The Tripods Trilogy by John Christopher

The White Mountains by John Christopher, 1967.
The City of Gold and Lead by John Christopher, 1967.
The Pool of Fire by John Christopher, 1968.
There was also a prequel, When the Tripods Came, published in 1988.

John Christopher is a pseudonym for British author Sam Youd, who wrote a multitude of novels and short stories for both adults and children, mostly speculative fiction, although he says in this 2009 interview that he “outgrew science fiction” before he became successful at writing it.

Christopher/Youd’s most famous books are these three, written for children and young adults, about a post-apocalyptic society in Europe in which a species from another planet, called the Tripods and the Masters, have subjugated the entire Earth and almost all its inhabitants. A small group of people in the mountains of Switzerland have managed to remain free and form a resistance group. And in the White Mountains our narrator and hero, Will Parker, is determined to join the resistors before he is “capped” and made a slave to the Tripods on his fourteenth birthday.

Boys Life, the monthly magazine of the Boy Scouts of America, serialised all three books in the trilogy from May 1981 to August 1986. The BBC started making a TV series based on the books, but it only lasted through the first two before it was cancelled. The books are well known in sci-fi circles, but they have fallen out of fashion in our dystopian, high fantasy influenced, somewhat violence-laden twenty-first century science fiction reading tastes.

These books are not so much dystopian as they are post-apocalyptic. Nobody mistakenly thinks they have created the ideal world only to find out they are sadly mistaken. The people of Earth have been tricked into believing that this world is all there is, that slavery to the Tripods is inevitable and probably for the best. At least there is no war because the Tripods won’t allow it. But even in the beginning of the first book, The White Mountains, there are hints that the ancestors of these people had technology and comforts that would be useful and life-enhancing. And to all but those whose minds are capped and controlled by the Tripods, it should be obvious that the coming of the Tripods was an apocalyptic event, an invasion that made the world a worse place to live, not better.

These books definitely reminded me of the sixties with themes of the unity of all mankind, the power of technology, mind control, meeting with and understanding (or misunderstanding) alien species, and freedom fighters. I thought of Star Trek with its similar concerns and themes. Although the story holds up well, the ending of the last book is a little sad and wistful in its recognition of human dissension and and its rather forlorn hope for a future of of love, peace, and unity. Again, very sixties and “all we need is love” and “give peace a chance.”

Anyone interested in vintage science fiction and apocalyptic fiction, alien invasions, and the history of the genre, would definitely enjoy this trilogy. I probably read these books for the first time about fifty years ago, and I remembered my enjoyment of them, if not particular plot points. This time around reading Mr. Christopher’s stories was a good way to start out my reading year.

Eleven Best Adult Fiction Books I Read in 2022

Jan5

Above Suspicion by Helen MacInnes. I found a MacInnes spy novel that I hadn’t already read! Excellent. The setting is Austria and Germany, summer 1939, just before World War II exploded into the world.

Thirteenth Child by Patricia C. Wrede. Also, sequels Across the Great Barrier and The Far West. Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles, beginning with the book Dealing with Dragons, are excellent fantasy stories for children, and I can now say that her adult fantasy novels are just as good. Fantasy set in an alternate history reimagined American Midwest.

Light Thickens by Ngaio Marsh. Murder, mystery, and Macbeth.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir.

Klara and the Sun by Kashuo Ishiguro. Semicolon review of Klara and the Sun.

The Blithedale Romance by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Semicolon review of The Blithedale Romance.

Elantris by Brandon Sanderson.

Bargain Bride by Evelyn Sibley Lampman. Semicolon review of Bargain Bride.

The Wooden Horse by Eric Williams. Novel based on a true story of escape from a German prisoner of war camp during World War II. Hope at Worthwhile Books reviews The Wooden Horse.

The Fiddler’s Gun by A.S. Peterson. Also the sequel, Fiddler’s Green by A.S. Peterson. Pete Peterson on the origin of The Fiddler’s Gun. A Rabbit Room review of The Fiddler’s Gun.

The Hammer of God by Bo Giertz. The only adult fiction book to which I gave five stars on Goodreads. I think I read about this book in this Gospel Coalition article by Leland Ryken, The Best Christian Novel You’ve Never Heard Of. It’s very Lutheran novel, but nevertheless accessible to all “mere Christians.” It’s also quite preachy, written by a Swedish pastor, bishop, and theologian, but the preachiness is very much a part of the story and not at all sentimental or overbearing. This novel is the best adult novel I read in 2022.

Ten (or Eleven) Best Nonfiction Books I Read in 2022

Jan4

The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William L. Shirer and The Mysterious Voyages of Captain Kidd by A.B.C. Whipple. These two Landmark books, written for children, tied for tenth place in my “best of nonfiction” list. Both were well-written, contained many interesting facts and stories that I didn’t know about before I read the books, and generated much conversation among the “Library Ladies” of whom I am privileged to be a part.

Mere Motherhood: Morning Times, Nursery Rhymes, and My Journey Towards Sanctification by Cindy Rollins (re-read) What I wrote a few years ago when I read this book for the first time still applies: “I laughed. I cried. I identified. Cindy Rollins, mother of nine homeschooled children, mostly boys, has written an honest, but also encouraging book about what it was really like to homeschool a large family in the 1980’s and 1990’s homeschooling culture. Cindy is honest about the things she’s learned along the way, but never jaded or dismissive of her younger self or of homeschooling families who work every day, although imperfectly, to get it right and teach their children to know the Lord.”

Prayer in the Night: For Those Who Work or Watch or Weep by Tish Harrison Warren. Compline prayer from Prayer in the Night: “Keep watch, dear Lord, with those who work, or watch, or weep this night, and give your angels charge over those who sleep. Tend the sick, Lord Christ, give rest to the weary, bless the dying, soothe the suffering, pity the afflicted, shield the joyous, and all for your love’s sake. Amen.”

The God of the Garden: Thoughts on Creation, Culture, and the Kingdom by Andrew Peterson. “Solitude is a choice. . . Isolation is finding yourself alone when you don’t want to be.”

The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis. (Re-read)

Wild Swans: Three Daughters of China by Jung Chang.

Life and Death in Shanghai by Nien Cheng. Another memoir of the Cultural Revolution and the reign of terror under Mao in China. Both this book and Wild Swans were difficult to read, difficult to believe that man could be so inhumane, so cruel, and that a society could devolve into such chaos and horror.

Rembrandt Is in the Wind: Learning to Love Art Through the Eyes of Faith by Russ Ramsey.

The Truth and Beauty: How the Lives and Works of England’s Greatest Poets Point the Way to a Deeper Understanding of the Words of Jesus by Andrew Klavan.

Where the Light Fell by Philip Yancey. These last three books on the list are the best books I read in 2022. I will be thinking about and returning to all three many times, I am sure. Yancey’s spiritual autobiography is heart-rending at times, but ultimately hopeful.

The Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd by A.B.C. Whipple

Jan4

Who was Captain Kidd? Most people would answer simply, “A pirate!” or maybe, “A pirate who buried a great treasure!” But was he a pirate? Or was he a falsely accused and misjudged victim? Was he a legal privateer acting under the King’s orders? Did he even have a treasure? And if so, what happened to it?

Mr. A.B.C. Whipple’s book doesn’t answer all of those questions. (HINT: The treasure is still either nonexistent or up for grabs.) But it does present a compelling case for the honor and victimization of one William Kidd, New York merchant turned—either pirate or privateer. Take your pick.

This Landmark history, one of the books in the famous Landmark series, is anything but a dry recitation of facts and figures. Of course, the subject is piracy and one of the most famous of all the pirates, Captain Kidd. But Kidd’s story is full of detail about the life and times of the pirates and about the late seventeenth century and its business practices and British politics; yet, nevertheless, the story is told in such a way as to draw in the reader and make him care about the East India Company and the coast of Madagascar and the intricacies of trade between New York and the West Indies—and much more. I love how these living Landmark books educate without pontificating, simply by telling a story.

The story begins with the British judge sentencing William Kidd to death by hanging, so there are no surprises about how Kidd’s story ends. But the author then goes back into to tell readers how in only six short years Kidd went from being a prosperous New York merchant to a criminal convicted of piracy and murder. It’s a sad, cautionary tale. Although I’m not sure what Captain Kidd could have done differently to avoid his fate, I certainly think some lessons can be drawn from his story. Maybe, stay away from ventures with politics and secret investors involved. Or, never trust a politician. Kids who read the book can draw their own lessons and conclusions.

As for the buried treasure, maybe it’s somewhere, buried still. I’d like to think so. In an author note at the end of my copy of the book, Mr. Whipple writes:

“Robert Louis Stevenson, the author of Treasure Island, once heard that another author, Henry James, had never gone looking for buried treasure. ‘If he has never been on a quest for buried treasure,’ said Stevenson, ‘it can be demonstrated that he has never been a child.'”

I certainly remember searching for buried treasure once upon a time. Maybe this book will inspire treasure hunters, children or adults, to try once more to find the buried treasure of Captain Kidd. And maybe someone, somewhere, will find it!

This Landmark book, once a rare find, out of print, and very expensive to purchase, has been reprinted by Purple House Press, and it’s now available at a very reasonable price with updated maps and other information. If you or your child (or both of you) are interested in pirates, and who isn’t, it’s worth purchasing or borrowing from my library (Meriadoc Homeschool Library) or from your local public library, if they have a copy. If not, you should request that they buy one immediately. Maybe it has clues to the whereabouts of the treasure, or maybe the story itself is the treasure.

More about this Landmark book, The Mysterious Voyage of Captain Kidd by A.B.C. Whipple (don’t you just love that author’s name!) on the Plumfield Moms podcast, where they are featuring one of the Landmark books each month on the first Friday of the month.

Little Vic by Doris Gates

Jan1

Pony Rivers is an orphan boy about 15 years old who loves horses. He is especially interested in working around racehorses, and even more especially, one particular horse, Victory, son of the famous racehorse, Man o’War. So, after the death of his mother, Pony goes to Kentucky in search of the stables where Victory lives. And he gets there just in time to witness the birth of one of Victory’s many offspring, a colt that Pony names Little Vic.

This story is the tale of a boy and the horse he grows to love. Pony is rather obsessed with Little Vic. I grew up around lots of “horse lovers”, and I never did really understand the fascination. However, I can enjoy a good horse book, and Little Vic is that, with a little something extra.

Pony follows Little Vic from owner to owner, believing that Little Vic has the makings of a winning racehorse. Pony works as a stablehand at first, but later when he is separated from Little Vic, who is shipped to a horse farm in Arizona, Pony decides to pursue a career as a jockey so that someday he will be qualified to ride Little Vic in races.

Only on page 107 of a 160 page story do we readers find out something about Pony Rivers that makes this novel more than just another horse and his boy story. I have to believe that the author, Doris Gates, intended the information about Pony not to be revealed until two-thirds of the way through the story, so I won’t spoil the surprise. But such an insightful and beautifully written story, published in 1951, was indeed a surprise.

Another surprise is that the importance of prayer and of knowing the Bible are both woven into the story in a lovely way, and the entire narrative leads to the uprooting of prejudice in one character and to kindness and reconciliation between two of the characters in the book. Little Vic is a good horse story, but it goes deeper than that to show how faith and perseverance and humility can win out in the end.

“The way I see it, Mr. Baker, everybody has got to have some trouble in this world. I just got the feeling I would rather have the kind of trouble Little Vic will pick out for me than any other trouble I can think of. And you know something?” Pony moved so that he could look into the colt’s eyes. ” The way I see it, as long as I can be with Little Vic, nobody can hand me any trouble anyway.”

She decided to begin with the Book of Job. “He had a lot of things to put up with, too,” she told Pony, “and his faith in the goodness of God gave him the strength to bear with every one of them. People like us need a lot of faith to bear some of the things we got too.” She fixed him with her eye. “And faith in something besides horses,” she added as she pushed a pair of glasses onto her broad nose.

A book for horse lovers and for those who just love a good story, Little Vic also has the advantage of being illustrated by Kate Seredy. Little Vic is a winner.

Content considerations: At one point in the story, Pony decks a jockey who mistreats Little Vic. The story also has characters who exhibit racial prejudice, condemned in the story, not condoned, and the African American characters in the book are designated as “colored people”, a commonly accepted term in the 1940’s.

The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander

Dec31

This book is marketed as middle grade fiction, perhaps because the author’s previous books were mostly middle grade verse novels, but I believe this particular historical fiction verse novel falls firmly into the Young Adult genre and maturity level. It includes horrific violence, war, and sexual assault, and even though these things are true to the time and setting and are not gratuitously described, they are present and central to the story. Caveat emptor.
I don’t care for verse novels. I chafe at the constrictions of writing (and reading) narrative/story in a series of free verse poems. The writing of a story in the form of a series of short poems seems choppy and incomplete to me. Write a novel, or write poems, or even a long narrative poem, but don’t try to combine them.
Nevertheless, as verse novels go, this one was a well-written one. There were some striking images, and the story managed to come through in spite of the limitations of the form.
So, The Door of No Return is a book that I would recommend to older teens and adults as a window into African/Ashanti history and the history of African slavery. I do believe that it is well-researched and valuable as a window into the origins and horror of African slavery in the nineteenth century.

With those initial thoughts given, The Door of No Return is a Young Adult verse novel set in 1860’s Ghana among the Ashanti people of that area. In the fictional region of Upper Kwanta, eleven year old Kofi lives in a village with his family and enjoys hanging out with his best friend Ebo, the stories of his grandfather Nana Mosi, his flirtation with his cousin Ana, and swimming in the river Offin. He does NOT enjoy his cousin who bullies and teases him, his teacher Mr. Goodluck Phillip who thinks learning the Queen’s English is the path to future success, or the rule that says he must never swim in the river at night.

When Kofi’s brother accidentally becomes the victim of old animosities and horrific injustice, Kofi is caught up in the violence and injustice himself. And thereby Kofi has his first direct encounter with “the wonderfuls” (white men) who perpetrate the greatest injustice of all–kidnapping and slavery.

This story is an indictment of war and greed and enslavement and hatred carried across generations. In the afterword, Mr. Alexander says that this was a hard book to write, and it is also a hard book to read.I want to deny the fact that these things happened, but I cannot. I wish that the book had been written in narrative prose with detailed descriptions of Kofi’s village and his life there. But I really wouldn’t wish for any more details than are already present in the book about the suffering and cruelty that Kofi experiences. So, maybe a verse novel was the best way to go.

Highly recommended for older teens and adults, poetry lovers, historical fiction fans, and readers concerned with the issues of injustice, hope, and endurance.

Mystery at Plum Nelly by Christine Noble Govan and Emmy West

Dec29

I read and enjoyed many of the books in this series of mystery books many, many years ago when I was an avid consumer of all things Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden and the Boxcar Children and Helen Fuller Orton. The books feature a group, actually two groups, of children who form two clubs: The Cherokees and later, The Lookouts. The children, who live in southern Tennessee near Lookout Mountain, are first called The Cherokees, but when the older members of the club “became less active because Mickey, Bitsy, Ted, and Buzz had new teenage interests, Jimmy, the youngest member, began a new club, the Lookouts.”

In this particular mystery, Mystery at Plum Nelly, the Lookouts and the Cherokees are all helping with the annual arts and crafts exhibit that is hosted at art teacher Miss Manning’s mountain cabin called Plum Nelly. “When people would ask how to get to her house the mountaineers would say, ‘It’s down the road a piece–it’s plum nearly out of Tennessee and plum nearly out of Georgia.’ Only they say ‘plum nelly’–so the place just got to be called Plum Nelly.” The book is full of dialect, mountain talk, and quaint sayings and aphorisms, but it’s not enough to overwhelm or confuse readers, even young readers. The mystery involves kidnapping, spies, government secrets, and midnight disturbances. It’s great, published originally in 1959, and very fifties in tone, characters, and setting.

This series of books would appeal to fans of the Boxcar Children original series (I don’t recommend the modern Boxcar Children mysteries which were written and published more recently.). However, Cherokee/Lookout series of mysteries is out of print, hard to find, and very pricey when you can find them used. If your library has them or if you happen to find them in the wild at a reasonable price, I highly recommend you check them out. None of these books are to be found in my huge, big-city library system. I have not re-read all of these mysteries for content considerations, but the only thing I found that might be objectionable in Mystery at Plum Nelly is a little bit of good-natured teasing of one of the Lookouts, Billy, who calls himself “fat” and loves to eat.

The entire series consists of sixteen books:

The Mystery At Shingle Rock (1955)
The Mystery At the Mountain Face (1956)
The Mystery At the Shuttered Hotel (1956)
The Mystery At Moccasin Bend (1957)
The Mystery At the Indian Hide-out (1957)
The Mystery At the Deserted Mill (1958)
The Mystery of the Vanishing Stamp (1958)
The Mystery At Plum Nelly (1959)
The Mystery At the Haunted House (1959)
The Mystery At Fearsome Lake (1960)
Mystery At Rock City (1960)
The Mystery At the Snowed-in Cabin (1961)
The Mystery of the Dancing Skeleton (1962)
The Mystery At Ghost Lodge (1963)
The Mystery At the Weird Ruins (1964)
The Mystery At the Echoing Cave (1965)

Just Harriet by Elana K. Arnold

Dec27

Harriet begins narrating her book by telling the readers a few things about herself:

She just finished third grade.
She has a perfect cat named Matzo Ball.
She sometimes has nightmares.
She doesn’t always tell the truth.
And sometimes, when she’s embarrassed or mad or gets caught in a lie, Harriet becomes (what her Mom calls) “out of hand.”

Harriet really is a bit of (what I call) a pill. She frequently and impulsively tells little lies and obviously transparent lies either to get what she wants or to escape the consequences of her behavior. I don’t really have much of a tolerance for lying, so I had trouble sympathizing with Harriet at first. But . . . she kind of, sort of won me over in spite of myself. The author does a good job of telling this story from Harriet’s immature and emotionally unregulated point of view. I could have done a better job as a parent in understanding my own children’s immaturity and lack of impulse control. And maybe this story would be helpful to parents as well as comforting to children in that respect.

Anyway, Harriet has a lot on her plate. Her mother is pregnant, expecting a little brother for Harriet, even though Harriet thinks a family of three is just the right size. What’s more Mom’s been put on bed rest, and Harriet is being sent to spend the summer with her Nanu, who runs a bed and breakfast inn on Marble Island off the coast of California. Harriet refuses to go. But Mom and Dad don’t take no for an answer.

The story involves a mysterious key, a look into Harriet’s dad’s boyhood, and a “gingerbread house” full of treasure. Harriet continues to be a handful throughout the story, but most of her lies and misadventures are good-natured misunderstandings, the result of confusion and inability to express her feelings properly. Harriet’s parents and grandmother don’t condone the lying, but they don’t really confront it either. I would probably be a bit more strict with a child like Harriet, but God didn’t give me a Harriet. Like all of the children, even the fictional ones, she’s one of a kind.

The book is 196 pages long with fairly large print, so about a second or third grade reading level. I’d recommend it, not as bibliotherapy for children who tell lies, but just as a good story.

Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill

Dec26

Happy Little Family by Rebecca Caudill, illustrated by Decie Merwin. Holt, RInehart, and Winston, 1947.

“It was January, and the morning was very cold. Icicles hung from the porch roof in a stiff ruffle. Sparrows sat hunched in the bare branches of the cherry tree, saying nothing. Only the wind made a noise. It howled down the mountain and whistled through the valley. It moaned in the pine trees and roared at the kitchen door. And everywhere it blew, it swept snowflakes before it and left them in deep white drifts.”
p.1

Happy Little Family is the first in a series of books about a rural Kentucky family–Father, Mother, and five children–and their tame, but engaging adventures in growing up on a farm in the mountains. I’ve heard about these books for a long time, but I’ve never read them. I love Ms. Caudill’s writing style which uses repetition and simple but rich descriptors to set a tone for a story featuring Bonnie, the youngest child in the happy little family, and her quest to go from being little to being big. Bonnie is four years old at the beginning of the book, almost five at the end, and she is determined to be big enough to do all the things that her older brother and sisters do.

It’s a short book, only five chapters or stories, each one posing a question related to Bonnie’s growth over the course of the year. Is Bonnie really old enough to go ice skating with the older children? Which is better, a new straw hat with white streamers down the back or a pretty and practical pink sunbonnet? Who can win the special arrowhead that Father found by doing something very brave and very wise? What is to be done when one suddenly loses a special red toboggan? And what makes a journey complete?

This book would make a lovely January read aloud book for a group of four or five year olds over the course of a week (a chapter a day) or even five weeks (a chapter a week). And older children would enjoy it, too. I think the books get a little older in content and in vocabulary as the series progresses, but not too much. It’s probably a good series for ages four to about nine or ten.

The four books in the Fairchild Family series are:

Happy Little Family
Schoolhouse in the Woods
Up and Down a River
Schoolroom in the Parlor

My library copy of Happy Little Family has a note and signature from the author. James Ayars was Rebecca Caudill’s husband. I’m not sure why he signed the book with her, nor am I able to make out the inscription: “[something] your family happy too,” maybe?

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.