Posted on by TracyC

Addy’s Surprise

American Girls

AddySuprise

Addy’s Surprise by Connie Porter, 1993.

Christmas is coming, and although Addy and her mother have started to establish a new life for themselves in Philadelphia, they miss the rest of their family, whose whereabouts are still unknown.  Money is tight, and Addy’s mother is trying to save up for a new lamp for their room at Mrs. Ford’s.  Addy wants to buy her mother a pretty red scarf at the second-hand shop for Christmas, but saving up the tips she earns delivering packages for Mrs. Ford is slow.  Addy still wishes that they could afford beautiful dresses, like the rich women who visit the dress shop.One thing that Addy is looking forward to is the Christmas celebration at their church.  Her new friend, Sarah, has told her all about it.  She describes the potluck dinner, the beautiful decorations, and the shadow play they have to entertain the children.

 

Then, at church, the Reverend Drake tells everyone that more “freedmen,” people who have just come out of slavery, will be arriving in the city soon.  Reverend Drake asks the congregation to help, just as many of them received help when they first arrived.  Like Addy and her mother, these new people will be arriving with almost nothing, not knowing where to go and what to do, and will need money for food and clothes and places to live.  Addy and her mother decide that they want to help, although it means stretching their already-tight finances even tighter.

Addy is reluctant to part with the little money she’s been saving to buy the scarf for her mother, so she offers to help out in greeting the new arrivals and taking them to the church instead.  When Addy and Sarah go to the pier to meet them and guide them to the church, Addy feels badly at seeing the condition they are in.  This particular group is made up of slaves who were freed because the owner of their plantation was under pressure from the war.  He simply turned them loose with only the clothes on their backs and little idea of where to go or how to get help in establishing a new life.  Some of them are sick or injured, some have no shoes in the winter cold, and none of them have had enough to eat.  Addy reassures them that the church will help them.  The baby in the group particularly makes Addy think of her little sister, Esther, who is still in slavery in the South.  Addy begins to feel like the things she was worried about before, like dresses, a new lamp, and the scarf aren’t as important as she once thought they were.  When Addy has finally collected enough money for the scarf for her mother, she decides to donate the money to help the others instead.

It looks like Addy and her mother won’t be getting the special things that they had hoped for at Christmas, but Christmas is a time of surprises.  Through their own hard work, they’ve made some special friends in Philadelphia who care about them, and other, unexpected circumstances allow Addy to not only get the special Christmas dress she’s been dreaming of  (a customer returns a dress to the shop because her daughter can’t fit into it anymore) but to make a scarf of her own to replace the one that she was going to buy for her mother.  The Christmas party at the church is as wonderful as Addy expected, but there’s an even more wonderful surprise to come: Addy’s father has finally made it to Philadelphia!

 

I like the way Addy and her mother showed generosity and consideration to others in the story, even though they are also somewhat struggling themselves.  Through their own hard work and ingenuity, they manage to make their own Christmas presents with scraps from the dress shop, and Mrs. Ford shows her appreciation for their hard work by buying them the lamp they need.  Good things come to those who work for them!

AddySurpriseHistorical

There is a section in the back with historical information about Christmas celebrations around the time of the Civil War.  Because of the war, families weren’t always able to get or afford things they could before.  People sometimes raised money for soldiers or send them special care packages.  Slaves were allowed small celebrations, being released from work for a new days and given small gifts from the plantation owners.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Addy Learns a Lesson

American Girls

AddyLesson

Addy Learns a Lesson by Connie Porter, 1993.

AddyLessonArrivalAfter escaping from slavery, Addy and her mother finally arrive in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where they will start a new life.  Philadelphia is a big city, and at first, Addy feels lost, not knowing where to go and what to do.  They have no family or friends to turn to, and neither she or her mother can even read the street signs, never having been taught to read.  They are dependent on help from other free black people, former slaves who have already established themselves in the community.

The first people they meet in Philadelphia are Mrs. Moore and her daughter, Sarah.  They are part of the Freedom Society of Trinity A.M.E. Church, which helps new arrivals escaping from slavery, like Addy and her mother.  The Moores take them to the church, where they attend a church supper, along with some other new arrivals.  Mrs. Moore asks Addy’s mother what work skills she has, and when she says that she can sew, Mrs. Moore says that she might be able to get a job in a dress shop.  Mrs. Ford, the white woman who owns the shop, is strict and fussy, but she hires Addy’s mother and gives them a room to live in.

Life in freedom isn’t as glamorous as Addy thought it would be at first.  Her mother works hard for little pay, and the attic room where they live is small and uncomfortable. She misses the rest of their family and still doesn’t know where her father and brother are.  There are also things that black people in Philadelphia can’t do, even though they aren’t slaves, like riding on the streetcar.

However, there is one thing that Addy is looking forward to: going to school for the first time.  Sarah Moore is Addy’s age, and she tells Addy about her family escaped from slavery in Virginia.  Like Addy, she couldn’t read when she first arrived, but now, Sarah attends school.  Addy is excited about attending the same school as Sarah and happy that she has made a new friend.  Addy’s new teacher, Miss Dunn, was also a former slave from North Carolina, and she reassures Addy that, although she hasn’t been to school before or learned to read yet, it won’t be long before she learns.

 

All of the other children at school are black, many of them former slaves.  However, Addy can’t help but notice that some of their families are more prosperous than others.  In particular, a girl named Harriet wears beautiful dresses, the kind that Addy has dreamed of having herself.  Sarah and Harriet don’t get along because Harriet is snobbish, but Addy is fascinated by her, wishing that she could have things like Harriet has.  Harriet says that her family were never slaves, and as bossy as Harriet is, Addy can’t help but admire her.  Harriet is nice to Addy at first, bragging about how smart she is and how much she can help Addy, but she isn’t as patient or as helpful to Addy as Sarah is.

When there is a spelling match at school, Addy accepts Harriet’s invitation to go to her house to study.  Harriet always seems to do well in class, and Addy is curious to see what her house is like.  However, Harriet and her friends force Addy to be their “flunky,” carrying all of their books, and they say insulting things about Sarah.  Then, Harriet retracts the invitation to study.

As Addy sees the way Harriet takes advantage of her, she comes to realize some important things about the way people act and about herself and the type of friends she really wants in her new life.  Unlike Harriet, Sarah is Addy’s real friend.  Addy realizes that she doesn’t need to admire people like Harriet because she is smart and works hard and can do just fine without Harriet’s false friendship.

 

In the back of the book, there is a section of historical information about education during the American Civil War, especially for black children.  It was actually against the law to teach slaves to read during Addy’s time, although some were able to learn in secret.  Even for free blacks in the North, there were few educational opportunities.  Black children couldn’t go to school with white children, and the schools for black children were poor, unable to afford many supplies.  Over time, more and more black people were able to get an education, in spite of the difficulties involved, and education helped to improve their lives.  However, segregated schools remained the norm until the 20th century.

I liked the way they showed the medal that Addy wins in the spelling bee.  Students who particularly excelled at a subject in class were sometimes given a small medal on a pin to wear as a badge of honor, something that people don’t do in modern times.

 

Posted on by TracyC

Meet Addy

American Girls

MeetAddy

Meet Addy by Connie Porter, 1993.

MeetAddySlaveBuyerAddy is nine years old, and she has lived her entire life so far as a slave on a plantation in North Carolina.  It is the time of the American Civil War, and Addy’s parents are worried about the future of their children.

One night, she hears her father saying to her mother that they ought to take the whole family and run away.  Her mother is worried that it’s too dangerous.  She hopes that soon the war will end, and they will be freed.  However, Addy’s father is worried that the family might be split up before that can happen because there is talk that the plantation owner, Master Stevens, might sell some of his slaves, and families wouldn’t necessarily be sold together.

His fears turn out to be justified because, soon after, while Addy is helping to serve dinner to a guest at the plantation house, she finds out that Master Stevens is planning to sell her father and brother to someone else.  She tries to get to them and tell them to run away before they can be taken away, but the overseer stops her.  Addy sees her father and brother taken away in chains.

With Addy’s father and brother gone, her mother has a serious talk with Addy about their future.  The two of them can follow the plan and run away to the North, establishing a new life for themselves and hopefully arranging for their family to be reunited later.  If they don’t take this opportunity to leave, there is the possibility that the family will be fractured further.  The man Master Stevens sold Addy’s father and brother to has already said that he might like to buy Addy as well.

MeetAddyMotherSisterAlthough Addy and her mother are frightened at the idea of running away, they decide that this is their only chance to escape together.  Addy is upset when her mother tells her that they can’t bring her baby sister with them.  She is too young for the journey, and if she cries, it might give them away.  Instead, they will leave little Esther with their close friends, Auntie Lula and Uncle Solomon Morgan.  They plan to find a way to send for them when the war is over.

Addy and her mother have to seek out the woman that Addy’s father had talked about, Miss Caroline.  She’s a member of the Underground Railroad and can help them get out of North Carolina and go to Philadelphia, where Addy’s father had planned to take the family.

They leave in the middle of the night and travel by night.  The journey is hazardous, and there are times when they are almost caught.  At one point, Addy’s mother nearly drowns crossing a river.  But, together, they face the dangers, knowing that a better life awaits them at the end of their journey.  Even when they reach Miss Caroline, Addy’s story is really just beginning.

In the back, there is a section with historical information about the origins of slavery in North America and what the lives of slaves were like.  One thing that I kind of wish they had mentioned was about how widely indentured servitude was used in early American history and how it helped to make the idea of slavery more appealing in early America, which was something one of my old college professors once talked about.

 

Indentured servitude is when someone works off a debt by working for someone else for free for certain period of time.  Often, this was how poor people could pay for passage to America during Colonial times.  In exchange for someone paying the price of their passage on a ship, they would work for them for awhile.  When that time was over, the indentured servant could move on to new employment or had to be paid for his work.  When plantation owners started buying slaves, what they were really saying was that they wanted permanent indentured servants, ones that could never leave them, that wouldn’t have any end to their servitude because it wasn’t based on any debt.  It couldn’t be based on any debt because the slaves owed them nothing.  The issue for the plantation owners was that they couldn’t build plantations the size they wanted and pay the labor to support them at the same time, so their solution to the problem was free labor — or at least, labor that cost no more than an indentured servant would: one initial outlay for the purchase and then some basic food and clothing to keep the workers going.

The practice of slavery is disgusting, but for me, it’s the attitude behind it that’s the real problem.  The plantation owners didn’t have any right to anyone’s free labor, and they knew there was no debt involved.  They just didn’t want to pay people, and just not wanting to pay people was a good enough reason for them.  In the end, whatever they said about race and their own superiority, it was all really about the money all along.  They would have said anything, done anything, to turn more profit for themselves, and because no one stopped them for a long time, that’s exactly what they did.  The rest was basically excuses piled upon justifications piled on more self-entitled excuses and more self-centered justifications.  They did what they did mainly because they could get away with it, and the fact that they could get away with it made them feel like it was all right.  It wasn’t.

 

 

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Huggins and Kisses

HugginsKisses

Huggins and Kisses by Susan Creighton, illustrated by Ron C Lipking, 1985.

Mary has been wanting a dog for some time. She admires her neighbor’s dog, Sugar, who is so well behaved.

When her parents finally give her the puppy she’s been wanting, Mary is thrilled, and names the puppy Kisses. However, taking care of a dog and training it turns out to be a lot more work than Mary expected! Kisses doesn’t know how to walk on a leash, and he sometimes chews things he shouldn’t.

One day, Mary gets angry with Kisses for ripping the arm off of her favorite doll and yells at him. While Kisses is hiding under Mary’s bed, and Mary is crying, one of the Hugga Bunch, Huggins, appears to comfort them. Mary is surprised to see Huggins, and she explains to Mary that she is from Huggaland, which can be reached through her bedroom mirror. She invites Mary to see it for herself, and Kisses follows them.

HugginsKissesDoll

In Huggaland, Huggins repairs Mary’s doll, which makes her feel better. Then Kisses knocks over the birdbath at Huggins’s house, and Mary gets angry again. Huggins points out to Mary that Kisses hasn’t actually broken anything and that he was probably looking for water because he was thirsty. Huggins gives Kisses more water and a hug.

Mary asks Huggins how she can hug Kisses when he’s been bad, and Huggins explains the importance of gentle discipline. Dogs may be naughty sometimes, but what they really need is love and training. Mary just hasn’t been patient with Kisses and given him the time he needs to learn how to behave.

Mary remembers how much that she really loves Kisses and resolves to give him the time and attention he needs to learn to be a good dog.

It’s a cute picture book, and a nice story about learning to care for pets, giving them the training they need and the time to learn.

Posted on by TracyC

A Hugga Bunch Hello

HuggaBunchHello

A Hugga Bunch Hello by Phyllis Fair Cowell, illustrated by Ron C Lipking, 1985.

Bridget likes having her grandmother living with her and the rest of her family. Her grandmother always has time for her and is willing to give her a hug. Her parents are often too busy, her brother thinks hugs are just for girls, and her Aunt Ruth is too fussy.

Then, Aunt Ruth tries to persuade everyone that Bridget’s grandmother should go live in a nursing home. Bridget doesn’t want her grandmother to leave, but she doesn’t know what to do about it.

While she worries, a strange little person steps out of her bedroom mirror. This little person is Huggins, one of the Hugga Bunch. She says that she knows about Bridget’s problem and thinks that she can help. She invites Bridget to come with her to Huggaland.

HuggaBunchHelloMirror

In Huggaland, the Hugga Bunch take Bridget to see the Book Worm, who may have the solution that Bridget seeks. Both the Hugga Bunch and the Book Worm say that aging can be slowed by affection and “the knowledge that they are needed,” but Bridget thinks that the only solution is to find a way to actually make her grandmother young again.

The Book Worm says that if that’s what Bridget wants, then her grandmother must eat fruit from the Youngberry Tree. Unfortunately, the tree is in the territory of the Mad Queen of Quartz. Although the Hugga Bunch are afraid of her, Bridget is willing to face her for her grandmother’s sake.

Getting there involves going through a few obstacles, including walking sideways on a sideways sidewalk and facing a frightening beast who turns out to be a baby elephant who was under a spell. When they reach the tree, the mad queen takes them prisoner and turns Bridget into a statue. Fortunately, the others manage to break free and save her.

HuggaBunchHelloTree

Bridget is happy at being able to bring the Youngberries to her grandmother, but as she passes through the mirror into her room, she accidentally drops them, and they disappear.

Not knowing what else to do, Bridget runs to give her grandmother a hug before she leaves, encouraging her brother to do the same. Bridget’s father wasn’t happy about her grandmother leaving, either, and seeing how much the children will miss her, he declares that she should stay.

This book was made into a made-for-tv movie.  It is currently available on YouTube.  It follows the plot of the book pretty closely.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Mailing May

MailingMay

Mailing May by Michael O. Tunnell, 1997.

Four-year-old Charlotte May lives in a small town in Idaho in 1914. May, as her family calls her, wants to visit her grandmother in another town, but travel during this time is difficult and expensive. With a lack of roads that are easy to travel, the only comfortable way to get to May’s grandmother’s town is by train. Unfortunately, May’s family can’t afford to buy a train ticket for her.

MailingMayParents

May wants so badly to go see her grandmother that she even asks at the local general store if the owner can hire her, but he doesn’t have any work that a little girl could do.  Then, May’s mother’s cousin helps the family to find a more affordable alternative. If May can’t travel as a passenger, is it possible for her to travel as . . . mail?

MailingMayPostOffice

It turns out that the rate for mailing a live package the size of May is much cheaper than the fee for a passenger ticket.  Because May’s mother’s cousin works in the mail car on the train, he could take responsibility for her during the trip.  So, with a label on her clothes, declaring her to be “baby chicks” and the proper postage stuck to her jacket, May undertakes the journey to her unsuspecting grandmother’s house.

MailingMayTrain
MailingMayMailCar

This story was based on a real incident. In fact, May wasn’t the only child to be sent through the mail when their parents couldn’t afford to send them as passengers. I also like the book for its glimpse at travel and mail services over 100 years ago.

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

MailingMayGrandmother
Posted on by TracyC · 3 Comments

The Happy Valley Mystery

Trixie Belden

TBHappyValley

#9 The Happy Valley Mystery by Kathryn Kenny, 1962.

Trixie’s uncle, Andrew Belden, after hearing about the mysteries that the kids have solved, invites them all to spend a week on his sheep farm in Iowa. He won’t be there because he has to take a trip to Scotland, but the Gormans, who are taking care of the sheep, could use their help. Someone has been stealing sheep from the farm, and no one seems able to figure out who it is or how the sheep keep disappearing.

Although Andrew Belden mainly wants the kids to relax, have fun, and learn a little about taking care of sheep, Trixie just can’t resist the challenge to save her uncle’s sheep.  In this book, Trixie is teased a lot for her detective ambitions, and she embarrasses herself a couple of times by suspecting the wrong people. Part of the trouble comes from the fact that she doesn’t know the people in the area and who can legally be the area of her uncle’s farm.

There is a harrowing scene where Trixie and her friends are caught in a flood.  This book also develops the relationship between Jim and Trixie more.  For awhile, each of them is jealous because they think that the other likes someone else.  At the end, Jim gives Trixie a bracelet with his name on it as a sign that they are now boyfriend and girlfriend.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The Black Jacket Mystery

Trixie Belden

TBBlackJacket

#8 The Black Jacket Mystery by Kathryn Kenny, 1961.

Trixie and the other Bob-Whites are concerned about their pen pals in Mexico because an earthquake has damaged their town. To help them rebuild their school library, the Bob-Whites decide to hold a benefit carnival to collect books.

While they are planning the carnival, Trixie becomes worried about Regan, who is in charge of Mr. Wheeler’s stable. She overhears him speaking to her mother about a problem, asking her advice, but saying that he doesn’t want the kids to know. Although Trixie doesn’t want to pry to into Regan’s business, she can’t help but worry about him and wonder what he doesn’t want them to know.

Then, a boy called Dan Mangan comes to live with Mr. Maypenny. Dan wears a black jacket and looks like a member of some kind of street gang. At school, he brags about brushes with the law. The Bob-Whites try to be friendly with him, but something about Dan gets on Trixie’s nerves.

When someone sells Honey’s missing watch at Mr. Lytell’s store, people begin to suspect that Dan may be a thief. But, soon, Trixie and the others start to suspect that someone else may be hiding out in the woods.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline

The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline

The One Hundredth Thing About Caroline by Lois Lowry, 1983.

Eleven-year-old Caroline Tate knows that she wants to be a paleontologist when she grows up, but she is also fascinated with her friend Stacy’s dream of becoming a great investigative reporter. For fun, the two girls begin investigating the people who live in their respective apartment buildings.

Caroline’s investigation focuses on the mysterious Frederick Fiske, who lives on the fifth floor of her building. In a wastebasket, she finds a letter written to him by a man she’s never heard of telling him to “eliminate the kids.” Also in the wastebasket, there is an overdue notice for Fiske from the library, and the book is about poisons. From this evidence, Caroline comes to believe that the strange Mr. Fiske is planning to murder some children.

The situation becomes worse when Mr. Fiske begins dating her divorced mother, and Caroline fears that the children Mr. Fiske is planning to murder are her and her brother, J.P.. Can Caroline, J.P., and Stacy prove that Mr. Fiske is a cold-blooded murderer before his relationship with the Caroline’s mother can go any further and before he succeeds in poisoning them?

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

My Reaction and Spoilers:

It’s a bit of a spoiler, but this is one of those stories where the mystery is largely based on a series of misunderstandings. The book is a comedy mystery.  Mr. Fiske isn’t really a murderer, although he has done some things which make the children suspicious.  It’s a humorous story, and the kids’ antics as they try to further their investigation and collect “evidence” against Mr. Fiske are hilarious.  Along the way, the kids end up helping Mr. Fiske with a problem he’s been having, and the kids realize that they’ve made a mistake about him and his intentions.  Whether Mr. Fiske learns of their suspicions about him or not is left to the imagination, although something at the very end of the story may bring everything out into the open.

The title of the book comes from a joke between Caroline and her mother.  Caroline’s mother is always talking about the things she loves about Caroline, giving them different numbers.

Posted on by TracyC

Who Stole Kathy Young?

KathyYoungWho Stole Kathy Young? by Margaret Goff Clark, 1980.

Kathy Young has had her share of problems.  Her mother died a year and a half ago, and now, her father has a housekeeper with a sour personality.  A couple of months after her mother’s death, Kathy was seriously ill, and her illness caused her to lose most of her hearing.  She now depends on a hearing aid and her improving lip-reading and sign language abilities.

This summer, Kathy’s best friend, Meg, is staying with her while her parents are on a trip to Switzerland.  Meg was of great help to Kathy when she was trying to adjust to her hearing loss, practicing sign language with her during her special lessons.  Kathy’s dream is to become an artist, but Meg now wants to be a teacher for the deaf, like the teacher who taught Kathy.  Kathy is still very unsure of her abilities to cope with her deafness.  She had the opportunity to attend a special art workshop over the summer but passed it up because she was worried about whether she would be able to communicate with and understand her teacher and the other students, and she knew Meg couldn’t attend to help her.

Kathy has been enjoying Meg’s summer visit, but the girls have noticed something odd.  It seems like a couple of strangers, a man and a woman, have been hanging around everywhere they go.  Meg is worried about it, but Kathy doesn’t want to worry her father.  She thinks that they’re probably tourists, like the housekeeper said.  They nickname the strangers Heron and Toad because of their appearances.

One day, Kathy is kidnapped!  Some men in a van stop to ask her directions and when she tries to explain where they have to go, they pull her inside and drug her!  Meg witnesses the kidnapping, but is standing too far away to help Kathy.

When Kathy wakes up from being drugged, she finds herself on a boat.  Her abductors have cut her hair and changed her shirt to disguise her from anyone who might spot her.  They’ve also taken her hearing aid, hoping to render her helpless and keep her from finding out their plans because she can’t hear them.  However, Kathy isn’t as helpless as they think.  She can still read lips, and she can still think.

Kathy learns to rely on herself and her own wits as she tries to gather as much information as she can about her kidnappers and to figure out how she can save herself.  Through this experience, she develops more self-confidence, realizing that she can do more and handle more than she had thought was possible.

While Kathy is struggling in captivity and her father is dealing with the police and the ransom demand, her friend Meg is trying desperately to find her.  The story alternates viewpoints between the two girls as Meg aids the investigation into Kathy’s disappearance and puts together clues that Kathy leaves for her as her abductors move her from place to place.  The mastermind behind the kidnapping plot is closer to home than they think.

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