Tag: Vintage Reads

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King of the Wind by Marguerite Henry

Were you one of those children who adored horses? Do you have a child who devours every book on horses that she can get her hands on?

Then you have probably read books by Marguerite Henry.

I didn’t. As a kid, I liked horses. I liked their soulful eyes and soft noses. I appreciated their loyalty to their owners. I liked them. But I didn’t love them. So I passed over all of Marguerite Henry’s works for historical books or mystery series or the nurse series like Sue Barton and Cherry Ames.

Since I like to hunt for vintage books at my library, I noticed King of the Wind. I read it. Now I remember why Black Beauty was the first and only horse book I ever read. I felt so sorry for the stallion, I couldn’t take the sorrow. Fifty years later, my soul hasn’t changed. I almost put down Henry’s Newbery Medal winner because my heart couldn’t stand so much injustice.

Synopsis

Sham, this magnificent bay stallion born to run, and Agba, the stable boy who takes care of him, travel the world in the 1700s. Sham was to be a beautiful gift to the king of France, but by the time he arrives in that country, the ship’s crew has starved the horse into a shadow of himself. The king, a bit insulted by the scrawny gift,  assigns Sham to pull a cart.

Overworked and underfed, Sham almost dies. He’s rescued! But shortly after, circumstances place him in dire straits once again.

Spoiler: there is a bittersweet, happy ending.

Pros

  1. Everything that makes for a good story. Heroes, villains, and an ending that may surprise the reader. (I was surprised.)
  2. Marguerite Henry might be the leading author who can stir the reader with emotion regarding a horse and the person who loves him most.

Cons

  1. Like me, tender hearts may wish to save themselves the tears.
  2. Published in 1948, the narrative is not terse and to-the-point like modern writing. So acclimate and enjoy!

Discussion Questions

  1. What is your opinion of a world that treats people and animals in the way that Sham and Agba were treated?
  2. Why is the cat important to this story? (I can’t leave out the cat! He’s one of the main characters!)
  3. Think of several of the minor characters in this story. If you were one of them, how might you have tried to help Sham and Agba?

Conclusion

As I dug a little deeper into the making of this novel, I discovered a tantalizing fact. The story is based on truth! Most thoroughbred horses today who run in the Triple Crown are descended from Sham, a horse who never had the chance to glory in an official race. He became known as the Godolphin Arabian and sired three champions. Those sons have provided the world with centuries of descendants who live for the joy of competition. Man O’ War and Seabiscuit are only two famous examples in recent times.

A quote from the book:

But some animals, like some men, leave a trail of glory behind them. They give their spirit to the place where they have lived, and remain forever a part of the rocks and streams and the wind and sky.

That was Sham.

Yes, I understand why children love to read books about horses.

 

 

 

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Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska

The publishing powers-that-be claim today’s readers are impatient. If you don’t hook them on the first page, the first paragraph even, you’re not publishable.  Vintage Reads always start a little slower. Teach your children patience for this book.  In turn, it will teach them how to respond to life’s challenges with integrity and faith, especially appropriate for middle grade boys as they search for what will make them good men.

Synopsis

The first paragraph caught my interest. Everyone in the bullfighting town of Arcangel expected Manolo to follow in his father’s footsteps as a bullfighter. The rest of the chapter? Not so interesting because the writing style is from fifty years ago –until the last lines that added deeper emotion: “…that hero had left them a son who was growing up once again to take arms against death. They were waiting for the son to be like his father.”

Except the son had no interest in becoming a bullfighter, which is the gist of the plot. How Manolo comes to terms with honor and bringing pride to his family and his town is what makes Shadow of a Bull a gripping read.

Pros

  1. Maia Wojciechowska gives us an enlightening peek into the world of bullfighting. Personally, I have always been adamantly against the “sport,” but the author shows us the spirit of a magnificent bull. As one character put it (and  I paraphrase): such a creature prefers to die in battle rather than be shoved into a slaughterhouse unable to defend himself.
  2.  Manolo’s character matures as he prepares for his first bullfight (at the age of twelve!). His final decision will please the bullfighter aficionado as well as  those who abhor bloodsport.

Cons

As with any Vintage Read, children of the 21st century will find it difficult to stay with the long descriptions and inner monologue, so maybe it can be a read-aloud for the whole family.

Discussion Questions

Lots of deep thinking abounds! I will limit myself to three.

  1. Why didn’t Manolo just tell people (or at least his mother) that he didn’t want to be a bullfighter?
  2. Did Manolo ever see the beauty in bullfighting? Explain your answer.
  3.  Did you like Manolo’s final decision? Why or why not?

Conclusion

If your public library, like mine, has a section on Newbery Awards, Shadow of a Bull should be there. Relish the story.

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The Westing Game By Ellen Raskin

The Westing Game is a mystery, or more accurately, a puzzle-mystery as described in the author’s own words. With sixteen characters, each with their own point-of-view, the challenge of solving the mystery ranks on par with the difficulty level of a 3000-piece jigsaw puzzle.

As an avid reader, I hate to waste my time rereading any story. There are so many books, and I have so little time! But The Westing Game has joined the exclusive club of Second Reads in Linda’s Library. In fact, because of the complicated puzzle, as soon as I read the last page, I turned to the front of the book and started over. I wanted to discover all the clues I had missed in the first reading. I’ve never done that before.

Synopsis

Sam Westing, the reclusive multi-millionaire, has been murdered. Sixteen heirs are invited to a reading of the will, which, in reality, is a contest. Whoever can solve the puzzle of Westing’s death inherits his estate. His lawyer provides the clues, a few at a time. Without mentioning every possible heir, the characters include perky and angry preteen Turtle to the morose, sixty-something Crow, from an African-American judge to the doorman of the apartment where most of the sixteen live. How one of them is able to solve the puzzle becomes an exercise in fascination. And how all sixteen characters grow in kindness and love toward one another warms the heart.

Pros

1. An excellent mystery is a pro in itself. If I can’t predict the outcome until the last page or two, the author has succeeded with flying colors. I was able to solve the major clues early on, yet couldn’t solve the entire puzzle-mystery.

2. The story is full of surprises along the way. I love surprises!

Cons

1. The head-hopping with sixteen POVs was disconcerting. But I got used to it and started to enjoy it.

2. The puzzle is awfully complex for a middle-grader to follow. I kept returning to previous pages and checked specific clues to keep track of the story. During an earlier era of my life (before my motto of “relentlessly eliminate hurry”), I had started this book and set it down because I didn’t have the leisure of mulling over the possibilities. I’m so glad I took the time to enjoy it now.

Discussion Questions

While there are dozens of questions one could ask regarding each clue, let’s skip to the end and see if your child knows the answers.

1. Who was Sam Westing?
2. When did Sam Westing die?
3. Who received the inheritance?
4. Why did Sam Westing create this crazy puzzle-mystery in the first place? (Hint: several possible answers would be acceptable which involve the man’s character as well as the integrity of the sixteen heirs.)

Conclusion

Just to whet your inquisitive appetite, I’ll leave you with some of the questions I came up with as I read.

1. Plain, grain, skies, brother?
2. Is Grace a Wexler, a Windkloppel, or a Westing?
3. Who else plays chess?
4. Will Angela die like Violet died?
5. Is Otis Amber a nut or a genius?

Happy reading!

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Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright

Set in the late 1930s, Thimble Summer captures the era’s atmosphere of farm life in  Wisconsin. Elizabeth Enright wrote this while people were just beginning to recover from the Dust Bowl further south, and the book gives an excellent sense of the Depression years through a child’s eyes.

Synopsis

Garnet Linden, ten years old, gets herself into a different scrape every chapter. The story starts with the silver thimble she finds half buried in the river bank, and Garnet decides it will bring her good luck. All her adventures through the rest of the summer “prove” it. Life isn’t always easy, and she knows her father worries about the bills, but as the season comes to a close, she can look back on adventures that brought so many treasures to hold close to her heart for a lifetime.

Pros

 

  1. Children who love a gentle, happy story with enough challenges to keep them interested will love the book.
  2. Enright provides wonderful details teaching today’s readers what farming was like in the twentieth century before World War II, such as how neighbors teamed up to get everyone’s harvest in and how farm machinery was relatively new.

Cons

 

Children who love action and adventure, or adults who deem no story is a good story without building toward a strong climax will not like Thimble Summer.

Discussion Questions

  1. What chores did Garnet help out with?
  2. Would you prefer to be Eric, who lived on his own for over a year, or would you prefer to be part of a family like Garnet’s? Why?
  3. How was it possible that no one missed Garnet when she ran away for the whole day?

Conclusion

I write reviews for Vintage Reads for the sole purpose of pointing readers to great books of yesteryear. This is the second book by Elizabeth Enright that I’ve reviewed. You can find my opinion of The Saturdays here. She has ten more books for children, and each one paints a beautiful picture of Americana.

 

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Carry On, Mr. Bowditch By Jean Lee Latham

Set in post-Revolutionary War New England, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is the  biography of Nathaniel Bowditch, author of The American Practical Navigator, nicknamed the “Sailor’s Bible.” While I never paid attention to the author’s name when I was a child, I’m sure I read several of Jean Lee Latham’s biographical works. I recognized her writing style at once.

Synopsis

When Habakkuk Bowditch’s ship founders on the shoals near Salem, Massachusetts, the family is left in poverty.  His second son, Nat,  is much smaller than his other other sons, and Mr. Bowditch doesn’t expect Nat will have the strength needed to join the family tradition of working on a ship.  So he decides to send Nat into indentured service. There will be one less mouth to feed in a family of seven children and Nat will be able to earn a living after nine years. Nat lives with another family for nine years to learn the trade of ship chandlery, the business of supplying equipment and commodities for ships.

Nat’s intuitive understanding of math concepts combined with his passion for helping ships sail as safely as possible drives him to a phenomenal self-education. He learns bookkeeping, Latin, French, Italian, navigational techniques, and advanced mathematics, all with the purpose of writing a book which will correct mathematical errors in established navigational books.

But don’t think this story is only about academic subjects. Nat’s adventures from the Cape of Good Hope to the island of Sumatra add all the action a reader could wish for.

Pros

  1. Nathaniel Bowditch’s life is well-documented, and Latham’s story holds true to all the facts.
  2. Children reading this will get a strong sense of the New World culture circa 1800.

Cons

  1. Because of the early nineteenth century culture, some adults may have a problem with the attitude of such things as “boys don’t blubber,” or that society approved of profits from whaling and sealing expeditions.

Discussion Questions

  1. Do you think Nat had a good attitude once he was indentured to the ship chandlery? Why or why not?
  2. Did Nat ever receive a college degree from Harvard?
  3. Why did wives of sailors need to be independent, able to run their entire households and provide for their families?
  4. Nat sailed on five different voyages. Which one of those voyages did you enjoy reading about the most?

Conclusion

As a Vintage Read, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is both educational and entertaining.

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Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

Lois Lenski’s American Regional books have been likened to the Little House books of Laura Ingalls Wilder. Yes, the similar settings are hugely important to the story, but Lenski’s style is far different than Wilder’s, and I like them both. I found Strawberry Girl particularly interesting because it covers a place and time I’m unfamiliar with, Florida at the turn of the twentieth century.

Synopsis

Birdie Boyer’s father has purchased a long-abandoned farm in central Florida. Proud of their Cracker heritage (the Scotch-Irish pioneers who populated the Appalachian Mountains), ten-year-old Birdie works hard helping her family plant an orchard and strawberry field. However, the antagonists, a squatter family who have lived on the nearby land for generations, are determined to stop the Boyers from building fences. The Slaters own cattle and are used to allowing their cows to roam wild. You can see how conflict is going to build.

Once Birdie cools down from the latest Slater outrage, she and her mother still offer kindness to their neighbors, especially as they realize that wife and children suffer under the irresponsibility of the father. Today’s reader will find the ending improbable. Without giving away the plot, I’ll just tell you that Lenski uses the ideal to teach children virtues to strive for.

Pros

  1. Strawberry Girl offers a great history lesson about Florida and its culture.
  2. The language is simple and straightforward, even as Lenski uses southern terms that might be unfamiliar to her readers. Third-graders should be able to understand most of it.

Cons

  1. Many readers won’t care for what I’ve noted as pros. They don’t want a history lesson, and they don’t want to struggle with new vocabulary. I guess that’s more of a criticism of the reader than the book!
  2. Having been written over sixty years ago, the book is narrated rather than the deep POV most of us are now accustomed to. But the narration is excellent, which is why it won the Newbery Medal in 1945.

Discussion Questions

  1. If Effie Slater wanted to be friends with Birdie, why was Effie so hateful toward her neighbor sometimes?
  2. Who was able to better solve problems between the Boyers and the Slaters, Mr. Boyer or Mrs. Boyer? Give an example.
  3. What was Birdie’s surprise gift after all her work growing the strawberries?

Conclusion

Another very worthwhile vintage read!

 

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M.C. Higgins the Great by Virginia Hamilton

Synopsis

Set in Appalachia of northern Kentucky along the Ohio River,  M.C. Higgins is the oldest son in an African American family, proud of his great grandmother’s mountain and proud of his skills as a swimmer, a hunter-tracker, and how he can shimmy up his forty-foot steel pole to view the hills. Then two strangers enter his domain. The first might be able to make M.C.’s mother a famous singer. The second is a girl who lives the kind of freedom M.C. never considered aiming for.

Over all of them, hover the age-old superstitions handed down through the generations and the brewing storm of strip miners laying bare Sarah’s Mountain. M.C. will soon need to make a choice: stay on his mountain as the coal industry destroys it, or move off the mountain and join the modern world.

Pros

  1. The setting may be more of a main character than M.C. Higgins. Virginia Hamilton’s descriptive imagery is superb.
  2. Readers will gain a solid sense of the culture that has inhabited Appalachia for centuries.
  3. While this is a coming-of-age story during a specific era in a specific setting, it goes beyond race bias and evil coal mine owners. This is M.C.’s story and what happens between him and his parents, between him and his siblings, and between him and the strangers who visit his mountain.

Cons

  1. The setting may be more of a main character than M.C. Higgins. Hamilton’s descriptive imagery and literary style will cause the average juvenile reader to close the book by page 10. I was a voracious reader as a child, but this book would not have held my interest. I would have skipped all the amazing prose to get to the action.
  2. The relationship between M.C. and his father bothered me. They loved each other, respected one another, but the way each challenged the other bordered on generating feelings of hate and disrespect.

Conclusion

M.C. Higgins the Great was a novel I appreciated for its literary excellence. It painted a portrait of one specific area of the United States with a brush that allowed me to become immersed in the setting using every one of my senses. However, I believe it’s a novel geared toward adults, not youth. It takes an especially thoughtful young reader to enjoy what M.C. Higgins has to offer.

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Onion John by Joseph Krumgold

Twelve-year-old Andy Rusch walks to school and walks home for lunch. He’s    free to roam the countryside surrounding his small town of Serenity the whole day long, and his parents have no trouble with him befriending the village’s odd-man character, Onion John.

Today’s generation of children will read Onion John and consider it a fairytale, yet when the novel was written in 1959, it was contemporary realistic fiction. It’s a sweet story of contrasts—growing up and meeting the future versus looking back and accepting the past. Andy and his father both learn wisdom as they try to help Onion John. For Andy, that means being Onion John’s best friend, and since he’s the only person in his community who can understand John’s garbled speech, he also becomes John’s interpreter. For Mr. Rusch, it means turning Onion John  into a good-deed project and organizing the town to help build the “homeless” man a proper house. Except Onion John doesn’t want a new house, and he doesn’t need an interpreter to thrive in the world he has established for himself.

I grew up in communities like Serenity. Why didn’t I read this book as a child? It has such a beautiful ending. My only excuse: the main character is a boy. I only liked girl stories.

Pros

  1. Krumgold weaves life lessons in so subtly, the reader never feels preached at.
  2. The characters often disagree with one another, yet they always keep loving each other. Something our society needs to learn in the 21st century.
  3. Everyone in town is nice. No villains, other than misguided good intentions. You may be thinking, “Why did she say this is not a fairytale?” Because while the people are nice, they’re not perfect. And isn’t that reality? Not many of us rub shoulders with evil people all the time. Friction happens because two decent people have different opinions.
  4. Andy has both a mother and a father, and they enjoy a happy marriage. They love their son. Almost everything I read these days has a main character who is orphaned, half-orphaned, or is a child of divorce . Onion John portrays a refreshing setting.

Cons

  1. I felt the plot still had a slight sagging middle before the town got on board to build Onion John a new house. Then again, maybe it was the boy-style plot details that didn’t hold this old girl’s interest.
  2. Today’s parents might be horrified at the freedoms allowed to Andy, afraid their children would make the mistake of straying too far from home and into an unsafe neighborhood. Unless you live near a crime-ridden area, please don’t overreact. And if you do live in a dangerous area, you could address this as a safety issue via Discussion Question one.

Discussion Questions

  1. What kinds of activities do you think you would have participated in if you were allowed to range from one end of town to the other and out into the country? Would it be safe to have that kind of freedom where you live today?
  2. How did Andy and his buddies show friendship to Onion John? How did Onion John show friendship to them?
  3. What was wrong with Mr. Rusch’s plan to help Onion John?
  4. Did you like Onion John’s decision near the end of the book? Why or why not?
  5. Who do you think was the wisest character in this book and why?

 

Conclusion

If you want a taste of mid-twentieth century Americana combined with a wise attitude toward life, read this book. As a Newbery Medal winner, many libraries still carry it, and you can find it on Amazon.

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The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright

Synopsis

The Saturdays, first book in The Melendy Quartet, is a delightful trot into yesteryear’s childhood. Elizabeth Enright created a family of four siblings who live an “ordinary” life in New York City, yet their minor escapades become “special” adventures. Set in 1941 before America entered World War II, the Melendy children are a little bored. They decide to pool their allowances so each can afford a solo adventure in the City on Saturday afternoons.

What are the adventures? A visit to an art museum, attending the opera, an afternoon at a beauty salon, and going to the circus. Those excursions might sound dull to this generation, but not in the eyes of these characters. Randy’s visit to the art museum initiates an important friendship. On the way home from the opera, Rush acquires a beloved pet—who later saves their lives. The new hairstyle and manicure is a fleeting thrill teaching Mona the meaning of “someday.” And the trek to the circus proves to Oliver that Father’s training pays off in an emergency. Other simple incidents in their lives bring either catastrophes or blessings.

Pros

  1. Kids won’t read about trips to the mall or the latest Xbox game. Instead, they’re drawn into the world of imagination, discovering there are ways to entertain yourself by interacting with people face to face, and without breaking the bank. For people like me this is a good thing. It breaks my heart to watch kids sit with a small device in their hands, ignoring the world around them.
  2. Each of the Saturday adventures teaches the Melendy child (and the reader) a lesson without being preachy.

Cons

Kids won’t read about trips to the mall or the latest Xbox game. For people who are sold on the society of today, they would wilt in boredom if forced to read a chapter about a ten-year-old who discovers an elderly acquaintance had been captured by gypsies in her youth.

Conclusion

If we sense our children are becoming jaded by our texting-social media-video game society, force them to imagine themselves in the Melendy’s moments. As proof that many kids will like what they read, my own experiences in sharing with my students serves as an example.

My growing-up years were well past the Melendy clan, but my brothers and I enjoyed simple adventures of our own. We walked along a highway to reach the ice cream store. We spent entire afternoons in the woods. We biked to the pool and to the movies. We played kickball in the street.

My students were jealous! “You could just go off and not come home for hours?” “They let you walk on roads with no sidewalks? Alone?” “Weren’t they afraid you’d get lost?” “Wouldn’t you get run over?” “How old were you when they let you do that?”

My answers: “Our parents taught us to walk on the left shoulder facing traffic. We packed a lunch and came home in time for dinner. We never got lost. When a car approached during the game, we ran to the side until it passed. I was nine. My brothers were younger.”

If those students thought adventures on their own would be fantastic, your kids will enjoy The Saturdays.

 

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Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes

Until last week, I had never read Johnny Tremain. Shame on me! And shame on me that after the first thirty pages, I was ready to recommend only the most patient of readers should stick with the book. Sure, it was a Newbery Medal Winner. Of 1943. Language has changed and Esther Forbes’s habit of explaining the obvious to her readers was annoying.

HOWEVER, I urge you to stick with it! The deeper I progressed into the story, the more I could see why it was a medal winner, and I didn’t want to stop reading. Esther Forbes was an avid historian of the Revolutionary War. She was particularly interested in the goings-on of the Sons of Liberty in Boston leading up to Paul Revere’s famous ride and the Shot Heard Round the World. She then took what she had learned and used a small incident, the boy who took the message to the friend who would hang the lanterns in the North-Church-tower (“one if by land and two if by sea”), and created a children’s novel in order to bring Revolutionary times to life for every generation.

Not only are we reminded of historical events, but Forbes lets us peek into the real, and often flawed, lives of many of the leaders of the Revolution. She depicts the British as real men,  not monsters. They tried to keep the peace by allowing rebels freedom of movement in the hopes that war could be averted, for after all, the Revolution was all about Englishman vs. Englishman. A civil war.

As I read, I could see the book was well researched. If you obtain a copy with Gary D. Schmidt’s introduction, you will see just how well researched it was. Study it! Schmidt gives fascinating insights into the author, her scholastic abilities, and her message.

revolutionary-war-minutemen

Synopsis

Johnny Tremain is apprenticed to a silversmith. When an accident to his hand prevents him from following his dream to surpass the skills of the famed Paul Revere, he searches for whatever work the maimed hand will allow him to do. Thus, he becomes involved with the Sons of Liberty, a messenger boy who shares what he learns listening to British soldiers in the taverns of Boston.

Pros:

  1. Homeschool parents and teachers, the novel itself supplements the best history curricula of the Revolutionary War. It would make a great novel for reading class or for reading as a family.
  2. I’m a strong believer in learning how to adjust to different writing styles. Well-written books published in 1943 or in 1843 or in 1743 were great for their time and are still great today. The twenty-first century’s arrogant sense of “get to the point with as few words as possible” needs to be displaced by an appreciation for timeless literature regardless of style. Johnny Tremain is one of those classics.

Cons:

I can think of two that reflect worse on the reader than on the author.

  1. The writing style is wordy and “telling.” We value succinct and “showing.” Both can be done well. The reader who can’t stand wordiness will not like this book.
  2. Readers who don’t want their idols knocked off their pedestals won’t want to read Johnny Tremain. Samuel Adams is displayed in all his energy, his enthusiasm, and—his thirst for British blood. I was surprised and uncomfortable by the revelation. But I’m planning on buying his biography to learn more.

Discussion Questions:

These can range from simple discussion of historical events to soul-searching questions of right and wrong. I’ll mention a couple that came to mind regarding the latter.

  1. The Tories, those loyal to the Crown of England, did not feel the colonists had a good enough reason to go to war. Over taxes? Was it worth it to go to war over money? What’s your opinion?
  2. The Whigs, also known as rebels, felt it was wrong to meekly accept taxation without representation. A few went further, deciding that a revolution in the American colonies would pave the way for freedom for every citizen of every nation in the world someday. If you had lived in Boston in 1773, would you have been Tory or a Whig? Why?

Conclusion:

Shortly before the confrontation at Lexington, James Otis made an informal speech to the Sons of Liberty speaking on the eternal values liberty represented. He claimed it wasn’t worth it to fight for money or for representation in the British Parliament. But it was worth it to fight for the right of a man to “stand up.” This was the author’s message as men stood up for freedom in World War II. The same message applies as men stood up for freedom in Korea, in Vietnam, in Kuwait, and they stand in Iraq and in Afghanistan today. It’s why the world fights ISIS and its ilk.

I’ll finish with a Bible verse, perhaps taken slightly out of context, but its meaning applies. Because there are principalities and powers of the air who direct more than we may be aware of, God instructs us to put on His armor and face the enemy. Ephesians 6:13 sums up the idea in one verse: “And when you have done all, STAND.” This is the message of Johnny Tremain. Men of ideals, not all of them perfect ideals, stood for what they believed was right and true. When they had done all that they knew in dealing peaceably with King George III, they stood and held their ground against tyranny. Johnny Tremain teaches our children to do the same.