Posted on by TracyC

The Demon in the Teahouse

DemonTeahouse

The Demon in the Teahouse by Dorothy and Thomas Hoobler, 2001.

This is the second book in the Samurai Detective series.  Like other books in this series, it is not a book for young children!

Seikei is trying hard to learn all the things he must know as a samurai and Judge Ooka’s adopted son. One evening, while the judge is in Edo (now called Tokyo), he sends a message that Seikei and the other samurai must come immediately. Edo is in a state of emergency because of a series of fires that have been deliberately set in shops around the city. Although Judge Ooka helped to design a system of watch towers and fire brigades to help the city in case of fire, the threat of fire is still very serious because most of the buildings in Edo are made of wood.

The only clue they have to the person setting the fires is a geisha who was in one of the shops before it burned. Judge Ooka and Seikei go to the city’s pleasure district, Yoshiwara, where there are theaters and teahouses where geishas provide entertainment. While they are there, they learn that geishas have been dying under mysterious circumstances, and the people of Yoshiwara are afraid.

Judge Ooka has Seikei take a job as a servant at a teahouse in order to learn more. He soon discovers that the dead girls were all friends of Umae, one of the most popular geishas. Then, one of Umae’s many admirers brings her a present, and she is horrified to discover that it is the kimono that one of the dead girls was wearing. Who brought her the kimono, and what connection does she have to the fires?

The nature of the villain and the villain’s motives is rather dark for a middle school level book (although some middle school level books do get fairly dark).  Although the reading level of the book would be fine for someone aged twelve to fourteen, the subject matter might make the story more appropriate for someone a little older.  I recommend parental discretion on this one.  (Remember, it takes place in the “pleasure district” of Edo.)  It’s an exciting story, and it contains an interesting picture of feudal Japan, but it’s definitely not for young children!

The part about Judge Ooka organizing watch towers and fire brigades is something that the real, historical Judge Ooka actually did.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Ninth Jewel of the Mughal Crown

BirbalTales

The Ninth Jewel of the Mughal Crown: The Birbal Tales by James Moseley, 2001.

BirbalTalesRealBirbalThe characters in the stories, Emperor Akbar and his friend and advisor Birbal (birth name Mahesh Das) were real people who lived in India during the late 16th century. Over the years, stories and legends have grown up around them, although the truth is pretty incredible by itself.

This book, which is a collection of some of the stories about Akbar and Birbal, begins by explaining a little about their history, and there is another section in the back that explains more about their lives.  The book’s introduction says that Akbar’s father died when he was young and that Akbar’s reign was considered a Golden Age in India’s history, although it mostly focuses on his “Nine Jewels.”  The section in the back gives a little more context.

To begin with, Akbar was one of the Mughal Emperors.  The book doesn’t explain much about what that means, but understanding it helps to set the stage for the stories.  The Mughal Empire consisted not only of modern day India but also some of the surrounding countries.  The empire was first established by Akbar’s grandfather, Babur, through conquest.  Babur was born in the region that we now call Uzbekistan, although his family’s origins were Mongolian.  They were distantly descended from Genghis Khan.  They were also descended from Tamir (sometimes called Tamerlane), giving them Turkic and Persian connections.  The early years of the Mughal Empire were unstable, but when Akbar’s father died and Akbar became emperor at a young age, his regent helped him to stabilize the empire and expand it through a mixture of further conquest and diplomacy.  The reputation of wealth and power in the Mughal Empire eventually led to the adoption of the word “mogul” in English to describe a wealthy and powerful person, especially one who has high standing in a particular field of expertise (something which, as you’ll see, was of particular importance to Akbar).  Using the riches and resources gained through his territorial expansion, Akbar worked to develop the economy of his empire and to support the arts and learning.

BirbalTalesRealAkbarAkbar had a great love of learning, but unfortunately, was dyslexic at a time when people didn’t understand the condition very well.  (To put it into context, Akbar was a contemporary of Elizabeth I of England.)  Even though, like the European Emperor Charlemagne (who lived much earlier but was also apparently dyslexic), he wanted to learn to read, he struggled with it throughout his life because of his condition.  Akbar didn’t want his reading difficulties to interfere with his learning or his love of the arts, so he found another way around the problem.  In a way, it’s similar to what Charlemagne did, surrounding himself with learned advisors who would read to him and discuss important topics with him, verbally teaching him whatever he wanted to know.  Akbar chose his advisors very carefully, seeking out people who had demonstrated excellence in subjects that were important to him. Akbar’s advisors became famous for their fascinating and unusual skills and personalities.  He had nine special advisors who were close to him, which is why they were called, “The Nine Jewels of the Mughal Crown.”  Legends grew up around these men and their abilities:

Tansen – An expert in music, whose singing voice was said to be so amazing that he could make candles burst into flame with a song.

Daswant – A master painter.

Todar Mal – An expert in finance.

Abul Fazl – A great historian.

Faizi – Brother of Abul Fazl, a famous poet.

Abud us-Samad – A master at calligraphy, he also designed the imperial coins.

Man Singh – A great military general.

Mir Fathullah Shirazi – A man of many skills, including the fields of medicine, astronomy, philosophy, and finances.

Birbal – Akbar’s Minister or Raja, who had a reputation for cleverness, quick wit, and the service of justice.  He was the “Ninth Jewel”, and his stories are the focus of this book.

BirbalTalesMeetingThere are many more stories about Birbal than the ones included in this book, but they are all about how Birbal uses his wits to serve Akbar and aid the cause of justice.  Like all good legends, the stories are partly based in fact, but have grown with each retelling to the point where it can be difficult to say where the real people leave off and the legends begin.

In the first story in the book, Akbar meets Birbal when he is still a child.  Fascinated by the boy’s combination of courtesy and boldness and his unusual wit, he gives the boy a ring and tells him that when he is grown, he should come to his palace at Fatehpur Sikri.  Years later, Birbal does go there, but when he shows the ring with the emperor’s seal on it to the guard on duty, the guard refuses to let him in until he promises to give him half of whatever the emperor gives him.  When Akbar sees Birbal, he is pleased to meet him again but stunned when Birbal asks him to give him 100 lashes.  When Birbal explains the reason for his bizarre request, it not only gets the laughter of the court, but the approval of Akbar, who appreciates this bold approach to the problem of bribery.

BirbalTalesPortraitFrom then on, Birbal gains a reputation for his ability to mediate disputes and find unusual solutions to problems.  His favored position at court gives him some jealous enemies, but he handles them with the same cleverness that he uses to solve every problem.

In one of my favorite stories, one of the noblemen at court attempts to cheat Daswant out of his rightful fee for painting his portrait by changing his appearance (shaving his beard, shaving his mustache, etc.) after each portrait sitting and then claiming that the portraits Daswant paints do not really look like him.  When Daswant explains the situation to Birbal, he gets the nobleman to promise to pay for an “exact likeness” of himself in the presence of Akbar.  Then, Birbal shows him a mirror, which Akbar agrees contains an exact likeness of the nobleman and deserves payment.

BirbalTalesCoinPurseIn another of my favorite stories, Birbal determines who is the true owner of a coin purse when a flour merchant and an oil merchant each claim that it belongs to them.  He pours the coins into a pot of boiling water and notes the oil that bubbles to the surface.  Because the coins are covered in oil, they obviously belong to the oil merchant.  If they had belonged to the flour merchant, they would have been covered in flour.

One of the interesting aspects of Akbar’s friendship with Birbal was their religious differences.  Akbar, like the rest of his family, was Muslim, and Birbal was from a family of Hindu Brahmins. The Mughal Empire was a multi-cultural society, and Akbar was aware of it.   At one point, he attempted to develop a new religious movement that combined aspects of Islam and Hinduism in order to further unite his subjects, but it never caught on as a mainstream religion, possibly because Akbar’s own strong personality as its leader was one of the most attractive features.  Akbar did seem to genuinely believe in religious tolerance and promoted widespread education among his subjects.

Birbal, the historical person, was eventually killed in battle, and Akbar greatly mourned his loss.  The Mughal Empire continued for generations beyond Akbar, although it eventually collapsed through a combination of military, administrative, and economic decline; the decentralization of power in the empire; internal discord; and interference from outsiders that paved the way for the British colonization of India.  That’s kind of a simplistic description of a long, complicated period of history, but the end of the Mughal Empire was marked by the beginning of British rule in India.  In 1858, the British East India Company deposed the last of the Mughal emperors, sending him into exile, around 300 years after the reign of Akbar began.

Posted on by TracyC

Kathleen: The Celtic Knot

KathleenKathleen: The Celtic Knot by Siobhan Parkinson, 2003.

Twelve-year-old Kathleen lives with her family in Dublin, Ireland in 1937. Like the rest of the world, Ireland is suffering under the Great Depression, and Kathleen’s father has been having trouble finding work. Her mother helps to support the family by working as a midwife.

One day, when Kathleen’s mother is off delivering a baby, Kathleen accidentally burns the porridge at breakfast, making her and her sisters late for school. Although they should have been marked as being on time, they are considered one minute late because the nun’s watch was fast. Discipline is harsh at the Catholic school they attend, and after a harsh lecture to Kathleen, the headmistress, Mother Rosario, calls for a conference with her mother. Kathleen is very upset about it, but Mother Rosario softens somewhat and says that she merely wants to see that everything is alright with Kathleen’s family because a nice girl like her shouldn’t be acting up.  Kathleen still worries because she knows that the nuns look down on poor families like theirs and consider their authority higher than the parents of the children they teach.  They are often unaware of the circumstances that families live in.

However, Kathleen’s mother isn’t fazed by the nuns’ attitude and is blunt with the Mother Rosario, telling it like it is. The headmistress does show that she has some compassion and is somewhat aware of their circumstances because she says that Kathleen’s lateness was only part of the reason she wanted this meeting. She has guessed that Kathleen’s father is looking for work, and there is a position for an assistant gardener open at the school. It doesn’t pay much, and it’s not as good as her father’s old job was before the factory where he worked closed, but he agrees to take it because it’s better than nothing.

The headmistress also says that she has noticed that Kathleen is musically-talented. She likes to sing and has a good voice. Mother Rosario thinks it would be a good idea for her to take piano or dance lessons. The family doesn’t have a piano, so the headmistress suggest that Kathleen join the Irish dancing lessons because it’s a wholesome activity that reflects her heritage and that would keep her out of trouble. Kathleen’s mother isn’t big on heritage, but she agrees that dancing might be a good activity for Kathleen.

Kathleen isn’t happy about the dance lessons at first because the other girls who are involved are snobs. But, once she tries it, she realizes that she actually loves dancing. The problem is that the lessons aren’t free, like the other girls told her. At first, Kathleen feels cheated, finding out that she loves something that she can’t have after all, but her teacher says that she’s talented, so she offers Kathleen some free lessons anyway. She’s been looking for new talent so that her dancers can do well in the next dancing competition, and she doesn’t want to let a promising dancer like Kathleen slip through her fingers.

The snobby girls in class are all the more irritated when Kathleen is among those chosen to enter the next competition, but everyone also knows that there is one more obstacle for Kathleen: she doesn’t have a proper dancing costume or any money to buy one. She prays for one, even promising God that she’d become a nun if he gives her the costume she wants. Her mother has her eye on some beautiful cloth that she hopes to buy as a remnant, but the cloth gets snapped up by some of the wealthier, snobby girls, and her mother comes down with a serious illness shortly before the competition.

Kathleen begins to think that she was wicked for being so concerned about dancing and costumes when there are much more serious things in life. However, her aunt, Polly, understands how she feels and comes up with a plan to make the needed costume for Kathleen, using her favorite book, Gone With the Wind, as inspiration. Remember what Scarlett O’Hara did when she needed a new dress and couldn’t afford one?

KathleenDancing

One of the themes that runs through the story is questions and answers. Kathleen has a lot of questions about life. She knows that her mother deliveries babies for money, but she doesn’t really understand much about it, and her mother doesn’t answer the questions she asks. In fact, Kathleen notices that most of the adults she knows (with the exception of her father) brush aside her questions about the way the way the world works or the things people do because they simply don’t want to be bothered with them. They have too many concerns of their own, and they don’t really know most of the answers themselves. It kind of contrasts with the answers that Mother Rosario demands from Kathleen and immediately dismisses upon getting. Most of the time, she doesn’t really want to bother with answering questions or even dealing with the answers to questions she’s just asked. Only once does she answer a question that Kathleen had asked about St. Patrick, and Kathleen is astonished at getting an answer about something.

I have to admit that the attitudes about questions and answers from most of the adults in the story really irritated me, especially the way Mother Rosario demanded answers from Kathleen about her lateness and then dismissed everything that Kathleen said, angry that she had “answers.”  I’ve met people like that before in real life, and they’re just as illogical and crazy-making as this headmistress. I’m not talking about teachers who refuse to listen to flimsy excuses like “the dog ate my homework,” but people who get angry at others who have real explanations just because they have real explanations. People who demand to know the reasons why things happen and then immediately reject any explanation offered without a real reason for doing so are obnoxious. I’ve encountered people like that before, and it’s hard to have anything resembling a meaningful conversation with them.   They don’t want to talk to you; they just want to yell or lecture at you.  They don’t really care what the answers or explanations are for anything, and no answer would make any difference to them because what they really want is for the other person to just feel bad. It’s an unethical one-upmanship tactic, and it loses my respect the moment I hear someone use it because I recognize what they’re attempting to do. It’s so obvious, but frustrating at the same time (Kathleen in the story wonders why Mother Rosario is trying to torture her in this way) because there’s nothing you can say to stop the other person once they start (at least, I haven’t figured it out). Kathleen’s approach was probably the most effective.  She just stopped talking and prepared herself for the headmistress to hit her, which caused the headmistress to wake up a bit to the fact that the message that she was sending to Kathleen was that her only intentions were to hurt her.  Fortunately, those were not her only intentions, but I have to admit that I never really had any respect for Mother Rosario after that, in spite of what she did to help Kathleen’s family.  You can tell this is one of my pet peeves.  One-upmanship really bothers me in all of its forms, and I have even less time for that kind of nonsense than these characters do for answering a twelve-year-old’s questions.  At least you can talk to a twelve-year-old. Getting back to that, part of Kathleen’s trouble with some of her questions is that her elders often underestimate her, thinking that she’s really too young to understand anything, but the fact that she’s asking questions says that she’s really not. In fact, she might even be putting more thought into some issues than the people who have decided that some things aren’t worth thinking about in the first place.

Another theme of the story is growing up and changing goals in life. By discovering her talent as a dancer, Kathleen has found something that she would like to dedicate her life to, and if she becomes a dance teacher herself, it would give her a job to do in her future that could make her life better. Her aunt, Polly, who is twenty years old, also changes her mind about what she wants in life. As a single young woman, she likes to go out and have fun with her small earnings, hoping to meet a man as elegant as Rhett Butler.   However, when her latest young man turns out to be a cad, she accepts a proposal from the very shy but much nicer young man who she had previous thought wasn’t handsome enough. Polly’s experiences make her realize that handsomeness by itself isn’t much, and she and her new husband have plans for building a life together. At first, Kathleen is disappointed because she and Polly had talked about leading a carefree life together as single ladies when Kathleen was grown, but Polly explains to her that things will be better this way and that grown-ups have to build real lives for themselves, not live on dreams alone. Kathleen is still in the process of discovering the possibilities that life might hold for her and the talents that she can use to build her life.

I also found the parts about Irish history and politics during 1930s interesting.  One of the reasons why Kathleen’s family isn’t big on the Irish heritage movement is because her grandfather fought during World War I and wasn’t treated well as a veteran when he returned. During the meeting with Mother Rosario, Kathleen’s mother is blunt about her views on things, and Mother Rosario is surprised how much she understands of politics, showing that she looks down on poor people (possibly the source of her general rudeness and bullying tactics, even when she’s trying to be helpful – she’s decided that she’s superior and will remain so, whether she’s right or wrong), thinking that they aren’t smart enough to understand what’s going on around them.  The story makes it clear that the nuns at school are often out of touch with what ordinary families go through in their daily lives.  They underestimate what people know or read about, they have trouble understanding their daily struggles with money and how they are barely able to keep food on the table, and they seem unable to grasp what it’s like to be part of a family where any family member’s actions can affect all of the others.  For me, they were far more aggravating than the snobby little girl characters because I usually expect adults of a certain age to have grown out of some of these behaviors.

While reading the story, I was kind of comparing Kathleen’s circumstances in Ireland in the 1930s to life in America during the Great Depression, and many of their struggles were the same.  I was also kind of fascinated by Polly’s fascination with Gone With the Wind because it shows how pieces of culture and entertainment could become popular in other countries during this time.

This book is part of a series by the same publishers of the American Girls Books.  There is a section in the back of the book with historical information about the period.

KathleenHistorical

Posted on by TracyC

Mrs. Armitage, Queen of the Road

ArmitageRoad

Mrs. Armitage, Queen of the Road by Quentin Blake, 2003.

When Mrs. Armitage‘s Uncle Cosmo decides to get a new motorcycle, he lets her have his old car.  However, it isn’t in very good condition.

ArmitageRoadCar

Mrs. Armitage and Breakspear decide to try it out, but as they drive along, pieces of the car fall off.  Some of it is because the car is in bad repair, and some is due to accidents Mrs. Armitage has.  First, the hubcabs, then the fenders fall off.  Mrs. Armitage shrugs it off , saying, “Who needs them?”

ArmitageRoadHubcaps

Eventually, the car goes almost entirely to pieces, but who needs it all?

ArmitageRoadWreck

When Uncle Cosmo shows up with his friends and their motorcycles, they help her fix up what’s left of the car into one amazing machine!

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies, including one in Spanish).

ArmitageRoadMachine

Posted on by TracyC · 2 Comments

Zathura

Zathura

Zathura by Chris Van Allsburg, 2002.

This book begins where Jumanji ends. It’s not completely a sequel because it has a different set of children and a new game, but it’s connected because the two children from Jumanji left the board game in the park again after they finished it, and they saw two boys that they know pick it up and take it home.

ZathuraBrothersWrestling

However, the two boys, Danny and Walter, don’t end up playing the same jungle board game, Jumanji, that was in the previous book. They find a second board game in the Jumanji box called Zathura and decide to try it instead. Zathura is a space-themed game where players travel a path from Earth to the planet Zathura. Like in Jumanji, elements from the board game come to life as the boys play, and someone must reach the end in order to end the game.

ZathuraStartingGame

Danny and Walter, a pair of brothers, fight a lot. Walter hates doing things with Danny. However, when Danny starts playing the game, sending their house into outer space, Walter must join in and play with his brother in order to bring the game to an end so they can go home. The two of them learn teamwork as they help each other face the dangers of the game while trying to reach Zathura.

ZathuraOuterSpace

There is a movie version of this book, but there are major differences between the original book and the movie. The conflicts between the two boys are similar in the book and the movie, but the movie added a subplot about the boys’ parents being divorced (they weren’t in the original book), an older sister for the boys (it was just the two of them originally), and a kind of alternate reality where the older boy was trapped in the game by himself for years because he wished his brother away before finishing the game until his alternate self realized that he cared about his brother and wanted to cooperate with him.  In the original book, nobody was trapped in the game.

ZathuraAlienRobot

Chris Van Allsburg illustrations are always good, although I have to admit that I preferred the illustrations in Jumanji to the ones in Zathura.  It just seems to me that the pictures in Jumanji were more detailed and realistic.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

ZathuraGoingHome

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Giving Thanks

GivingThanks

Giving Thanks by Kate Waters, 2001.

This book describes the feast of 1621 that we think of as “the first Thanksgiving” from the point of view of two boys: Resolved White (a six-year-old English colonist) and Dancing Moccasins (a fourteen-year-old Wampanoag).  The book explains that the reality of this feast is somewhat different from the way many people think of it.  For one thing, the exact date is unknown, and it wasn’t really a single meal but a kind of harvest celebration that took place over several days.  The events of that celebration were re-created using reenactors from the Plimoth Plantation living history museum.

In the beginning of the book, Dancing Moccasins explains that his family has been harvesting their crops and preparing to move to the place where they live in the winter. Wampanoag lived in different places depending on the time of year, moving between them when the seasons changed.  At their winter home, they would continue hunting and fishing, returning to the place where they planted their crops at the end of winter.

GivingThanksBeginning

Similarly, Resolved’s family has finished harvesting their crops and have stored up food for the winter.  Now that most of the hard work is over, they have time to relax and celebrate.  The community is planning a feast.  Resolved and his friend, Bartle, follow some of the men, who are going out hunting and target-shooting.

The colonists meet up with some of the Wampanoag, which is how Dancing Moccasins and Resolved first see each other.  Dancing Moccasins returns home and tells his father what he has seen.  Then, a messenger arrives from their chief, Massasoit, saying that he will be visiting the colonists soon, and Dancing Moccasins’s father is invited to come.

GivingThanksMessenger

Just as Dancing Moccasins is wondering about the purpose of this visit, Resolved is wondering the same thing because word has reached the colonists that they will soon be visited by the chief and representatives of the tribe.  (The book explains in the back that the exact reasons for the Wampanoag visit to the colonists are unknown today, only that it happened at the same time that the colonists were planning their harvest feast.) The two boys meet again when Dancing Moccasins accompanies his father on the visit to the colonists’ village.

GivingThanksGovernorDinner

When the Wampanoag arrive at the village, they are treated as honored guests, and some of the Wampanoag go deer-hunting to provide a present for their hosts.  The chief dines with the governor of the colonists.  The Wampanoag build shelters for themselves, where they will stay during their visit.

GivingThanksShelters

Eventually, Dancing Moccassins invites Resolved to play a game with him and some other Wampanoag boys when he sees him watching them.  Some of the Wampanoag men also join in the games that the English men play, like competing to see who can throw a log the farthest.

GivingThanksGames

At the end of the day, Dancing Moccassins and Resolved each eat with their own families, but there is plenty for everyone.

There is a section in the back with historical information about the harvest feast, traditions about giving thanks among both the colonists and the Wampanoag, and how Thanksgiving eventually became a national holiday in the United States.  There is also information about food and clothing in the time of the story and a recipe for samp (a kind of corn pottage eaten by the Wampanoag and later adopted by the English colonists).  The book also has some information about the Plimoth Plantation living history museum and the reeanctors.  It is part of a series of books by the same author about the lives of children in Colonial America.

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

Posted on by TracyC

The Best Halloween Ever

BestHalloweenEverThe Best Halloween Ever by Barbara Robinson, 2004.

Every year on Halloween, the Herdmans, who are the wildest, most awful kids in town, run amuck, vandalizing things, stealing, and bullying other kids out of their Halloween candy.  This year, the mayor has decided that he’s had enough of the chaos they cause, so he’s just going to cancel Halloween all together.  Although he doesn’t specifically name the Herdmans as the source of all the Halloween destruction, everyone in town knows that they are.  So, to the shock and dismay of all the other kids, there will be no trick-or-treating this year.

Instead, there will a safe, well-supervised (boring), school Halloween party.  The principal, who always hated Halloween anyway, isn’t happy about it, but admits that it would be better to have a party for the kids at school, with their parents present and helping out, than having them run wild in the streets with the Herdmans on the loose.  But, as every kid knows, running wild in the streets is really the heart of Halloween.  They long for the freedom of roaming the streets without adult supervision, for collecting candy to sort and trade (and, admittedly, lose to the Herdmans eventually), for staying up late, and for the surprises and magic of a real Halloween.

There isn’t going to be anything surprising or magical or even really scary about Halloween at the school.  All the kids already know that the monsters are just their parents and teachers in costume.  The only real benefit that they see to the event is that the Herdmans won’t be there because they say it sounds too boring.  But, with the Herdmans, nothing is ever what anyone would expect, and they not only show up but find a way to turn the event into something that brings back some of the surprises and real Halloween spirit that were missing from a party that was too well-organized and predictable.

Although the Herdmans are a large part of the reason why Halloween is difficult for everyone and the adults try so hard to control it, they manage to redeem themselves a little in the eyes of the other children by taking the events of the night out of the adults’ hands.  Before the other kids know it, strange things start happening at the party with a cat on the loose, worms in the witches’ brew, and children starting to disappear.  As the kids puzzle about these things and wonder where some of the other kids went, things start getting scarier (like they should on Halloween), and they find themselves following mysterious figures through the school in the middle of a black-out with a special surprise waiting for them . . .

I don’t think that this book was quite as good as the others in the series, but it was still fun.  Beth, the narrator, is correct in saying that the well-supervised Halloween party was really more for the adults than the kids.  To the adults, Halloween is kind of a bother, and sometimes, they act like all the kids, not just the Herdmans, get in their way even as they plan the school Halloween party.  At one point, Beth’s mother reminds Alice’s mother that the whole idea of the party is to do something for the children, not the adults.

The adults are so worried about keeping things orderly, safe, and convenient that they become too controlling.  Even on normal Halloweens, some of them have a tendency to overrule the kids on what they want to wear as costumes, with parents often insisting on costumes that are the least amount of bother for them to help with.  Louella’s mother insists that Louella be a pilgrim year after year just because she won a free costume once, even though Louella hates it. Really, what most of the kids like about Halloween is that it is usually a night for them, not the adults.  The kids chafe as the adults insist that they go to their orderly Halloween party and like it.  In real life, most adults know that forced fun isn’t really fun at all.

In the end, the Herdmans return all the candy that they had taken from the other kids over the last Halloweens.  Although the other kids find the Herdmans’ secret candy stash a treasure trove, much of the candy is stale.  They can eat some of it (which grosses me out, considering how old it probably is), and they have fun sorting and counting the rest.  But, the best treat for the kids was adding a sense of unpredictability and suspense to the night to bring back the real Halloween feeling.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Egyptian Diary

EgyptianDiary

Egyptian Diary: The Journal of Nakht by Richard Platt, 2005.

A young boy in Ancient Egypt, Nakht, is excited because his family will soon move to Memphis because a distant relative has offered his father a job working as a scribe.  Memphis is a large, important city, with more opportunities than Esna, where the family currently lives.  Nakht is also training to be a scribe, so he begins writing an account of his family’s journey to Memphis and what they encounter when they arrive.

EgyptianDiaryPic1

The journey to Memphis includes a boat trip down the Nile, past the City of the Dead near Thebes, where pharaohs are buried.  When they arrive in Memphis, they make themselves at home in their new house, which is bigger than their old one.  For the first time, Nakht has a private bedroom of his own, and the wall is decorated with a hunting scene.  Nakht also has a bed to sleep in, although he is still more accustomed to sleeping on a mat on the floor, as he did back in Esna.

In Esna, Nakht’s father had taught him his lessons as a scribe, but in Memphis, Nakht begins attending a school with other boys.  There, he practices his writing as always, although he must also learn the older, more formal hieroglyphic form of writing used on the walls of temples and for public inscriptions as well as the less formal writing used more commonly.  Nakht also receives lessons in building and engineering, which includes calculating the weight of the building stones, how many people it would take to move them, and how much food and drink the workers would need during their time of service).  Sometimes, their teacher also takes the students places for lessons, like taking them to the fields near the river so they can see how to build canals and how farmers water their fields.

There are many exciting things going on in Memphis.  Ships come and go from many places.  When the Nile floods, Nakht describes how the Controller of Granaries sets the taxes on grain for the following year by measuring the highest height of the Nile during the flooding time, which is an indicator of how good the next year’s grain harvest will be.  Nakht and his sister Tamyt witness the funeral procession of a scribe, complete with dancers, paid mourners, and a procession of servants carrying all of the furniture and supplies to be loaded into the man’s tomb for him to use in the afterlife.

EgyptDiaryPic2

Then, Nakht learns that his father and other scribes are investigating tomb robberies in Saqqara.  Nakht and Tamyt have never seen the tombs before, but their father refuses to let them come with him.  Instead, the two of them sneak over by themselves to have a look.  While they are there, they witness the robbing of a tomb!  They get a good look at an unusual ring on the finger of one of the robbers and are shocked to later see an identical ring on the finger of a very important person!

EgyptDiaryPic3

At the end of the story, when Nakht and Tamyt are rewarded for their role in catching the thieves, it is revealed that the current king of Egypt is Hatshepsut, who is actually a woman.

EgyptDiaryPic4

Among the other things that Nakht explains about his life are how the doctor treated him when he broke his arm, how grain is harvested, how different types of craftsman work, and how houses are built.  Nakht also undergoes a special hair-cutting ceremony as a coming-of-age ritual.

There is a section in the back that explains more about Ancient Egyptian history and society.  It also explains Egyptian writing, religion, mummies, and tombs.

The book is part of a series of historical picture books.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Pirate Diary

PirateDiary

Pirate Diary: The Journal of Jake Carpenter by Richard Platt, 2001.

Young Jake Carpenter lives with his father in North Carolina in 1716.  His mother is dead, and his father is a medical doctor.  His father wants him to become a doctor as well, but he has decided that it’s important to the boy’s education that he see something of the world first, so he is allowing Jake to go to sea with his uncle, Will, who is a sailor.  Jake is excited about the prospect, and Will has told him many stories about the sea.

PirateDiaryPic1

Jake isn’t allowed to bring much with him because there is limited space on board the ship for personal belongings, and there are many things that Jake has to get used to, like sleeping in a hammock, the names for all the different parts of the ship, seasickness, the poor quality of food on the ship, and using the horn lanterns which are safer for candles on board ship but don’t cast much light.  Jake makes friends with Abraham, the cook’s boy, who promises him extra food in exchange for teaching him to read.  Jake’s main job on the ship is to help the carpenter, so he begins learning his trade.

When the ship is underway, Jake and his uncle learn that the captain is running from debts and that the ship is carrying contraband.  Jake doesn’t think that smuggling is a very serious crime because the main purpose is to avoid paying extra taxes on certain types of goods, and other members of the crew say that it isn’t fair for Americans to continue paying taxes to England when the king doesn’t really care about them or what they want.  The ship sails the Caribbean, but crew members say that they try to avoid docking at English-controlled ports, like the ones in Jamaica, so they won’t have to pay the customs fees. Abraham says that even if they were caught with their contraband, the authorities would likely look the other way if they offer them a share.  Will tells Jake that the captain of the ship will most likely hold back their wages in order to keep them with the ship for as long as possible, like he does with other sailors.

Discipline on board the ship is harsh and arbitrary, according to the captain’s whims.  When Will speaks up to save Jake from a harsh flogging, he himself is flogged and abandoned in a small boat.  Jake believes that his uncle will die because they left him at sea with no provisions!

Then, the ship is captured by pirates!

PirateDiaryPic2

Far from making things worse, Jake’s situation and that of the rest of the crew actually improves because of the pirate attack.  With the captain captured, his cruel punishments are over, and members of his crew eagerly join the pirates in the capture.  The pirates ask the crew about the treatment their captain has given them, saying that it will help them to decide what to do with him, and crew members explain the cruelties they have suffered, including what the captain did to Will.  They end up marooning the captain and his equally-cruel second mate on an island with drinking water.

As Jake’s father predicted, Jake gets to see a lot and learn a lot about life and death during his time at sea, perhaps even more than expected while under the command of the pirates.  He gets some experience in dealing with injuries as he has to help the ship’s carpenter saw off the leg of a man whose wound was too infected to treat in any other way, although the man later died anyway.  Later, the pirates join up with other pirate ships, and Jake participates in a raid on a Spanish treasure fleet!

PirateDiaryPic3

It’s not all excitement, and Jake spends some time talking about the routine chores that sailors did and how they would pass the time on board ship when nothing else was going on.  He does get to see St. Elmo’s Fire on the upper rigging of the ship, and the crew spots a “mermaid” once on a misty day.

An offer of amnesty for those willing to give up pirating allows Jake and other members of the crew to return home where he learns that his uncle has managed to survive after all!

PirateDiaryPic4

In the back of the book is a section with historical information.  It explains the history and geography of the American Colonies, where Jake lived and the history of piracy from the first known pirates to the privateers and buccaneers that led to the golden age of piracy in the 18th century.  Jake is a fictional character, but some of the pirates that Jake met in the story were real people, and the section in the back explains more about them.  The book is part of a series of historical picture books.

Posted on by TracyC

A Year Down Yonder

YearDownYonderA Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck, 2000.

This is the sequel to A Long Way from Chicago. The story takes place shortly after the Great Depression, in 1937.

Times are still hard, and a recession has left a lot of people out of work again. Mary Alice’s father is out of work, and her brother Joey is out west working for the Civilian Conservation Corps. Because her family has to move to a smaller apartment, fifteen-year-old Mary Alice leaves Chicago to stay with her Grandma in the country for the year. Times are hard in Grandma’s small town as well, but Mary Alice’s Grandma is as wily and eccentric as ever.

Like the first book, this book is really a series of short stories about Mary Alice’s adventures with her Grandma during their year together. The stories generally have a hilarious turn as Grandma gets the better of everyone, often in the name justice or a good cause.  (Although, Grandma’s sense of justice is debatable since it involves “borrowing” pumpkins from the neighbors in the dead of night and other questionable activities.)

These stories present a detailed picture of rural life during the 1930s, from pranks played on Halloween to how Armistice Day was celebrated in the years following World War I, when people were still alive who had strong memories of that war. The stories also capture some of the personalities and politics of life in a small town, from a disreputable family of outcasts to the local elite, who have more money than the others and brag about having ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War (which may or may not be so).

Rich Chicago Girl: Mary Alice arrives in Grandma’s small town and is enrolled in the local school.  She meets the class bully, and Grandma helps her to deal with her.

Vittles and Vengeance: At Halloween, Grandma gets revenge against a group of pranksters and raids her neighbors for ingredients to make the school Halloween party better.

A Minute in the Morning: Armistice Day, November 11, has more meaning for people who have actual memories of The Great War (World War I).  Grandma makes sure that those who can afford it pay what they owe to the veterans of that war and shows Mary Alice the price that some soldiers paid for supporting their country.

Away in a Manger: Mary Alice is picked to play Mary in the school’s Christmas Nativity play.  The baby Jesus turns out to be a surprise for the whole town, and Grandma arranges a special surprise for Mary Alice.

Hearts and Flour: The head of the local branch of the DAR pushes Grandma to make cherry tarts for their annual tea in honor of George Washington’s birthday.  Since she will neither allow Grandma to join the DAR (because Grandma doesn’t have the proper lineage) nor pay Grandma for her work (she thinks Grandma should ‘volunteer’ her services as part of her patriotic duty), Grandma insists that if she bakes, she must host the tea as well . . . with a couple of special surprise guests.  Meanwhile, a handsome new boy named Royce joins Mary Alice’s class at school.

A Dangerous Man: An artist working for the WPA rents a room from Grandma, treating Mary Alice and Royce to a scandalous but hilarious sight when his subject matter gets out of hand.

Gone with the Wind: A tornado sweeps through the town, and Grandma and Mary Alice go to check on residents who live alone.  Mary Alice also prepares to return home to her parents in Chicago.

Ever After: The final story in the book is about Mary Alice’s wedding, years later, toward the end of World War II.

This book is a Newbery Award winner.  There are multiple copies currently available online through Internet Archive.