Summer Reading Challenge: Poets and Poetry

Jun12

I’m sponsoring a summer reading challenge in my library. The rules are as follows:

Out of the forty categories listed, choose the number your child intends to complete, one book per category from Meriadoc Homeschool Library.Children in grades K-12 can choose to read 10, 20, 30 or 40 books between June 1, 2019 and August 31, 2019. Books must be recorded and responses given on the official record sheet. You do not have to check out your books from Meriadoc Homeschool Library, but many categories may be easier to find in MHSL than in other libraries or at home. Books can be read and recorded in any order you choose.

The second category for this challenge is “a book about poetry or about a poet.”

What Is Poetry? The Essential Guide to Reading and Writing Poems by Michael Rosen. If you’re interested writing your own poetry (or song lyrics), this book is a great guide for getting started. It covers definitions, ways to start a poem, editing, technical points about reading and writing poems, and more. Summer is a great time for daydreaming and brainstorming and writing poetry.

Picture books and picture book biographies of famous poets:
A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jennifer Bryant. Williams was both a doctor and poet, and his life story as told in this picture book is inspirational and absorbing.

Emily by Michael Bedard. This picture book is a fiction story about Emily Dickinson and the little girl who lives across the street from Emily and comes to visit one day. Such a good story.

Custard the Dragon by Ogden Nash. One of my favorite poems just for fun.

Belinda lived in a little white house,
With a little black kitten and a little gray mouse,
And a little yellow dog and a little red wagon,
And a realio, trulio, little pet dragon.

Biographies for chapter book readers:
Phillis Wheatley : Young Colonial Poet by Helen Ross Speicher. In the Childhood of Famous Americans series, this biography tells about the first African American women to have her poetry published and acclaimed in colonial America.

James Whitcomb Riley: Hoosier Boy (Childhood of Famous Americans) by Minnie Belle Mitchell. Another COFA that you can pair with the picture book version of Riley’s poem, The Gobble-Uns ‘ll Git You Ef You Don’t Watch Out! James Whitcomb Riley’s Little Orphant Annie.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, His Life by Catherine Owens Peare. I love Longfellow, and this is a great biography, easy to read but really informative. I think if you read a couple of Longfellow’s poems together, children will be interested in learning more about the poet. The picture book that goes with this biography is Paul Revere’s Ride by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

Poetry and fiction:
The Mouse of Amherst by Elizabeth Spires. Another fiction book about Emily Dickinson and her friend; this time the friend is a little mouse who lives in Emily’s house.

May B. by Caroline Starr Rose. “When a failed wheat crop nearly bankrupts the Betterly family, Pa pulls twelve-year-old May from school and hires her out to a couple new to the Kansas frontier.” Verse novels are stories written in poetic form, usually free verse. The poems tell the story, and this one is a good tribute to perseverance and determination. Two other verse novels that I can recommend are Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate and Hate That Cat by Sharon Creech.

I have lots of other poetry books in my library. I didn’t even get to the regular poetry collections like Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends and others and the subject-related collections of poems, for example Beat the Drum, Independence Day Has Come and Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems, both by Lee Bennett Hopkins.

What are your favorite poetry-related books?

Summer Reading Challenge: Nature Study

Jun11

I’m sponsoring a summer reading challenge in my library. The rules are as follows:

Out of the forty categories listed, choose the number your child intends to complete, one book per category from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. Children in grades K-12 can choose to read 10, 20, 30 or 40 books between June 1, 2019 and August 31, 2019. Books must be recorded and responses given on the official record sheet. You do not have to check out your books from Meriadoc Homeschool Library, but many categories may be easier to find in MHSL than in other libraries or at home. Books can be read and recorded in any order you choose.

The first category is “books about nature study.” Here are a few suggestions from my library:

Out of School and Into Nature: The Anna Comstock Story by Suzanne Slade, illustrated by Jessica Lanon. A picture book biography of the well-known educator and naturalist. Here’s a link to my review of this lovely story of a girl who was in love with nature.

The Boy Who Drew Birds by Jacqueline Davies is another picture book biography, this one about John James Audubon.

Jim Arnosky has a plethora of wonderful nature books. I have the following books in my library:
Sketching Outdoors in Summer
Secrets of a Wildlife Watcher
Turtle in the Sea
Raccoons and Ripe Corn
Crinkleroot’s Guide to Knowing Animal Habitats
Come Out, Muskrats
All About Turkeys
All About Frogs
All About Owls
Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators
Hook, Line, And Seeker: A Beginner’s Guide To Fishing, Boating, and Watching Water Wildlife
Read more about Mr. Arnosky and his fabulous books. You can find more of them at the bookstore or at the public library.

The Adventure Book of Nature Craft by Richard F. Dempewolff. This book is from an old series that used to be sold in hobby shops and craft stores. Other books in the series that would qualify as “nature study” are The Adventure Book of Birds, The Adventure Book of Insects, The Adventure Book of Leaves, and The Adventure Book of Growing Plants. These are for the child (or adult) who wants to start a new hobby or collection: a leaf collection, a garden or terrarium, bird-watching, or an insect collection. Good reading and lots of good fun to go with it.

Right in Your Own Backyard: Nature Math by Anne Miranda. From the I Love Math series, published by Time-Life Education. Discover patterns in nature, study animals tracks with Professor Guesser, and learn about the geometry of a spider’s web.

In Woods and Fields by Margaret Waring Buck. “This book is for boys and girls and other beginning naturalists. Every effort has been made to make it as accurate as if it were written and illustrated for scientists.It is the result of years of firsthand observation and study.” Ms. Buck describes the birds, insects, and plants that a nature lover is likely to encounter during each season of the year, with detailed drawings of each one of the flora and fauna mentioned. I also have In Yards and Gardens, a similar books by the same author.

Ruby Throat: The Story of a Hummingbird by Robert M McClung. Mr. McClung is another author whose books are all worth reading —over and over again. In this one, the author tells about the life and habits of Ruby Throat, a hummingbird, only three and a half inches long.

The Bug Club Book: A Handbook for Young Bug Collectors by Gladys Plemon Conklin. Ms. COnklin was a librarian who hosted a bug club for “young bug collectors” at her library. Read her book and find out how to start your own bug club.

For parents who want to join in the nature fun:

Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv. Mr. Louv, father of boys himself, describes “the human costs of alienation from nature.”

Wild Days: Creating Discovery Journals by Karen Skidmore Rackliffe. Learn how you and your child can start a nature discovery journal of your own.

The Country Diary of An Edwardian Lady by Edith Holden. This book I’m going to read to see what I can learn about Edwardian ladies and their affinity for nature.

Do you have a favorite nature study book? Are you planning to make some time to get outdoors this summer and experience nature with your children?

Noteworthy and Encouraging: June 1st

Jun1

Born on this date:

Henry Francis Lyte, b.1793. Anglican minister, hymn writer and poet. His most well-known hymns are Abide With Me, Jesus, I My Cross Have Taken, and Praise My Soul the King of Heaven.

John Masefield, b. 1878. Poet, novelist, writer of children’s stories, and more. I wrote about Masefield and his poem Sea Fever here. He also wrote two long and famous narrative poems, The Everlasting Mercy and Dauber, and his children’s stories, The Midnight Folk and The Box of Delights. I’ve not read the children’s books, although I have them in my library, but I can say his poetry is worth reading.

James Daugherty, b. 1889. Artist, children’s book author and illustrator. Mr. Daughety wrote Daniel Boone (Newbery Medal winner); Poor Richard; Henry David Thoreau: A Man for Our Time; Of Courage Undaunted: Across the Continent with Lewis & Clark; Marcus and Narcissa Whitman: Pioneers of Oregon; and three books in the Landmark series, The Magna Charta, The Landing of the Pilgrims, and Trappers and Traders of the Far West. He also wrote and illustrated the picture book Andy and the Lion, a Westernized version of the legend of Androcles and the Lion.

Some of Daugherty’s books and artwork are somewhat controversial these days. He describes the Native Americans in his award-winning biography of Boone as “savage demons”, “rats in the night”, “outlandish”, “infesting the woods”, “cat-eyed”, and “copper-gleaming”. And the illustrations that Daugherty provides for these same Native Americans do nothing to soften the images drawn by his words. (My own children hated listening to Daugherty Daniel Boone when I read it to them back in the day. The language was too flowery and poetic for their taste.) Nevertheless, I think Daugherty was quite a talented illustrator and author, and I suggest you try out his books for yourself and form your own opinion.

Door to the North by Elizabeth Coatsworth

May31

Door to the North: A Saga of 14th Century America by Elizabeth Coatsworth.
Canoeing With the Cree: A 2250-mile Voyage from Minneapolis to Hudson Bay by Eric Sevareid.

It’s always fun when your reading accidentally and serendipitously coincides, and one books informs and talks to another. I read Canoeing With the Cree, journalist Eric Sevareid’s account of his youthful journey, along with a friend Walter C. Port, from the Minnesota River at Fort Snelling to the Hudson Bay, by canoe. The two boys, inspired by Kipling, inexperienced at canoeing and at camping, ages seventeen and nineteen respectively, traveled over 500 miles in a canoe called the Sans Souci (without care). It actually took some care and a lot of work and perseverance.

This epic journey by canoe took place in 1930; the book was published in 1935. It was the first time an all-water trip had ever been made from Minneapolis to the North Atlantic. “The newspaper stories that Sevareid wrote on this trip launched his distinguished journalism career, which included more than a decade as a television correspondent and commentator on the CBS Evening News.”

So, I read this true adventure story, and then I thought I’d try a change of pace and read a book of historical fiction about 14th century Norsemen in Iceland and Greenland, Door to the North by Elizabeth Coatsworth. Little did I know that my 14th century explorer missionaries, Christian Vikings, would end up in the same general part of the country as my twentieth century canoe paddlers. Hudson Bay and Lake Winnipeg and the Red River (One of the few rivers in the world that flows north) were recognizable by the descriptions that the author gives despite their lack of English names.

The Norwegian/Swedish expedition, sent out by King Magnus Eirikson in 1355 was charged with inspecting the Norse settlements in Greenland which had long been neglected and on their own. In Elizabeth Coatsworth story, the inspectors find one of the Greenland settlements has disappeared, so they travel west to look for the lost settlers and to make sure that they are still true to the Christian faith wherever they have moved. This quest brings the expedition to the shores of North America where they see many wonders: Skraelings (Native Americans), buffalo, tornadoes, and more, including the aforementioned bodies of water. Coatsworth bases her story in part on the discovery of the Kensington Runestone, which Wikipedia, at least, says was probably a hoax. But then again, who knows?

Both books were quite fascinating, and I’m glad I read them together. I am tempted to send a copy of each one to my relatives in South Dakota, since they have done some canoeing and since they live quite near the country where the two narratives intersect. If you have any interest in Minnesota/Great Lakes/Manitoba history or Vikings or the Mandan or Cree Indians or Norsemen in North America, then both of these books will be quite fascinating reading.

Noteworthy and Encouraging: May 31st

May31

Born on May 31st:

Walt Whitman, b. 1819, poet. I’m not a great Whitman fan, but he did write some things that I can appreciate. There’s a Messner biography of Whitman that I don’t have but I would like to read it and maybe own it: Walt Whitman: Builder for America by Babette Deutsch. Messner, 1941. Perhaps the biography would give me a better appreciation for his poetry.

Robert Louis Stevenson on Walt Whitman: “A large shaggy dog just unchained scouring the beaches of the world and baying at the moon.”

Walt Whitman on Walt Whitman: “Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes.”

And if you want to read G.K. Chesterton’s parody of Walt Whitman’s version of the nursery rhyme Old King Cole . . .

Nan Terrell Reed, b. 1886, poet and songwriter. At some point in her career, she decided to attempt to write a poem every day. Her poems, at least the ones I sampled, are not terribly memorable or literary, but writing a poem a day seems as if it might be worth the effort, if only for one’s own satisfaction and enjoyment.

It’s only a little tumble-down house
That’s sadly in need of repair—
With a rickety fence and a yard unkept—
Yet the Spirit of God dwells there.

It’s there you may learn the portion of joy
That lies in an everyday thing
From a woman with hair as white as the frost
And a heart as young as the Spring.

Yes—only a little tumble-down house
That’s sadly in need of repair—
The home of a mother with toil-worn hands
Yet the Spirit of God dwells there.

Elizabeth Coatsworth, b. 1893, author of the Newbery Medal book, The Cat Who Went to Heaven. She also wrote a series of five books about Sally, a girl who lived in New England in the late 1700’s/early 1800’s. And she wrote the book I just finished, Door to the North, about a Viking expedition to the Vinland, the Great Lakes area, and Hudson Bay. In addition to historical fiction and fiction set in other times and places, Elizabeth Coatsworth also wrote poetry.

Swift things are beautiful:
Swallows and deer,
And lightening that falls
Bright-veined and clear,
Rivers and meteors,
Wind in the wheat,
The strong-withered horse,
The runner’s sure feet.

And slow things are beautiful:
The closing of day,
The pause of the wave
That curves downward to spray,
The ember that crumbles,
The opening flower,
And the ox that moves on
In the quiet of power.

Madeleine Polland, b. 1918, Irish, also an author of historical fiction for children. I read and reviewed Mission to Cathay quite a few years ago. She also wrote Children of the Red King, Beorn the Proud (Vikings), Flame Over Tara (St. Patrick), and many others. I have those latter two, but I haven’t read them yet.

Noteworthy and Encouraging: May 30th

May30

Born on May 30th:

Alfred Austin, b. 1835. British Poet Laureate after the death of Sir Alfred, Lord Tennyson, a hard act to follow. Austin’s poetry is not highly regarded, but he did write a couple of books extolling the virtues of gardens and gardening, The Garden That I Love and In Veronica’s Garden. I wouldn’t mind taking a look at these, even though I’m a terrible gardener. (I have a small garden with five tomato plants. One of my tomato plants has three tomatoes. The rest have none . . . yet?)

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.

There is no gardening without humility. Nature is constantly sending even its oldest scholars to the bottom of the class for some egregious blunder.

Katrina Trask, aka Kate Nichols Trask, b.1853. The following poem was written by a woman, Kate Trask, who had all four of her children die in their childhood or infancy. And then her house in Saratoga Springs, which was to be her and her husband’s legacy to the artists and writers of the world, burned to the ground. But she and her husband, businessman Spencer Trask, rebuilt the house and its gardens and made it a retreat for artists. I don’t know if the poem, Consolation, was written before or after she endured all this tragedy, but either way it is a striking commentary on her life and work.

Lie down and sleep,
Leave it to God to keep
The sorrow, which is part
Now of thy heart.

When thou dost wake,
If still ’tis thine to take,
Utter no wild complaint,
Work waits thy hands.
If thous shouldest faint,
God understands.

Gladys Conklin, b.1903 She wrote 25 children’s books about insects and other nature topics, and she was also a children’s librarian in California. There’s a very sad story about her disappearance (or death) in 1982. I have three of Ms. Conklin’s books in my library: When Insects Are Babies, How Insects Grow, and The Bug Club Book: A Handbook for Young Bug Collectors.

Millicent Selsam, b.1912. Ms. Selsam also wrote numerous children’s books, more than a hundred, about animals, insects, plants, and other nature topics. She taught biology in high school and at Brooklyn College. I have many of Ms. Selsam’s books in my library, including Terry and the Caterpillars, Plenty of Fish, Tony’s Birds, Seeds and More Seeds, Tree Flowers, A First Look at Leaves, Peanut, and many more. I would be quite happy to have all 100+ of her books because she writes with engaging text in a way that is simple and direct but also richly informative.

Noteworthy and Encouraging: May 29th

May29

Born on May 29th:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Noteworthy and Encouraging: May 28th

May28

Born on May 28th:

Thomas Augustine Daly, Philadelphia poet, known for his humorous poems in Irish American and Italian American dialect. He worked as a grocery store clerk and as a cub reporter and developed an ear for immigrant speech. My mom used to quote one of Daly’s poems to us every February 22nd, “Leetla Georgio Washeenton.” In 1924, Daly published the autobiographical story about his large family, Herself and the Houseful; Being the Middling-Mirthful Story of a Middle-Class American Family of More Than Middle Size. It sounds like a good one to track down and read.

Louis Agassiz, b. 1807. Nineteenth century biologist and geologist who believed that the earth was created by God, who also created each species of animal and each “race” of humankind separately. Agassiz has been accused of being racist, but some say he was merely mistaken about his theories in regard to the creation of man. Agassiz is particularly known for advancement of the study of fish and their classification and for his work in the study of glaciers. I have this book in my library, The Ghost Lake: The True Story of Louis Agassiz by John Hudson Tiner, and I’m reading it now.

Louis Agassiz: “Those who have succeeded best have followed for years some slim thread which once in a while broadened out and disclosed some treasure worth a lifelong search.”

“I cannot waste my time in making money!”

Thomas Moore, b. 1779. Irish poet, singer, and songwriter. He wrote the lyrics of the well-known ballad, The Minstrel Boy. The tune is called The Moreen, an old Irish folk tune. (This tune would have been a great one to listen to yesterday on Memorial Day, but who’s to say we can’t continue to remember bravery and freedom and the price that has been paid to keep them?)

The minstrel boy to the war is gone;
In the ranks of death you’ll find him;
His father’s sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him;
“Land of Song!” said the warrior bard,
“Though all the world betrays thee,
One sword, at least, thy rights shall guard,
One faithful harp shall praise thee!

The Minstrel fell! But the foeman’s chain
Could not bring that proud soul under;
The harp he loved ne’er spoke again,
For he tore its chords asunder;
And said “No chains shall sully thee,
Thou soul of love and bravery!
Thy songs were made for the pure and free
They shall never sound in slavery!

Ian Fleming, b. 1908. You may know him for his spy novels that became rather famous, but I know his rollicking-good-fun book for children, Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang. Fleming was an author, a journalist, and a naval intelligence officer. The latter job provided him with background material for his James Bond novels. Fleming was an avid birdwatcher, and he named his fictional spy for a famous American ornithologist, James Bond. Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang, Fleming’s only children’s novel, was taken from the bedtime stories that he made up for his son, Caspar.

The Sun King: Louis XIV of France by Alfred Apsler

May25

Because we’re planning to visit England this summer and because I’m an Anglophile, anyway, I’ve been reading quite a few books set in England lately, sort of preparing myself for the journey. And a lot of my reading has happened to be centered around the seventeenth century, particularly the English Civil War between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads, Charles I, Oliver Cromwell, and all that jazz. So, I thought I’d stay in the same ballpark, 1600’s, but switch it up a bit and read this Messner biography of Louis XIV of France.

Louis XIV was an amazing man, but not so very admirable. He seems to have been blinded by his upbringing, his cultural assumptions, and his own pride and greed into making a lot of misery for a lot of people. His biographer calls him “disdainfully aloof” and “a proud absolute ruler” and “the supreme embodiment of Absolute Monarchy.” Although his seventy-two year reign, longer than the reign of any other French king in history, saw many accomplishments and triumphs for French hegemony as well as French literature, art and architecture, Louis’s rule also perpetrated the horrendous persecution of French Huguenots and eventually drained the French economy to the point of bankruptcy. (It was the best of times; it was the worst of times.)

Louis XIV is famous for the slogan, “I am the state.” He truly believed what he was taught: that France existed for him and that he, Louis XIV, was the sole judge and arbiter of everything that happened in that ever-expanding nation. His only responsibility was to God, and the people of France existed to serve God by serving Louis. He said, “It is for kings to make their own decisions, for no one dares or is able to suggest any that are as good or as royal as those which we make ourselves.”

It was particularly interesting to me to read about Louis’s economic policies. The French under Louis XIV adhered to the economic theory of mercantilism, “the economic theory that trade generates wealth and is stimulated by the accumulation of profitable balances, which a government should encourage by means of protectionism.” However, in addition, Louis IV’s economy was an example of what came to be called “Colbertism” named for Louis’s chief financial advisor, Colbert. “Colbertism meant unlimited government control of economic life. Louis XIV, as the foremost exponent of absolute despotism, felt it perfectly natural to give his finance minister freedom in directing with an iron hand all of France’s production and distribution of goods.”

“These principles led seventeenth-century France on the road to forced nationalization, in some even to socialization, of its economy.” But instead of being done for “the people”, as Marxism would later claim, this centralized and autocratic government of the economy was intended for the glory of France and even more for the glory and increased power of Louis XIV. And the interesting thing is that such dictatorship for the sake of the nation’s power and glory does work for a time in increasing the nation power and fame. France did indeed become larger, taking over more and more territory, more organized and orderly, richer and more powerful. The arts flourished in France under Louis XIV. The economy and the middle class bourgeoise also grew and became more prosperous.

BUT as taxes became higher and higher to sustain Louis’s army, his territorial ambitions, and his extravagant lifestyle as well as that of his courtiers and as Louis himself felt the need to appease God by purifying the church and driving out the Huguenots, the whole scheme began to collapse. As Margaret Thatcher so aptly put it many centuries later, “Socialist governments traditionally do make a financial mess. They always run out of other people’s money.” Louis’s government and economic system was the worst of all possible systems, combining an absolute monarchy or dictatorship with the nationalization of much of the industry in the country and with nothing going back to the people except the satisfaction of living in the glorious Age of Louis XIV. This idea of the common people living and working for the monarchy and the higher classes living off of the monarchy and not working led directly to the French Revolution a little less than a century after Louis’ death.

“Louis’ state remained anchored to one person, the sovereign. He had willfully neglected to allow the growth of any institution fostering participation by the people whom he ruled. The success of the state depended solely on the manner in which the monarch played his role. When the successors of Louis XIV completely failed to fill this role which he had created for them, the whole system collapsed, like a house erected on shifting sand, in the French Revolution of 1789.”

This biography was such a good read with many insights that can be applied to our own times as well as just interesting bits of knowledge and information. Did you know that Louis XIV was the king who built the enormous and expensive palace of Versailles or that he was one of the first European kings to have a standing army?

Castle Adamant by Sally Watson

May24

Sally Watson was an author who wrote several books I loved as a child: Mistress Malapert, Linnet, Jade, and Lark are the ones I remember reading. Several years ago I found a couple more of her books, Highland Rebel and The Hornet’s Nest, and added them to my library. I already had a copy of Lark, and my daughter enjoyed it when she was a girl just as much as I did. However, all of Ms. Watson’s books were out of print and nowhere to be found for many years.

Then, I found that many of her books had been reprinted or republished, either by the author herself or by some small reprint publishers. And there were more books, set during the English Civil Wars of the 1640’s, Cavaliers versus Roundheads, with strong-willed female protagonists and exciting historical plots just like the Lark/Linnet/Jade books. So, I ordered myself a copy of Mistress Malapert and of a new-to-me book, Castle Adamant.

Unfortunately, I didn’t look closely at the suggested target age group for the novel, and I won’t be able to put this book in my library. That’s a shame because it’s a good story, and the others that I do remember are completely appropriate for middle grade readers. However, Castle Adamant (and apparently the two other books that form a trilogy with it, The Outrageous Oriel and Loyal and the Dragon) has just enough “adult” or “young adult” content to make it too much for the middle grades.

Castle Adamant features the defense of Corfe Castle by its Royalist owners from assault by the Parliamentary forces. The story of Corfe Castle and the battles that took place there are true, but Ms. Watson throws in a few fictional characters to make it interesting. Peregrine Lennox is the second son of a Royalist lord and advisor to King Charles I. Verity Goodchild is the independent-thinking daughter of a Roundhead colonel. Trained to be a Calvinist but also educated in the classics and in logic, Verity is a mass of contradictions, determined to forge her own ideas and convictions through the various conflicting and confusing issues of the time. Peregrine is an “arrogant sprig of nobility”, “vain, kind, condescending, and resigned to boredom.” When Peregrine’s lazy intelligence meets up with Verity’s fiery intelligence, the arguments and the Latin quotations fly fast and furious, along with many a Scripture verse from Verity’s unlimited and memorized storehouse.

So, the novel is made up of two elements: the battle(s) for Corfe Castle and the battle(s) between Verity and Peregrine. The content warning is that the author keeps throwing in not so subtle hints about the the physical attraction between Verity and Peregrine:

“The maleness her small breasts pressed against was firm and strong and hard and smelled of horse and herbs. Prevented–not for fear of Satan, but by her painful arms–from holding yet more tightly, she allowed the unslapped side of her face to rest against his doublet.”

“Verity instantly fell into lusting even harder after her friend’s husband-to-be. With passion, Satan was indeed tempting her; and it was a shock, for she had never willed it.”

“At one point she ripped her skirt all the way up, providing a stunning view of a long shapely leg. She was not aware of it, nor even of the long deep scratch down her thigh. . . .She had no idea she had titillated Peregrine, or indeed showed him her leg at all.”

“‘I won’t wed anyone. I’ll be a spinster. But—” She looked at him, and all virtue left her. ‘Peregrine— If we could manage— I would come to your bed anyway.’
For a moment, she thought in anguish that he was repulsed by her froward and sinful thoughts. His face was blank, and an odd bulge appeared just in the front of his breeches. A strong instinct told Verity it was something not to be asked about nor even noticed—but that perhaps it was not revulsion either?”

That, and couple of scenes where a villager and a soldier try to assault Verity and steal a kiss, are as explicit as it gets, but sadly way too much for children. The theological debates that Verity has with Peregrine, with the doyenne of Corfe Castle, and with God Himself are certainly somewhat mature also, but her questions are nothing an intelligent eleven or twelve year old wouldn’t be able to handle.

I haven’t read The Outrageous Oriel, but I did read this bit about it at Sally Watson’s website:

“Outrageous Oriel was lots of fun–-and possibly a bit shocking to a few–-but times change, don’t they? That was Oriel, all right. Outrageous.
In the ’50’s and ’60’s the trilogy would be definitely Adult, with Oriel and her friend Evan agreeing to marry platonically, because, he tells her, he loves her dearly as a friend but prefers fellows in his bed. Now? Who knows? I’ve read YA much nearer the mark.”

So, yes, the three books in “the trilogy” are adult or young adult, and the others I’ve named are middle grade reads that can be enjoyed by all ages. I liked Castle Adamant for the most part, but I plan to stick to Sally Watson’s juvenile novels from here on out.