battle Shield, Sword for the fight;
Be Thou my Dignity, Thou my Delight;
Thou my soul’s Shelter, Thou my high Tower:
Raise Thou me heavenward, O Power of my power.
Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise,
Thou mine Inheritance, now and always:
Thou and Thou only, first in my heart,
High King of Heaven, my Treasure Thou art.
High King of Heaven, my victory won,
May I reach Heaven’s joys, O bright Heaven’s Sun!
Heart of my own heart, whatever befall,
Still be my Vision, O Ruler of all.
Patrick Joyce published the traditional Irish tune Slane, named for a hill near Tara where St. Patrick challenged the druid priests in lighting the paschal fire. Hull’s words and the traditional tune were paired in the Irish Church Hymnal in 1919, and lo, we have Be Thou My Vision, a reminder of the vision of Celtic Christianity and the baptized imagination of medieval Celtic Christians who saw God as the mighty High King of Heaven, ruling over all things and at the same time immanent and intimately present in our lives.
Rosemary Wells’ fictionalized memoir of Abraham Lincoln and his sons, Willie and Tad, was nominated for a Cybil Award. So I read it. Of course, it reminded me of F.N. Monjo’s (out of print) classic in the same genre and with the same subject, Me and Willie and Pa, published in 1973. So I got that one down and re-read it.
Monjo’s book includes a lot more information. Neither book is very long. Me and Willie and Pa is 94 (large) pages long. The Wells book is 93 pages, but smaller. However, Monjo’s book has a lot more stories about the war and about Lincoln’s jokes and anecdotes. Although Ms. Wells probably has the right end of the stick, having Willie, then Tad tell only about those incidents and stories that a young boy would be interested in and know about, I must say as an adult I enjoyed reading Me and Willie and Tad more because of the extra information. Perhaps Lincoln and HIs Boys would be more appropriate to recommend to third and fourth graders, while Me and Willie and Pa could be given to fifth and sixth graders, although those age guidelines certainly aren’t hard and fast rules.
Both books present the same picture of Lincoln as a father, indulgent to a fault. He allowed his boys to invade cabinet meetings, play soldier by ordering guards around, and accompany him on visits to the troops. When either the politicians or Mary Lincoln complained that Mr. Lincoln was spoiling the boys, both books agree that Lincoln paid them no mind and continued to allow his sons the freedom to be rowdy, noisy, and spirited. We’ll never know if Lincoln’s indulgent child-rearing practices would have made Tad and Willie into strong, independent men or spoiled rotten brats. Willie died uirng Lincoln’s first term in office, and Tad died in Chicago three months after his eighteenth birthday. Maybe in light of their early deaths, it’s good to know that they had a very happy childhood and a loving father.
Mary Lincoln has always been a problematic character, and both books tell about her overwhelming grief after Willie’s death and about her free-spending ways in dressing and in decorating the White House. However, in Lincoln and His Boys, Mary Lincoln seems like a loving wife and mother and a well-meaning, if sometimes misunderstood, First Lady. Monjo’s portrayal includes a couple of stories that cast Mrs. Lincoln in a harsher light, including a story about her screaming in a jealous rage when Mr. Lincoln went out to review the troops alongside a pretty general’s wife.
Ms. Wells ends her story with President Lincoln and Tad in Richmond, Lincoln ordering the band to play “Dixie” because “it’s Federal property now.” Mr. Monjo ends his narrative with Lincoln’s assassination, and he has Tad ask the poignant question, “How could anyone want to hurt my Pa?”
I’d recommend either or both books for an introduction to Lincoln and the Civil War and for a tender story of a father who loved his sons and gave them the foundation of a father’s attention and joy in being with them. The stories about Lincoln and his relations with his family and with the people around him are always endearing and somewhat sentimental and heart-tugging. He was a complicated man (aren’t we all?), but these books present one aspect of his character quite well: his love for his young sons.
But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions – it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast. [Ephesians 2:4-9, NIV]
Everyone knows the story of John Newton, the slave trader who experienced God’s amazing grace, left his slaving and his own slavery to sin, and became a pastor and the author of this most amazing of hymns. However, this video featuring Wintley Phipps at Carnegie tells what is perhaps The Rest of the Story: (If not, it should be!)
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed.
Through many dangers, toils and snares
I have already come;
’Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promised good to me
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yea, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
and mortal life shall cease,
I shall possess within the veil,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call’d me here below,
Will be forever mine.
Most versions include an additional verse, not written by John Newton:
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we’d first begun.
This verse probably became known with Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, in which Uncle Tom sings these lyrics.
This is the (Chris Tomlin) version we usually sing in my church these days:
JOHN NEWTON, Clerk [preacher]
Once an infidel and libertine
A servant of slaves in Africa,
Was, by the rich mercy
of our Lord and Saviour
JESUS CHRIST,
restored, pardoned and
appointed to preach
the Gospel which he had
long laboured to destroy.
He ministered,
Near sixteen years in Olney, in Bucks,
And twenty eight years in this Church.
By the way, I fully expected this hymn to be number one on the list, but the point spread between this one and the one that did win the most points was significant. Anyone want to guess what the most loved hymn in my survey was before I reveal it tomorrow?
Karate Kid (age 12) is a baseball fan, and this week he’s been reading one of the Cybils nominees in the Middle Grade Fiction category: The Brooklyn Nine: A Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratz. When he’s finished, we’ll attempt a joint review. In the meantime, he’s also memorizing the classic baseball poem, Casey at the Bat by Ernest Thayer. Again, when Karate Kid gets it memorized, maybe I’ll try to post a sound file of his rendition here. The ones below are from youtube, one a straight version and the second the Disney cartoon, with many additions and amendments.
Peace Like a River tells the story of the Land family, father Jeremiah, two sons, Davy and Reuben, and a daughter, Swede. The children’s mother walked out on them long before the time of the novel. Reuben, eleven years old, tells the story. Davy is sixteen when the story starts, and Reuben looks up to his older brother even though the two of them are very different. The central salient fact of Reuben’s life is his asthma; Davy is the epitome of the strong older brother.
“Davy wanted life to be something you did on your own; the whole idea of a protective, fatherly God annoyed him. I would understand this better in years to come, but never subscribe to it, for I was weak and knew it. I hadn’t the strength or the instincts of my immigrant forbears. The weak must bank on mercy–without which, after all, I wouldn’t have lasted fifteen minutes.â€
Of course, this statement of Reuben’s is reminiscent of Jesus’ saying to the Pharisees: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.†(Mark 2:17) Not that Davy is a Pharisee; he’s more like a lost sheep, an exile, by his own choice, from grace. Reuben, because of his asthma, knows that it is only by the grace of God, by a miracle, that he is able to breathe in and out. When crisis comes to the Land family, it is Reuben who survives and lives a healthy life, and Davy who is lost.
The language in this novel is beautiful. The author, Leif Enger, worked for many years as a reporter and a producer for Minnesota Public Radio, and the poetic, yet sparkling clear, language in this his first novel is obviously the work of a fine craftsman of words. Examples:
“No grudge ever had a better nurse.â€
“Since that fearful night, Dad had responded with an almost impossible work of belief. . . . He had laid up prayer as with a trowel. You know this is true, and if you don’t it is I the witness who am to blame.â€
“Listening to Dad’s guitar, halting yet lovely in the search for phrasing, I thought: Fair is whatever God wants to do.â€
This last quote gives one of the central themes of the book. God is. He has compassion on the weak, on those who know their need of Him. But He doesn’t always work in the way we want, doesn’t make the story turn out the way we want it to end, doesn’t always give us the miracle. Toward the end of Peace Like a River there’s a wonderfully written chapter in which the narrator describes heaven. The chapter seems to owe something to C.S. Lewis, but it’s as good an imaginative description as Lewis ever wrote himself. Finally, at the very end of the novel, Rueben tells the reader:
“I breathe deeply, and certainty enters into me like light, like a piece of science, and curious music seems to hum inside my fingers.
Is there a single person on whom I can press belief?
No sir.
All I can do is say, Here’s how it went. Here’s what I saw.
I’ve been there and am going back.
Make of it what you will.â€
Rueben is a witness as all Christians are. May I be as strong a witness in my weakness to God’s grace and mercy.
