The Warden by Anthony Trollope

Feb27

The Warden is the first of Victorian author Anthony Trollope’s Barsetshire Chronicles, set in the fictional cathedral town of Barchester and in the surrounding county of Barsetshire. “Let us presume that Barchester is a quiet town in the West of England, more remarkable for the beauty of its cathedral and the antiquity of its monuments than for any commercial prosperity; that the west end of Barchester is the cathedral close, and that the aristocracy of Barchester are the bishop, dean, and canons, with their respective wives and daughters.”

Mr. Harding is the warden of a small hospital, or charitable nursing home, housing twelve indigent old men and he is also the precentor (song leader) at the cathedral. The Warden’s good friend is the Bishop of Barchester, and the Warden’s son-in-law is the bishop’s son, Dr. Theophilus Grantly, archdeacon of Barchester. There are a few other major characters in this saga of the rise and fall Warden Harding: the warden’s two daughters, Susan and Eleanor, and Dr. John Bold, Eleanor’s would-be suitor.

I won’t go into the intricacies of the plot of the novel, but it is reminiscent of the politics surrounding the cost and color of the church carpet or the salary of the assistant pastor in a Baptist church. Being Baptist myself, not Anglican, those are the analogies that came to mind. All sorts of comings and goings and arguments and resolutions take place, all revolving around the Warden and his income arising from the wardenship of the hospital. Some think he is entitled to his eight hundred pounds per annum, and others emphatically think not.

And so the novel goes. It does seem to be a rather petty question upon which to hang an entire novel, but it shows the great consequences of what often amount to petty controversies. These little questions and disagreements do indeed change the course of a person’s life, sometimes of many people’s lives. And Mr. Trollope excels at showing just how complicated and consequential a small controversy can become.

Along the way, Trollope takes the time to insert both humor and social commentary into a sharply drawn portrait of a quiet cathedral town and its inhabitants. Archdeacon Grantly is the most influential and respected man in the cathedral close, who “strikes awe into the young hearts of Barchester, and absolutely cows the whole parish.” Nevertheless, he becomes “an ordinary man” when his wife tells him what’s what in the confines of their episcopal bedroom. Parliament is considering a law, a law that will never be passed, to order “the bodily searching of nuns for jesuitical symbols by aged clergymen. The bill is taken up solely for the underhanded purpose of setting the Irish Protestants and the Irish Catholics in Parliament at odds with one another. Journalist Tom Towers writes scurrilous gossip in the newspaper called The Jupiter, and he thinks himself the king of the world, with more secret power than the politicians, the clergy, and royalty all combined.The humor is somewhat subtle, but so well written that I couldn’t help but laugh and shake my head in agreement with Trollope’s insightful portraits of human foibles.

I recommend The Warden, and Trollope’s 46 other books, to slow you down and give you opportunity to look carefully at the follies and endearing qualities of our fellow humans. Other than Jane Austen, no one shows the difficulties and the comedy of the human condition in miniature, so to speak, as well as Trollope.

Picture Book Preschool

Feb25

It’s been a while since I’ve posted information about my book list for children, Picture Book Preschool. It has the word “preschool’ in the title, but it’s appropriate for children from ages two to six, or really any child who still enjoys picture books. (Don’t we all enjoy picture books?)

Picture Book Preschool is a preschool curriculum based on picture books I have been reading to my children, and now grandchildren, for the past twenty years. Each week of the year is built around a theme, and includes a suggested character trait to work on, a Bible verse, a supporting activity, and seven suggested picture books to read to your children. Now you can find all of the Picture Book Preschool recommendations on Biblioguidesand purchase a PDF of the curriculum which includes all of the supporting resources and schedule.And while you’re at it, check out Biblioguides, a great resource for finding books and book information to enrich your own education and that of your children. 

If you would prefer a print copy of Picture Book Preschool, you can email me at sherryDOTpray4youATgmailDOTcom.

If you would like to learn more about Picture Book Preschool and my love of classic picture books, you can listen to this podcast interview with me on Plumfield Moms.

Pancakes-Paris by Claire Huchet Bishop

Feb15

I heard about this book from the ladies at Biblioguides long before I found it last year at a used bookshop for only $5.00. It turned out to be bargain, despite the broken binding in the back of the book, which I fixed with book tape. Anyway, the story itself is well worth the $5.00.

Six French children were sitting on the ground in the little garden back of the old church of St. Julien le Pauvre, in Paris. It was February, at four thirty in the afternoon, just after school. There was a light touch of spring in the air. Zezette, who was only five, had kicked off her wooden shoes.

It’s appropriate that the story begins in the garden of “St. Julien le Pauvre” because these children are indeed poor. And it’s appropriate that there is a “light touch of spring in the air” because there is indeed springtime hope and joy to be found in the midst of their poverty. Charles, the main character in the story, is ten years old and is Zezette’s older brother. Their mother works in a factory all day, and their father died immediately after the war. The children have a discussion in the beginning of the book of how it was BEFORE, but some of them can’t even remember a BEFORE and doubt that it ever existed. This is post-World War 2 Paris, and things are difficult—no fuel, little food, no money–but hopeful. After all, it’s almost Lent, and some of the children remember having crepes (pancakes) on the Tuesday before Lent—BEFORE.

The story goes on to illustrate the friendship between the French and their American liberators and the impact of a simple gesture of kindness. In fact, respect and kindness characterize the relationships throughout the book. (There are some Black Americans mentioned as minor characters, and they are called “Negro”, which would have been the correct and respectful term for the time.) This story would be great to read aloud on Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras or really anytime during the Lenten season. It would also be a fitting end to study of World War 2, with hope for the future after all the horrors of that war.

Claire Huchet Bishop grew up in Le Havre, France. She became a librarian and a storyteller, first in France, and then at the New York Public Library after she married an American and moved to the U.S. Her books, mostly set in France, paint a lovely picture of the French people and of French culture, especially among the children of post-war France.

The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William L. Shirer

Feb14

What would lead a person to read an entire book, even a children’s middle grade nonfiction book, that takes the reader inside the life and mind of Adolf Hitler, the arch-villain of the twentieth century? Well, there’s something rather fascinating about trying to understand how Hitler became Hitler, synonymous with the most evil, murderous, racist, anti-Semitic dictator and warmonger ever. William L. Shirer, author of the 1000+ page tome, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich (for adults), was in a position to study this question and come to some kind of conclusions, if anyone from the Allied side of the war was. As an American correspondent in Berlin, Shirer actually met Hitler, listened to many of his spell-binding speeches, and observed him over the course of several years before and during World War II. The result of Shirer’s observations and his journalist’s eye for character and for a story is this book, written for children in the Landmark history series, but suited to readers of all ages.

Shirer begins his book with eleven year old Adolf, showing an independent streak even at that young age in aspiring to become an artist instead of the civil servant his father wanted him to be. I learned a lot about Hitler that I never knew before from this book, and I was reminded of a few “home truths” along the way. After his art career bombed because the art school wouldn’t let him in, said he had no talent, Herr Hitler became a tramp without a real job for several years, but a very well read tramp. He read and studied all the time while working very little. First lesson: readers may become leaders, but they may also become very bad leaders.

Chapter 7 of the book is called “Hitler Falls in Love,” and it tells a story I never knew or else had forgotten. In this chapter of the book and of Hitler’s life, he falls hard for his half-niece, the daughter of his half-sister. Her name was Gell Raubal, and Hitler declared after her death that she was the only woman he ever truly loved. You can read the story in Shirer’s book and decide for yourself whether or not “loved” is the right word to describe Hitler’s controlling obsession with a girl half his age. (The story of their brief “romance” is tastefully told, appropriate for middle grade and older children who will read the book, but icky nonetheless.)

After this personal interlude, the book moves on to Hitler’s political actions and aspirations and quickly into the war years. As he becomes more and more successful, in politics and in war, and gains more and more power, Hitler becomes more and more deranged. Shirer calls him “beyond any question a dangerous, irresponsible megalomaniac.” And yet (next paragraph) Hitler is able to maintain power, and be “so cool and cunning in his calculations and so bold in carrying them out that few could doubt that he well might be the military genius that he claimed to be.” This lead me to another unpleasant truth: a mentally ill egomaniacal murderer can act in a very lucid and intelligent manner for a long time. It is possible to be cunning, bold, and crazy.

Of course, this book chronicles the rise and fall of Hitler, so the craziness does come to an end. Shirer is to be commended for his ability to tell the story in a way that is appropriate for older children, but also truthful and candid in its presentation of Hitler’s horribly destructive life and actions. The book doesn’t completely explain the quandary of why the German people were so enamored of Herr Hitler or how he was able to fool so many people for so long into believing in his “genius”, but it does document in a very readable and engaging style, the rise and fall of a man who was “a power-drunk tyrant whom absolute power had corrupted absolutely.”

I recommend Shirer’s book for its insight and as a cautionary tale for those who would place their faith in any political leader. Hitler is dead, but it is still quite possible to be fooled by a seemingly lucid and benign leader who is actually a wolf in disguise.

Download a list of the entire Landmark history series in chronological order.

The King of the Golden River by John Ruskin

Feb13

John Ruskin was an interesting character. He pops up in all kinds of stories and biographies that I have read of other men and women: everyone from Dante Gabriel and Christina Rossetti to Lewis Carroll to Lillias Trotter. Several biographical pages on the internet call him a “polymath, a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning.” He was a noted art critic who encouraged many of the finest artists of the late Victorian era, including Rossetti and his Pre-Raphaelites. He wrote and published essays, poetry, literary and art criticism, travel guides, biography, and one simple fairy tale, The King of the Golden River.

Ruskin wrote his only work of fiction in response to a challenge that had been put to him by twelve year old Effie Gray. (Ruskin later married Miss Effie, but that’s another story.) She asked him to write a fairy tale, and in 1840, the twenty-one year old Ruskin wrote The King of the Golden River. The story is that of three brothers, the older two, Swartz and Hans, mean and greedy and the youngest brother, Gluck, “as completely opposed, in both appearance and character, to his seniors as could possibly be imagined or desired.” The Black Brothers, as they are called by the people living nearby, live in a marvelously fruitful valley called Treasure Valley. The story tells how Treasure Valley becomes a wasteland because of the curse of the King of the Golden River, and how it is redeemed by the kindness and gentle love of Gluck.

“And thus the Treasure Valley became a garden again, and the inheritance, which had been lost by cruelty, was regained by love.”

Episode #70 of the Literary Life podcast, Why Read Fairy Tales?, would be an excellent one to listen to in juxtaposition to the reading of this literary fairy tale by John Ruskin. Maybe read Ruskin’s tale, then listen to Why Read Fairy Tales?, and then read Ruskin’s little story again, as I plan to do. It’s a short story that will well repay a second reading.

The King’s Book by Louise A. Vernon

Feb9

The King’s Book is a fictionalized story about the translation and publication of the 1611 King James English Bible. The main character is a boy, Nat Culver, whose father is one of the fifty-four men who is helping to translate and revise the English Bible at the behest of King James I. The plot involves secret Catholic priests and recusants (English Catholics who refuse to convert to the Anglican church), quarreling Bible scholars, and Nat’s own quest to decide who and what to believe in a London full of gossip and wild tales.

Vernon’s book contains a lot of interesting anecdotes about the men who produced the King James Bible: Lancelot Andrewes, John Bois, Sir Henry Savile, Dutch Thomson, Andrew Downes, and others. Sir Francis Bacon makes a sort of cameo appearance as a secret polisher and finisher of the text. And the stories Vernon inserts into her book are interesting, taken individually. However, the little vignettes about the circumstances and the men are just that: inserted into the overall story in an odd and jerky way that makes the book feel as if it is nonfiction masquerading as a fiction story. Nat finds out that one of the translators is an alcoholic, that Francis Bacon, not the king, is the man who actually chose the committee of translators, that the translators haven’t been paid for their work and some are living in poverty, and so on. All these things come to light while Nat is desperately trying to prove that his father is not a Catholic recusant and while Nat himself is being accused of thievery.

I think I read one of Ms. Vernon’s other books and found it better than this one. The King’s Book might be the only introduction for children readily available for the story of how the King James Bible came to be, but it would have been much improved if it had just been written as a nonfiction narrative. I could have done with a great deal more biographical information about the translators and historical information about the setting and the events of the times and a lot less about Nat running around spying and carrying messages all over London.

Evangeline and the Acadians by Robert Tallant

Feb8

This Landmark book, #74 in the series, published in 1957 (the year I was born), tells the story of the Acadians, or Cajuns as they came to be called in Louisiana and Texas, who were exiled from their homes in Nova Scotia. These Acadians were French farmers who settled in Nova Scotia when it was named Acadia by the French, and they were forced to leave Nova Scotia by the British who distrusted them and questioned their loyalty during the many years of war between France and Britain.

It’s a sad story. Tallant compares the plight of the Acadians to the Jewish Holocaust of World War II. While the Acadians were not taken to extermination camps, they were torn from their homes and dispersed up and down the Eastern seaboard, with many of them ending up in prisons or forced labor or just poverty. Families were separated, and many Acadians died on crowded, unsanitary ships or in homelessness after they reached shore.

So my question was: how did so many of the Acadians end up in southwestern Louisiana where they made a new home for themselves? To find out, you’ll have to read the book, or do your own research. It’s a fascinating saga, and Longfellow’s famous poem, Evangeline, only tells a small, fictionalized part of the story. As indicated in the title, Tallant refers to Longfellow’s poem over and over again throughout the book, and readers of Tallant’s book can learn a good bit about what parts of the poem are fiction and what parts are true. The fictional character, Evangeline, looking for her lost love, Gabriel, made the Acadians famous the nineteenth century, and today Cajun culture and history is celebrated in food, song, dance, literature, and entertainment.

Evangeline and the Acadians not only gives the history of the Acadians, but since those Acadian people were a large part of the history of Louisiana itself, the book is a sort of capsule history of the state of Louisiana. Mr. Tallant wrote two other books in the Landmark series, The Louisiana Purchase and The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans, and the three books taken together would be an excellent introduction for elementary and middle school students to the culture and history of Louisiana (and even southeast Texas). If I were helping my students of Louisiana heritage to study the history of their own state and region, I would certainly read these three Landmark books with them.

Of course, as I said these books were published in the 1950’s. The last two chapters of Evangeline and the Acadians talks about Cajun life and culture “today.” Children who read the book might need to be reminded that the “today’ of 1957 was much different from the twenty-first century “today.” I doubt very many Cajuns speak French as a first language nowadays or even use Cajun English dialect as the Cajun people have become even more assimilated into the greater American culture.

In addition to this book and the other two Landmark books by Robert Tallant, for those interested in the history and culture of Louisiana and of the Acadians, I would recommend:

Picture Books

  • Freedom in Congo Square by Carole Boston Weatherford.
  • Through My Eyes by Ruby Bridges.
  • If I Only Had a Horn: Young Louis Armstrong by Roxanne Orgill.
  • Mr. Williams by Karen Barbour.
  • Little Pierre: A Cajun Story from Louisiana by Robert San Souci.

Children’s books

The Barbary Pirates by C.S. Forester

Feb7

This Landmark book, written by the celebrated author of the Hornblower series of Napoleonic nautical novels, is not so much a book about pirates and piracy as it is a book about the beginnings of the U.S. Navy and naval warfare. One of the heroes of the book is Captain Edward Preble who established many of the procedures and protocols that became the basis for U.S. Navy regulations and discipline later on when the Navy was a more official entity. (The USS Constitution under Preble’s command makes a very brief appearance in C.S. Forester’s novel Hornblower and the Hotspur.)

The naval warfare in The Barbary Pirates involves the war between the new nation, the United States of America, and the nations of the Barbary Coast of Northern Africa, mostly blockade and eventual invasion of the port of Tripoli, which is in the modern nation of Libya. The war is called the Tripolitan War, after Tripoli, and it took place during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries while Jefferson and later Madison served as presidents of the U.S. The goal of the war was to clear the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean of North African pirates (or privateers) at a time when the economy of the Barbary States—Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya or Tripoli–depended on the prizes their corsairs were able to take and bring home. Of course, the U.S. economy depended upon the trade across the Atlantic with Europe and Africa. So, the war, which America eventually won, made the U.S. and Europe, over time, much richer, and the Barbary States much poorer.

I enjoyed reading about an era and event in history that I knew very little about before reading this children’s Landmark book. There is a book written for adults, Thomas Jefferson and the Tripoli Pirates: The Forgotten War That Changed American History by Brian Kilmeade, that goes over the same ground in more detail, I would assume, but I haven’t read it and therefore can’t recommend it. I have heard it recommended, but also I’ve seen mixed reviews. So if you just want a basic understanding of the Barbary pirates and the war to contain them, I would recommend Forester’s little book. It’s well-researched and would likely make a good nonfiction accompaniment to Forester’s Hornblower series or to Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series of nautical adventures—for a bit of historical background.

These Landmark books are such a good introduction, for children and for grownups, to so many historical time periods, people, and events. I’m excited to continue my project of reading and reviewing many of the Landmark series books this year. Next up: The Slave Who Freed Haiti: The Story of Toussaint Louverture by Katharine Scherman.

Famous Pirates of the New World by A.B.C. Whipple

Jan13

After reading The Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd by A.B.C. Whipple, I wanted to read Mr. Whipple’s other Landmark pirate book, Famous Pirates of the New World. It was not a disappointment. In fact, I found this book even more compelling than Captain Kidd.

The book starts off with a bang, after an introduction about piracy in general and why it was such a problem. The author pulls the reader in by telling the story of “The Dark Secret of Captain Flood.”

“Captain James Flood had a secret. He kept it well, so well that when he died his secret almost died with him. In all his life Captain Flood revealed his secret to only one man, the first mate of his pirate ship. If he had not told his first mate, we would not know his strange, evil story. But we do, and here it is–the dark secret of Captain Flood.”

Can you resist that hook? Don’t you want to read all about it right now? The story is indeed a rollicking, strange, and violent one. Kids will love it, unless they are particularly sensitive to violence and mayhem. By the way, that disclaimer goes for the whole book. The pirates in this book are real pirates–murderous, evil, and greedy. There’s a description later on in the book of the advantages and disadvantages of fighting with a cutlass versus a rapier that will challenge even the battle-hardened veteran mom to read aloud. It’s fascinating.

And this isn’t a particularly moralizing story. As Mr. Whipple tells it, some of the pirates got what they deserved: they were captured and hanged by the neck, and good riddance to them. Others got away with their loot and settled down to a life of ease after their pirating days were over. “We know of hundreds (of pirates) who ‘retired’ and enjoyed their plunder without ever having to account for it.” Alas, that is the truth of the matter: sometimes justice doesn’t come in this life.

I thought this was a great book with all of the famous stories of Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Calico Jack Rackham, and Anne Bonney and many more. The stories of the pirates are full of adventure, but the pirates themselves are not glamorized. You would not want to find yourself on a ship with any of these men–or women.

The book ends with the story of Governor Woodes Rogers of New Providence, Nassau, a haven for the pirates of the Caribbean and of how the Governor managed to civilize many of the pirates and put “an end to the almost unrestricted piracy which had plagued the seas around the Americas for more than two centuries.” It’s an amazing story of good governance and wisdom on the part of a British-appointed governor.

I have only one complaint about this book: I wish I knew where Mr. Whipple got his information. There are no footnotes or endnotes in the book, no bibliography. When I tried to look up the story about Captain James Flood online, I couldn’t really find anything to corroborate that spine-tingling story. Oh, well it’s a good story, nonetheless, and it could be a true one. Who knows? Maybe Mr. Whipple got his facts from a dark and secret source.

Children’s Books from 100 Years Ago

Jan10

Here’s a list of children’s books published in 1923. See if one of these catches your fancy, and if so, let me know what you thought. (I have not read most of these books, but I do plan to read and review some of them this year.)

The Arabian Nights: Tales of Wonder and Magnificence by Padraic Colum. A selection of stories from the Arabian Nights, using the direct translation by Arabic scholar Edward William Lane. Colum selected and abridged some of the tales to make up his own version of the timeless stories of Shahrazad.

The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes. 1924 Newbery Award book. This novel is a tale of adventure and piracy in a seventeenth century sailing frigate, The Rose of Devon. Semicolon review here. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

A Boy of the Lost Crusade by Agnes D. Hewes. Free to read online at Internet Archive, with illustrations by Gustaf Tengren. A story of The Children’s Crusade.

The Burgess Flower Book for Children by Thornton Burgess. Stories about common wildflowers as they appear in the spring. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Buster Bear’s Twins by Thornton Burgess. The adventures of bear twins, Boxer and Woof-Woof. Free to read online at Internet Archive. Listen at Librivox.

Doctor Dolittle’s Post Office by Hugh Lofting. The third of Lofting’s Doctor Dolittle books. Listen at LIbrivox. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Elizabeth Ann at Maple Spring by Josephine Lawrence. The sequel to The Adventures of Elizabeth Ann. In this second book seven year old Elizabeth Ann, who is visiting her three aunts in turn while her parents are in Japan, goes to stay with Great Aunt Hester. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Emily of New Moon by Lucy Maud Montgomery. The first in a trilogy of books about Emily Byrd Starr. Listen at Librivox. Free to read online at Internet Archive. I read these books a long, long time ago. Maybe I’ll reread in honor of 100 years.

The Filipino Twins by Lucy Fitch Perkins. The story of Filipino twins, Ramon and Rita, who live in Manila, Philippines. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Flower Fairies of the Spring by Cicely Mary Barker. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

Honey Bunch: Just a Little Girl by Helen Louise Thorndyke (Josephine Lawrence).

Honey Bunch: Her First Days on the Farm by Helen Louise Thorndyke (Josephine Lawrence).

Honey Bunch: Her First Visit to the City by Helen Louise Thorndyke (Josephine Lawrence).

Land and Sea Tales for Scouts and Guides by Rudyard Kipling. A collection of adventure tales and poems. Free to read online at Internet Archive.

A Little Singing Bird by Lucy M. Blanchard. Out of print.

Mary Jane at School by Clara Ingram Judson. An autumn story about Mary Jane’s third grade school year. (She gets to skip second grade to join her friends in third.) This book is part of a multi-volume series about Mary Jane.

The Perilous Seat by Caroline Snedeker. Set in ancient Greece, the main character is a high priestess at the temple of Apollo in Delphi.

The Pony Express Goes Through by Howard R. Driggs. Based on interviews conducted with boys who actually served as couriers for the Pony Express.

The Rose of Santa Fe by Edwin L. Sabin.

The Rover Boys at Big Bear Lake by Arthur M. Winfield.

The Six Who Were Left in a Shoe by Padraic Colum. The Story of “what happened to the Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.” Illustrated by Dugald Stewart Walker. Free to read on Internet archive.

The Story of a Woolly Dog by Laura Lee Hope. A storybook by the author of the Bobbsey Twins series. Librivox audiobook.

Sunny Boy and His Games by Ramy Allison White.

Tarzan and the Golden Lion by Edgar R. Burroughs. Free to read at Internet Archive.

Tom Swift and His Flying Boat by Victor Appleton. Free to read at Internet Archive.

William Again by Richmal Crompton. Very popular in England in its day. Available for checkout from Meriadoc Homeschool Library. Free to read at Internet Archive.

A Yankee Girl at Antietam by Helen Turner Curtis. Free to read at Internet Archive.