Posted on by TracyC

The Mystery of the Silly Goose

Three Cousins Detective Club

#10 The Mystery of the Silly Goose by Elspeth Campbell Murphy, 1996.

As soon as they arrive home from their trip to the powwow in the previous book, the cousins are approached by Timothy’s neighbor, the snobby 13-year-old Lyddie, with another mystery. While they were out of town, someone went around the neighborhood, stealing lawn ornaments. Lyddie is concerned because her grandmother has come to live with her and her parents, and her lawn geese were stolen. One of the geese was the mother goose with a silly-looking bonnet on her head, and the others were her goslings. Lyddie’s grandmother is rather attached to the geese because they were a present from someone.

The three cousins don’t really like Lyddie because she and her friends are usually unfriendly and too concerned with being “cool” all the time. However, they feel sorry for her grandmother and agree to take the case. To their surprise, most of the lawn ornaments are actually pretty easy to find. They were hidden in some obvious places around the neighborhood. The only ones that are difficult to find are the geese. Who hid the lawn ornaments and why?

The theme of this story is Proverbs 24:3-4, “It takes wisdom to have a good family. It takes understanding to make it strong. It takes knowledge to fill a home with rare and beautiful treasures.”

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

My Reaction

Part of the mystery has to do with image, but it also has to do with sentimental attachment. Lyddie is very obsessed with image because she and her friends try so hard to maintain their cool image. Although she calls in the cousins to find the missing lawn ornaments, she only does it because her grandmother takes the loss of the mother goose so hard. Lyddie doesn’t see why the goose is so important, although she knows that her grandmother is attached to it because it was a present from someone.

The situation changes when Lyddie’s grandmother reveals the full story behind the lawn geese and her own understanding of the situation. Lyddie cares for her grandmother, and she comes to see the geese in a new light once she understands why they matter to her grandmother. It’s not the value of the geese, and it’s not about how the geese look. It’s all about the person her grandmother associates with them. Fortunately, Lyddie’s grandmother is a very understanding woman, and when the lawn ornament thief explains the issue, they work things out to everyone’s satisfaction.

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Seashells for Katie and Andy

Seashells for Katie and Andy by Solveig Paulson Russell, illustrated by Marjorie Cooper, 1973.

This is a cute little picture book that presents information about seashells in story form.

Katie and Andy are at the beach with their grandmother. As the children collect seashells, their grandmother tells them what kind of shells they are and a little about them.

The shells included in the book are: coquina shells, cowrie shells, triton shells, conch shells, lace murex, olive shells, scallop shells, and limpets.

Toward the end of the book, the kids ask their grandmother if they can find shells anywhere else besides the beach, and she tells them about snail shells.

The grandmother also tells the children about different uses people have for seashells. She talks about how they can be used for jewelry, vases, and decorations of different kinds. She also mentions that they can be broken up and used in roads, but the children don’t like the idea of breaking shells.

My Reaction

This book is nostalgic for me because my own grandmother was an amateur naturalist, and she used to give us gifts of seashells that she found in her own travels. Some of the shells in my old collection still have labels with the names of the shells in my grandmother’s handwriting.

In the beginning of the book, there is a note to parents and teachers from the National College of Education in Evanston, Illinois about how the information in the book is educationally sound. I don’t have anything to criticize about the information in the book except one instance where the grandmother talks about “Indians” making necklaces from a certain type of shell. I’m pretty sure from context that they mean American Indians and not people from India, but I think that “American Indians” or “Native Americans” would be better terms to use for the sake of clarity.

They never say exactly where the beach in the story is, which would make a difference in the types of shells that the characters might find. Most of the shells covered in the book have a pretty broad worldwide distribution, but I suspect from the selection of shells given that the characters are probably in the Southeastern United States.

Posted on by TracyC

Song and Dance Man

Song and Dance Man by Karen Ackerman, illustrated by Stephen Gammell, 1988.

A grandfather likes to tell his grandchildren stories about when he was a young man and he was a vaudeville performer, a “song and dance man.” Back before the invention of television, live vaudeville performances were a major form of public entertainment in the United States during the late 19th century and early 20th century. A typical vaudeville performance in the United States was like a variety show with short skits, music, singing, dancing, comedy routines, juggling, magic acts, ventriloquists, and various other stunts, acrobatics, and miscellaneous acts.

When his grandchildren come to visit, he likes to take them up to the attic, where his old costume pieces and tap shoes are stored, and he gives them a private performance of his old vaudeville act.

He sings songs, plays the banjo, tells jokes, and also does small magic tricks for the children, like pulling coins out of their hair.

The grandfather loves performing for his grandchildren, and they love seeing him perform. The children can tell that he misses the “good old days” when he was a performer, although he says that he wouldn’t trade the time he has with his grandchildren for his life in the past.

In a way, the fact that the children’s grandfather was a former vaudeville performer dates this story. In the early 21st century, children’s grandparents are mostly people who were born in the mid-20th century, probably between the 1940s and 1970s, depending on the age of the grandchildren and how old the grandparents were when they were born. By the mid-20th century, vaudeville had already gone out of fashion, declining in popularity during the late 1920s and early 1930s, around the time when sound movies were first being produced, although some earlier vaudeville performances actually included short silent films among the other skits and acts. The book talks about television ending vaudeville’s popularity, but it was really movie theaters that were the main competition for vaudeville. Some movies produced during the 1930s and into the mid-20th century carried on some of the vaudeville traditions, like certain types of comedy and song and dance routines, as former vaudeville performers, including Fred Astaire and Bob Hope, transitioned into movie performers. Vaudeville elements show up frequently in Shirley Temple movies, and the Road series of movies with Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and Dorothy Lamour also features many call-backs to vaudeville variety acts, which is part of the reason why they’re so episodic, light on over-arching plot, and punctuated with song and dance routines. The people who were adults when vaudeville was still big would have been the parents or grandparents of modern, early 21st century grandparents. I first saw this book when I was a child, and my grandparents would have been among those old enough to remember vaudeville. The book was published in the late 1980s, a little over 30 years ago. The children in this book would be from my generation, about the age I was when this book was new, not the current 21st century generation of children. Even so, it is a fun glimpse at the past and can be a good opportunity to introduce children to the idea of changing tastes in entertainment and occupations that used to exist but either don’t exist now or have taken different forms in modern times. Modern grandparents could still use this book to talk about family history and memories of the past.

This book is a Caldecott Medal winner. The book is available to borrow for free online through Internet Archive.

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Knots on a Counting Rope

Knots on a Counting Rope by Bill Martin, Jr. and John Archambault, 1966, 1987.

The reason for the two copyright dates is that this book originally had somewhat different text and different illustrations.  I don’t have a copy of the original version, so I’m not sure how it compares to the 1987 version.

The story is told in the form of dialog between a young Navajo boy and his grandfather.  The story doesn’t explicitly say that they are Navajo, but they refer to hogans, which are a traditional type of Navajo house.  There are no words in the story other than what the characters say to each other, not even to indicate who is speaking, but you can tell who is speaking based on what they say.

The boy asks his grandfather to tell him the story of when he was born. The grandfather says that he already knows the story, but the boy persuades him to tell the story again.

The grandfather tells him that, on the night he was born, there was a storm, and it sounded like the wind was crying the word “boy.”  The boy’s mother knew that she was going to give birth to a son.  The grandfather quickly brought the boy’s grandmother to be there for the birth, and when the boy gave his first cry, the storm suddenly stopped.

When the boy was born, he was very frail, and everyone was afraid that he would die.  Then, when morning came, the grandfather carried him outside, and although he did not open his eyes to the morning sun, he lived his arms up to two horses that had galloped by and stopped to look at him.  The grandfather took it as a sign that the boy was a brother to the horses and would live because he had the horses’ strength.  The boy did become stronger and was given the name of Boy-Strength-of-Blue-Horses.

However, the boy was born blind. It is a hardship that he will always have to deal with.  Even though the word “blue” in his name, the boy says that he doesn’t really know what “blue” is or what it’s like because he’s never seen it.  The grandfather describes it as being like morning because the sky in the morning is blue, and the boy says that he understands what mornings are like because they feel and sound different from night to him.

The boy has a horse of his own, and the two of them have a special bond.  The two of them perform well at races, and the horse acts as the boy’s eyes when he’s riding.  His grandfather says that it’s like the two of them are one.

As the grandfather tells the boy stories about himself, he ties knots on the counting rope.  He says that when the rope is full of knots, the boy will have heard the stories enough that he will be able to tell them himself.  The grandfather says that he will not always be there to tell the stories, and the boy is frightened, wondering what he will do without his grandfather. The grandfather says that he will be all right because his love will be with him.

The book is partly about the relationship between the boy and his grandfather and the grandfather preparing his grandson for the day when he will be gone, making sure that he knows the family stories about himself and the knowledge that he will need for the future. It’s also about the boy’s own struggles in life, which the grandfather refers to as the “dark mountains” that he must cross. Because of the boy’s blindness, he lives in a world of darkness, and there are things that are challenging to him that would be less challenging to a person with normal vision. Yet, the boy has innate skills which allow him to do things that some people with normal vision can’t do. Not everyone has the affinity for horses that the boy has. He shares a special bond with horses, and when he rides, he and his horse are a team. Because he has skills and a strong spirit, the grandfather knows that his grandson will be all right in his future, in spite of the challenges of his blindness.

The book was featured on Reading Rainbow, and it is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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Grandfather’s Dance

Grandfather’s Dance by Patricia MachLachlan, 2006.

This is the final book in the Sarah, Plain and Tall series.

Cassie is now in the fourth grade, and things are changing in her family. Cassie has come to love her little brother, John, called Jack, who is now a young child who likes to follow their grandfather around and imitate him. Caleb has gone away to school, and Anna is getting married, which is the major event of the story. Through the planning and anticipation that precedes the wedding, Cassie still keeps her journal, with its occasional flights of fancy.

Anna’s wedding brings new excitement to the family farm and thoughts of both the future and the past. Cassie, unlike her older half-siblings, has never been to Maine or met her relatives there, but Sarah’s brother and aunts are coming to the farm for Anna’s wedding. The others remember the last time they saw these relatives, and Cassie looks forward to seeing them.

Cassie wonders about why people get married, and she can’t imagine anyone she loves enough to marry and spend her life with, except maybe her dog. She tries to picture her own future wedding, with a dog as the groom, but it bothers her that she can’t picture her grandfather at her wedding. At first, she can’t quite figure out why she’s having trouble picturing him in the future, but the more she thinks about it, the more she realizes how old her grandfather is. He even comments on his age, saying that he’s getting older every day. Her grandfather seems to be increasingly feeling his age and his heart condition. Before Anna’s wedding, Cassie and her grandfather talk about her future wedding, and her grandfather tells her that he might not be there when she is married. Cassie tries to convince him that he will be, but he says, just in case he can’t, maybe they should have a wedding for Cassie now. He has Cassie put on the nice dress that she will wear to Anna’s wedding, and they stage a mock wedding for Cassie and their dog, Nick, so her grandfather can say that he was at Cassie’s wedding, too.

Anna’s wedding is beautiful, and Cassie and the others enjoy having Sarah’s brother and aunts visit. After the wedding, they have a picture taken of the whole family together. Sadly, it is the only picture of all of them together. Soon after, Cassie’s grandfather dies. All of the wedding guests are still visiting, so they attend the funeral. Jack is still a little boy and upset and confused by their grandfather’s death, but Cassie assures him that their grandfather loved them and that they won’t forget him. The title of the book comes from a little dance that their grandfather did for Jack earlier in the story, which Jack later imitates after his death.

In the back of the book, the author explains how her family was the inspiration for the family in the book. The grandfather in the story was based on the author’s father, and part of the dedication is to him. The author’s father died two years before this book was published. The farm and landscape around it are kind of a combination of the places where her family has lived in North Dakota, Kansas, and Wyoming, which is probably why the books in the series never specify which state they’re in.

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

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Jane-Emily

JaneEmily

Jane-Emily by Patricia Clapp, 1969.

Louisa is a young woman around the turn of the century.  She is only 18 years old and unmarried, but she is in love with a young man named Martin.  However, her parents think that she is becoming too serious about Martin too soon, so they insist that she spend the summer taking her young niece, Jane, to visit her other grandmother.  Jane has lived with her maternal grandparents, Louisa’s parents, since the death of her parents.  Louisa loves her niece, but she resents her parents changing her summer plans in order to keep her away from her boyfriend.

However, this is not just a love story but a ghost story.  Jane’s parents were killed in a strange buggy accident, which is why she lives with her grandparents and young aunt.  Her other grandmother has lived alone since the death of her son (Jane’s father) and her husband, some years earlier.  She had another child, a daughter named Emily, but Emily died young many years ago of a sudden illness.

As Louisa soon learns, Emily was a pretty and clever but seriously disturbed child.  Her father idolized her, coming to love her even more than he loved his wife.  He thought she was absolutely the most perfect child in the world and could never forbid her anything.  He gave her everything she ever asked for and refused to allow his wife to discipline her for any reason, even when she needed it.  It would be enough to spoil any child, but Emily was extremely callous, cold, and manipulating by nature.  Her father’s catering to her only fed her selfishness and ruthlessness.

Emily was known to resort to extreme measures to get her way, and in the end, it led to her death.  She fell in love with the son of the local doctor, deciding (without his consent) that they would get married one day.  However, he didn’t really care for her at all, seeing her extreme selfishness.  In a bid to get his attention and sympathy, Emily decided to make herself ill.  One cold night, she soaked her nightgown in water and deliberately sat by an open window.  Unfortunately, it worked too well, and she became so ill that she died.

However, Emily’s selfishness and determination to get her way seem to have lasted beyond the grave, and young Jane’s presence in her old house, in the very room that used to be Emily’s, seems to have awakened Emily’s wrathful spirit.  Jane becomes fascinated with the reflecting globe in the garden, which Emily declared was hers alone and that no one else could ever look into it.  Jane claims that she can see Emily’s face in the globe, but people don’t believe her at first. Jane bears a close resemblance to Emily, although the two of them are very different in character.  Jane seems to develop an unhealthy obsession with her dead aunt, and she seems to know things that only Emily could have told her.  Emily seems to be slowly taking over Jane.

Jane’s grandmother confides that she has believed that Emily caused the sudden deaths of her husband and son because they both died under unexplained circumstances and Emily could never let go of anything or anyone she thought belonged to her.  Now that Emily seems to be showing an interest in Jane, her grandmother begins to fear for her.

Meanwhile, Louisa is falling in love with Adam, the young man Emily had planned to marry and who is now a doctor himself.  Adam also loves her, wanting her to marry him.  However, Louisa has become convinced of Emily’s evil presence and the threat that she poses to young Jane.  When Emily forces Jane to go out in a freezing rain, making her become ill in the way she did before she died, Louisa must help Jane to fight for her life.

Emily’s presence centers around the gazing globe in the garden, and the only person who can end her evil influence and save Jane is her grandmother, who finally finds the courage to stand up to her daughter and tell her that there are some things that she can’t have.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

Parts of the story feel a bit preachy on the subject of parents who spoil their children, but Emily and her family are presented as an extreme case of that.  At times, characters wonder what Emily would have been like if her father hadn’t constantly catered to her every whim and had given her the discipline she needed.  They all agree that she would have lived a longer life, as would other members of her family.  However, Emily was already a naturally selfish person and apparently incapable of empathy.  Her father’s worship of her was seriously unhealthy and, in a way, a reflection of his own selfishness; Emily represented all the qualities that he loved in her mother but she was a creation of his (well, you know, 50%, genetically speaking), making her infinitely more perfect and more worthy of his love than his own wife.  One of the other characters comments that his wife was the real victim in the end because her husband blamed her for their daughter’s early death (which was definitely Emily’s fault alone) and subjected her to years of guilt over it, rejecting all the love they had once had for each other.

The story ends happily but on a somewhat ambiguous note because Louisa realizes that there are many things that she doesn’t understand, and although Emily seems like she’s finally gone, the memory of her will haunt them all.

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That Terrible Halloween Night

TerribleHalloween

That Terrible Halloween Night by James Stevenson, 1980.

It’s Halloween, and Louie and Mary Ann think that it would be funny to play a joke on their grandfather and scare him.  First, they try putting a scary mask on their dog, Leonard, but their grandfather just pats the dog on the head.  Then, Mary Ann sits on Louie’s shoulders, and the kids put on a big, old coat and a pumpkin head.  However, their grandfather still isn’t frightened.

TerribleHalloweenCostume

When the kids ask him why he isn’t scared, their grandfather says that he doesn’t get scared much since “that terrible Halloween night.”  When the kids ask him what he means, he starts telling them about a Halloween when he was a kid.  He was out trick-or-treating when he saw a mysterious old house and couldn’t resist taking a look inside.

TerribleHalloweenTrickOrTreat

As the grandfather, as a kid, explores the house, he encounters all kinds of strange and frightening creatures.  (My favorite is the one that’s “the worst parts of a lot of things” just for the description.)

TerribleHalloweenMonster

But, nothing in the house is as scary as whatever is behind the final door in the house, the one that the monsters warn him not to go through . . .

TerribleHalloweenOldMan

You never see what’s behind the door, but the result is the punchline of the story.  Typical grandfather way to frighten the kids!

TerribleHalloweenPunchline

One of the fun things about this story is that the grandchildren aren’t just listening to the story but are shown reacting to it as the grandfather tells the story, sometimes interrupting with questions or comments.  The pictures are drawn in a comic style, and much of the dialog is contained in speech bubbles in the pictures.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

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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.

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Fudge-A-Mania

FudgeAManiaFudge-A-Mania by Judy Blume, 1990.

Peter is horrified when he finds out that his family is going to spend their vacation in the same place as bossy know-it-all Sheila Tubman and her family.  Even worse, the two families are going to be staying to be staying right next to each other.  Really right next to each other.  They’re staying in the same house, which has been split into two halves.  As far as Peter is concerned, the only thing that might save his summer is that his friend Jimmy will be coming up to stay with them part of the time.

The arrangement turns out to be a little better than Peter thought it would be at first.  Sheila finds a way to make some extra money by baby-sitting Peter’s five-year-old brother Fudge.  Fudge says at first that he wants to marry Sheila, although it turns out to be mostly because he’s afraid of monsters in his room at night, and he thinks that if he gets married and shares a room with Sheila, it will keep the monsters away.  Then, he decides that marriage may be unnecessary when he makes friends with a little girl named Mitzi, who is staying with her grandparents nearby.  Mitzi’s grandmother makes a special monster spray for her to keep monsters away, so Fudge decides that he might not have to marry Sheila after all.

Peter is happy when he discovers that Mitzi’s grandfather is Big Apfel, his baseball hero, and that he holds baseball games that are open to the public, so he and Jimmy can also play with him.  He also gets a crush on Isobel (“Izzy”), a girl who works at the local library, although Isobel is a few years older than he is.  The baseball game goes well enough, but the crush, not so much.

Then, comes the most shocking news of the summer: Peter’s grandmother and Sheila’s grandfather decide to get married!  If that happens, Peter and Sheila realize that they’ll be related by marriage!

Big Apfel and his granddaughter Mitzi are fictional characters, but the book that Mitzi claims is about her, Tell Me a Mitzi, is a real book.

This book is part of the Fudge Series.  It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.