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The Christmas Pony by Helen McCully and Dorothy Crayder

Dec3

The Christmas Pony by Helen McCully and Dorothy Crayder, illustrated by Robert J. Lee. Bobbs-Merrill, 1967. (Christmas in Nova Scotia, Canada, 1912)

Catching the apple, Helen had been tempted to smile, but since the best way to enjoy the marsh was to be unhappy, she was determined to remain so.

The McCullys and the cats coexisted with the understanding that people were people and cats were cats and it was neither possible nor desirable for it to be otherwise. This understanding made for mutual enjoyment.

Mrs. McCully did not believe in her children’s being sick and consequently they very rarely were. And when they were, they were never allowed to be very sick. Being sick was for people who had nothing better to do.

Every year, two days before Christmas the doors to the Big Rooms and the dining room were closed tight and were not to be opened until Christmas morning. To the children, it was always as if a stage were being set behind those closed doors and when at last they were opened, the play would begin.

The children now began a two-day siege compounded of excitement, fidgets, and the need to be on their best behavior or Santa Claus might have some second thoughts. Deep down in their hearts, the children believed that Santa Claus was a loyal, generous friend who accepted the good with the bad, but they were leery of making a test case of it.

Helen McCully, one of the authors of this brief Christmas novelette (101 pages), is also one of the three children who celebrate a Christmas to remember in this story set in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada. The tone and writing of the story, which is sampled in the quotes above, reminded me of old-fashioned magazine story writing from the 1950’s and 60’s, and indeed Ms. McCully and Ms. Crayder both had experience writing for women’s magazines as well as radio plays and television. The Christmas Pony tells about Helen, her brother Robert, and her little sister Nora and the surprise gift that they received one Christmas.

This book would make a wonderful read aloud story sometime during the Christmas season, but there is a rather big risk. The book begins with the statement, “Every child should have a pony.” If you think you can read the story and remain indifferent to the desire for a real, live pony of your own, or if you think your children can contain themselves, then this book is a delight.

The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink

Dec1

The Pink Motel by Carol Ryrie Brink. Illustrated by Sheila Greenwald. (Christmas in Florida, c. 1959)

People in Minnesota do not paint their buildings pink. So when the Mellen family–Father, Mother, Kirby, and his little sister Bitsy—head for Florida to claim the motel that their mother’s great-uncle Hiram has left to them in his will, they are surprised by the unusual color of the seven little cottages that make up Uncle Hiram’s legacy, The Pink Motel. “The inheritance was really like a Christmas present, for it arrived just before the beginning of Christmas vacation.” The plan is for the Mellens to use the children’s Christmas vacation to “fly down to Florida, put the motel in running order, and sell it before time for the children to go back to school.”

Kirby and Bitsy wear their pinkest accessories to go to Florida, but even they are astounded at just how pink the The Pink Motel really is. “It was pinker than Kirby’s necktie or Bitsy’s hair ribbon. It was pink, pink, PINK. On the small square of lawn in front of the motel two life-sized plaster flamingos were standing, and they were pink, too.” And more than just very pink, the motel turns out to be a locus for mystery and adventure. The guests are eccentric. The weather vanes on top of each cottage are all different and artistically rendered. The office is pleasantly untidy, like a pack rat’s hoard. The palm trees sway, and the coconuts are abundant.

There really isn’t much reference to Christmas in this story, but it does all take place during the Christmas season. Bitsy and Kirby make two new friends, and the four children along with various adult motel guests have adventures involving a live alligator, a magician, two gangsters, an abstract modern artist, coconuts, and all of the secrets Uncle Hiram has left behind. It’s a slightly unbelievable, even wacky, story about resolving differences, leaning into adventure, and creating community in unlikely spaces. I was at first intrigued and then delighted by Kirby and Bitsy and Big and Sandra Brown and all the adventures they have together and the mysteries they solve as they explore the Pink Motel and its surroundings.

This book, first published in 1959, has been out of print for quite some time, but it was recently republished by Echo Point Books and Media in Battleboro, Vermont. I am so grateful that I was able to purchase and read this classic story of Floridian adventures. If you’re from Florida, you should certainly grab a copy, and if you’re not, you’ll still enjoy the humor and the joie de vivre of this pink Christmas book.

Content considerations: Big, the children’s first friend in Florida, is described as “a little colored boy” who helps out at the motel, running errands, sweeping, and carrying bags. The children and the adults treat Big just as they treat each other, with no reference to race or racial tension or differences. “Colored” would have been one of the preferred terms in Florida at the time for a black child, and I don’t see that it’s that different from “person of color”, the term that some people use nowadays. Just FYI.

Life the Day After

Apr18

So, yesterday we celebrated 

Resurrection Day, 

Easter Sunday, 

Jesus is Risen, 

He is Risen indeed.

And today is Monday, the Day After. 

What comes after resurrection? Well, LIFE.

It’s time for LIFE: 

work and family,  
breakfast, lunch and dinner, 
diapers and school books and college visits, 
disussions and sometimes arguments, 
births and graduations, 
taxes and poetry, 
blue jeans and swim suits, 
bad news from Ukraine,  
good news from a friend, 
more bad news from another, 
hospitalizations and healing, 
books to read, places to go, people to see. 

And it's all somewhat overwhelming.

LIFE is every day that we LIVE in the aftermath, in the power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have LIFE and have it abundantly.”

John 10:10

Don’t let anyone steal your resurrection life and joy. Hold onto the promises of life and love and resurrection as you live your (everyday) life. Persevere in filling your life with the goodness of God and His Word and with the reflections of God and His creation found in nature and in poetry and in story and in music and in art.

Preparing for the Preparation Days of Lent

Feb22

Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, is Wednesday, March 2nd, this year. Easter Sunday falls on April 17th. One good thing to do for the Lenten days of fasting and preparation leading up to Resurrection Sunday is to choose a book (or two) to read, one that prepares your heart and leads you into repentance and celebration.

Julie at Happy Catholic has a list of fiction books that would help to form your heart and mind during this time of year.

Recommended Reading for Lent from Jen Fulwiler.

Observing Lent, a Semicolon list. Not a book list, this post just gives some ideas for observing Lent as a family. It makes me nostalgic for the days when I had children at home with whom to observe these activities and reminders.

Inspirational Classics. This link goes to a set of posts that I set out to write in 2011. It was supposed to be 40 Inspirational Classics for Lent, but I only managed to write about 15 or so books. Still, the ones I did write about are some of the greats.

What are you reading for Lent? I’m continuing with my Cultivating Beauty and Truth study, re-reading The Hobbit and reading Hearts of Fire, a book of stories of modern day persecuted Christian women who are amazing in the courage they demonstrate. Only God.

It’s May!

May3

Merry, rollicking, frolicking May
Into the woods came skipping one day;
She teased the brook till he laughed outright.
And gurgled and scolded with all his might;
She chirped to the birds and bade them sing
A chorus of welcome to Lady Spring;
And the bees and butterflies she set
To waking the flowers that were sleeping yet.
She shook the trees till the buds looked out
To see what the trouble was all about,
And nothing in Nature escaped that day
The touch of the life-giving bright young May.

~George MacDonald

Miss Flora McFlimsey’s May Day by Mariana.

I’m a day or two late and a dollar short, as the saying goes, but this vintage picture book by the author who went by the one name Mariana (Marian Foster Curtiss) is a perfect pick for reading aloud anytime in May. “[T]he nineteenth-century poem by William Allen Butler about the original Miss Flora McFlimsey . . . was her inspiration for the Miss Flora stories.” The poem is worth reading in its own right, but it really has little to do with Mariana’s creation of a doll character, Miss Flora McFlimsey, who stars in her own series of nine mostly holiday-themed books:

Miss Flora McFlimsey and the Baby New Year
Miss Flora McFlimsey’s Birthday
Miss Flora McFlimsey’s Christmas Eve
Miss Flora McFlimsey’s Easter Bonnet
Miss Flora McFlimsey’s Halloween
Miss Flora McFlimsey and Little Laughing Water
Miss Flora McFlimsey and the Little Red Schoolhouse
Miss Flora McFlimsey’s May Day
Miss Flora McFlimsey’s Valentine

Miss Flora McFLimsey’s May Day tells the story of how Miss Flora wakes up on the first of May feeling ugly, unloved, and unwanted, and through a series events in which she is given opportunity to help others, improves her mood and has a happy day. The book isn’t preachy at all, and yet it teaches a lesson: we can gain contentment through serving others and forgetting about ourselves.

I haven’t actually read the other Miss Flora McFlimsey books, but I would think they would be worth seeking out, simply on the strength of this one May Day book alone. The lovely watercolor illustrations, also by Mariana, add to the book’s sense of classic delight and wonder.

Do you know of any other picture books or poems that specifically refer to the moth of May?

The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson

Apr6

The Swing by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Julie Morstad. Simply Read Books, 2012.

This board book edition of Stevenson’s classic poem was recommended in the Reshelving Alexandria Facebook group in a discussion of picture book poetry books. I’m pleased to have found a copy to order for my own library.

The illustrations in this one, as you can see from the cover, are wistful, childlike, and enticing—just like the poem. The colors and natural landscape are spring-like, and the children, boys and girls, are multicultural and just sweet-looking. The poem is found in Stevenson’s A Child’s Garden of Verses and in many other children’s collections, but I’ll reproduce it here for your enjoyment and convenience.

The Swing
BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,
Till I can see so wide,
Rivers and trees and cattle and all
Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,
Down on the roof so brown—
Up in the air I go flying again,
Up in the air and down!

Now I want to go find a swing and celebrate the sixth day of poetry month by swinging and reciting.

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?

From “Little Pictures of Japan”, My Travelship by Olive Beaupre Miller

Apr5

I think this would be a lovely idea for a spring celebration, perhaps sometime during April, poetry month:

“Of Poetry Picnics and Fireflies”

“In Japan they sometimes have poetry picnics. When Master Sogi has an especially fine flowering tree, a cherry perhaps, all pink and with a wealth of bloom, he invites his friends to a party. There they come in their holiday robes and little clattering wooden sandals. They walk about the tree and admire it, they drink in its fragrance, and tea is served to them under its branches. Then they sit down and begin to scribble narrow , little slips of paper. By and by each one has written a poem in pretty Japanese characters, and after he has read it to the others, he goes and fastens it to a branch of the tree in honor of which the party was given.
That is pleasure enough, certainly, for one afternoon, but if the guests stay until nightfall it is possible that Master Sogi will provide for them another lovely game, that they may enjoy the beauties of Nature still further. When it is quite dark, he will let loose hundreds of captive fireflies in the garden, and as the pretty things flit here and there, showing their airy, elfin lights in the dusk, the guests will chase them hither and yon, over little bridges, in among the flowers, around quaint stone statues, about the tea house. All the garden will be gay with flitting forms and silver laughter, till the fireflies lose themselves in the moon-beams.”

I would show you the pictures in the book of the poetry-tree and the children chasing fireflies, but I’m not good at photography or posting pictures. You will just have to find your own copy of this delightful book of Japanese poetry and stories to share with the children in your life under your own poetry tree.

Saint Valentine retold and illustrated by Robert Sabuda

Feb14

Although Saint Valentine was probably a real man, martyred sometime during the third century (c.269 AD), separating fact from legend in regard to his life and work is not likely to be successful. Primary, contemporary sources for his biography do not exist. So biographers of the man who came to be identified with the holiday celebrated on February 14th, Valentine’s Day, are more storytellers and makers of legend than anything else. Illustrator and author Robert Sabuda gives us his own version of the story of Saint Valentine in this beautiful picture book, suitable for all ages.

Sabuda chooses to portray Valentine as a Christian doctor whose treatment to attempt healing of his jailer friend’s blind daughter have been unsuccessful. Nevertheless, Valentine continues to apply healing ointment to the girl’s eyes, and the jailer, the daughter, and Valentine become good friends. When Christians are blamed for “an uprising in the streets”, Valentine is arrested and sentenced to die. He sends a note and a flower to his friend, the little blind girl, and the girl is healed and able to see the yellow flower that is Valentine’s dying gift.

That’s the essence of the story as Sabuda tells it, but of course, his text is much more vibrant than my summary. And the beautiful mosaic illustrations that accompany the story are both inspiring and evocative of the early Christian era in which the story takes place. Sabuda’s story of Saint Valentine would be a lovely addition to the holiday celebration for young and old alike.

For more Valentine’s Day celebration suggestions, check out these links:

A Slice of Life by Edgar A.Guest.

Recommended movie for Valentine’s Day: Marty.

Real Romance for Grown-up Women.

Anatomy of a Marriage: Books about Love and Marriage.

NOTE: I’m writing a series of posts on some of my favorite picture book biographies. For more picture book biography suggestions, check out the following:
Read Aloud Revival: Picture Book Biographies We Love
Redeemed Reader: Picture Book Biographies Booklist
In addition, I have my own list of more than 100 picture book biographies that I am willing to share with you for a contribution of just $5.00 payable via PayPal. This list is currently in a Word document, unfinished and still under construction. If you are interested in purchasing a copy of the list, just email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

Christmas in Philadelphia, PA, c.1962

Dec4

Carolyn Haywood’s Betsy books and her other books about Little Eddie and other children growing up in mid-twentieth century America are a breath of fresh air and a lovely look at the kind of childhood that I actually experienced back in the 1960’s.

In this excerpt from Snowbound with Betsy, Betsy and her friends decide to make a Christmas tree for feeding the birds:

“This is a good place for it,’ said Susan, “because we’ll be able to see it from the window.”

“Yes,” said Betsy. “We’ll be able to see the birds eating the peanut butter.”

“Lucky birds!” said Neddie. “They all get the peanut butter.”

“I love peanut butter,” said Star, longingly.

Susan and Betsy hung the orange cups on the branches of the tree. Neddie helped to hang the apple parings. Finally Betsy and Susan draped several garlands of popcorn from branch to branch, all the way from the top to the bottom of the tree.When they were finished, the children were pleased with the birds’ Christmas tree. They stood and admired it. The bright orange cups against the dark green branches made the tree very gay.

“It looks like a real Christmas tree,” said Susan.

Christmas in Sorrento, Italy, c. 1300

Dec2

“Whatever you do, work at it with your whole being, for the Lord and not for men, because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”

The French legend of the little juggler is transplanted to Italy and set in the early Renaissance time period, told and illustrated by the talented Tomie dePaola in The Clown of God. This book is one of those suggested as a part of the Five in a Row picture book curriculum, volume 1. It is also included in the list of Biblioguides’ 25 Picture Books to Read this Christmas.

“Giovanni became very famous, and it wasn’t long before he said good-bye to the traveling troupe and set off on his own.

Up and down Italy he traveled, and although his costumes became more beautiful, he always kept the face of a clown.

Once he juggled for a duke.

Once for a prince!

And it was always the same. First the sticks, then plates, then the clubs, rings and burning torches.

Finally the rainbow of colored balls.

‘And now for the Sun in the Heavens,’ he would shout, and the golden ball would fly higher and higher and crowds would laugh and clap and cheer.”

Tomie DePaola writes beautiful books and illustrates them. Several of his books are about Catholic saints and stories: The Legend of the Poinsettia, The Clown of God, Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland, Francis: The Poor Man of Assisi, The Lady of Guadalupe, and Mary: The Mother of Jesus. He also has written and published Bible story books including The Miracles of Jesus, and The Parables of Jesus.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another favorite and lovely version of this story.