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All The Children Were Sent Away

All the Children Were Sent Away by Sheila Garrigue, 1976.

It’s 1940, and Sara Warren’s parents are sending her to stay with her uncle in Canada until the war is over.  With the increasing bombings of England, her parents have decided that it’s just too dangerous for Sara to stay, and her uncle has written, asking them to send her.  Many other British families are sending their children away to escape the bombings, and Sara travels to Canada on a ship with other British child evacuees.  All of them are worried about the families they’ve left behind and what it’s going to be like, living in another country.  They also worry about whether or not they’re ever coming back.

Sara’s escort for the trip is Lady Drume.  She is a bossy, over-bearing woman with very definite ideas about how children should be raised.  She doesn’t like Sara to talk to the sailors on the ship because they can be “impertinent,” and she doesn’t want her to play with the other children because they’re “guttersnipes!”  She even refuses to attend the lifeboat meeting or let Sara go without her!  To Sara’s mind, Lady Drume is as bad as any Nazi.

Sarah still manages to make friends with some Cockney children, Ernie and Maggie, seeing them whenever she can get away from Lady Drume, and an old sailor called Sparky makes sure that she understands safety on board the ship and attends the lifeboat drills.

But, when Lady Drume forces Sara to cut her hair after she’s been waiting so long for it to grow out, Sara decides that’s the last straw!  With the help of her friends, Sara hides from Lady Drume on the ship.  In the process, she learns something about Lady Drume which changes some things for the better, although it takes an outbreak of measles for Lady Drume to really understand and appreciate Sara.

This book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

Part of trouble with Lady Drume and her behavior is that she’s actually very afraid.  She doesn’t like to talk about lifeboats or life jackets because the war and the possibility of sinking frighten her.  She deals with problems by being brusque and trying to ignore frightening things, charging on ahead with whatever seems like a practical course of action to her.  It’s not even just the war but the changing world around her that frightens Lady Drume, a woman who’s used to knowing who’s who and what’s what and getting things done the way she likes them.  But, the rigors of their journey and their mutual vulnerability when they’re sick help lower Lady Drume’s barriers.  Lady Drume isn’t a bad person, and in the end, she arranges a special surprise for Sara to make her exile from England more bearable.

The end of the story is a brief section explaining Sara’s return to England, having been away for a few years, and her feelings at seeing how England and her parents have changed during that time.

There is a sequel to this book that shows what happened during Sara’s time in Canada called The Eternal Spring of Mr. Ito.  It focuses on suspicion of Japanese people following the bombing of Pearl Harbor.  There were Japanese internment camps in Canada as well as the United States during World War II.

Sheila Garrigue’s books about child evacuees from England were partly based on her own experiences as a child evacuee during World War II, as explained in her obituary after her death in 2001.

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The Night Crossing

NightCrossingThe Night Crossing by Karen Ackerman, 1994.

It’s 1938 in Austria, and Clara’s parents have decided that their family needs to leave before things get worse.  Already, Jewish families like theirs are being rounded up by the Nazis, and Clara and her sister Marta were chased through the streets by other children, shouting insults.

Their family has been through things like this before.  Clara’s grandmother tells her about when she had to flee Russia as a little girl to escape the pogroms.  She brought her dolls Gittel and Lotte with her as her family hiked through the Carpathian Mountains.  Now, Clara will carry them with her as their family leaves Austria for Switzerland.

It’s a hard journey with lots of walking and little food.  The family can carry very little with them, and some of what they have they are forced to trade for food, a place to rest, and for not being turned over to the Nazis.  Finally, at the border crossing, Clara’s parents are afraid that they will have to get rid of the candlesticks that have been in their family for generations because they might be discovered by the border guards.  Then, Clara comes up with a plan to hide them in her dolls.  Will it work?

NightCrossingPicThis is a pretty short chapter book.  Although the subject matter is serious, and parts might be frightening to young children (the part where Clara and Marta are chased and perhaps some of the parts where the family is hiding), there are only vague references to more dark subjects like concentration camps (people who already know what they are and what happened there would understand, but children who haven’t heard about them wouldn’t get the full picture from the brief mentions).  The book would be a good, short introduction to the topic of the Holocaust by putting it in terms of the way it changed the lives of ordinary people who had to flee from it.  Actually, it wouldn’t be a bad way to start a discussion of the Syrian refugees in Europe by putting it into the context of ordinary people fleeing the violence of war.

This book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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Twenty and Ten

TwentyTenTwenty and Ten by Claire Bishop, 1952.

The story takes place in occupied France during World War II.  Children were often sent to the countryside to escape the violence of war, and a group of twenty children, both boys and girls, are staying at a small school taught by a nun, Sister Gabriel.  Most of them are about eleven years old, although four-year-old Louis is allowed stay at the school with his older sister, Denise.

Janet, another student at the school, tells how a strange man comes to the school and begs them to help him hide ten Jewish orphans from the Nazis.  Sharing their school with these newcomers means that they will have to share their already meager rations with them and to keep their presence at the school absolutely secret.  In spite of the danger and difficulty, everyone at the school agrees to help.  They think of it as being like when Mary and Joseph had to take baby Jesus to Egypt to hide him from King Herod, a story they had recently acted out in play form.

TwentyTenPic1The two groups of children soon make friends, and one of the Jewish children, Arthur, shares something special with his new friend, Henry: a small piece of chocolate.  With the rationing, none of them have seen chocolate in a long time.  Henry decides to share a little with Janet because he likes her, and they decide to hide the rest and save it for later.  When Denise spies them with the chocolate and wants to have a little herself, she steals the piece of chocolate from where Henry has hidden it. The others chase after her to get the chocolate back, and they end up accidentally discovering a cave that none of them knew was there.

This becomes a vital discovery when the children spot a pair of Nazis heading toward their school.  Sister Gabriel is away, so the children have to take care of the situation themselves.  Quickly, Arthur leads the other Jewish children to the cave, where they can hide.  The other children remain at the school and try to keep the Nazis from learning anything.  They try not to even talk to the Nazis when they start asking questions.  But, how long can they keep it up?  Something has obviously happened to Sister Gabriel, and the Jewish children can’t hide in the cave forever.

There is a movie version of this book called Miracle at Moreaux.  The movie differs significantly from the book.  In the book, the children at the school are all welcoming to the Jewish children, but in the movie, some of the children at the school are afraid of the Jewish children (there are only three of them in the movie), one of them in particular hating Jewish people because she believes anti-Semitic stories she’s heard.  Also, instead of the cave that appears in the book, the movie uses a Christmas pageant as the device for confusing the Nazis and allowing the Jewish children to escape to Spain (instead of staying at the school until the end of the war, as they did in the book).

This book is available online through Internet Archive.

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More Stories from Grandma’s Attic

More Stories from Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson, 1979.

This is the second book in the Grandma’s Attic Series (I’ve only read two of them, although there are more in the series than that).  Like the first one, grown-up Mabel shares stories from her childhood with her granddaughter: short, humorous stories about life on a farm during the 1800s, often with a moral to them (the stories typically have Christian themes).  The stories are entertaining, thoughtful, and mention interesting details about life in the past.  Watch what happens when Mabel and her friend try to play “mother” to a piglet!  Also, is it possible that the doll Mabel found in the mud is actually . . . alive?

This book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Stories in the Book:

The Nuisance in Ma’s Kitchen

Mabel helps to nurse an ailing baby goat, but when the goat is better, she has trouble accepting that it’s time for it to return to the barn with the other goats.

Grandma’s Sampler

Mabel learns that it’s better to be careful and to fix mistakes early when her over-confidence jeopardizes her chances of winning a contest with her sampler.

Mrs. Carter’s Fright

Mabel and Sarah Jane love babies!  They admire Mrs. Carter’s new baby so much when she comes to visit that they’re inspired to pick a “baby” of their own from a litter of piglets.  But, when they borrow Mrs. Carter’s baby carriage for their “baby,” they accidentally give everyone a fright!

When Grandma Needed Prayer

Young Mabel questions the need to pray on a busy morning, but when she and her friend get lost later, they come to understand the importance of being able to stop and pray.

The Stranger

A stranger comes to the farm and visits with them one day.  He seems to know them, and doesn’t introduce himself.  While he helps them with chores and spends a pleasant evening with them, no one is willing to admit that they don’t know who the man is.  Who is the mysterious stranger?

The Big Snow Storm

When Mabel’s Ma is sick during a big snow storm, the family doesn’t know how they’ll manage to get help for her.  But, ironically, the storm actually brings help to them.

Grandma and the Slate

Mabel’s brother, Roy, gets a new slate to write on for school.  Mabel admires it and wants to try writing on it herself, but Roy teases her that she’s just too young.  Then, when Roy makes a bargain with Mabel to give her the slate if she does something for him, he ends up getting more than he bargained for.

A Pig in a Poke

Grandma Mabel explains to her granddaughter that the word “poke” used to mean a bag or sack.  If someone bought a pig in a poke, it meant that they bought something sight unseen, not knowing exactly what they were going to get or what quality it would be. Young Mabel once saw her brothers do that the day they bought a trunk that had been locked for years because the key was lost.  Will their trunk contain a fabulous treasure or just a disappointment?

Grandma’s Day Off

Young Mabel persuades her mother to let her have a day with no chores and finds out that a life of leisure isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

How News Spreads

When Mabel’s family hears that the girl Sarah Jane’s brother wants to marry is buying cloth for a wedding dress, Mabel and Sarah Jane get the wrong idea.

Charlotte

Mabel finds a doll lying in a mud puddle and brings it home to play with.  But, Charlotte turns out to be an unusual doll.  Wait, did she just move?!

The Slate Pencil

Mabel finds a lost slate pencil at school. Even though she knows who lost it, it’s a nice pencil, and she’s tempted to keep it for herself.

What Shall We Write About?

Mabel and Sarah Jane want to write exciting stories like the ones in the magazines, but they don’t have anything interesting to write about.  Then, Sarah Jane finds a diary that her cousin Laura left behind when she visited.  Could it be a source of story material?

The Cover-Up

Roy is punished for teasing Mabel by having to wash the dishes (since he told her that she was such a baby and couldn’t do it right).  He tries to hurry through the chore and ends up breaking one of the plates.  Is there any way he can keep everyone from finding out?

The Haircut

Mabel is honored when her friend, Sarah Jane, decides that she’d like to carry a lock of her hair in her new locket.  Unfortunately, Sarah Jane accidentally cuts off more of Mabel’s hair than she means to.  What will Mabel’s mother say when she sees it?  Or is there some way that they can cover it up?

Grandma Makes a Friend

Mabel resents the new girl in class, Alice, because the teacher gives Alice Mabel’s seat next to her best friend and Alice always seems to have nicer clothes to wear and everything.  But, hating people isn’t a healthy way to live your life, and Mabel’s mother convinces her to give Alice a second chance to be her friend.

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In Grandma’s Attic

In Grandma’s Attic by Arleta Richardson, 1974.

The books in the Grandma’s Attic Series are collections of short stories (although I think later books in the series are novel-length stories) told by a grandmother to her granddaughter about life when she was young.  They typically begin with the young granddaughter (unnamed in the stories) asking her grandmother, Mabel, about an object in her house, and Mabel then tells the story about it.  These are usually short, slice-of-life family stories with a humorous twist, often with a moral (the stories generally have Christian/Biblical themes).  The inspiration for the stories was the author’s own grandmother, who grew up on a farm in Michigan in the 1800s.  I’m kind of sentimental about them because the books I have were presents from my own grandmother, who also grew up on a farm.

This series is good for discussing aspects of life in the 1800s. They include little details about daily life like the types of chores children did, how they got to school and what lessons were like, and other little household details like warming clothes on a wood-burning stove and throwing water from washing dishes outside because they didn’t have a modern sink.  They’re also good for talking about morals or making ethical decisions (it’s not just Christian themes, Mabel also talks about more general issues of growing up, like honesty, responsibility, and the awkward mistakes children make when they try to act more grown-up than they really are) or just for a good laugh because some of the stories are really funny (learn the perils of attempting to sit down in a hoop skirt without really knowing how)!

In Grandma’s Attic is the first book in the series and it is available to read for free online through Internet Archive.

Stories in the Book:

Pride Goes Before a Fall

Mabel and her best friend, Sarah Jane, badly want to wear hoop skirts like the fashionable young ladies and have everyone admire them, even though their mothers say they are really too young. When they get the chance to wear them in front of everyone, they make a mistake and learn the lesson in the title of the story.

When God Knew Best

Mabel talks about a childhood disappointment that turned out well in the end because she was saved from disaster.  Sometimes disappointments are blessings in disguise.

The Red Bonnet

A lost bonnet gives everyone the wrong impression, and a search begins for a not-so-missing child.

Grandpa’s Apron

The other guys teased him when he asked Mabel to make him a work apron with pockets because aprons were supposed to be women’s clothing, but his comes in handy in some unusual ways.

Ma’s Busy Day

Being a mother is hard work, and when a hectic day leaves Mabel’s Ma no time to change her aprons when one after the other gets dirty, the layers of aprons she has on at the end of the day become a record of the day’s events.

Grandma’s Mistake

Mabel misunderstands something her mother says, and it causes her problems at school.

The Button Basket

A strange Indian (Native American) comes to the farm and trades a beautiful basket for food.  Unfortunately, they can’t speak the same language, so they never learn the reason why, and they marvel over the mystery of the basket’s origins.

The Little Gray Shoes

Mabel learns that vanity comes at a price when she insists that she wants a beautiful pair of gray shoes that don’t fit her properly.

Nellie and the Buttons

Why does their horse, Nellie, keep trying to bite the buttons on Mabel’s new coat? Nellie might be smarter than they think.

The Pearl Buttons

When Mabel has trouble fastening the buttons on her new dress, she finds a creative solution that causes her some embarrassment.

Nellie’s Trips to Town

When Mabel’s family makes a trip to town, their horse and buggy suddenly disappear.  Then, as soon as they get a ride from a friend, they are suddenly returned.  Why?

The New Pump

Young Mabel learns the hard way why it’s a bad idea to lick cold metal in the winter.

You Can’t Always Believe

When strange things start happening around the farm, Pa blames one of Mabel’s brothers but learns that it isn’t a good idea to be too quick to blame.

The Old Door

Mabel’s brother plays a trick that causes some embarrassment for their mother.

Pa and the Dishwater

Mabel’s fear of the dark makes it difficult for her to throw the dishwater outside after they wash the supper dishes.  When she thinks she’s found a shortcut for getting rid of the dishwater, it gets her into trouble.

The Dishes

Mabel tries to put off her chores so that she can play with her friend, but the guilt she feels takes the fun out of it.

Ma’s Birthday Cake

Mabel is so pleased to be making a cake for her mother on her birthday, but has she gotten the recipe right?

Grandma’s Warm Clothes

Mabel and her brothers used to warm their clothes by the stove on cold winter mornings, but Mabel’s attempt to make it easier on herself and her forgetfulness have unintended consequences.

Grandma’s Prayer

Mabel thinks that a selfish prayer she made may have brought bad luck to her family.

Molly Blue

Molly Blue the cow always gives Mabel trouble.  Her family thinks it’s funny until they see how much Mabel needs their help.

Grandma and the Gun

Gun safety is a big issue in modern times, and it was back then, too.  Mabel is a curious child and makes a mistake that almost has very serious consequences, but she learns an important lesson.

What Grandma Lost

When Mabel’s brothers are sick and she gets to take the family’s horse and buggy to school by herself (a special privilege for a child of her time), she decides to show off a little.  But, in her attempt to look more grown-up and responsible, she ends up proving that she’s not as grown-up and responsible as she thought.

What Did You Expect?

Not exactly a full story, but Mabel shows her granddaughter what a miracle looks like because she believes it can happen.