Retelling a Classic Story for Young Adults

Nov28

Sometimes an author loves a classic story so much that he or she takes that fandom and makes it into something brand new, not exactly fan fiction, but close. In the following books, the affinity for old books and authors is evident, but the story itself is something new and surprising.

A Secret Princess by Margaret Stohl and Melissa de la Cruz. Riffing on the novels of Frances Hodgson Burnett—Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Secret Garden, and A Little Princess, all three–A Secret Princess has characters Sara Crewe, Mary Lennox, and Cedric Erroll all together as students and friends at Ms. Minchin’s boarding school. Some elements of the story are a little weird, such as the rule that parents are only allowed to visit on one day once a year. What kind of school has a rule like that? Well, of course, a very bad school with things to hide. And Sara Crewe in this story is a Filipina girl, which is fine but over-emphasized. Nevertheless, I enjoyed the story. No ugly language or sex, but racism is a problem. If you like Burnett’s novels, you’ll probably like this Young Adult update.

The Wonderland Trials by Sara Ella. Semicolon review here. Recommended YA.

Goblin Market by Diane Zahler. Not exactly a retelling, but this rather spooky story is “rich world-building inspired by both Polish folklore and the poetry of Christina Rossetti,” namely the eponymous poem, Goblin Market. Which is a bit of a problem. The audience for this one is said to be ages 8-12, grades 4-6. Minka and Lizzie are . . . older than twelve. And the basic plot is about how Minka is seduced by a boy in the market who gives her luscious fruit and induces her to follow him into the dark forest to marry him. And how Lizzie saves Minka. It’s the same problem that first appeared in Rossetti’s poem:

Goblin Market (composed in April 1859 and published in 1862) is a narrative poem by Christina Rossetti. The poem tells the story of Laura and Lizzie who are tempted with fruit by goblin merchants. In a letter to her publisher, Rossetti claimed that the poem, which is interpreted frequently as having features of remarkably sexual imagery, was not meant for children. However, in public Rossetti often stated that the poem was intended for children, and went on to write many children’s poems. 

~Wikipedia

I might share this story with a twelve year old, but no one younger. It’s well written, remarkably disturbing, and ends well. However, it’s a bit much for most eight year olds.

Bargain Bride by Evelyn Sibley Lampman

Nov26

I’ll just share the publisher’s (Purple House Press) disclaimer at the beginning of this review to get that off the table:

This book, written 45 years ago, tells the story of a young girl and her experiences in the Oregon Territory during the 19th century. An excellent storyteller, Evelyn SIbley Lampman provides the reader with the opportunity to explore this time and place through the eyes of the main character, including social customs, religious beliefs, and racial relations. Many aspects of life at that time are foreign and sometimes offensive to us now including specific customs, practices, beliefs, and words. To maintain and provide historical accuracy and to allow a true representation of this time period, words such as Indian, Injuns, savage, colored, and Negro have not been removed or edited.

So, Ginny is ten years old, living in Oregon Territory with her miserly and cruel distant cousins when she is sold into marriage to Mr. Mayhew, a man at least thrice her age. The marriage won’t be consummated until Ginny is fifteen at which time her kindly, but old, husband has promised to have a fine house built for her. When Mr. Mayhew comes to claim Ginny on her fifteenth birthday, it’s clear that he’s a kind man who has kept his promise to make a home for Ginny, but still Ginny is terrified, only sure that anything is better than living with Cousin Mattie and Cousin Beau.

Things go from bad to worse (or better?) when Ginny and her new husband get to their flourishing farm only to have Mr. Mayhew fall dead of a stroke. So Ginny is left with a rich farmstead and a whole train of suitors who can’t wait to offer their strength and protection to the wealthy young widow. Ginny has more important worries than finding a new husband, however. What if Cousin Mattie and Cousin Beau move into her house and take over as they are trying to do? Can Ginny stop them? What’s to be done about the Indian (Molalla) woman who’s living in the smokehouse in back? What will the townspeople think of a fifteen year old widow living alone on the farm? But who can Ginny find to stay with her other than that harridan, Cousin Mattie?

Many of the characters in this novel certainly are prejudiced, pig-headed, and close-minded. And that’s just the “good guys”, including Ginny herself at times. The cousins, the “bad guys” in the story are worse. Still, the people of the town and Ginny’s neighbors are generous, welcoming, and consistently helpful to Ginny as she learns to make a life for herself on the Oregon frontier. Their relationships with the Native Americans in the area are complicated, and this story presents some of those complications with all the nuance and compassion possible in a short young adult novel. None of the characters is completely right or completely wrong (except maybe Cousin Mattie). Some are more prejudiced than others. Some learn, like Ginny, to accept the Molalla people, even though Ginny never does completely understand their culture and actions.

At any rate, this young adult novel, and I think it is indeed young adult, maybe ages 13 and up, raises lots of good questions. What is marriage, and why is it important? Are economic reasons sufficient to make a good marriage? Are we so sure that romantic love is the only basis for a sound marriage? How old is old enough to be and adult? What if one is forced into adulthood? How do we begin to understand and value people from a completely background or culture other than our own? What if we can’t communicate? What if they don’t seem to value us or want to communicate? How do we confront racism and prejudice? Can you talk someone out of their prejudices?

I found this novel to be thought-provoking and compelling. I’m thankful that Purple House Press was able to reprint it, along with three more of Ms. Lampman’s novels: The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek, Three Knocks on the Wall, and The City Under the Back Steps. You can purchase all four books from PHP, or you check them out from my library, Meriadoc Homeschool Library.

The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream by B.B.

Nov25

This book is the sequel to B.B.’s award-winning gnome novel, The Little Grey Men, and I am happy to say it’s just as exciting, just as nature-loving, and just as good as the first book. Sneezewort, Baldmoney, Dodder, and Cloudberry are the last gnomes living in England, maybe in the world. They live in an old hollow tree on Folly brook sharing their lives and their fortunes with the birds, especially their owl friends, and the otters and the other wild beasts, and their special friend Squirrel–the Stream People. But the Folly has been diverted into an underground drain upstream, and now all of the Stream People, including the four gnomes must decide what to do about their homes.

Can the gnomes rehabilitate their old boat, the Jeanie Deans? Will there be enough water in the Folly to float the boat if and when they do? Where can the four old gnomes go to live safely and comfortably away from the eyes and ears of men?

In the first book the gnomes went upstream to search for their lost brother, and in this sequel they are traveling downstream to find a new home. But the adventures are the same. The gnomes have to keep the boat afloat, avoid predators and enemies, and most of all, agree on a plan for a new living situation. Unfortunately, one of the four gnomes is listening to his own evil pride and jealousy while another has some wild ideas about how to proceed. And Dodder, the oldest of the gnomes, is hard put to keep the Little Men safe and all together as they go on their dangerous journey downriver.

Content considerations with SPOILER: In this sequel, as in the first book, the gnomes and their animal friends pray to and receive help from Pan, the god of the beasts. Pan, in this story, reads to me like another name for God, the Lord of all as the animals know him (kind of like Aslan in the Narnia stories). There are no incantations or pagan sacrifices, only prayer and a faith that Pan will guard and guide. Also, one of the characters in the book (SPOILER!) plans to murder the others, and the depth of evil that lurks in this character’s mind was a surprise to me. It might be disturbing to more sensitive readers. However, goodness and perseverance win out in the end, and the bad guys get their just deserts.

This book and the one before it are absolutely full of nature lore and beautiful descriptions of the English flora and fauna, and it’s all worked into an exciting story that doesn’t lag or lose appeal. It may move a little more slowly than most contemporary adventure books for children, but I found the pace to be fast enough to keep me reading for hours. The gnomes have to survive through flood and fire and enemies without and within to make it to their new home, which turns out to be both a surprise and just what they expected and wanted it to be.

If I lived in England with children, this book and The Little Grey Men would be must-reads, read-aloud. For Anglophiles like me, the same is true. For everyone else, I would still recommend that you at least try out The Little Grey Men, and if you like it at all, pick up The Little Grey Men Go Down the Bright Stream also.

A Rover’s Story by Jasmine Warga

Nov16

Resilience and his twin Journey are Mars rovers, built to be the best robots ever to explore the Mars surface. They have a mission, and Res is determined to complete that mission no matter what. However, as Res and Journey go through testing in the lab at NASA and learn more about what their mission is to be, Res develops something like feelings, human emotions like affection, worry, happiness, determination. Journey says that these human feelings are not useful and might very well impede the mission. But Res is determined and resilient.

I had a hard time, for some reason, believing in rovers in our own time period that had emotions and communicated among themselves. Res not only talks to Journey, he also talks to his little drone helicopter, Fly and to the large satellite in orbit over Mars, named Guardian. Each of these robots or machines has a distinct personality. Fly is flighty. Guardian is businesslike and rather grumpy. Journey is a bit conceited. And Res is persistent and lovable. And there never was any explanation for how the various robotic entities got their ability to communicate using human terms and to feel human emotions. In the world of the novel it’s odd, but it just happens. Still, when I was able to turn off the part of my brain that kept asking the same questions (did the programmers somehow program emotions into Res? how can a rover know what non-concrete words in English even mean?), I enjoyed the story.

The funny thing is I have no problem at all with books like The Runaway Robot by Lester Del Rey–because it’s set in the future? Do I think that robots in the future will be able to take on human characteristics, but not now? And the ending, although it’s happy, sort of reminds me of Klara and the Sun by Kashuo Ishiguro. What is to be done with a robot that’s completed its mission successfully? I know this is a children’s book about the exploration of Mars by a resilient rover, and I’m overthinking it.

About a third of the book is taken up with a series of letters from the daughter of one of the scientists who works on code for Res. This daughter grows and matures over the years that it takes Res to reach Mars and complete his mission, and she writes letters to Res that he never receives. It’s a bit odd as a device, but I suppose it’s meant to tie Res and his Mars mission into the world of children and humanity in general. The letters were OK, but they could have been left out, and the story would not have suffered.

I did enjoy this novel despite my questions and misgivings. If you are interested in robotics or space exploration or NASA or Mars, this one might be just the thing. Christina Soontornvat is quoted on the front of my copy of the novel, “Res taught me what it means to be fully alive.” So, there’s that.

Plumfield Moms Podcast

Nov16

Plumfield Moms is a fairly new podcast, hosted by two ladies who have been talking about books and homeschooling and encouraging homeschoolers for quite a while. Sara Masarik and Diane Pendergraft are producing an excellent podcast with author interviews, talks with small independent publishers, Christian mom devotionals, and more. The “more” is what I want to tell you about here.

Today’s podcast episode is an interview with three librarians from Georgia, Oklahoma, and Texas, who own and operate Living Books Libraries, private lending libraries that cater mostly to homeschool families (but anyone is welcome to join). These libraries charge a reasonable yearly fee for members to come and borrow books, many of which are no longer available in the public library and can sometimes be quite expensive to purchase. Many of these books are out of print and hard to find, but these librarians have collected and cared for the books and are now sharing them with their patrons.

Why am I telling you this, and why do you need another podcast in your life? Well, first of all, the library in Texas featured on today’s podcast episode, Meet the Library Ladies, is mine, Meriadoc Homeschool Library. And secondly, this podcast is just that good, covering topics that have not been covered in other podcasts or sometimes not online at all. Just look at some of these podcast episode titles:

And after you listen to all of these great episodes, there are more good things in the works: discussions of specific Landmark titles, interviews with more Living Books librarians, and more. I hope you will enjoy listening as much as I have enjoyed recording with and listening to Plumfield Moms.

Mini-Reviews: Middle Grade Fiction 2022

Nov15

Maybe I’m getting old and jaded, so take this with a grain of salt. However, most of the contemporary middle grade fiction books I’m reading these days seem to be what I call problem novels: books that are very obviously written to speak to some “issue” or “identity” or to encourage us to understand and have compassion for some specific sub-group of people. There’s certainly a place for these kinds of books, and some of them can be good (Anybody Here Seen Frenchie? by Leslie Connor, Everything Sad Is Untrue by Daniel Nayeri, Things Seen From Above by Shelley Pearsall). Nevertheless, I’m getting tired of reading the book versions of the ABC Afterschool Specials of my childhood. Your mileage may vary, especially if you are particularly interested in learning more about the particular issue dealt with in one of the following middle grade novels.

  • Wishing Upon the Same Stars by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman. Issues: Israeli-Palestinian relations, moving to a new place, immigration. Okay, so this book had more than just one major problem or issue to illustrate. Twelve year old Yasmeen Khoury moves with her family to San Antonio, TX, and finds that there are no other Middle Eastern classmates in her new school—except maybe one girl who turns out to be Jewish. But the Israeli Jews are the ones who have turned Yasmeen’s grandmother out of her home in Israel, and Yasmeen’s parents are set against her having anything to do with Ayelet, the Jewish girl, and her family. Can Yasmeen and Ayelet be friends even though their families and their heritage would seem to preclude even basic understanding and peace between the two girls? The story does a good job of showing Yasmeen inner struggle between honoring her family by obeying her parents and trying to make friends and fit into a new culture. However, some of the situations and characters are almost caricatures: the mean girl, Hallie; Yasmeen’s high vocabulary little sister, Sara; and Carlos, the Mexican American boy who is a charro in the rodeo. Wishing Upon the Same Stars was OK, but nothing to write home about.
  • The Summer of June by Jamie Sumner. Issue: anxiety. June is determined that this summer will be the summer that she becomes a lion instead of a mouse: so to beat her anxiety which manifests as hair-pulling, among other symptoms, June shaves her head. But a bald head doesn’t make the anxiety (that June has been living with for several years now) go away. June’s counselor, Gina, is nice, but the techniques Gina gives for June to calm herself and the different meds that they have tried also don’t magically make the panic attacks and sleepless nights and social anxiety go away. June does make a friend, Homer Juarez, and she does find ways to help herself deal with her anxiety. Nevertheless, this book paints a pretty bleak picture of severe anxiety in children, maybe realistic, but surely not all children with anxiety issues are as severely impacted as June. I would be hesitant to hand this book to an anxious child for fear it would make the problem worse instead of better. But friends who are trying to understand anxiety and panic attacks might benefit. Therapeutic fiction.
  • Solimar: The Sword of the Monarchs by Pam Munoz Ryan. Issues: girl power and preservation of (butterfly) species. Solimar, who is about to become an official princess, receives the gift of being able to see the future and realizes that she must use her gift to protect the monarch butterflies in their annual migration and also save the mountain kingdom of San Gregorio. All about can girls be ruling kings or queens or whatever. And can they be brave enough to complete a quest and save the kingdom?
  • Each of Us a Universe by Jeanne Zulick Ferruolo and Ndengo Gladys Mwilelo. Issues: parent with anger, parent in prison, alcoholism, immigration. Yeah, lots of issues to deal with in this story. Cal’s mom has changed because the cancer is taking her life away bit by bit, and Cal doesn’t even want to talk about what her dad did and the reason he’s in prison. Cal just wants to climb Mt. Meteorite, find the magical meteorite that landed there fifty years ago, and use it somehow to heal her mom and make everything right. Cal’s new friend, Rosine, an immigrant from the DRC, also has her own, secret, reasons for wanting to summit the mountain. But will Cal’s broken arm, an encounter with a bear, and the challenge of the mountain that no one has ever climbed before defeat them? OK, but it just felt off somehow. I could have used more about Rosine and her struggles and less about Cal and her temper tantrums.
  • Big Rig by Louise Hawes. Issues: single parent, mother deceased, life on the road. Hazmat (Hazel’s trucker nickname) and her dad have been living out of dad’s eighteen-wheeler (Leonardo) for years, ever since Hazel’s mom died and Hazel got old enough to be homeschooled by dad while criss-crossing the USA taking on loads and delivering them to their destinations. Life in the trucking industry is an adventure, and Hazmat loves “being homeschooled by my dad in a traveling classroom, meeting old friends at every truck stop, and swinging between coasts like a pendulum.” This book really ended me and brought me into the world of long distance trucking, but unfortunately, the minor instances of swearing and a brief mention of dad’s one night stand with a lady friend were a no-go for me. Dad won’t have a CB radio in his truck because he wants to protect Hazmat from “all the swears” the truckers on the radio use, but then he manages to use some pretty fine expletives himself?
  • This Last Adventure by Ryan Dalton. Issue: Grandfather with Alzheimer’s. Archie’s grandpa has always been his hero, but Alzheimer’s is taking away Grandpa’s memories and his personality. And Archie isn’t sure anymore what he should believe about Grandpa’s past. Was he a fireman hero or a soldier with terrible secrets—or both? And can the role-playing, imaginative games that Archie and his grandpa have played together in the past bring back Grandpa’s memories and stop the progression of his disease? I actually liked this particular problem novel. The fantasy elements give th book a bit of relief from the heaviness of what the family in the story is going through, and the characters and events in the story (except for the imaginative interludes) come across as real and believable.
  • Dream, Annie, Dream by Waka T. Brown. Issue: prejudice and racism. “Brown eloquently addresses the history of Asian immigration, microaggressions, the model minority myth, stereotyping, and the impact of the lack of representation.” (Kirkus)That’s a lot to take on in one middle grade novel, but the author manages to include all of those issues and still tell a pretty good story about a Japanese American girl with dreams. Annie wants to act in plays; she wants to be Annie in the musical of the same name, but some of her classmates don’t believe a Japanese American girl can portray red-headed Annie. Haven’t they ever heard of wigs?

The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola

Nov13

Week 45 of my Picture Book Preschool curriculum is all about food and feasting. November is a time for feasting with friends and family, and the list for this week in Picture Book Preschool will prepare you and your children for time of joy, fellowship, and thanksgiving. From A Medieval Feast (Aliki, 1987) to Stone Soup (Marcia Brown, 1947), these books get your taste buds and your gratitude going.

One of the books on this list for this week is The Popcorn Book by Tomie dePaola. In this book according to the book jacket blurb, Mr. dePaola, “who eats a lot of popcorn, shares what he knows about it with humor and imagination.” Do you know why it’s best to store popcorn kernels in the refrigerator? Have you ever heard of popcorn soup? What are the top popcorn-eating cities in the U.S.? What are two terrific way to pop popcorn? And finally, what do you do with an over-abundance of popcorn?

All these questions are answered in The Popcorn Book, in a kid-friendly text embedded in a story about twins making, of course, popcorn. The illustrations are classic dePaola, and the text is informative, but not dry. The 40th anniversary edition (2018), which is the one I have, has undated some Native Merican facts and terms while keeping the charm and humor of the original 1978 edition.

When you decide to make popcorn this fall or winter or anytime really, The Popcorn Book is a great accompaniment. You could even have a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving with popcorn as the main course.

You can purchase a pdf download copy of Picture Book Preschool at Biblioguides.

The Night the Lights Went Out by Don Freeman

Nov2

The Night the Lights Went Out by Don Freeman. Viking Press, 1958.

Published the year after I was born, this picture book is listed in my Picture Book Preschool curriculum list for Week 43 when the topic is Nighttime. The 1950’s were the era of Dan’l Boone and Davy Crockett on TV, and the coonskin cap, when little boys and girls played “Cowboys and Indians” unabashedly. And sure enough, in this book Thatcher, the main character, wears a coonskin cap, imagines “wild Indians” outside his house, and wants to be a pioneer like Dan’l when he grows up—or maybe a train engineer.

When a blizzard knocks out the power lines in Thatcher’s community, Thatcher gets a taste of what pioneer life might have been like as he and his parents eat stew cooked over an open fire and read by firelight and candlelight. And Thatcher loves pioneer life until . . . over the course of the story Thatcher realizes that there’s something he would like to be when he grows up that’s even more important than building a fort or running a train.

Big, bold illustrations with just a touch of (yellow) color give the book a nighttime feel—and a bygone era ambience. It would be fun to talk about pioneer life compared to life in mid-twentieth century (1950’s) America compared to life now. What would happen if the electricity went out at your house? How much do we depend on electricity for light and for warmth and for how many other seeming necessities? You could also talk about how Thatcher viewed Native Americans and where he got his ideas. Thatcher’s parents at one point tease him with reports of “Bolt the doors! Indians! Indians! . . . The redskins are closing in!” Why are Thatcher’s parents playing along with stereotypes of Native Americans? Is it harmless fun, or can such ideas hurt people and relationships?

As far as I’m concerned the book is a delight, worth reading for the story of a boy who gets to experience what life would be like without electricity and who learns from his experience. Some other books suggested in Week 43 of Picture Book Preschool are: At Night by Jonathan Bean, Night in the Country by Cynthia Rylant, and Owl at Home by Arnold Lobel.

A Dragon Used to Live Here by Annette LeBlanc Cate

Oct17

Noble children Thomas and Emily have always known their mother to be sensible, the lady of the castle—if anything, a bit boring. But then they discover Meg, a cranky scribe who lives in the castle basement, leading a quirky group of artists in producing party invitations and other missives for the nobles above. Meg claims that she was a friend of their mother’s back when the two were kids—even before the dragon lived in the castle. Wait—a dragon? Not sure they can believe Meg’s tales, the kids return again and again to hear the evolving, fantastical story of their mother’s escapades.

~Amazon summary

 I thought this one was pure fun. It reminded me of telling my own children stories that I made up on the fly. “Once upon a time there was a princess named Maria who lived in a BIG castle with her mother the queen, her father the king, and her eighteen brothers and sisters . . .” My stories always began with those words and went on to ramble about in much the same way Meg’s stories do. Throughout the book Thomas and Emily are ambivalent and unsure as to whether or not Meg is telling the real story of her past friendship with their mother the queen or whether she is just stringing them along to get their help with all the pre-party preparations. Could there really have been a dragon living at their castle in the past? Were Mom and Meg really tennis partners? Are there alligators in the moat? Fairies in the woods?The reader is just as uncertain as the children are, and just as anxious to hear the rest of the story.

There is an ongoing question as to whether or not Meg might be a witch, but it’s never really resolved, and she doesn’t cast spells or do anything witchy. This middle grade fiction story is fun and adventurous, mildly ridiculous, with no really deep questions or themes, except maybe the reunification of old friends. I loved it.

Racing Storm Mountain by Trent Reedy

Sep28

I just finished reading this 2022 middle grade fiction novel, second in a series of middle grade adventure books set in the fictional town of McCall, Idaho near McCall Mountain (The series is called McCall Mountain, with a new book Fishing in Fire set to come out in February, 2023.). I liked the first book in the series, Hunter’s Choice, but I really liked this second book. It speaks to a demographic that is neglected in most contemporary children’s literature: rural, adventure-loving, lower class, flyover country.

I enjoyed it even though it’s about snowmobile racing, a sport that I didn’t even know existed. Folks, I’m from Houston now, originally West Texas; we don’t have winter sports. Therefore, I wouldn’t know whether the many details in the book about snowmobiles and avalanches and frostbite are perfect or not, but it reads as if the author knows what he’s writing about. To write an adventure sports survival story set in West Texas, you would have to include tornadoes, or deserts, or bucking broncos, and I might know a little more about the situation.

The writing is quite good, and the kids talk like middle school kids. The conflict of rich vs. poor, popular vs. loser, and the idea of privilege shown from a different than expected perspective make this a standout. I especially liked one scene in which the main characters discuss what it means to be privileged and whether or not we are responsible for our own plight or privilege in life. It’s open-ended, but meant to get readers to think without telling them what to think.

Bottom line, Racing Storm Mountain is just a good read: a survival story about three middle school kids stranded in a snowstorm on a mountain. Hunter, Swann, and Kelton must work together to survive despite their very different backgrounds and experiences.

Thanks, Mr. Reedy, for another solid and enjoyable reading adventure. Oh, Words in the Dust is another book, this one set in Afghanistan, by Trent Reedy that I recommend.