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Book Girl by Sarah Clarkson: Books of Faith

Oct1

Book Girl: A Journey Through the Treasures & Transforming Power of a Reading Life by Sarah Clarkson.

Book Girl Discussion Question #9: In chapter 5, the author describes the role literature played in making her faith her own: ‘Tolkien’s story helped me to recognize Scripture as my story, the one in whose decisive battles I was caught, the narrative that drew me into the conflict, requiring me to decide what part I would play: heroine, coward, lover, or villain.’ What impact have books had on your faith and your discovery of self? Are there particular books or passages that have been especially meaningful to you on your spiritual journey?

Of course, The Book itself. I’m particularly drawn to the Psalms.

Definitely C.S. Lewis, both through his fiction and his nonfiction, has been a defining influence in my understanding of Christianity and of my relationship with God.

I’m also indebted to Christian authors such as Keith Miller, Bruce Larson, Elisabeth Elliot, Josh McDowell, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Colson, Corrie Ten Boom, Richard Foster, and Beth Moore.

Or to list it another way, here are a few of the Christian nonfiction books that have influenced and strengthened my faith:

The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. A small but wonderful book about praying without ceasing.

Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. Absolutely formative. Everyone should read Lewis, starting with this book. (Well, maybe start with Narnia, then Mere Christianity.)

Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster. This book introduced me to the idea of “spiritual disciplines” and why it’s important to observe them.

Evidence That Demands a Verdict by Josh McDowell. I didn’t memorize all of the copious evidences that Mr. McDowell presents in this huge apologetic encyclopedia, but I did learn that there were answers to most intellectual questions about the Bible and Christianity.

Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesterton.

The Edge of Adventure: An Experiment in Faith by Keith Miller and Bruce Larson. This book did more to disciple me as a teenage Christian than any other book outside of the Bible. It might be somewhat dated now, but it was very helpful back in the day.

Keep a Quiet Heart by Elisabeth Elliot. Straight talk, no nonsense devotional thoughts from Ms. Elliot’s newsletters and books.

Loving God by Charles W. Colson. I found this to be thought-provoking and inspiring, especially since I had already read Chuck Colson’s autobiographical memoir of his conversion during the Nixon years, Born Again.

The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, Joni by Joni Eareckson, and God’s Smuggler by Brother Andrew were all inspiring biographies that shaped my Christian walk as well. And I’m sure I missed some other books that were just as inspirational and formative. What books other than the Bible have shaped your thinking about God, Christ, and Christianity?

Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides

Sep2

Ghost Soldiers: The Forgotten Epic Story of World War II’s Most Dramatic Mission by Hampton Sides.

Ghost Soldiers is a well-written and engrossing narrative history of the rescue of 513 American and British POWs from the Japanese prison camp of Cabanatuan in the Philippines. The soldiers imprisoned at Cabanatuan at the time of the rescue (January, 1945) were mostly survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March, survivors who were barely surviving since most of the somewhat healthier prisoners had already been transferred to Japan in anticipation of the Americans retaking of the Philippine Islands. This who were left at Cabanatuan were diseased, injured, and in a very precarious situation—not quite liberated, still under Japanese control, and dispensable because of their lack of usefulness as workers for the Japanese. There were indeed rumors of and precedent for a Japanese massacre of all the prisoners left at the camp as the Japanese retreated before the advancing U.S. armed forces.

The U.S. Army 6th Ranger Battalion was tasked with the mission of rescuing these prisoners of Cabanatuan from behind Japanese lines in January, 1945. The mission had to be done secretly and quickly. No one knew how long the prisoners would remain alive to be rescued. And the Rangers were a new and untried group of elite “commandos”, sort of an experiment. Would they be able to find the prisoners and bring them out before the Japanese army stopped them?

So, Mr. Sides, a journalist and author, has grabbed onto a great story. And it’s one I had never read about before, although I had read some things about Bataan (The Jersey Brothers by Sally Mott Freeman, We Band of Angels by Elizabeth Norman). He tells the story from alternating points of view, that of the Army Rangers who were sent to rescue the prisoners and that of the prisoners themselves who struggled with feelings of hopelessness and abandonment in addition to the physical deprivations and tortures of their ordeal. This way of telling the story works to increase the suspense as the two stories merge into the climactic scene of the Rescue.

One of the interesting things about this story was meeting unexpected heroes that I would like to read more about. Chaplain Robert Taylor, one of the prisoners who was selected to go to Japan just before the rescue took place, ended up on the ill-fated ship, Oryoku Maru, a hellish prison ship that was sunk off the coast of Bataan by the U.S. Navy. Taylor survived, went on another ship which was also disabled by U.S. bombers, finally was sent to Manchuria, survived his imprisonment there, and eventually after his return home became the highest ranking chaplain in the U.S. Armed Forces. Days of Anguish, Days of Hope by Billy Keith is a biography of Chaplain Taylor that I would like to read.

Then, among the 6th Ranger battalion, I encountered Dr. James Canfield Fisher, son of the famous author Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Captain James Fisher was a surgeon assigned to the Ranger battalion that freed Cabanatuan, and he insisted on going with his men up to very gates of the prison camp in order to be available to treat those who might be wounded in the attempted rescue. His story is all the more intriguing and poignant for me since I know of his mother and her books, including the classic Understood Betsy. Who knew that reading about World War II in the Philippines could circle around to connect back to children’s literature?

I recommend Ghost Soldiers to readers who are interested in reading about World War II adventures, the War in the Pacific, stories of courage and endurance, and just good narrative nonfiction. (If you liked Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand or Lost in Shangri-La by Mitchell Zuckoff . . .) I found it to be fascinating and inspiring.

Noteworthy and Encouraging: May 29th

May29

Born on May 29th:

Gerald Massey, b. 1828. Poet and amateur Egyptologist.

There’s no dearth of kindness
In this world of ours;
Only in our blindness
We gather thorns for flowers.

Mary Louisa Molesworth, b. 1839. Author of children’s books during the nineteenth century. Known as “Mrs. Molesworth”, her most famous book was The Cuckoo Clock, which I read recently. If you have a child who is a good reader looking for a story about fairies, you might try this one. It doesn’t have much of a plot, not much dramatic tension. Griselda comes to live with her two elderly great-aunts for reasons that are never stated throughout the story. She is sometimes bored and lonely, and the cuckoo from her late grandmother’s cuckoo clock comes to visit and amuse Griselda. Griselda wants the cuckoo to take her to fairyland, but he says that “the way to true fairyland is hard to find, and we must each find it for ourselves.” The cuckoo does take Griselda to some other magical places, and she eventually finds a friend and playmate. Some of the scenes in the book are beautifully described, but as I said, not much happens. I do have a solid library rebound copy of this old book in my library, but my book has illustrations by E.H. Shepard (the illustrator famous for his pictures for Winnie-the-Pooh.)

Eugene Fitch Ware, b. 1841. Kansas poet and politician. “Man builds no structure which outlives a book.”

Charles Francis Richardson, b. 1851. Maine poet and literary historian.
2 John 1:6: And this is love, that we walk according to His commandments. This is the very commandment you have heard from the beginning, that you must walk in love.

If suddenly upon the street
My gracious Saviour I should meet,
And he should say, “As I love thee,
What love hast thou to offer me?”
Then what could this poor heart of mine
Dare offer to that heart divine?

His eye would pierce my outward show,
His thought my inmost thought would know;
And if I said, “I love thee, Lord,”
He would not heed my spoken word,
Because my daily life would tell
If verily I loved him well.

If on the day or in the place
Wherein he met me face to face,
My life could show some kindness done,
Some purpose formed, some work begun
For his dear sake, then it were meet
Love’s gift to lay at Jesus’ feet.

G.K. Chesterton, b. 1874. Author of Orthodoxy, his spiritual autobiography, and many, many other works fiction, essays, and general musings. Chesterton himself was a merry old soul. He weighed over 300 pounds, played the part of the absent-minded professor in his daily life, and enjoyed a beer, a debate, and a nap, but not all at the same time. Nicknamed “The Prince of Paradox,” his verbal gymnastics are sometimes exhausting, usually entertaining, and at the same time full of wisdom and insight into the fallacies of pagan and modern philosophy and into the satisfying rightness of Christian orthodoxy.
The Convert by G.K. Chesterton
A selection of Chesterton’s wisdom.
My reaction to The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton.
More gems (quotes) from Gilbert K.Chesterton.

Terrence Hanbury (T.H.) White, b. 1906. Author of The Once and Future King, White’s version of the Arthurian legends. The musical, Camelot, and the Disney film, The Sword in the Stone, were both based on White’s retelling and embellishment of Sir Thomas Malory’s Le Morte d’Arthur. I have a copy of The Sword in the Stone in my library, but the rest of the story that makes up the four books of The Once and Future King is a bit too dark for children, IMHO.

Across a Dark and Wild Sea by Don Brown

Apr2

Columcille, aka Saint Columba, was born in Ireland in 521 AD. The son of a king, he became a scribe and a monk and a bard in a world that was falling apart with the fall of the Roman Empire and final end of the Pax Romana (the peace had been eroding for several centuries before the sixth century).

Don Brown’s picture book biography paints the time of Columba as a dark time without much love for learning, except among the monks and religious of Ireland, a real Dark Ages. The book goes on to tell how Columba became involved in a violent and bloody battle over possession of a copy of a book and how he left Ireland to become a missionary in the wilds of Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland.

I like Mr.Brown’s telling of the story of Columcille/Columba. The illustrations by the author are a little too sketchy in style for my taste, but it’s more a matter of taste than of talent or quality. You may love the pictures. An author’s note in the back of the book gives more information about Saint Columba, and there’s a page showing the letters of the uncial alphabet, a writing style used in Saint Columba’s time. Brown’s bibliography includes Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization, a book I have read and would recommend if you want to read more about the Irish monks and their missionary efforts and their preservation of many of the texts of Western civilization.

Saint Columba is supposed to have written the following poem, called Altus prosator (not included in this book):

Altus prosator, vetustus
dierum et ingenitus
erat absque origine
primordii et crepidine
est et erit in sæcula
sæculorum infinita;
cui est unigenitus
Christus et sanctus spiritus
coæternus in gloria
deitatis perpetua.
Non tres deos depropimus
sed unum Deum dicimus,
salva fide in personis
tribus gloriosissimis.

High creator, Ancient
of Days, and unbegotten,
who was without origin
at the beginning and foundation,
who was and shall be in infinite
ages of ages;
to whom was only begotten
Christ, and the Holy Ghost,
co-eternal in the everlasting
glory of Godhood.
We do not propose three gods,
but we speak of one God,
saving faith in three
most glorious Persons.

If you can read and pronounce Latin, the poem sounds lovely in that language. I can’t really read Latin, but I tried, and I enjoyed the attempt. The poem is also an acrostic; the part above is just the first verse, the beginning with “A” part. Here’s a link to a translation of the entire poem.

Here’s another section of the poem that I especially liked:

By chanting of hymns continually ringing out,
by thousands of angels rejoicing in holy dances,
and by the four living creatures full of eyes,
with the four and twenty happy elders,
casting down their crowns beneath the feet of the Lamb of GOD,
the Trinity is praised with eternal threefold repetition.

I’m reviewing and highlighting poetry picture books this month on Semicolon in honor of Poetry Month. What’s your favorite poetry-related picture book?

Sequoyah by James Rumford

Mar28

Sequoyah: The Man Who Gave His People Writing by James Rumford, translated by Anna Sixkiller Huckaby.

Quite appropriately, this book about the man who invented the Cherokee written language is printed in two languages: English and Cherokee. The story itself is almost unbelievable. Sequoyah was fifty years old and knew no English and couldn’t read when he began to invent a written language for the Cherokee people in about 1809. People laughed at him and persecuted him for his strange ideas. Yet he persevered, and he is famous for having given his people a writing system and a written language.

I didn’t know that the giant Sequoia trees of California are probably named for Sequoyah. Rumford’s tale of the life of Sequoyah is framed as a story told by a father to his children about how the trees are like the man Sequoyah, even though Sequoyah was crippled and old and not a warrior at all.

“Now, who was this Sequoyah? my father asks.
He was a famous man, we say, because he invented writing for the Cherokee.
He was a brave man because he never gave up.
He was a leader because he showed his people how to survive—
How to stand tall and proud like these trees.”

The introductory blurb calls this book “a poem to celebrate literacy, a song of a people’s struggle to stand tall and proud.” And indeed, it is both narrative and poetic. I was moved, after reading this brief history of Sequoyah, to find other books and read more. A man who is famous for inventing an alphabet? That’s my kind of biography.

More books about Sequoyah:

Sequoyah: The Story of an American Indian by C. W. Campbell.

Sequoyah: Young Cherokee Guide (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Dorothea J. Snow.

Sequoyah and the Cherokee Alphabet by Robert Cwiklik.

Sequoyah: Leader of the Cherokees (Landmark Books, 65) by Alice Marriott.

Sequoyah by James Rumford is available for checkout from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. If you are interested in purchasing ($5.00) a curated list of favorite picture book biographies with over 300 picture books about all sorts of different people, email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

The Real McCoy by Wendy Towle

Mar27

The Real McCoy: The Life of an African-American Inventor by Wendy Towle, paintings by Will Clay. Scholastic, 1993.

The Real McCoy: the genuine article; the actual thing.

There is some controversy over the origin of this common idiom, as author Wendy Towle indicates in her biography of inventor Elijah McCoy. The book calls the life and work of Mr. McCoy “one possible origin” of the phrase.

Whether or not his work spawned an idiom meaning genuine or original work, McCoy’s life story is certainly an inspiring testimony to excellence and successful invention. Elijah McCoy was born in Canada, the son of former slave who escaped from Kentucky and came to Canada via the Underground Railroad. He eventually studied engineering in Scotland and then came to live in the United States just after the end of the Civil War. Unfortunately, he could not find any work as an engineer because of his skin color, so he became a fireman/oilman for the railroad.

Or was it providence? Elijah McCoy soon began inventing devices to make the trains run more safely and efficiently, including his most famous invention, the automatic lubricating oil cup. He eventually patented over fifty inventions in his lifetime: the first portable ironing board, a lawn sprinkler, tires and tire treads, better rubber heels for shoes, and many devices that were used in the transportation industry in Detroit where McCoy lived.

Wil Clay, a well-known African American artist, painted the vivid and colorful pictures that adorn the pages of this picture book biography. His paintings make the time period and story come alive as readers learn about one of the heroes of American invention.

There’s also another picture book biography of Elijah McCoy in the Great Idea series by Tundra Books, titled All Aboard! Elijah McCoy’s Steam Engine by Monica Kulling. I prefer the Towle/Clay book with its rich paintings, but either book would deliver a good reading experience for children who are interested in the stories of real people who overcame obstacles and achieved noteworthy success.

If you are interested in purchasing ($5.00) a curated list of favorite picture book biographies with over 300 picture books about all sorts of different people, email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? by Tanya Lee Stone

Mar26

Who Says Women Can’t be Doctors? The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell by Tanya Lee Stone, illustrated by Marjorie Priceman. Henry Holt, 2013.

“I’ll bet you’ve met plenty of doctors in your life. And I’ll bet lots of them were women. Well, you might find this hard to believe, but there once was a time when girls weren’t allowed to become doctors.”

According to this picture book biography, Elizabeth Blackwell changed all that. Because a woman named Mary Donaldson told Elizabeth Blackwell that “she would have much preferred being examined by a woman” and because Mary urged Elizabeth to consider becoming a doctor herself, Elizabeth Blackwell, who lived during that time when women weren’t allowed or expected to become doctors, found herself thinking and dreaming about the idea of being a female doctor. Some people laughed at the idea. Some people criticized. The medical schools she applied to all turned her down. But Geneva Medical School in New York finally admitted her—as a joke!

The illustrations in this picture book are bright and whimsical and appealing. The illustrator, Marjorie Priceman, also illustrated some of my favorite picture books, including How To Make an Apple Pie and See the World, How to Make a Cherry Pie and See the USA, and Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin (all available from my library, Meriadoc Homeschool Library).

Elizabeth Blackwell graduated medical school and became the first woman doctor in the United States. Except for a few details about her childhood and her med school experiences, what I’ve told you here is what the book tells in its main text. The author’s note at the back of the book includes a few more details about Elizabeth Blackwell’s life. This biography would be the perfect length for primary children, ages four to seven. And it would be a good introduction to Elizabeth Blackwell and the advent of female doctors for older children.

Then if you or your children want to read more about Ms. Blackwell, check out the following books:

Elizabeth Blackwell: Girl Doctor (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Joanne Landers Henry.

Lone Woman: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell, the First Woman Doctor by Dorothy Clarke Wilson.

The First Woman Doctor: The Story of Elizabeth Blackwell, M.D. by Rachel Baker. (Messner biography)

I tend to agree with Ms. Donaldson. I prefer a female doctor, and I’m glad we have the choice nowadays to go to a woman doctor or a male doctor, whichever we prefer. And, of course, I’m glad that women can become doctors.

Who Says Women Can’t Be Doctors? is available for checkout from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. If you are interested in purchasing ($5.00) a curated list of favorite picture book biographies with over 300 picture books about all sorts of different people, email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

The Twenty Children of Johann Sebastian Bach by David Arkin

Mar25

The Twenty Children of Johann Sebastian Bach by David Arkin. Ward Ritchie Press, 1968.

This picture book biography, published by a quirky little SoCal publisher/printer, is an early example of the picture book biography. As far as I can tell the author is David I. Arkin, father of the actor Alan Arkin, not David George Arkin, who was an actor and no relation to David I and Alan. The book is dedicated to David Arkin’s wife Beatrice. However, there’s not any information that I can find on the internet that ties this book directly to David I. Arkin, other than the wife’s name.

At any rate, the writing in the book is adequate, not as exciting as it might have been. The illustrations are beautiful. Bach and his twenty children and their family life together are painted in positive and engaging words and pictures. The book tells us that Bach had seven children with his first wife, who died, then thirteen more with his second wife. Seven of the twenty children did not survive past their first birthday. But those who did live were much beloved, and their musician father is shown writing music for them, educating them, and singing lullabies to his many babies.

The author does leave some questions unanswered. He tells us what happened to eight of the children when they grew up. Five of the boys grew up to be great and famous musicians and composers themselves. Three of the girls lived with their parents all their lives, never married, and one married her father’s favorite pupil. But what happened to the other four living children? (Actually, I looked, and Wikipedia says that only ten of Bach’s children lived to become adults. So, somebody has the count wrong. and that still leaves one grown child unaccounted for in the book.)

I suppose it’s hard to keep track of twenty children. I only have eight, and I’m not always sure what they are all doing with their lives. So, we can leave off the counting and just enjoy Arkin’s story of a big, happy, musical family. And then play some Bach while you look at the illustrations one more time.

If you are interested in purchasing ($5.00) a curated list of favorite picture book biographies with over 300 picture books about all sorts of different people, email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom. I’m highlighting picture book biographies in March. What is your favorite picture book about a real person?

Dreaming in Code by Emily Arnold McCully

Mar23

Dreaming in Code: Ada Byron Lovelace, Computer Pioneer by Emily Arnold McCully. Candlewick, 2019.

This new biography for children of mathematician Ada Byron Lovelace is NOT a picture book, and indeed, although it’s recommended for ages 10-14 in the marketing information, the book chronicles the actions and accomplishments of a woman who lived a rather shocking and tragic life. I’m not sure all fourteen year olds, much less ten year olds, are ready for the revelations that McCully sees fit to include in her biography, revelations of adultery, child abuse, incest, cruelty, and drug abuse.

In addition, the biographer is rather prejudiced. Lord Byron, Ada’s rake of a father, is very nearly absolved of all his faults, mostly because he wrote a poem in which he mentioned his longing to see his daughter after her mother, Lady Byron, ran away with the child and refused to allow Byron near her. Lady Byron, who does seem to have been something of a tartar, is painted in the darkest of terms as “obsessive” and “neglectful”, also self-centered and hypochondriacal, a dark and bullying force in Ada’s life for its entirety. Lord Byron gets off easily, I suppose because he died young and wrote good poetry.

Ada herself, because she was a genius and because she’s the subject of the book(?), is shown as a martyr to her mother’s domineering and dictatorial selfishness and whimsy. Nevertheless, there are numerous indications that Ada wasn’t much better than her parents when it came to being a decent parent and a faithful wife. McCully tells us that Ada was unfaithful to her long-suffering husband on more than one occasion, that she worried that she was a neglectful mother, and that she called her three children “irksome duties”. She was also drug-addicted, unhealthy, and an inveterate gambler. Perhaps one could blame all of Ada’s adult sins and problems on her horrible childhood and her horrible parents, but nevertheless it’s a wonder she was able to accomplish as much as she did in the fields of mathematics and invention.

So, the story of Ada Byron Lovelace is not terribly edifying, but it is a cautionary tale, I suppose. The sins of the fathers are often visited upon the children, and it takes the power of God to break a family heritage of sin and rebellion.

Takeaway:

“This was Ada’s great leap of imagination and the reason we remember her with such admiration. Her idea that the engine (Babbage’s Analytical Engine) could do more than compute, that numbers were symbols and could represent other concepts, is what makes Babbage’s engine a prototype-computer.”

The Extraordinary Mark Twain by Barbara Kerley

Mar21

The Extraordinary Mark Twain (according to Susy) by Barbara Kerley. Illustrated by Edwin Fotheringham. Scholastic Press, 2010.

In 1885-6 when he was at the height of his fame, Samuel Clemens’ thirteen year old daughter, Susy, really did write her own biography of her famous father. She wrote secretly at first and then as the work progressed, Mr. Clemens became aware of his young biographer and did his best to help her along by submitting to interviews and giving “pronouncements about himself at the breakfast table just to help his biographer along.” Apparently Clemens/Twain liked very much to talk–mostly about himself. But Susy gives in her journal, which was a diary of sorts as well as a work of biography, an adulatory yet frank picture of her father as only a thirteen year old daughter could.

The design of this picture book biography is quite creative: excerpts from Susy’s diary are inserted into the book as small mini-booklets. The author, Barbara Kerley, adds her explanatory and interpretive notes on the beautifully illustrated pages of the forty page picture book. The result is an intriguing and delightful portrait in words and pictures of an extraordinary man—and of his intrepid and writerly daughter.

The penultimate page of the book gives some extra information about Samuel Clemens and about Susy Clemens, who, sadly, died young from spinal meningitis at the age of twenty-four. Her tragic death made her father value the 130+ pages of Susy’s journal/biography all the more. “I have had no compliment, no praise, no tribute from any source,” said Twain, “that was so precious to me as this one was and still is. As I read it now, after all these many years, it is still a king’s message to me.”

The final page is titled “Writing an Extraordinary Biography (According to Barbara Kerley with a lot of help from Susy).” Here Ms. Kerley encourages her readers to choose their own subjects and write their own biographies, and she gives them some rules or guidelines or tips for doing so. This part of the book, in combination with the text of the book itself, would be a fantastic addition to a unit study on biography and an encouragement to any aspiring biographer.

A good picture book biographer finds a hook, something in the life of the subject to focus on and to build the book around, rather than trying to tell everything about the life and times of the person being written about. Vincent Van Gogh’s insomnia, Lewis Carroll’s way with words, Antoine de St. Exupery’s disappearance—all of these make good “hooks” upon which to hang a story that introduces young readers to the life of a famous person. Susy the biographer gives the reader someone to identify with and a way into the life story of a complex man, Mark Twain.

I’m highlighting picture book biographies in March. What is your favorite picture book about a real person?