This is the first book in the Pee Wee Scouts series. The children in Troop 23 meet after school on Tuesdays, and their leader is Mrs. Peters. One Tuesday, they meet at Mrs. Peters’s house to bake cookies. Mrs. Peters says that, to earn their cookie badge, they must each bake cookies at home without help and have their parents write a note that they have done it. She teaches the children an easy cookie recipe that they will use.
Roger White doesn’t want to bake cookies because he thinks that baking is for girls. Sonny Betz argues that it’s not just for girls, but many of the other children think that Sonny is a sissy because his mother still walks him to school. Sonny thinks that Roger is a creep. Mrs. Peters says that cooking is for everyone who eats. If boys can eat, they can also cook.
Mrs. Peters demonstrates making a recipe for chocolate chip cookies (and the book provides the recipe). Molly and Mary Beth ask if they can make their own batch of cookies for their badge together. They are not supposed to have adults helping them, but Mrs. Peters says that it is fine if they work with each other. In spite of their earlier argument, Roger agrees to make cookies with Sonny as a team.
However, when Molly and Mary Beth try to bake cookies by themselves, they don’t think the cookie batter looks right. It looks too pale, and when Mrs. Peters made her cookies, the batter was more brown. To fix the color problem, they decide to pour in some root beer, which is not part of the recipe. Then, they decide that the batter is too runny, so they add some gravy mix to thicken it. Because they added things they shouldn’t have, the cookies come out all wrong, and the girls worry that they won’t get their badge.
At their next meeting, though, they learn that nobody’s cookies look like they should. Mrs. Peters has the kids make cookies together while she supervises, although she doesn’t help them directly, so they can say that they did it themselves. This time, the cookies work out, although some of them are oddly-shaped. However, all of the kids get their cookie badges together.
The scout troop then organizes an ice skating party with the kids’ fathers. It’s a little awkward because not all of the kids have fathers living at home. Most of the kids without fathers bring an uncle or brother instead, but Sonny doesn’t have either, so his mom comes. The other kids tease him about it because they think he’s already too much of a mommy’s boy.
Some of the kids are also nervous because they don’t know how to skate, and they’re not even sure that their fathers know. Molly gets into trouble because Rachel makes a big deal about her fancy skates, which she owns so she doesn’t need to rent any, and about her dainty little feet. Molly rents a pair in the same size as Rachel’s, trying to prove that her feet aren’t too big, but they’re really too small for her. She has to take off her socks to put them on, and even then, it’s a hard squeeze. She ends up spraining her ankle badly because she’s wearing the wrong skates, and she has to use crutches. Molly doesn’t get her skating badge, but she does get one that’s almost as good as a consolation.
My Reaction
This is one of those children’s books/series where the kids in the story, although they are part of the same troop and seem to be friends for the most part, still say insulting things about each other, like when Roger called Sonny a sissy and Sonny called Roger a creep. I know that kids do things like this sometimes, but I don’t really like books that seem to promote or are permissive about that kind of talk. What bothered me is that, even though the boys were insulting each other in front of Mrs. Peters, she didn’t tell them to stop, which makes it seem like she tacitly thinks those insults are fine. I liked it that she contradicted Roger’s assertion that cooking and baking are only for girls, but I wish that she had said something about the way the kids were insulting each other.
I knew from the beginning of the story that the way Mrs. Peters was teaching these young children to make the cookies, just by watching her, and then expecting them to do it right completely on their own, with no adult supervision, was probably going to lead to a disaster of some kind. Of course, that’s because I’m reading this from an adult perspective. Nobody learns anything complex from only having seen it done by somebody else just one, especially if they just watched and didn’t actively participate. These kids are also young, just in the first grade of elementary school. They can read, but they don’t have advanced reading skills or much experience with cooking anything before. What I’m saying is that they really needed adult supervision, and I didn’t think that telling them that they had to do this completely by themselves wasn’t a great idea. Although, it’s possible that Mrs. Peters assumed that the kids would get more supervision than they actually got, even if the adults didn’t actively help. I think a lot of adults assumed that not helping meant no supervising and no advice or intervention when the kids were about to do something wrong. I have to admit, though, that there wouldn’t be much of a story if they did everything right, and this activity went as expected.
The story has two parts to it, which aren’t directly related. I thought, at first, that the kids would be serving cookies they baked to the dads, and that would be the tie-in between the cooking baking and the party with the fathers. They didn’t, though. The skating incident and Molly’s injury are unconnected to each other. The only connection I can see to the two incidents isn’t explicitly stated, but both of this incidents involve the kids doing something they’ve never done before and not really doing it right. They need to have experiences where things go wrong to start figuring out how to do things right. Although Rachel brags about her skating ability and her skates, after Molly is injured, Rachel admits that she fell down a lot when she was younger and was first learning. Molly feels a little better, realizing that nobody does things perfectly the first time. Although getting hurt isn’t great, learning to use crutches is also something new that Molly experiences that none of the other kids have experienced before.
Garbage Juice for Breakfast by Patricia Reilly Giff, illustrated by Blanche Sims, 1989.
This book follows an earlier book in the series, The Case of the Cool-Itch Kid, while Dawn is staying at her summer camp, Camp Wild-In-The-Woods. Her friend from school, Jill Simon, is at camp with her, and they’ve made friends with another character from the earlier book, Lizzie Lee, who started out as a rival/antagonist for Dawn. Both Dawn and Lizzie like mysteries and being private detectives, and they’ve bonded over that. There is still an element of rivalry between them, but it’s a friendlier rivalry than when they first met each other.
When their camp counselor announces that she has set up a treasure hunt for the campers to solve, Dawn is excited. As the Polka Dot Private Eye, she’s sure that she’ll be the first to solve the mystery! However, Lizzie is the Cool Cat Detective. (Each of them take their names from the detective kits that each of them own.) Dawn knows that Lizzie will be tough competition.
Because the kids in their cabin are from different schools and some were friends with each other before they came to camp, the campers in the cabin have favorites between the two girl detectives. Jill thinks that Dawn is the best detective and will solve the treasure hunt before Lizzie will, while Lizzie’s friends think that she’s going to be the one to solve the mystery. They decide to turn the treasure hunt into a contest to show which of the girls is the best detective.
The first clue is in the form of a rhyme. It seems to have something to do with horses, and the girls are starting to learn horseback riding. There is also a hint about taking a particular trail. It’s tough for both Dawn and Lizzie to investigate the same mystery without getting in each other’s way, following one another or being suspicious that they’re following each other, or accidentally giving each other hints. Is the competition between them really a good idea, or is teamwork what they really need?
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).
My Reaction and Some Spoilers
I remember reading this book when I was a kid, and I loved it because I always loved treasure hunt books! There are parts of the treasure hunt that readers can solve along with the characters in the story, although it’s not one of those stories that pauses to ask readers if they’ve solved parts before the characters have. It’s just that the information necessary to solve each part of the treasure hunt is given in the story and shown in the pictures, so readers have the opportunity to think what the next step should be along with the characters or before the characters announce what they’ve figured out. Some of the clues point to features of the camp itself, like the names of the trails around the camp, but the story does provide that information to the readers, so there’s nothing that the characters know that the readers don’t. Other clues use pop culture references, like Donald Duck, because their camp counselor is a Disney fan and has items with Disney characters on them.
Dawn and Lizzie do compete with each other to solve the treasure hunt, until they solve the final clue. All through the book, Dawn struggles with the horse lessons because she’s actually afraid of horses. When reaching the prize means going through an area with a lot bugs, Dawn suddenly feels sorry for Lizzie, who is following her but struggling because she’s afraid of bugs. Understanding what it’s like to struggle with something that scares her, she feels some empathy for Lizzie and realizes that she can’t use Lizzie’s fear to get ahead of her and reach the treasure first. She tells Lizzie that they can go together to reach the treasure, so they are able to share the glory. The experience helps the girls a little with their respective fears, and they share the final prize.
The name of this book comes from a kind of mixed fruit juice that the camp serves in the dining hall. None of the campers know exactly what’s in it, nobody really likes it, and the camp rumor is that it’s just strained out of the garbage. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the mystery in the story, but it’s there for background color, the kind of stories that kids tell about food at camps and schools that they don’t like.
Aside from the mystery, the story has some fun camp atmosphere for beginning chapter book readers: horses and barns, the camp dining hall, a picnic with books, and a cozy, rainy night in their cabin with cookies.
Five Secrets in a Box by Catherine Brighton, 1987.
This story is about Virginia Galilei (1600-1634), the eldest child of Galileo Galilei, and her perception of his work and equipment as a young child. The book has sections of historical information about Galileo and Virginia in the front and the back inside cover, although the story itself is just about Virginia exploring Galileo’s study.
Virginia, as a young child, knows that her father stays up late at night, studying the night sky, while she is asleep. During the day, she must be quiet to let him sleep. She is not really supposed to touch his scientific instruments, but she can’t resist the temptation to take a look. In her father’s study, she finds a box with five mysterious objects in it, and she investigates what they do.
One of them is a lens that makes small things look bigger. Another is a lens that makes things that are far away look closer. There is another lens that makes everything look blue and another that makes everything look red. Then, there is also a plain, white feather.
Virginia wonders what the purpose of the feather is, and she asks her father about it. He tells her that it is important to his work.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction
According to the historical information provided, little Virginia’s mother left Galileo and married someone else while Virginia was still young. Virginia remained living with Galileo and was close to her father. When she was 12 years old, her father sent her to a convent, which was a fairly common way for upper-class girls at that time to get an education. However, Galileo probably intended for his daughters to join the Church as nuns rather than marrying when their education was complete. The book doesn’t explain this, but Virginia and her younger brother and sister were born out of wedlock. Because they were illegitimate (born outside of a legally-recognized marriage – the word “illegitimate” literally refers to someone born outside of the law and legal standing with implications about both the legal status of their parents’ union and the child’s possible future inheritance, depending on the laws of that particular society), their social status was compromised from birth. Galileo believed that it would be difficult for his daughters to find husbands, so joining a convent and becoming nuns would provide the girls with stable lives and careers as well as an education, which is what both of them did. Virginia remained at the convent as a nun, taking the name of Sister Maria Celeste, and unfortunately, died relatively young at the age of 34. The book doesn’t say why, but it was because she contracted dysentery, which is caused by consuming tainted water or food.
The story itself doesn’t really explain the purpose of the five special objects that Virginia examines in her father’s study. Some of them are obvious because readers will recognize what they are and the way they work. The purpose of the feather is left a little mysterious at the end, but readers get the full explanation by reading the section of historical information. Galileo was studying gravity, and apparently, he dropped objects off of the leading tower of Pisa to study how long it took them to fall. A feather will take longer to reach the ground than a stone, but that’s because of air resistance. One of Galileo’s premises was that, if there were no air to produce that air resistance, the stone and the feather would fall at the same rate of time due to gravity. I think I would have preferred to have Galileo explain some of this to his daughter when she asks him about the feather, but the story ends kind of abruptly at that point, with Virginia just playing with the feather. I felt like the ending isn’t exactly an ending without that explanation.
The pictures are the main reason why I really liked this book. They are colorful and realistic, and I thought they did a great job of showing the scientific instruments of the past. I also liked some of the little details of the house included in the backgrounds of the pictures. There is a crucifix hanging on the wall behind the telescope in Galileo’s study because this is a religious household, even though some of Galileo’s assertions about the way the world works clashed with Church teachings and got him placed under house arrest. (The book says that he was “sent to prison”, but he was actually placed under house arrest rather than being sent to a prison because he was elderly and in bad health by that point in his life.)
The book doesn’t go into detail about Galileo’s arrest because that happened later in his life, but he was basically considered a heretic for his belief in Copernicus‘s theory that the sun is the center of the solar system instead of the Earth. That sounds like a rather petty charge, and you might wonder why it matters or what different it could make to religion. It wasn’t a new idea because others had reached that conclusion long before him. Copernicus was never arrested for his ideas, partly because he didn’t live very long after he published them, but his book was placed on the restricted list by the Inquisition.
The reason why the relative positions of the sun and the Earth mattered depend on whether particular Biblical passages are meant to be interpreted literally or figuratively. Under a strict literal interpretation, which was the interpretation approved by the Church at that time, the conclusion was that the Earth was the center of the solar system, so saying otherwise would be to go against the Bible and Church teaching, making it a heresy. It wasn’t so much that the relative positions of the sun and the Earth were that important by themselves so much as the act of apparently contradicting the Bible. The Renaissance era was also the era of the Reformation, where Protestants were breaking away from the Catholic Church, partly because of the questions of literal interpretation of the Bible and Church doctrine. The Catholic Church’s response to that during this period was to become more strict in enforcing moral and doctrinal standards in the Counter-Reformation, so anything that seemed to challenge these aspects of the faith was taken far more seriously during this period. This stance would shift again later in history.
The background and aftermath to this story is far more complex than the story itself, although I think part of the charm of the story is it’s simplicity. This is one particular day and a small incident, seen through the eyes of a child, even though adult readers know that there are bigger events surrounding it.
Moonflute by Audrey Wood, illustrated by Don Wood, 1980, 1986.
One night, a little girl named Firen can’t sleep. It’s a hot summer night, the moon is full, and Firen feels like the moon has taken away her sleep, so she must go out into the night and look for it.
Outside, Firen raises up her hands to the moon and asks for her sleep back. The magical moon sends her a moonbeam, and when Firen touches it, she realizes that it’s solid. It’s actually a flute. When Firen plays the flute, it makes magical music that doesn’t sound like any normal flute, and it brings all sorts of wonderful smells of things that Firen loves. As she continues to play, she feels light and tingly, and she realizes that she is rising into the air!
Firen flies over the countryside, looking for her sleep. As she journeys through the night, she sees various animals and wonders if they have her sleep. She sees cats in a patch of catnip, whales playing in the ocean, and bats and monkeys in a jungle.
When Firen sees a couple of monkeys soothing a baby monkey to sleep, she thinks about her own parents and uses the flute to return home. Is the moonflute helping her find her sleep at home with her parents, or has she actually been asleep all the time?
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction
This book follows the “It was all a dream” theme, where the main character experiences something fantastic, but they were dreaming all the time. While Firen was wondering where her sleep was, she apparently fell asleep. It isn’t definite that’s what happened, but it’s implied when her parents go to her room, and she’s in bed, without the flute. If readers would like to think of it differently, that Firen really did have her flying adventures, it’s possible to read it that way, too.
The pictures really make this book! The illustrations are oil paintings, and they are beautiful and ethereal. Firen witnesses some stunning scenes, like whales leaping in the ocean, with everything bathed in glowing moonlight.
I was intrigued by the name “Firen” because I don’t think I’ve heard it before, and I like unusual names. I couldn’t find much information about the name online, so it seems like it isn’t very common. I thought at first that it might be a modern, invented name, although one name site says that it has Arabic origins.
Flossie and the Fox by Patricia C. MicKissack, pictures by Rachel Isadora, 1986.
Little Flossie Finley’s mother asks her to take a basket of eggs to Miz Viola because a fox has been troubling her chickens, and they’re too scared to lay eggs. The fox is a sly creature, and he always seems to outwit the hounds.
Flossie doesn’t remember ever seeing a fox before, and her mother tells her that foxes will do just about anything to get eggs. Flossie isn’t sure what she’ll do if she meets the fox, but she remembers what her mother says about how “a fox be just a fox.” She decides that doesn’t sound too scary.
On the way, Flossie does meet the fox. The fox talks to her, and Flossie can tell that he wants the eggs she’s carrying. However, Flossie refuses to be impressed by the fox and tells him that she doesn’t even believe that he’s a fox because she’s never seen one before. The fox is surprised that she isn’t intimidated by him and tries to prove to her that he’s a real fox.
For everything the fox says to try to prove his identity, Flossie has an answer to deny it. He points out his thick fox fur, but Flossie says that rabbits also have thick fur. His pointed nose also doesn’t mean that he’s a fox because rats also have pointed noses. A cat they meet verifies that the fox is a fox, citing his yellow eyes and sharp claws, but since the cat also has yellow eyes and sharp claws, Flossie says that isn’t proof of being a fox. Even his characteristic bushy tail isn’t firm proof because squirrels also have bushy tails.
There is one being who knows for certain that the fox is a fox – the hounds that chase foxes. Flossie knows that as well as the fox does.
My Reaction
The author’s note in the front of the book says that the author enjoyed listening to stories told by her family when she was young, and the story in this book is one that she remembered from her youth. She particularly wanted to tell this story in a rural Southern dialect, like the one her grandfather used when he used to tell stories.
I enjoyed this fun story where a clever girl tricks a classical trickster. She knows that the fox is really fox, but she uses the similarities between the features of a fox and the features of other animals to pretend like she doesn’t and to keep the fox attempting to convince her until she reaches a point where the fox can no longer pursue her. Knowing the author’s connection to this folk tale style story adds an element of coziness, imagining the author hearing the story as a little girl herself.
The time period of the story is indefinite, but from the characters’ clothes, it looks like it might be some time during the late 19th century or early 20th century.
The Talking Eggs by Robert D. San Souci, pictures by Jerry Pinkney, 1989.
There was a poor widow who lived on a small farm with her two daughters, Rose and Blanche. Rose was the widow’s favorite daughter because she was so much like her mother. They were both mean and bad-tempered, and they had grand dreams of becoming rich someday, although neither of them had the slightest idea how to accomplish that. Blanche, on the other hand, was a sweet girl, and her mother made her do all the work while she and Rose just sat on the porch, talking about all of their grand dreams.
One day, when Blanche goes to fetch water from the well, an old woman approaches her and begs her for a drink. Blanche gives her some water, and the old woman thanks her, telling her that she will be blessed for her kindness.
However, when Blanche gets home, her mother and sister yell at her for taking so long. They hit her, and Blanche runs away into the woods. Then, she meets the old woman again. She explains to the old woman what happened, and the old woman invites her to come to her house. However, she cautions Blanche not to laugh at what she sees there. Blanche promises that she won’t laugh.
The old woman is no ordinary woman, and everything at her house is strange. Some of these strange things are amusing, some are amazing, and some are just plain weird and a little alarming. The animals are all strange, with chickens of different colors and cows with curly horns. Then, inside the house, the old woman removes her head and puts it in her lap to brush her hair. Then, the woman produces a fancy stew from just one old bone. After supper, they go outside and watch rabbits in fancy clothing dance.
In the morning, the old woman tells Blanche to go out and gather some eggs before she goes home. Blanche is allowed to take any that tell her to take them and to leave ones that say not to take them. Blanche does as she is told, although the ones that tell her to take them are the plain-looking eggs, and the others are covered in jewels. The old woman tells Blanche to throw the eggs over her shoulder, one at a time, and when she does so, the eggs break and wonderful things burst out of them – fancy clothes, coins and jewels, and even a horse and carriage.
By the time Blanche gets home, she has many beautiful clothes, money, and luxurious things. Blanche’s mother pretends to be nice to her when she returns, but it’s only so Blanche will tell her where she got all the rich things. That night, when Blanche is asleep, her mother talks to Rose, telling her that she should also befriend the old woman and get the same rich rewards as Blanche. Then, they will steal all of Blanche’s things and head to the city to live the rich life that they’ve always dreamed of.
Of course, lazy and bad-tempered Rose isn’t as kind or hard-working as her sister. She ignores the old woman’s instructions and does everything she shouldn’t do. When she tries to force the old woman to give her riches, the old woman’s magic gives her and her mother their just desserts.
There is a note at the beginning of the book that this story comes from a Creole folktale that appeared in a 19th century collection of folktales from Louisiana by Alcee Fortier. It resembles folktales from Europe was probably adapted from fairy tales brought to Louisiana by French immigrants. It reminds me of the Mother Holle story, where a kind, well-behaved, hard-working girl is rewarded for following Mother Holle’s instructions, while her spoiled sister is punished for laziness and disobedience.
The old woman in this story is a similar figure to Mother Holle, with strange powers and magical objects, but there is no explanation of who she might be. The fact that she can remove her head just to brush her hair shows that she’s supernatural, but we don’t know if she’s supposed to be a witch or some other supernatural creature.
Personally, I don’t think I would laugh at any of the things in the old woman’s house. I think the strange animals sound more amazing than comical. I think I’d really be impressed by the different-colored chickens and the cows with the weird horns. I have to admit, though, that if someone takes off their head, my first reaction would probably be to run for it.
Mirandy and Brother Wind By Patricia C. McKissack, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney, 1988.
It’s springtime, and “Brother Wind” (the wind personified) is striding through the valley. Young Mirandy is getting ready for the junior cakewalk, and she imagines that, if Brother Wind was her partner, she would be sure to win the cakewalk. Her mother says that anyone who can catch the Wind can make him do whatever they want, so Mirandy decides that she’s going to catch Brother Wind before the cakewalk and make him dance with her!
That’s easier said than done. Mirandy doesn’t know how to catch the Wind, and her grandmother doesn’t think such a thing is possible. She asks different people what to do, and she tries different ways of catching him. She tries catching him in a quilt, but he gets away.
Then, Mirandy tries visiting Mis Poinsettia, the conjure woman (a sort of witch or woman with magical knowledge), and she asks her if she has a potion that would help. Mis Poinsettia’s advice is to trap the Wind in a bottle of cider, but that doesn’t work, either.
Eventually, Mirandy manages to trap Brother Wind in the chicken coop. Once she has Brother Wind, he has to give her a wish. However, on the night of the cakewalk, Mirandy realizes that there is someone else she wants for a partner besides Brother Wind, and she asks Brother Wind for help in a different way from the one she had planned.
My Reaction and Spoilers
I thought this was a charming picture book, with bright, colorful illustrations that really conveyed that sense of lightness and air in the presence of Brother Wind! The old-fashioned clothing of the characters is part of the charm, and I like this sweet introduction to the concept of a traditional cakewalk. Cakewalks were a kind of traditional African American dance contest with a cake as a prize for winning. The people participating are dancing as they parade around the room, which is a little different from the cakewalks or candywalks that some modern people do at school or church carnivals as a kind of raffle game. In the game version, the players are just walking, not dancing, and they stop on numbered spots whenever the music stops, winning prizes if the number of their spot is drawn. For Mirandy, winning the cakewalk isn’t a matter of stopping in the right place but actually dancing well.
All through the book, there is a boy who likes Mirandy, but Mirandy doesn’t think of him as a dance partner because she has her heart set on Brother Wind as the perfect dance partner, and the boy is kind of clumsy. Mirandy really wants to win the contest, so it’s important to her to have the best partner she can. However, when one of the other girls at the cakewalk talks badly about the boy and his clumsiness, Mirandy can’t stand to hear him being insulted. She boldly declares that the boy will be her partner, and they will win in the contest together … with a little help from Brother Wind.
The Mysterious Giant of Barletta by Tomie dePaola, 1984.
This story is adapted from an Italian folktale. There is a note in the beginning about the town of Barletta and the statue that stands in front of the San Sepolcro Church. According to the note, nobody knows who the statue is supposed to represent, which is why there are stories about it. This one takes place during the Middle Ages, the 11th century.
Because no one knows who the statue is supposed to be, the people of Barletta call it, “The Mysterious Giant.” No one even knows for sure how long it has been there. It has been there for as long as anyone can remember, including Zia Concetta, the oldest person in Barletta. People are accustomed to gathering around the statue to meet each other, and many of them will give the statue a friendly greeting or wish it good night.
However, one day, the town is threatened by an invading army. The people of Barletta are unprepared for invaders, and many of them prepare to flee, not knowing what else to do. Zia Concetta appeals to the statue to save their town.
The statue hears Zia Concetta’s request, and it comes to life, climbing down from its pedestal. Together, he and Zia Concetta come up with a plan to discourage the invaders.
When the invaders arrive, they see the statue, sitting by itself outside the city, crying. When they ask the giant statue why it’s crying, it says that the other boys at school are mean to him because he’s smaller than everyone else. When the invaders hear that everyone else in Barletta is bigger than the giant statue, they decide that they don’t want to meet the rest of the townspeople and leave!
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction
I always like books that reference folklore! The theme of someone who is large pretending like they’re much smaller than other people to scare off an attacker is one found in other folktales. For example, in Fin M’Coul (a version of which was also written and illustrated by Tomie dePaola), Fin M’Coul, who is a giant, pretends to be his own baby to make an enemy think that his father must be larger and more fierce than he actually is.
I particularly liked this story because, unlike other folktales, it has a real setting and a definite landmark, the statue that is sometimes called the Colossus of Barletta. The way it is drawn in the book isn’t exactly as it appears in real life. In real life, it holds a cross in the hand that is raised, although the cross was not part of the statue originally. It probably originally held a spear or a flag standard. It is about three times the size of an adult human, which isn’t as large as it is shown the book. As in the book, it isn’t certain exactly who the statue is supposed to be, although it appears to be the statue of an emperor. He appears to be a middle-aged man wearing a jeweled diadem. The reason why nobody knows exactly who it was supposed to be is that it wasn’t originally made or displayed in Barletta. It was probably originally looted from Constantinople by the Venetians. There is a story from Barletta that it was once lost in a shipwreck on the way from Constantinople and washed up on the shores of Barletta in 1309, where some of its bronze was used for casting bells for a monastery. Then, in the 15th century, the statue was restored and displayed in front of the church. That, by itself is a fascinating story, although it isn’t explained in the book.
The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame, illustrated by Michael Hague, 1983.
This picture book, with its illustrations, is from the 1980s, but the story by Kenneth Grahame is much older, from 1898. It was always a short story, originally published in a collection called Dream Days. In the original version, there’s an opening part that isn’t included in this picture book, where a girl name Charlotte finds large footprints from a reptile, and a man tells her the story of the dragon.
There is a shepherd whose son loves to read, borrowing books from a friendly member of the gentry who lives nearby. Not all parents from their class value book learning, but the boy’s parents appreciate it and support their son for spending time reading. One day, the shepherd comes home and tells his wife and son that he’s had a terrifying experience. While he was out with his flock, he heard a strange snoring nose, and when he went to investigate, he found a frightening-looking creature with scales, with its head sticking out from the cave.
The shepherd’s son isn’t as alarmed as the shepherd. He merely identifies the creature his father saw as a dragon. He knows about dragons because he’s read about them, and he’s thought for some time that the cave was probably a dragon’s cave. Rather than being surprised or alarmed about the dragon, his father’s discovery merely confirms what the boy already suspected, that a dragon might have lived in the cave once and that it would be a suitable dragon’s home. Furthermore, the boy says that dragons are quite sensitive creatures, so he might look in on this one at some point.
When the boy goes to visit the dragon, the dragon tells him he won’t put up with any rough stuff, like hitting or throwing stones. The boy says he wasn’t going to do any of that, and the two of them start to talk. The dragon hasn’t been staying in the cave for very long, and he’s not sure if he’s going to stay or not. It’s a nice place, but he’s not sure if he’s ready to settle down or not. He admits that he’s lazy, compared to other dragons. Other dragons do things like rampaging, chasing knights, and eating damsels, but this dragon would just prefer a quiet life with regular meals and time to snooze and make up poetry. The boy and the dragon talk about poetry and how it seems like nobody else around them appreciates it the way they do or understands why they like it.
However, the boy can see that there would be problems with the dragon settling in this area. Dragons and humans just don’t mix, even though this dragon isn’t interested in rampaging or doing the other things that would be likely to make enemies of the local population. Once word has gotten around that there’s dragon here, there are bound to be people who will try to hunt it with spears and swords because they’ll only see the dragon as a monster. The dragon has trouble grasping the idea that he could even potentially pose a risk to the human population or that anybody might see him as a danger.
Eventually, word does get around that there’s a dragon living in the cave. The people in the village are both thrilled at this exciting thing happening to their village and plotting to rid their land from this supposed scourge, although the dragon has spent the entire time with his poetry and hasn’t been scourging anything. The village attracts the attention of St. George, the famous dragon slayer, and he comes to deal with the apparent problem.
The boy goes to the dragon and warns him that St. George is in town and that he’s got to prepare to face him and fight. Everyone in town is expecting him to, and they’re all excited about it because it’s the most exciting thing that’s ever happened there. However, the dragon says that he doesn’t like violence, and he doesn’t want anything to do with St. George. The boy worries that, if the dragon won’t take the threat seriously and fight, St. George will simply kill him, but he can’t seem to impress on the dragon just how much danger he’s in.
The boy tries to go to St. George and explain the truth about the dragon, but St. George doesn’t take him seriously at first. Everyone else in the village has been telling him tales of horror about the terrible things the dragon has been supposedly doing. The boy explains that the people in the village aren’t telling the truth because the truth is that they only want a fight. This is a quiet, boring little village, the villagers want excitement, and fights are a primary source of excitement for them. They don’t care at all that the dragon doesn’t like fighting and doesn’t want to be involved; they just want to stir things up with their stories and give St. George a reason to go over the dragon so they can watch the entertainment. When the boy explains that, right now, the villagers are taking bets on the upcoming fight, and so far, they’re favoring the dragon to win, St. George begins to think that maybe he’s been too quick to believe the villagers. He agrees to go with the boy to meet the dragon and talk things over.
Both St. George and the boy think the best thing might be to have a fight and get it over with because that’s how things typically go with dragons, and it’s what everyone is expecting. St. George even says that he wouldn’t have to hurt the dragon much in the course of the fight, as long as it looks good to the spectators. The dragon isn’t thrilled with the plan because he still doesn’t like violence, and he doesn’t want to be hurt or even kind of hurt. The boy realizes that the dragon won’t be getting out of the experience, either. St. George would get the glory for the fight, but what’s in it for dragon? Fortunately, the dragon knows what he wants – to be the guest of honor at the victory banquet!
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive. The original story of The Reluctant Dragon was made into a cartoon film (with some slight changes to the story) by Walt Disney in 1941, and it was used as a vehicle for a film tour of the new Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California.
My Reaction and Spoilers
This story is fun because it’s sort of a parody on folktales, especially St. George and the Dragon, subverting everyone’s expectations. The dragon in this story isn’t particularly fearsome and just likes poetry and a peaceful life, and the villagers, who are supposedly being terrorized, are actually the bloodthirsty ones. St. George is rather disappointed when he realizes that the villagers have been duping him with their stories, but he also realizes that they have to find a way to give the people what they want while sparing the dragon and making it so the dragon won’t be victimized later. Although the boy feels like they have to have a fight of some kind to appease the villagers, he also doesn’t want his dragon friend hurt, and he realizes that they have to consider what the dragon really wants.
The three of them work out a way to give the villagers a good show during their “fight” without the dragon getting really hurt. Then, St. George declares that the dragon has been defeated, and there is no need to cut off his head as the villagers have asked because the dragon has seen the error of its ways and repented, so there is no further need for vengeance. St. George’s victory speech also makes it clear to the villagers that he won’t put up with any more stories about the dragon’s terror because he knows that they can’t be true, that they should drop their prejudices because it’s pretty clear that they don’t know everything even if they act like they do, and that it’s wrong to make up stories about things that haven’t actually happened just for the excitement of doing so. I particularly like that last part of his speech/lecture: “And he warned them against the sin of romancing [in the sense of dramatizing and romanticizing things], and making up stories and fancying other people would believe them just because they were plausible and highly coloured.”
I feel like this is a lesson that more people could stand to remember this modern era of conspiracy theories, social media, and Internet rumors. Yeah, I’m particularly thinking of the stories about immigrants eating animals in Ohio. I’m never going to let that one go because everyone who fell for that and helped spread it was acting like the villagers in this story. They were irresponsible and attention-seeking, causing trouble and danger for people who did nothing to deserve it just for their own excitement and hysteria. It doesn’t help if people based some of their belief on old stories about other groups of immigrants eating pets. That actually makes it much worse because I know those stories were debunked decades ago, so they have even less of an excuse to fall for that now.
If you’re thinking at this point that the matter of rumors of pet-eating immigrants is unrelated to the story, I would argue that it fits in very well because, in both the story and in the real-life rumors, social acceptance is a major issue. The dragon wants to be socially accepted so he and stay in the cave that he now considers his home. He wants to be left in peace to compose his poetry but at the same time have the ability to have company and join in local festivities so he won’t feel too lonely. The problem is that the village people have their own expectations and plans to use the dragon as their personal source of excitement, uncaring about whether that costs the dragon his life or if it costs the knight his life while attempting to kill the dragon. They honestly don’t care who gets hurt or even killed as long as they get to see it, knowing that the stories they invent to tell St. George are necessary to make it all happen. Immigrants also want social acceptance and to be allowed to live their lives peacefully and go about their business in their new homes. People sometimes tell wild stories about them, things they made up themselves, knowing that they’re untrue and uncaring about the consequences for other people, for their own purposes.
The very first time I heard of the Springfield pet-eating hoax, I immediately thought of Janie’s Private Eyes, which I reviewed here years ago and contained references to similar accusations about immigrants. I read Janie’s Private Eyes when I was a kid, and since it dealt with the dangers of rumors and prejudice, specifically rumors about immigrants eating pets, I grew up figuring that these were things that adults should just understand and that only had to be explained to kids, who hadn’t heard about them yet. I don’t suppose everyone has read Janie’s Private Eyes, but I always thought, surely, by adulthood, they would have read something or had somebody clue them in at some point.
There was just no chance of me ever being impressed about humors of Haitian immigrants supposedly eating pets as an adult after hearing about long-debunked rumors about Chinese immigrants supposedly eating pets and Vietnamese immigrants supposedly eating pets and Mexican immigrants supposedly eating pets (I live in a border state, so other parts of the US may or may not have gotten around to that one). After all, how many sets of immigrants can you hear this about before it just becomes eye-rolling routine, like those dumb chain emails that used to be popular in the early 2000s or those supposedly shocking but highly improbable kidnapping stories you’re supposed to warn every young woman in your life about but which are almost direct rip-offs of badly-misspelled fan fiction from Wattpad that was written by teens around that same time period? In all those cases, they’re the some wild stories, just retold with a few minor details and the names of the characters changed.
Stories do matter. The ones we hear when we’re young live in our heads and influence the way we look at things when we’re older and how we respond to some of the questionable things that other people are bound to tell us later in life. In a way, I think it really helps to hear some of this bunk when you’re young, under circumstances where you can tell it’s bunk or with someone cluing you in, so you can get some of these ideas out of your head earlier in life and be better able to tell what’s old-fashioned, sensationalist bunk from someone playing up for attention when you’re an adult. I think that The Reluctant Dragon, although it can be taken in a lighter fashion as parody or satire by people who know the type of stories that are being parodied, also offers the opportunity to talk about the power of stories, how they change people’s views and motivate people to action, and the serious consequences of rumors.
Maybe some of the people spreading the Internet rumors really were ignorant and gullible, easily alarmed and manipulated by a wild story, and maybe some of them just wanted in on the excitement to get attention for themselves and never cared whether it was true or not as long as they could latch on to the attention the story was getting and make themselves part of it. I’m pretty sure that the people starting them and passed them on wanted excitement and attention. There is a certain thrill to passing on rumors, feeling special because you “know” something other people don’t know yet and maybe even wanting praise as well as attention for passing the story along. Maybe some of those people also wanted to get some kind of petty revenge on the immigrant population by saying something bad about them, they expected that people would believe them if they made the stories seem dramatic and plausible (like St. George said in the story), and like the villagers in the story, they did not think or care about what would happen to the people who were the subjects of their libel.
It’s the same sort of thing with most social media rumors, which often contain little truth and can do a lot of harm by people believing them and continuing to spread them, which is why I’m against them all in principle. I urge everybody, when you hear any sensational story through Facebook or any form of social media, to pause and do a little fact-checking before you send that story to anyone else. If you can’t verify it or if you find evidence against it, make no other comment on it other than a link to the evidence against the story (if possible) and a message saying that you don’t want to see any more rumors or conspiracy theories. (At least, I sincerely hope you don’t. I’m telling you, they’re only trouble, and real people get hurt because of fake news.)
In real life, I doubt most people, being told off, even in a nice way, for making up stories and getting caught in lies, would behave with as much grace as the villagers in the story. In real life, people get defensive when they know they’ve been caught and “fight back”, but the villagers just accept it as part of the excitement they wanted and focus on getting to the party they know they’re going to have. During his speech, along with his other admonishments, St. George lets the villagers know, subtly, that he’s discovered that they’ve also been staging animal fights and that this practice is going to have to end, and the villagers all know that he’ll personally be checking on that. At the end of St. George’s speech, there is “much repentant cheering”, and they all go to enjoy the banquet. If people are feeling a little awkward about their behavior or the situation, they’re still determined to enjoy themselves and this remarkable event as much as possible. Everyone relaxes at the banquet because the major event is over, everybody has had a taste of excitement and the spectacle they were craving, and St. George’s speech is over, so there’s nothing left for anybody to plan or worry about. Everybody has a good time at the party, and the dragon is pleased that he’s been accepted into society, so he will be allowed to stay in this peaceful place and even have some company, which was what he really wanted.
The Red Cross Knight, who carries a shield decorated with a red cross, does not know his own name or even where he came from. He only knows that the Queen of the Fairies has sent him to face a terrible dragon. He is accompanied on his journey by a princess with a little white lamb and a dwarf. The Princess’s name is Una, and her kingdom is being attacked by the dragon.
On their journey, they meet a hermit, who shows the knight a distant palace on a mountaintop, where angels travel between the palace and heaven. It’s so beautiful that the knight wants to go there immediately, but the hermit says that this palace is in another world and that he cannot go there until he faces the dragon. The hermit also reveals the knight’s past to him. He is not one of the fairy folk, although the fairy folk are the ones who sent him. The hermit knows that he was kidnapped by the fairies as a baby and hidden in a farm field, where he was discovered by a plowman who named him George. His true destiny is to become Saint George, the patron saint of England.
Una takes George to her parents’ fortress. As they approach, they see the dragon for the first time. George sends Una away from danger, and he and the dragon battle for the first time. The dragon picks up George, horse and all, and throws them to the ground. George manages to drive the dragon away, but he is also injured. At first, he and his friends think he is going to die, but he lies down in an ancient spring that cools and heals him. By morning, he is able to rise and fight again.
The second time George fights the dragon, he is able to cut off part of the dragon’s tail and one of its paws. The dragon’s fire finally drives George away, and once again, George seems too wounded to survive. However, he rests under an apple tree that drops healing dew, and George survives.
The third time George and the dragon fight, George manages to kill the dragon. Everyone celebrates, and Una’s parents thank George. The king gives George rich rewards, but George passes them on to the poor people. George is bound to the service of the Fairy Queen for six years, but the king allows George to marry Una and promises him that he will become the next king when his service is finished.
The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.
My Reaction
I love the colorful illustrations in this story, although some of them seemed a bit brutal for an audience of young children, showing George badly injured and the dragon spurting blood. Because I love folklore, I know that the legend of St. George and the Dragon is a Christian allegory, although it has some basis in earlier folktales and historical figures. I’ve heard different interpretations of what the dragon is supposed to represent. It can be a symbol of evil, the devil, or sin, and I think I’ve heard that it could represent paganism, which was replaced by Christianity (represented by St. George in the story), although I can’t remember where. In a way, I think this is one of those picture book that might mean more to adults because they would understand more of the symbolism, history, and folklore references in the story. On the other hand, who doesn’t love a story that ends with a gallant knight marrying a beautiful princess?
As another odd piece of literary trivia, the legend of St. George has a connection to another story that I’ve on this blog, Phoebe the Spy. The connection isn’t an obvious one because Phoebe the Spy was set in New York during the American Revolution, which seems far removed from Medieval England. However, on April 23, 1770 (St. George’s Day), the St. George Society (originally called the Sons of St. George) was founded at the Fraunces Tavern in New York, just six years before the story of Phoebe the Spy begins at the same tavern. The St. George Society was and still is a charitable organization that helps immigrants from Britain, using the patron saint of England as its namesake.
Jestress's Forgotten Books and Stories 