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William’s House

William’s House by Ginger Howard, illustrated by Larry Day, 2001.

It’s 1637 in Colonial New England, and a man named William is building a house for himself and his family. He wants a house that’s like his father’s house in England. The story describes all the steps he and his family go through to build the new house.

The descriptions include interesting historical details about homes from the Colonial era. When the family wants to put a window in their house, they don’t have any glass, so William uses a very thin piece of animal horn instead. It lets in light, but the window opening is still covered. William also uses stones and clay from a nearby creek when he builds a fireplace for the house.

William and his family also need furniture for the house. William uses boards from a wooden packing crate to make a table, and he stuffs bags with corn husks to make beds. When the house is finished, and the family is living in it, the book describes aspects of their daily lives. It describes how the family eats together.

The family has to change some of their habits and make additions to their house and the area around it because conditions are different in New England. The weather is hotter than they’re accustomed to from their lives in England, and their food spoils faster, so William digs a cellar for storing food. Before ice boxes and refrigeration, people would store their food underground in root cellars because it was cooler underground. When the thatch on their roof dries out and becomes a fire risk, William replaces the thatch with singles.

Then, when winter comes and it snows, they realize that the snow is too heavy for the roof, so William replaces the whole roof with one that has a steeper slope, so the snow will slide off. Then, he has to make the fireplace bigger because the house is so cold.

When spring comes, William’s cousin Samuel arrives from England with his wife, and he asks William about the design of his house. Originally, William wanted a house like the one he grew up in, but because he’s living in a different place and under different conditions, he’s had to make many changes to the house. Still, it’s his family’s new house, and it’s exactly what they need it to be.

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

My Reaction

I love stories about life in the past, and I liked all of the little details of daily life in this story. The main focus of the story is about the building of a new home, and at first, William wants a house like the one where he grew up in England. However, when the family experiences what life is like in New England, they realize that they have to make some changes to their home and the way they live. I like the way the book points out that the style of a person’s home depends on where they live and the circumstances of their life. The family doesn’t fully understand at first what their new lives will be like and what they really need, but they learn to adjust, and they make changes to their new house along the way.

When William’s cousin arrives, he doesn’t understand the design of their house at first. He hasn’t been living in New England yet, but readers know that he’s about to find out some of the reasons why people’s houses in New England are different from those in England at the same time period. At the end of the book, the characters are building a new house near William’s house, so it seems that his cousin and his wife will be living there, and they will benefit from what William has learned about building a house suitable for that environment.

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The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush

The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush retold and illustrated by Tomie DePaola, 1988.

This story is a retelling of a Native American legend.

In the distant past, there was a boy called Little Gopher who never seemed able to keep up with the other boys with the skills they would need to be warriors. His parents worried about his future, but he had other talents. He had a skill for making things, and the shaman of the tribe told him that his destiny would be different from the others.

One day, Little Gopher had a vision of a grandfather and a young maiden, who came to him, holding an animal skin, a brush made of animal hairs, and paints. These figures told him that these would be the tools he would use to accomplish great things for his people. He would spend his life painting the warrior’s deeds and the shaman’s visions so people would remember them. The maiden told him to find a white buckskin and paint a picture with the colors of the setting sun.

From then on, Little Gopher gathered animal skins and painted them with the scenes of great hunts, warrior’s deeds, and visions from dreams. When he found a pure white buckskin, he tried to paint it with the colors of the setting sun, but they never looked right. He kept trying and studying the sunset to figure out how to make the right colors.

One night, he heard a voice telling him to take the buckskin with him to watch the sunset and that he would find what he needed on the ground there. He did as the voice told him, and he found brushes with paint stuck into the ground. He used the brushes, and they were just the right colors. The next day, everyone saw plants growing with beautiful colors, like the colors of a sunset, where the brushes had taken root.

My Reaction

I remember this book from when I was a kid, and I always kind of paired it in my mind with The Legend of the Bluebonnet by the same author, Tomie DePaola because both of them are retellings of Native American folktales about the origins of particular flowers. In the back of the book, there’s an Author’s Note about the story. A friend of Tomie DePaola had recommended to him that he write this story about the state flower of Wyoming, the Indian Paintbrush, because he had already written about the state flower of Texas in The Legend of the Bluebonnet. The folk tale about the origins of the Indian Paintbrush came from a book about stories and legends about Texas Wildflowers, which was given to Tomie DePaola by another friend. Although the Indian Paintbrush is the state flower of Wyoming, it also grows in Texas.

When I was a kid, I was often too impatient or absorbed with the main story to read Author’s Notes, Forewords, Afterwords, or any explanations outside of the main story, but as an adult, I find that they really do add to the story by adding context. I appreciated this story even more after understanding its connection to the other story, The Legend of the Bluebonnet, and how the author learned this story before making his own retelling.

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When Clay Sings

When Clay Sings by Byrd Baylor, illustrated by Tom Bahti, 1972.

This children’s picture book is a salute to the ancient makers of Native American pottery, dedicated to these makers and the museums that preserve their work. It’s written as free form poetry with images of the American Southwest and designs from Native American pottery.

The story sets the scene on a desert hillside, where pieces of ancient pottery are buried. Sometimes, Indian (Native American) children dig up pieces of old pottery, and their parents remind them to be respectful of what they find because they are pieces of the past and of lives that went before. Sometimes, they’re lucky enough to find pieces that fit together or even a bowl that isn’t broken.

They reflect on the time and skill that went into making the pottery and how strong the pottery would have to be to last well beyond the lives of the people who made it. They think about the people who painted the beautiful designs on the pots and what their lives were like. Could their own children have requested favorite pictures painted on their bowls?

Some designs show animals or bugs or hunters, but others show bizarre creatures that might be monsters or spirits. Others show a medicine man trying to cure a child, ceremonies, dancers in masks and costumes, or the traditional flute player. People can reflect on the lives of those long-ago people and how they compare to the lives of people today.

There is a map in the back of the book which shows the areas of the American Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Colorado) where the pottery designs the book uses originated from and the tribes that used them.

This is a Caldecott Honor Book. It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

I grew up in Arizona, and I remember our school librarian reading books by Byrd Baylor to us in elementary school during the late 1980s or early 1990s. She wanted to introduce us to this author because she wrote about the area of the United States where we lived. In fact, this book about pottery was fitting because, when they were building our school in the 1970s, they found some ancient pottery. They used to have it on display in the school library. Even to this day, it’s common for people creating buildings in this area to have the site surveyed by archaeologists. Finds are fairly common, and the usual procedure is to thoroughly document everything that gets uncovered before burying it again in the same location and constructing the building over it. One of the reason why they usually rebury finds is that, in this dry, desert climate, putting them back into the ground will actually preserve them very well. It’s possible that later generations will find them again (especially with the location documented) when the building is gone or no longer necessary, but they may have better instruments or techniques for analyzing them.

I’m a little divided on how much I like this book, though. On the one hand, I like books about folklore and traditional crafts, and this book focuses on a geographical area that’s very familiar to me. On the other hand, the free verse poetry that reflects on the feelings of people about the pottery doesn’t appeal to me quite as much as books which show the process of making it, like The Little Indian Pottery Maker. I like to see the process and learn more of the known background legends of some of the designs than just try to imagine what things might have been going through the minds of the designers. Toward the end of the book, they show the legendary humpbacked flute player, but they don’t tell you that this figure is called Kokopelli and that there are legends about him. It’s a nice book, but I just felt like there was potential to include more background information.

This book uses the word “Indian” for “Native American” or “America Indian”, which is common in older children’s books.

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The Mysterious Horseman

The Mysterious Horseman: An Adventure in Prairietown, 1836, by Kate Waters, 1994.

This book is part of a loose series of books by Kate Waters, showing child reenactors at living history museums, having adventures in the roles of the characters they play. While most of the books are set in Colonial times at Plymouth and Colonial Williamsburg, the setting for this story is the Connor Prairie living history museum in Indiana, which shows life in a small town in the 19th century.

The story centers around a boy named Andrew McClure. He is the only one of his siblings left still living with their parents. His older sister is now married, and his baby brother died of an illness during the last year. His family is still grieving for his little brother. Andrew’s best friend is a boy named Thomas Curtis, who lives nearby, and Andrew works part time at a local inn to earn some money.

One day, while Andrew is doing some sweeping at the inn, he overhears some men talking in the taproom. He doesn’t hear their entire conversation, but he hears them talking about a mysterious rider without a head who chased a schoolmaster. Andrew is startled, and he wonders if that has something to do with the new schoolmaster who is supposed to arrive in town.

When Andrew is done with his work, he goes to the schoolhouse, and he finds his friend Thomas and Thomas’s sister, helping the new schoolmaster to clean the schoolhouse and prepare it for lessons to start. Andrew wants to talk to Thomas about what he overheard at the inn, but the schoolmaster only wants to talk to the boys about lessons.

Later, Andrew does have a chance to talk to Thomas, and both of the boys are spooked by the idea of a headless rider. They even think that they hear the rider on the road! The frightened boys go see Thomas’s father, the blacksmith, and tell him about the rider. Fortunately, the blacksmith knows what the men were talking about, and he can settle the boys’ fears.

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

My Reaction

I didn’t know about this book until I was looking up Kate Waters’s books for my younger cousins. I was surprised because Kate Waters’s living history museum books are mostly set on the East Coast or focus on the Colonial era. This 19th century book set in Indiana somewhat departs from the theme and has a different feel from the other Kate Waters books, but I enjoyed it. I’ve been to Connor Prairie because I have relatives in the area, and I enjoyed my visit. It’s been years since I’ve been there, so I didn’t immediately recognize the setting. When I read the explanation in the back of the book, I was fascinated to realize that I had visited that location before.

Andrew has a fascination for life on the frontier because he often watches people pass through his town on their way further west, and he daydreams about going west himself. His family is also still coming to terms with the death of his little brother, so the subject of death is still on Andrew’s mind. The deaths of children due to illness were sadly common in the 19th century and on the frontier, and the mourning in Andrew’s family adds to the melancholy and spooky atmosphere of the story.

Most adults and older children will probably recognize what the men at the inn where actually talking about when they were discussing the headless rider who chased the schoolmaster. When the boys talk to Thomas’s father, he immediately recognizes the story as the plot of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving, originally published in 1820, about 16 years before the story in this book is suppose to take place. The men at the inn were just discussing the plot of the story, not something that they saw on the road themselves.

Posted on by TracyC

Arthur’s Halloween

Arthur Adventure

Arthur’s Halloween by Marc Brown, 1982.

It’s Halloween, and Arthur’s already getting spooked! His family is putting up Halloween decorations, and his sister, D.W., scares him with her costume when he wakes up on Halloween morning. Arthur is supposed to take D.W. trick-or-treating, although he doesn’t really want his little sister tagging along.

At school, Arthur has trouble recognizing everyone in their costumes. There are Halloween treats and games, though.

That evening, Arthur and D.W. go trick-or-treating with Arthur’s friends. Arthur’s friend, Buster, warns them not to go to a big, old house because a witch lives there, and the last person who went in on Halloween never came out again.

Arthur and D.W. lag behind the other trick-or-treaters, and when Arthur turns around, he sees D.W. going into the witch’s house! What choice does Arthur have but to go in after his sister to save her?

My Reaction

This book reminded me of the Berenstain Bears Halloween book The Berenstain Bears Trick or Treat. It’s another instance of an elderly woman who seems witch-like and scary, but the children enter her house on Halloween, discover that she’s really nice, and get some special treats. Entering a stranger’s house is never a good idea because, in real life, that could be very dangerous. I get the theme that appearances can be deceptive and things that seem scary aren’t so scary when you understand them, but I do quibble that this might not be the best way to demonstrate that to young children. All the same, I do have nostalgia for both the Berenstain Bears and the Arthur books.

I remember reading the Berenstain Bears Halloween book as a kid, but I don’t remember reading Arthur’s Halloween until I was an adult. Because of the similarity in the themes of the stories, I checked the copyright dates. They’re both from the 1980s, but Arthur’s Halloween is the older of the two books. I don’t know if the Berenstain Bears took inspiration from the Arthur story or if they were both inspired by something older or if the similar theme is just a coincidence.

One other odd thing about this story is that old Mrs. Tibble is human. Everyone in the Arthur books is some kind of animal, but not Mrs. Tibble. There is no explanation for this. In the cartoon version of Arthur, Mrs. Tibble is an animal, just like everyone else.

Posted on by TracyC

The Vanishing Pumpkin

The Vanishing Pumpkin by Tony Johnston, pictures by Tomie dePaola, 1983.

An 800-year-old man and a 700-year-old woman live together in a little house. One day, they realize that it’s Halloween, and that means that it’s time to make pumpkin pie. However, when they go to get the pumpkin from their garden, it’s gone! Who could have taken it?

They set out in search of the pumpkin thief. The first person they meet is a ghoul, and they assume he’s the pumpkin thief. They demand to know where the pumpkin is. The ghoul looks all over the place, but doesn’t see any pumpkin. The old man threatens to do him a trick, and the ghoul says he wants to see him do one. The old man turns the ghoul so thin that he can look right though him, but the ghoul doesn’t have the pumpkin.

The old man and old woman set off again to look for the pumpkin thief, and the ghoul comes along to see more tricks. The next person they encounter is a rapscallion. When they ask him where the pumpkin is, the rapscallion looks around and can’t find any pumpkin, so he offers them a mushroom. The old man does another trick, turning the rapscallion upside down, but no pumpkin falls out.

The group, including the rapscallion, sets off in search of the pumpkin thief again. The next time, they encounter a varmint, and the old man turns him into a black cat with fleas. Yet again, the varmint doesn’t have the pumpkin, so they all set off again.

The pumpkin pursuit finally ends with the person who actually has the pumpkin. The wizard has turned the pumpkin into both a jack-o’-lantern and a pumpkin pie!

My Reaction

I remember someone reading this book to me when I was a little kid. I think it might have been the school librarian, but I’m not completely sure now. We don’t really know the story behind the 800-year-old man and 700-year-old woman, who is presumably his wife. They seem to be magical because of their ancient age and the fact that the old man seems capable of magic, but they aren’t described as being a witch and wizard or anything specific. It’s just left to readers’ imaginations. I think, when I was little kid, I assumed that they were witches or something similar.

The story is just for fun. It’s one of those repetition stories, where the characters encounter more people/creatures, similar things happen each time, and each new person/creature joins the group, until they finally figure out who has the pumpkin. Part of the fun of the story is the unusual people and creatures the meet. Most of them are not typical Halloween creatures, like a witch, a ghost, and a monster, although they are Halloween-ish. The words that describe them are real words – ghoul (which is a mythological creature), rapscallion, and varmint – but at the same time, it’s not entirely clear what type of creatures they are, and the book doesn’t explain. We can only go by what they look like in the pictures. The “varmint” looks like a large rat, the “ghoul” is a little green guy in a top hat, and the “rapscallion” is a little guy in a dark robe and hood.

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Madeline in London

Madeline in London by Lugwig Bemelmans, 1961.

This book is part of the Madeline series about a little girl at a small boarding school in Paris. The son of a Spanish Ambassador, Pepito, lives next door to the girls. He’s a menace to them at first, but the girls make friends with him. However, in this book, Pepito moves to London because his father has been relocated for his job.

When Pepito and his parents go to London, Pepito is unhappy there because he’s lonely for Madeline and the other girls from the boarding school. With Pepito growing thin and depressed from his unhappiness, Pepito’s father arranges for the girls from the boarding school to visit for Pepito’s birthday to cheer him up.

When Miss Clavel and the girls arrive in London, there’s a happy reunion, but then, they remember that they didn’t bring Pepito a present for his birthday. Madeline remembers that Pepito has always wanted a horse, and they find an old, retired army horse who is still healthy and gentle.

However, when they give the horse to Pepito, they quickly discover that there are complications to owning a horse as a pet. The horse hears a trumpet, and reacting to his army training, he runs off with Pepito and Madeline on his back to join a parade.

Then, they forget to feed him, so he eats everything in the garden, making himself sick. It seems like the embassy in London is no place for a horse, but Madeline and her friends may have room for one at their school!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

Giving someone a horse for a present without checking with their parents or making sure that they have what they need to take care of a horse isn’t something that people realistically do, but the Madeline books rarely worry about the practicalities of a situation. It’s all fun and adventure!

I was seriously worried about the horse after they forget to feed him and he helps himself to random plants in the garden, especially when they find him with his feet up in the air. Fortunately, everything works out okay, which is characteristic of Madeline books, too. How the trustees of Madeline’s school will react when they find out that the girls now have a pet horse, since they raised a fuss earlier about the girls having a dog, is anyone’s guess, but the story doesn’t worry about that, either.

Like other books in this series, the pictures in the book alternate between limited color images, mostly in black and yellow, and full color images.

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Madeline and the Bad Hat

Madeline and the Bad Hat by Ludwig Bemelmans, 1956.

Madeline is a little girl at a small boarding school in Paris. The Spanish ambassador moves into the house next door, and the girls at the boarding school get to know his son. However, his son, Pepito, is a wild boy who Madeline starts calling the “Bad Hat.” He teases the girls, scares them by playing ghost, and worst of all, is cruel to animals.

However, Pepito is actually lonely, and he wants the girls’ attention. He tries to win them over by being polite and doing things to impress them. Unfortunately, his idea of what impresses people can be horrific, like building a guillotine for the chickens the cook will prepare and playing practical jokes.

One day, he goes way too far and tries to release a cat into a pack of dogs! The cat tries to evade the dogs by getting on top of Pepito’s head, so the girls and Miss Clavel have to rescue both the cat and Pepito himself from the dogs!

Because Pepito has now gotten hurt himself by one of his pranks, he swears to Madeline that he’s learned his lesson, and he won’t do anything to hurt another animal. He even decides to become a vegetarian!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

I didn’t remember much about this book from when I was a kid. I vaguely remembered that Pepito was a troublemaker who played pranks and teased the girls, but I didn’t remember that he was cruel to animals. Actually, I was kind of horrified by the guillotine for distressed chickens and the cat that he attempted to feed to the dogs.

Pepito only learns his lesson when he gets hurt himself and discovers what it’s like to be on the receiving end of pain. I didn’t mind him showing off a bit or playing pranks like dressing up like a ghost. The cruelty to animals part, though, I found distressing, even as an adult. I don’t think I’d read this book again because of that.

Posted on by TracyC

Madeline’s Rescue

Madeline’s Rescue by Lugwig Bemelmans, 1951, 1953.

The Madeline stories are considered children’s classics, and this is one of the best-known books in the series. It starts out much like the first book in the series, introducing the old house in Paris where Madeline and her classmates stay for boarding school and describing how brave Madeline is. However, at the part that explains that Madeline knows how to frighten their teacher, Miss Clavel, Madeline falls from a bridge over the river while she’s trying to walk on the edge.

Fortunately, Madeline is saved from drowning by a dog that jumps into the water to save her. Miss Clavel and the other girls take Madeline and the dog back to the school, dry them off and put them to bed. The girls keep the dog and name her Genevieve. Genevieve is a smart dog, and soon, she’s a very pampered and happy pet.

However, when the trustees of the school come for an inspection, they raise a fuss about the girls keeping a dog in the school and turn Genevieve out! The girls are very upset, so they immediately go out and search for Genevieve.

Fortunately, Genevieve returns, and there is a surprise for the girls that finally settles all the arguments they’ve been having about whose bed the dog will sleep in that night!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

As with the other books in the Madeline series, the beginning of the story echoes the first Madeline book, but this one expands on Madeline’s habit of walking on the edge of the bridge and frightening Miss Clavel, showing that Miss Clavel has reason to worry about Madeline’s stunts.

I remember reading this book when I was a kid and being really worried about what would happen to the dog, Genevieve! I always loved dogs, and I was worried about her when the trustees turned her out of the school. After Genevieve returns to the school, there’s no follow-up on how the trustees react and whether or not they approve of her and her puppies staying at the school, but it seems like everything will be okay. With plenty of puppies for the girls at the school, they no longer fight about who gets to sleep with Genevieve or give her attention. Staying at a boarding school where every girl gets a puppy of her own to look after would be a dream for many girls!

Something I noticed in this book is that the style of the pictures varies between cartoon style in black and yellow and a more impressionistic style with full color. This is also true in other Madeline books. The more colorful pictures tend to show more emotional or dramatic moments.

Posted on by TracyC

Madeline

Madeline by Lugwig Bemelmans, 1939.

“In an old house in Paris
that was covered with vines
lived twelve little girls
in two straight lines.”

The Madeline stories are considered children’s classics today, and these words, which are the opening lines in other books in the Madeline series, introduce Madeline’s school. Madeline is a little girl who lives in a small boarding school in Paris, tended by Miss Clavel.

Madeline is the smallest girl at the boarding school. She’s a brave girl, who isn’t scared of either mice or lions at the zoo, and she sometimes does daring stunts that frighten Miss Clavel.

One night, Miss Clavel wakes up because Madeline is crying. She calls the doctor, who examines Madeline and rushes her to the hospital because she needs to have her appendix removed.

After the operation, Madeline has to stay in the hospital for a while. Miss Clavel brings the other girls from the school to visit her, and they are impressed by all the candy and presents that Madeline has received from her family. Even more impressive, Madeline now has a scar that she shows to the other girls.

After the other girls return home and go to bed, Miss Clavel wakes up to find them all crying. Madeline has made having her appendix out look like so much fun, they all want to do it!

My Reaction

I wouldn’t say that I was a particular fan of Madeline as a kid, but I did read at least some of the books in the series. As an adult, I had forgotten that they were told entirely in rhyme, even though I still sometimes get those opening lines stuck in my head.

I remember thinking as a kid that I wouldn’t want to have my appendix out! Even if you get presents and an impressive scar, having an operation always sounded awful to me. It didn’t occur to me until I was older, but the Madeline cartoons and movie tended to portray Madeline as an orphan, but she isn’t. She’s just a student at a small boarding school. This book is one of the stories that mentions her family, with her papa sending her a dollhouse as one of the presents she receives while she’s in the hospital.

I also didn’t realize, until I was researching this series for the blog, just how old the first Madeline book was. It was originally published in 1939, on the eve of WWII. I don’t think the books ever have anything in them to tie the stories to any particular events, and they seem almost timeless, although I suppose that the girls’ school uniforms are a little old-fashioned. This timeless, idealized portrayal of Paris was popular with the book’s original audience of Americans during WWII.

I was curious about the author, Ludwig Bemelmans. He was born in Austria and grew up in Austria and Germany during the late 19th century and early 20th century. As a young man, he was apprenticed to his uncle, who owned a hotel, but Bemelmans was difficult to manage and got into trouble while working there. He later told a story about shooting and wounding a headwaiter who whipped him, although that might have been just a tall tale. Eventually, however, his uncle decided that he couldn’t deal with him, so he told him he would either have to go to reform school or go to the United States, where his father was living after having left him and his mother years before. He moved to the United States and lived there during WWI. He spent some time working in a series of hotels and restaurants. He eventually joined the US Army in 1917, although they wouldn’t send him to Europe because the US was at war with Germany, and he was German. He became a US citizen in 1918, and he developed an interest in art. He worked as a cartoonist before writing and illustrating children’s books. He wrote the first seven of the Madeline books, and the last one was published after his death. Since then, his grandson, John Bemelmans Marciano has written other Madeline books.