The Christmas Crocodile by Bonny Becker

Dec21

“The Christmas Crocodile didn’t mean to be bad, not really.”

When Alice and Jayne and her family find a crocodile under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve, they really don’t know what to do. “He was eating up Christmas and no one knew what to do with him.” What would you do with a crocodile on Christmas?

This book is a hilarious, ridiculous romp about a compassionate family with a crocodile problem. The illustrations by David Small are cartoonish, which is not usually my preference, but for this humorous story, the pictures are appropriate and add to the silliness. This one is a must-add to the holiday picture book shelf. I’m wrapping up my copy for this year’s box of “12 Books of Christmas” for my three year old grandson and his little sister, and I really think Teddy will find it laugh out loud funny. However, older children will also enjoy the fun and will perhaps understand the ending which will probably elude the understanding of the three year old.

The Christmas Crocodile is in print, available wherever you buy books, and also available for checkout from my library (after Mr. Teddy returns it). It would probably be just as good an after-Christmas read as before, especially since you will be discussing what might happen after the ending page.

Santa Mouse Stories by Michael Brown

Dec7

My compilation of these stories about Santa’s mouse helper, includes three stories: Santa Mouse; Santa Mouse, Where Are You?; and Santa Mouse Meets Montague. In the first story we meet a humble little mouse with no name. When this little mouse does something kind and actually meets Santa himself, he gets a name and a mission. In Santa Mouse, Where Are You?, Santa’s little mouse helper, now called Santa Mouse, becomes lost in the cold and the snow and experiences a sort of miracle when a light leads him to warmth and safety. “Montague Mouse was a mean little thing who often behaved like a rat.” The third story begins with these words, but over the course of the story Montague is taught a lesson. And he learns to believe in Santa Claus and Santa Mouse.

These are simple stories with the moral: behave yourself, and leave a piece of cheese for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve. These books are all about Santa, so if you don’t have that tradition as part of your Christmas, these won’t be for you. But if you’re a Santa believer–or even as we were a Santa pretender–these little stories will hit just the right note of wonder and fun and imagination for preschoolers. I think I could manage to read these repeatedly over the Christmas season without becoming a babbling idiot–an important quality in a book for two to four year olds.

And there are dozens of Santa Mouse and Santa Mouse spin-off books and even merchandise, coloring books, board books, etc. You can read a more critical review at Kirkus Reviews. But I suggest you add it to your Christmas repertoire, if you run across a copy.

The Christmas Anna Angel by Ruth Sawyer

Dec6

The Christmas Anna Angel by Ruth Sawyer, illustrated by Kate Seredy. Viking Press, 1944. (Christmas in Hungary, c.1918)

“Here is one of those heart-warming tales that never grow old but take their place on the Christmas shelf to become year after year a part of the family Christmas. Ruth Sawyer heard the story from a friend named Anna, whose little girlhood was spent on a Hungarian farm where her own Christmas Anna Angel came to her. Miss Sawyer’s text and Kate Seredy’s lovely drawings retell the tale with a feather-light touch that would not brush away the loveliness of a dream or of a little child’s belief in Christmas.

~New York TImes

This book is absolutely beautiful. The story is great, but the text combined with the illustrations make the book a children’s masterpiece. Miklos and his older sister Anna are growing up on a farm during the later years of World War I. The book begins on St. Nicholas Eve, “the day that begins the Christmas time,” and ends on Christmas Day. In between, Anna tells Miklos about Christmases past, before the war, when there was plenty of flour and honey and eggs and fuel for the baking of Christmas cakes to hang on the Christmas tree. And as the children welcome St. Nicholas on his day, celebrate St. Lucy’s Day, and wonder at the marvels of the Christmas Eve celebration, Anna maintains her faith that the angels in heaven, especially her own Christmas Anna Angel, will see to the baking of Christmas cakes in spite of the war conditions and privations.

This story is Hungarian Catholic in its culture and setting; Protestant readers may have to explain about talking and praying to saints and going to Mass on Christmas Eve. However, it’s also a very Christian book, with an emphasis on the true wonder and meaning of Christmas and the coming of the Christ Child while holding onto a child’s ability to imagine and embroider even in wartime. I wish I could send a copy of this story to every child in Ukraine this Christmas, along with a copy of the gospel of Luke, to give them hope and imagination and joy in their time of war.

Whatever war or harshness is in your life this Christmas, I wish for you, too, some hope and joy and Christmas cakes. If you get a chance to read The Christmas Anna Angel this Christmas and you like it, I recommend Kate Seredy’s books, The Good Master and The Singing Tree, both also set before and during World War I in Hungary and quite reminiscent of Ruth Sawyer’s Christmas story.

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 First Noel by Alice and Martin Provensen

Dec2

The First Noel, The Birth of Christ from the Gospel according to Saint Luke. Illustrated by Alice and Martin Provensen. Golden Press, 1959. (Christmas in Israel, c.4 BC)

The text for this book is simply taken from scripture, Luke 2:1-20, King James Version. The end papers consist of just the words from Isaiah 9:6-7, “For unto us a child’s born . . .” But the typeface is beautiful, and along with the illustrations, it looks a little bit like an illuminated medieval manuscript. Just a beautiful book, telling a beautiful story.

Interestingly enough for 1959, almost all of the people in the book are varying shades of dark-skinned–brown, tan, black . . . The angels’ faces, however, are white/colorless??? I don’t know what’s up with that, but I did think it was intriguing—and uncharistically accurate. The book has a bit of an Orthodox or Middle Eastern feel to it with round halos around the heads of Mary and Joseph and the angels and Jesus and onion domes and arches on many of the buildings.

Anyway, this book would be lovely introduction to the story of Jesus’ birth for preschoolers and primary aged children, or even older. And it’s long and sort of tall, 9″ x 5″, just the right size to tuck into a Christmas stocking. Unfortunately, it’s a unicorn, out of print, selling for over a hundred dollars a copy on Amazon. If you see a copy at a used book sale or thrift shop, grab it.

If you’re interested in this book or in the work of Alice and Martin Provensen, there’s a new book, published just this year (2022), called The Art of Alice and Martin Provensen. It’s a book showcasing the Provensens’ artwork, with some tributes contributed by their daughter Karen Provensen Mitchell, publisher Robert Gottleib, and children’s literature expert Leonard S. Marcus. (It’s still in print, and much less expensive than The First Noel.)

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.

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.