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Creekfinding: A True Story by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and Claudia McGehee

Oct18

Once there was a creek in northeast Iowa that got covered up by a cornfield. Then, a guy named Mike bought the land and anted to bring the creek back. But it took a lots of planning and work and rocks and dirt and plants and insects and birds and fish—and even some big earth-moving machines–to revive the creek and make a place for Brook Creek to flourish and nourish both people and wildlife.

“If you went to the creek with Mike, you’d see the water. But a creek isn’t just water. You’d see brook trout and sculpin. You’d hear the outdoor orchestra—herons, snipe, bluebirds, yellowthroat warblers; frogs returned home; and insects–thousands, and thousands, and thousands of insects.”

I’m not much of an outdoors girl. But I did find this true story of how Mike Osterholm, who is “passionate about the prairie, cold water streams, brook trout, and partnering with the earth,” decided to revive the creek that once flowed through his land and how he did it, a fascinating one. The implication in the book, never stated, is that a cornfield is of lesser value or “earth-friendliness” than a brook full of trout. I’m not so sure about that. But a brook was what Mike wanted, just as the farmer who owned the land before him wanted a cornfield, and I liked reading about how it all came about.

The illustrations by artist Claudia McGehee, are all “prairie greens, creek blues,” yellows and browns, nature colors. Etched out in scratchboard and then painted, the pictures are evocative of a wild natural world restored, and they do add to the text a certain earthy feeling that couldn’t be achieved by words alone. It’s a beautiful book, and for this indoor girl, it makes me actually want to find a creek or a brook or some sort of running water to sit beside and observe. That’s a sign of a well done nature picture book.

This book was recommended to me by Sandy Spencer Hall of Hall’s Living Library. It would be a good addition to a Charlotte Mason-style nature study read aloud time, best served next to flowing water—or perhaps in a cornfield?

Wild Woolly West by Earl Schenck Miers

May10

This nonfiction book about the westward movement tries to be fair and impartial toward the cowboys, settlers, Native Americans, gunslingers, explorers, prospectors, and downright ruffians and criminals who were all a part of the opening of the West to settlers of mostly European descent. But it probably doesn’t succeed in twenty-first century terms.

Earl Schenck Miers writes about the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the mountain men who harvested the west of its furs and other treasures, the missionaries and homesteaders who came after mountain men, the forty-niners and the Gold Rush, the cowboys and sheriffs and sodbusters, and finally the Native Americans who struggled to survive the onslaught of people coming west. He tells of the extreme prejudice that the white men expressed and acted out in regard to the Indians they encountered as well as the massacres and atrocities committed by both Native American defenders and “the hordes of white invaders.”

This book was published in 1964, and Miers does use the language of his time: “red men” and “Indians and half-breeds”, as well as quoting racist rants from the nineteenth century with much worse language regarding Native Americans. And he does tell about how the settlers treated the Native Americans (abominably) as well as how the Indians retaliated. Overall, the book presents an overview of the westward movement, with some details about famous people and events. It would make a good, living spine text for the study of this period in history, but there would be many things to discuss with children along the way. I’d recommend that the book be presented as a read aloud to children 11 and up.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Fishermen and the Dragon by Kirk Wallace Johnson

Apr2

The Fishermen and the Dragon: Fear, Greed, and a Fight for Justice on the Gulf Coast by Kirk Wallace Johnson, author of The Feather Thief.

The fact that most of this true story took place practically in my backyard had something to do with its fascination for me, I’m sure. Nevertheless, I would recommend the book to anyone since it speaks to many of the issues that are still open and debated in our time: racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, mob action, government corruption, corporate greed, environmental activism, and more. The book certainly doesn’t do much to enhance the reputation of my particular community. All I can say is that, although I feared doing so, I did not find any familiar names or events in the narrative. Most, if not all, of the events in this book were news to me, even though I live just up the road from Kemah and Seabrook where most the story takes place.

I did know of some unrest and antagonism between the fishermen in the Gulf of Mexico and along the Texas coast and the Vietnamese immigrants who were coming into the area in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Many of these Vietnamese refugees were fishermen by heritage and trade, and it was natural for them to begin plying that trade along the Gulf Coast. It was also inevitable that there would be friction between these newcomers with a different language and culture and the Gulf Coast fishermen who were already struggling with decreased harvests of fish and other seafood and the poisoning of the bays where they made their living by petrochemical plants, oil spills, and and other hazards of modern life. But I thought the problem was over-fishing: not enough fish and too many fishermen.

But Mr. Johnson’s book shows that the problem was much more racial and cultural than economic. Yes, there was a problem with over-fishing, but only because pollutants were destroying many of the prime fishing areas. And generally the Vietnamese were willing to work longer and harder, often with the entire family pitching in to help, than the predominantly white fishermen were accustomed to working. So the Vietnamese got more fish. It wasn’t fair! They must be communists!

As tensions grew, a Vietnamese man killed a white “crabber” (crab fisherman) in self-defense. Then the KKK became involved, and the Southern Poverty Law Center, and everything became much more theatrical and at the same time more enflamed and dangerous. And one lone woman was trying with her own theatricals to direct attention toward the encroaching danger of environmental pollution and corporate malfeasance while everyone else was either (the white guys) busy burning crosses and torching shrimp boats or (the Vietnamese) trying to protect their homes, families and livelihoods from the racist Klansmen.

It’s a fascinating story, and I only wonder what’s happened since this book was published in 2022. Near the end of the story, the author says that most of the shrimp consumed in the U.S. nowadays comes breaded and frozen from shrimp farms in Asia. It’s cheaper that way, and the shrimping industry along the Gulf Coast is minimal. “There were hardly any shrimp left in the bays,” writes Mr. Johnson. “Ninety percent of all shrimp consumed in America was now imported.” It’s a sad story.

Proud Prisoner by Walter Havighurst

Feb25

This narrative history/biography book is for older middle school to high school students and adults who are interested in a different perspective on the American Revolution, particularly the war in the Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan territories west of the Appalachian Mountains. The “proud prisoner” of the title is Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton, British Governor of Detroit, aka “Hair Buyer”. As the war between the independence-declaring Americans and the mighty ruling British was raging in the east, the illegal settlers in Kentucky and Ohio were experiencing their own war. The British paid Native American allies, led by British officers, to raid the settlements and isolated homesteads of these settlers, who were mostly from Virginia and considered themselves Americans and Virginians, not subject to the British law that said they couldn’t settle in the land beyond the Cumberland Gap.

Henry Hamilton gained the epithet “Hair Buyer” among the Virginians because he was accused of paying the Native Americans for scalps but not for for live prisoners and of encouraging them to massacre men, women, and children. This book makes the case that Hamilton was falsely accused by a couple of unreliable witnesses with an ax to grind. However, the author also states very plainly that Hamilton gave the natives many “presents” (mostly rum), including knives specifically called scalping knives. And when the raiders brought in scalps, including those obviously taken from children, Hamilton gave them praise and more gifts. If that’s not paying for scalps, I’m not sure what it is.

So I wasn’t convinced that Governor Hamilton was an “honest and honorable man whom history has cast in a villain’s role.” Maybe the best you can say is that he was no worse than many of his compatriots as well as many of the Virginians who were also enlisting the natives to fight for them. Anyway, it was fascinating to read about this side of the War for Independence. I don’t remember learning in American history class much about George Rogers Clark, the Virginian sent by Governor Patrick Henry to capture the British outposts in the west and stop the marauding British and natives from their raids on American settlements. Nor do I remember anything at all about the governor of Detroit and the battle between his forces and the Virginia militiamen at Vincennes that ended in the capture and imprisonment of Governor Hamilton.

I thought this story, by a scholar and university professor, was well written, engaging, and well researched. Governor Hamilton left behind many papers, letters, and a diary which means the author had many sources from which to draw in telling the history of this possibly unfairly stigmatized, possibly justly hated, man. Either way, Hamilton’s life was one I knew nothing about, and I’m glad I read about him in Proud Prisoner.

This book can be borrowed by member families from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

All Thirteen by Christina Soontornvat

Oct10

All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Christian Soontornvat. A Robert F. Sibert Honor Book. An Orbis Pictus Honor Book. A Newbery Honor Book 2021.

“On the soccer fields of Mae San, Thailand, it sounds like a typical Saturday morning.”

In this 229 page somewhat over-sized book, Christina Soontornvat, an American writer with family in Thailand, tells the story of the 13 members of the Wild Boars soccer team who were trapped in the cave Tham Luang Nang Non, the Cave of the Sleeping Lady, for eighteen days while thousands of people came together from all over the world to effect their rescue. Soontornvat uses narrative, photographs, diagrams, and informational sidebar inserts to tell the story of the boys and how they survived and of the rescuers who worked to save them.

I already knew the outlines of the story of the cave rescue from watching the movie, Thirteen Lives. But reading about the cave rescue made me appreciate even more the miraculous nature of what was accomplished in rescuing these boys. Vern Unsworth, one of the many key players in the rescue, said, after the boys were safely out of the cave, “I still can’t believe it. It shouldn’t have worked. It just should not have worked.”

There is much information in the book about caves and cave exploration, about Thai culture and soccer and about Buddhism and Buddhist practice. Soontornvat is respectful and unbiased in her presentation, recognizing that there were cultural differences that hindered communication between the Thai rescuers and authorities and the outsiders, mostly, British and American, who came to help. These differences in communication style and in expertise were sometimes difficult to navigate, but also the differing approaches became strengths as the rescuers learned to work together.

All of this story is presented in narrative form and in language that is accessible to children ages eleven or twelve and up. As an adult reader, I was nevertheless fascinated and enlightened by this “children’s book.” The information boxes are thankfully kept to a minimum and contain interesting supplemental information about such subjects as hypothermia, Buddhism in Thailand, and specialized breathing equipment used by the rescuers. There are a few references to climate change (as a reason for heavy rainfall that trapped the boys in the cave) and evolution as an agent in the formation of limestone, but these are not obtrusive.

The story focuses mainly on the thirteen boys and their will to survive and it is compelling and well told. The book would be a fine supplement to studies of Southeast Asia, caves, diving and underwater rescues, Buddhism and world religions, or more specifically Thailand. Give it to kids who are interested in soccer, survival stories, or exploration stories. And I highly recommend both this book and the movie Thirteen Lives.

Captain Cook Explores the South Seas by Armstrong Sperry

Sep9

Captain Cook Explores the South Seas by Armstrong Sperry. World Landmark #19.

The book’s title is a bit of a misnomer: James Cook didn’t explore just the South Seas. He went almost everywhere: starting in England, then Canada, the Arctic, the Antarctic, the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), Tahiti, Cape Horn, the Cape of Good Hope, Alaska, Melanesia, Micronesia, New Zealand, Australia, and all points in between. He went on three voyages of exploration, and boy, did he explore. And he started out as a farmer’s son and ended up as captain of his own ship and leader of the three afore-mentioned expeditions, gaining fame and glory and all sorts of scientific information, maps, charts, botanic specimens, paintings, and other discoveries on behalf of the Royal Society and the British Admiralty.

All of the Landmark books that I have read are well written, but I think this one is one of the best in terms of excellent writing and storytelling. Cook’s adventurous life and rags to riches story lends itself to the creation of an adventure story, and Sperry’s telling of the story does not disappoint. He begins the tale as thirteen year old James Cook leaves his home to take up an apprenticeship that will bring him near the sea:

“That August morning in the year 1741, the early sun was as bright as a promise of good fortune. It cast a light of gold over the rolling moors of Yorkshire, on fat sheep grazing in the fields. It lay warm as a blessing on the shoulders of the boy who followed so eagerly an empty road that stretched forever away from Great Ayton.

Mark that boy well, Reader! For young James Cook–tall for his thirteen summers, and with all his belongings swinging in a bundle at the end of a stick–had set forth on a great adventure. Although in years to come he was to travel farther over the earth’s surface than any man before him, perhaps this first youthful journey was the most momentous of all. It set the pattern of his future.”

Armstrong Sperry, author of the Newbery award story, Call It Courage, traveled in the South Seas himself, and learned both French and Tahitian. Sperry was also a Navy veteran and interested in all things nautical, and he was a talented artist whose illustrations for this book about Captain Cook are exquisite and fully supportive of the lively narrative text. Sperry wrote two other books for the Landmark series, The Voyages of Christopher Columbus and John Paul Jones, Fighting Sailor as well as several other nautical-themed fiction books for children. I am eager to read some of his other books since the writing in this one is so very good.

A couple of content considerations: Sperry describes the “savages”, both of North America (Canada) and of the Pacific islands, in mostly unflattering terms. Cook described the islanders in particular as primitive, thieving, and unhygienic, reserving the term “handsome” for the Tahitians and the Hawaiians only. So that’s how Sperry describes them. And the life and travels of Captain James Cook do not end well. He gets into a dispute, perhaps a misunderstanding, with the king and people of the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii), and he is killed on the beach by a Hawaiian war club wielded by one of the king’s warriors.

Despite the content considerations, I highly recommend Captain Cook Explores the South Seas, maybe along with a book told more from the perspective of the native islanders. The Last Princess, The Story of Princess Ka’iulani of Hawaii by Fay Stanley is one possibility. Another Landmark about Hawaii (which I haven’t read) is Hawaii, Gem of the Pacific by Oscar Lewis.

The Ride of Her Life by Elizabeth Letts

Sep4

The Ride of Her Life: The True Story of a Woman, Her Horse, and Their Last-Chance Journey Across America by Elizabeth Letts

One of my fascinations is journey stories: Peter Jenkins’ A Walk Across America and The Walk West, Robin Graham’s The Boy Who Sailed ‘Round the World (aka Dove), Walking to Listen by Andrew Forsthoefel, Bold Spirit by Linda Lawrence Hunt, just to name a few that I’ve read and enjoyed. The Ride of Her Life is another entry in the “journey across America” genre, this time by horse.

Annie was 62 years old in 1954 when she decided to leave her Maine hometown of Minot and travel by horseback to California. She didn’t know where she was going in California; nor did she have a route picked out for getting there. She didn’t have a roadmap. She didn’t have a plan for what she would do when she got to California either. She had very little money, and her horse, a Maine trotter gelding named Tarzan, was at least as old (as horses age) as Annie herself. Annie Wilkins also had no family, no children, and no real ties to the town of Minot where she spent most of her life up until the age of 62. Her farm had just been taken from her in lieu of back taxes.

So she decided to ride Tarzan across the country to California and figured that by the time she reached the Pacific she would be almost old enough to draw from that new government program, Social Security, if she didn’t die on the way. Her Maine doctor had found a spot on her lungs that might have been cancer or tuberculosis, and he figured she had only a couple years to live. What better way to spend those years than as a tramp, which is what Annie decided to call herself, “The Last of the Saddle Tramps” or “The Tramp of Fate.”

I liked this book partly because Annie was about my age when she set out on her journey. I could never ride or walk across the country. I can barely walk around the block without stumbling or breathing hard, and I’ve never ridden a horse. But I do admire Annie’s tenacious spirit, and I would like to emulate her in some ways.

I also enjoyed all the extra information added by the author, Elizabeth Letts. Ms. Letts did a phenomenal amount of research writing this book. A lot of the book is based on Annie’s memoir, written with co-author Mina Titus Sawyer, called Last of the Saddle Tramps. However, Ms. Letts also traveled to all of the places where Annie stopped, found the newspaper articles that were written about her ride in local and national newspapers, and interviewed the few people who are still living and remember Annie coming through or staying in their neighborhoods and homes.

The book is just fascinating. Annie travelled through snow and ice and heat and desert and mountains and over rivers. And she found plenty of friendly strangers who cared for her along the way. She met Andrew Wyeth, Governor Robert Smylie of Idaho, Art Linkletter, and countless less famous folks who were all treated with the same friendly, unassuming, appreciative air by Annie, The Last of the Saddle Tramps.

The Voyages of Henry Hudson by Eugene Rachlis

Aug16

The Voyages of Henry Hudson, World Landmark #54, is all about the quest “to discover a passage by the North Pole to Japan and China.” The first attempts to find a way to Asia via the North Pole were not directed at finding the Northwest Passage but rather a number of dangerous and ultimately fruitless journeys north up the coast of Greenland and then east to find a way north of Norway and Russia to get to China and Japan. Hudson’s first two voyages were unsuccessful as he was following this route.

But Henry Hudson, encouraged by the stories of his friend Captain John Smith, thought that the passage to the East lay to the west in the New World. So in his third and fourth voyages, Hudson wanted to go west, but most people still thought that he should try going east again—or that the whole idea of a passage to the to Asia in the northern seas was hopeless. And so it was. The fourth and last voyage was a total failure: the ship was trapped in the ice, food ran low, the crew mutinied, and Hudson was abandoned in the ship’s boat in icy waters never to be heard from again.

So why is Hudson remembered, and why are a major river and and a bay named for him? Well, he didn’t discover the Northwest Passage because there is no Northwest Passage, but he did pave the way for Europeans, Dutch, French, Swedish, and English, to map the New World and to begin to settle it and eventually build two nations, Canada and the United States.

Henry Hudson was one of the earliest ship’s captains to keep a meticulous ship’s log. There’s a note on sources in the back of this Landmark book, and author Eugene Rachlis tells readers:

“All the known documents pertaining to Hudson are available. Some are scarce and can be found only in the reference rooms of major libraries. Others, or at least parts of them, are more readily obtainable. Those in Dutch and Latin have been translated into English. The Hudson documents are the major sources for the facts in this book, along with a dozen or so other books which provided material on the items in which Hudson lived, the places he visited and the people he saw.”

For those who are studying Canada and Canadian history, this book, along with World Landmark #8, Royal Canadian Mounted Police by Richard Neuberger and #24 The Hudson’s Bay Company by Richard Morenus would provide a good introduction to the Canadian story. Other Landmarks that impinge upon Canadian history are Evangeline and the Acadians by Robert Tallant, Rogers’ Rangers and the French and Indian War by Bradford Smith, General Brock and Niagara Falls by Samuel Hopkins Adams, and The Alaska Gold Rush by May McNeer.

The Hudson’s Bay Company by Richard Morenus

Aug14

This Landmark history book is really about the French voyageurs and the men of the Hudson’s Bay Company: Pierre Radisson, Medart Chouart des Groseilliers, Le Moyne d’Iberville, Henry Kelsey, Alexander MacKenzie, James Knight, Louis Riel.. And it’s about the fur trade and the ongoing centuries-long dispute between the French, the British, and the Native Americans over who would control that fur trade and reap the riches to be gained from it.

The focus of the book is Canadian history, although events do dip down south of the Canadian American border from time to time. This spotlight on Canada only makes sense since The Hudson’s Boy Company is World Landmark #24, not American. The story features a lot of fightin’ and cheatin’ and thievin’ between 1649 when the book opens and the first half of the twentieth century when it ends. Mr. Morenus chronicles all the ups and downs of the the fur trade and the men who were engaged in it, and he uses language that was appropriate for 1956 when the book was published but may sound jarring to twenty-first century ears (words such as Indian, half-breed, Eskimo, savages).

No one, except for the Royal Canadian Mounties who “brought law to the West and kept it”, is a complete hero in this story. The voyageurs are hardworking, brave, skilled, thieves, poachers, and cutthroats. The Native Americans (in Canada nowadays the correct term is First Nations peoples) are cunning, sometimes friendly, sometimes violent, victimized and drugged with alcohol by the white men. The British and French military and governing authorities are mostly greedy, power hungry, and willing to do almost anything to maintain control of the fur trade. Maybe the fifth Earl of Selkirk who brought a large number of Scots to colonize various parts of Canada, could be considered a “good guy”, but he didn’t have a happy ending. And Alexander MacKenzie seems to have been an intrepid explorer. But the rest of these guys are not anyone you would want to meet in a dark alley.

Anyway, the Hudson’s Bay Company ruled a great portion of Canada for many years. In fact, Hudson’s Bay Company was thought by some to be more powerful and certainly richer than the British government of Canada itself. Now they are a department store conglomerate, also in the real estate and investments business. Their history is integral to the history of Canada and of the northern United States.

Read more about Canada and Canadian history:

  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, a World Landmark book by Richard Neuberger, tells more about the Mounties who brought law and order to Rupert’s Land, the territory of the Hudson’s Bay Company.
  • The Canadian Story by May McNeer gives a brief introduction to the sweep of Canadian history, with short chapters for elementary age children.
  • Alexander MacKenzie: Canadian Explorer by Ronald Syme tells of the explorer who made the first journey across Canada to the Pacific coast.
  • The Real Book about Canada by Lyn Harrington is another accessible history/geography narrative about the Canadian story.

Growing Up Dakota by Charles Alexander Eastman

Jul19

Growing Up Dakota by Charles Alexander Eastman, edited and illustrated by Charlene Notgrass. From Indian Child Life and Indian Boyhood, both by Charles Alexander Eastman.

Charles Eastman was an amazing Native American voice and man. After reading about him in the linked article, I am surprised that I had never heard of him before now. With all of the emphasis on “own voices” and the authentic Native American experience these days, Mr. Eastman’s writing and perspective would seem to be particularly valuable to children who are learning about American history and about Native American life. And yet, only one of his many books is available in print from my large city library system, and none of his work is available in an edition meant for children, even though much of Mr. Eastman’s original writing was intended for children and young adults.

Growing Up Dakota its an edited version of two of Eastman’s books, Indian Child Life and Indian Boyhood, a sort of “youth edition” of Eastman’s stories. Charlene Notgrass, the editor, summarizes some parts of Eastman’s text with her own words in italics. But she writes in her foreword, “All of the words in Growing Up Dakota are the original words of Charles Eastman, except when you see lines typed like this: the italicized words between the lines are mine. . . . I have not changed the words that Eastman chose because I want you to be able to read this story in the words of the real Dakota man who wrote them.”

Mr. Eastman tells his story in roughly chronological order, but it’s also a rambling sort of story that reminds one of an old man reciting his memories of his boyhood, stories that others told to him, and other anecdotal accounts as they occur to him. The author begins with the story that was told to him of his birth and his name, “Hakadah” meaning Pitiful Last. He was given this name because he was the last of five children, and his mother died soon after he was born. Hakadah, who later received the more pleasant name Ohiyesa, which means Winner, was raised by his grandmother and his uncle. Ohiyesa’s father was presumed dead when the family was separated during the Dakota Wars of 1862.

The book ends with Ohiyesa’s father reappearance when Ohiyesa was fifteen years old. His father had been imprisoned, then released, and had to search to find Ohiyesa and the rest of his tribe and family. Ohiyesa’s father, Jacob Eastman, had in the interim become a Christian, and he took Ohiyesa to live “like the white men” on a homestead in South Dakota. That’s when Ohiyesa took a “Christian name,” Charles Alexander Eastman. He went to school, graduated from Dartmouth College, and Boston University’s medical school, and became a doctor and an author.

In between are the memories of Ohiyesa/Eastman’s Indian boyhood: the customs and celebrations, hunts and courting rituals, feasts and training for manhood. All that the author remembers is described vividly and with respect for the Dakota (Sioux) way of life. This book would be fascinating for children to listen to if read aloud in brief pieces, Charlotte Mason-style, and would provide much food for discussion. Boys and girls who are interested in learning more about Native American culture should definitely be introduced to Ohiyesa’s story.

Growing Up Dakota is available for purchase from Notgrass History, a homeschool curriculum publisher and distributor.