Elizabeth George Speare - Historical Writer Extraordinaire

Have you ever read any of the books written by Elizbeth George Speare?
She wrote some wonderful historical fiction, and also won 2 Newbery Award Medals, and 1 Newbery Honor Medal.

The Witch of Blackbird Pond
Winner of the 1959 Newbery Medal

 

Kit moves from her island home of Barbados to live with family members she has never met in their Puritanical community in Conneticut . She feels out of  place and alone, and seeks solace in the woods where she meets Hannah Tupper. The Puritans think that Hannah is a witch and soon she is accused of such. Kit eventually is tied to her and also accused of  being a witch.

 

This is a wonderful wonderful story. I've loved it since I was young. It captivates you and leaves you filled with emotion. The best part is that it paints a wonderful picture of 17th Century life in New England.

 

One of my favotire quotes from this book:

“What a pity every child couldn't learn to read under a willow tree...”
―  The Witch of Blackbird Pond

 

The Bronze Bow

Winner of the 1962 Newbery Medal.

Daniel is a young Jewish rebel who wants to avenge his father's crucifiction by the Romans. This story is set in Galilee during the time of Jesus. Daniel even listens to Jesus and talks with him. The overall themes of this story is loving your enemies. This is such a fabulous work of historical fiction, I can't even express how much I revere this book. It would be a travesty if a child was never exposed to this story (really).

Here is one of my favorite sections from the story:

“Daniel, he said. I would have you follow me.

Master!....I will fight for you to the end!

My loyal friend, he said, I would ask something much harder than that. Would you love for me to the end?

...I don't understand, he said again, You tell people about the kingdom. Are we not to fight for it?
The kingdom is only bought at a great price, Jesus said. There was one who came just yesterday and wanted to follow me. He was very rich, and when I asked him to give up his wealth, he went away.
I will give you everything I have!

....Riches are not keeping you from the kingdom, he said. You must give up your hate.”
―   The Bronze Bow

The Sign of the Beaver
1984 Newbery Honor Medal

It is a young boy who goes with his father to Maine to stake a claim. His father leaves him to hold the cabin while he returns for the rest of the family. The boy is befriended by a local Indian chief's grandson and they help him survive.  They encourage him to come live with them when his father's return never appears to be happening.

 

This is an enjoyable read and very interesting.

I will note that it is a book that is highly panned by many Native Americans. Speare's uses some words that are stereotypical, such as "squaw" and also some rather stereotypical Indian behaviors.

I can't speak to this obviously. In my estimation it is a very good book.

Sometimes these types of issues are good points to discuss with children the changing landscape of native people in stories and other issues of race and creed.

Overall, I think it would be a shame if a child was not given the opportunity to read this story.

 

Happy Weekend!

Summer Updates, Mark Twain and Books to Make You Cry

I haven't blogged much lately, or really since summer started. In my defense, I did spend a little over three weeks in Europe. Since my return, and while there is still not a plethora of daily responsibility, I have been reading and reading and reading. More on much of what I've been, and what I currently am reading to follow.

The boy and I always have a book we are reading together. We just finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Twain is one of my favorite writers. I relish much of what those American writers have written. This was my seventh reading of ol' Huck. The boy and I had previously read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and he also read that again at school. This was his first dip into Huck. I'm not going to dip into all my thoughts on Huck and Tom and Twain right now, but boy, that Mark Twain sure can write a book!

Of course now we are at the challenging part where we choose the next book. Truth is I dictate what we read. Don't be fooled, I don't run a democracy, I'm a full on dictator in my house. I pretend that there are choices, I usually pull four or five books and present them to the boy for us to choose from.
Yesterday I pulled five books, Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens (pushing the Dickens obviously), Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson, and Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls.

I presented these five titles to the boy, he looked through them and immediately protested the inclusion of Where the Red Fern Grows.
"No way, not reading this one," he said.
I asked him if he'd already read it and what his protest was.
"Sad. It will make you cry." He told me.
He explained to me that anytime there is a dog, or other animal on the cover of a book it is sad, you'll cry, and usually the animal dies. I wondered if he had found some truth I wasn't fully aware of, and realized there might be something to this.

I thought of the other books with animals on the covers that I've read with the boy:


The proposed book:
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls
synopsis: sad, will make you cry, dogs die

Old Yeller by Fred Gipson
synopsis: sad, will make you cry, dog dies

The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
synopsis: sad, will make you cry, deer dies

Sounder by William Armstrong
synopsis: yes again...sad, crying, dead dog

The Call of the Wild by Jack London
synopsis: sad, but really adventurous, maybe a sniffle, dead dog

Bambi: A Life in the Woods by Felix Salten
synopsis: sad at times, and maybe some tears, death but Oh!! So worth it!

I realize why he has come to this conclusion.

I think we are going to read some Dickens.  

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Here are some of my favorite Twain quotes:

"Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often"

“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.” 

“Books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” 

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.” 

+++++++++++++++++

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed

by the things that you didn't do

than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines.

 Sail away from the safe harbor.

 Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore.

Dream.

Discover.”

--Mark Twain

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++  

"My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one's country, not institutions or officeholders.

Country is the real thing;

the thing to watch over, care for, be loyal to;

institutions extraneous, they are mere clothing,

& clothing can wear out, become ragged, cease to be comfortable,

 cease to protect the body...

To be loyal to rags, to shout for rags,

to worship rags, to die for rags

-that is a loyalty of unreason."
--Mark Twain

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Let us endeavor so to live

that when we come to die

 even the undertaker will be sorry."

 The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of the Extraordinary Twins

by Mark Twain

Beautiful Bagheera

“A black shadow dropped down into the circle.

It was Bagheera the Black Panther, inky black all over,

but with the panther markings showing up in certain lights

 like the pattern of watered silk.

Everybody knew Bagheera,

and nobody cared to cross his path,

for he was as cunning as Tabaqui,

as bold as the wild buffalo,

and as reckless as the wounded elephant.

But he had a voice as soft as wild honey dripping from a tree,

and a skin softer than down.”

Rudyard Kipling, The Jungle Books

My Favorite Book of All

“Who is Alice?" asked mother.

"Alice is somebody that nobody can see," said Frances.
"And that is why she does not have a birthday.
So I am singing Happy Thursday to her."

Frances in A Birthday for Frances by Russell Hoban

"He used often to say there was only one Road;

that it was like a great river:

 its springs were at every doorstep,

and every path was its tributary.

'It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door,'

he used to say. 'You step into the Road,

and if you don't keep your feet,

 there is no knowing where you might be swept off to.'"

- Frodo Baggins, quoting Bilbo Baggins

in The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien

Life's Choices

“It is our choices, Harry,
that show us what we truly are,
far more than our abilities.”

― Albus Dumbledore in  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

by J.K. Rowling

“Dad always says to me,

 ‘Marco, keep your eyelids up

And see what you can see.’”

And to Think That I Saw it On Mulberry Street

by Dr. Seuss

1937

Side Note: I love this quote. My favorite high school teacher wrote this on a card for me

at graduation. I still have the note.

- Max in Where the Wild Things Are

by Maurice Sendak

1964 Caldecott Medal

One of My Favorite Book Quotes...

“(Frances has gotten out of bed again

and come to her parents' room...)
'How can the wind have a job?' asked Frances.
'Everybody has a job,' said Father.
'I have to go to my office every morning at nine o'clock. 

That is my job. You have to go to sleep so you can be wide awake for school tomorrow. That is your job.'
Frances said, 'I know, but...'
Father said, 'I have not finished. If the wind does not blow

the curtains, he will be out of a job. 

If I do not go to the office, I will be out of a job. 

And if you do not go to sleep now,

 do you know what will happen to you?'
'I will be out of a job?' said Frances.
'No,' said Father.
'I will get a spanking?' said Frances.
'Right!' said Father.
'Good night!' said Frances, and she went back to her room.”    

--Bedtime for Frances by Russell Hoban

The Beauty of Love

“The world is indeed full of peril
and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair.
And though in all lands,
love is now mingled with grief,
it still grows, perhaps,
the greater.”

― Haldir of Lorien in The Lord of the Rings
by J.R.R. Tolkien

Good Friday and Aslan

“It means,” said Aslan,

“that though the Witch knew the Deep Magic,

there is a magic deeper still which she did not know.

 Her knowledge goes back only to the dawn of Time. 

But if she could have looked a little farther back,

into the stillness and darkness before Time dawned,

she would have read there a different incantation. 

She would have known that when a willing victim

who had committed no treachery

was killed in a traitor’s stead,

the Table would crack

and Death itself would start working backwards.”

--from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by CS Lewis

Spring surpassed his wildest hopes.

-- Samwise Gamgee

The Return of the King by J R R Tolkein

A Favorite Quote from a Favorite Book - Catcher in the Rye

"Among other things,
you'll find that you're not
the first person
who was ever confused and frightened
and even sickened by human behavior.
You're by no means alone on that score,
you'll be excited and stimulated to know.
Many, many men have been just as troubled morally
and spiritually as you are right now.
Happily, some of them kept record
of their troubles.
You'll learn from them - if you want to.
Just as someday,
if you have something to offer,
someone will learn something from you.
It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement.
And it is education.
It's history.
It's poetry."

--Holden Caulfield
in The Catcher in the Rye1951

My Own Good Advice

She generally gave herself
very good advice
(though she very seldom followed it).

--from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Ahhh Spring...

"The Mole had been working very hard
all the morning,
spring-cleaning his little home.
First with brooms, then with dusters;
then on ladders and steps and chairs,
with a brush and a pail of whitewash;
till he had dust in his throat and eyes,
and splashes of whitewash all over his black fur,
and an aching back and weary arms.
Spring was moving in the air above
and in the earth below and around him,
penetrating even his dark and lowly little house
with its spirit of divine discontent and longing."

- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

“A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.” ― C. S. Lewis
author of The Chronicles of Narnia series

My Thoughts Exactly

I often get wordy when I try to describe how I feel about things.
I ran across this fitting quote from Roald Dahl (he has so many wonderfully fitting quotes).
It sums up my feelings exactly.

“I have a passion for teaching kids to become readers, to become comfortable with a book, not daunted. Books shouldn't be daunting, they should be funny, exciting and wonderful; and learning to be a reader gives a terrific advantage.”   
― Roald Dahl

“'So please, oh please, we beg, we pray,
Go throw your TV set away,
and in its place you can install a lovely bookshelf on the wall.

Then fill the shelves with lots of books, Ignoring all the dirty looks,

The screams and yells, the bites and kicks,

And children hitting you with sticks --

Fear not, because we promise you

That, in about a week or two

Of having nothing else to do,

They'll now begin to feel the need

Of having something good to read.'”  

--Oompa Loompa song in Charlie & The Chocolate Factory

by Roald Dahl

author of the following titles (and many more)

Ahhh...so that's the reason

"Do you know," Peter asked, "why swallows build in the eaves of houses? It is to listen to the stories."

     -- Peter Pan  in  Peter and Wendy, by J.M. Barrie

Arthur Rackham illustration from Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens by  J.M. Barrie