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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

Samuel Eaton’s Day

Samuel Eaton's Day

Samuel Eaton’s Day: A Day in the Life of a Pilgrim Boy by Kate Waters, 1993.

This is the story of a boy who traveled to America from England on the Mayflower and whose family lived in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The book focuses particularly on how a boy like Samuel would have helped with a harvest during the year 1627.  The role of Samuel in the book is played by a boy who is one of the reenactors at the Plimoth Plantation living history museum.

Samuel’s mother died when he was a baby, but his father remarried, and he now has a stepmother (whom he calls “Mam”) and a younger half-sister, Rachel.  Now that Samuel is seven years old, he is considered old enough to help the men bring in the rye harvest.  Samuel is eager to help because he wants to prove that he is no longer just a little boy and that he is capable of doing a man’s work.

The book begins with Samuel waking up and getting dressed in the morning.  He has a few routine chores to perform, such as getting water, gathering firewood, and checking a snare that he has set for catching wild game, before he and his father go to the fields to help with the harvest.  After breakfast, Samuel and his father meet up with a neighbor, Robert Bartlett, and go to the fields with the other men.

SamuelEatonBinding

Robert Bartlett tells Samuel that it will take a few days for them to complete the harvest.  Samuel isn’t considered old enough to wield a sickle by himself, so he is given the task of gathering up the rye that his father and Bartlett cut and binding it into sheaves.  It’s hard work, and at times, Samuel wonders if he’s really up to the task.  When his Mam comes with lunch, she gives Samuel the chance to come home with her, if he is too tired, but Samuel is determined to stay and finish out the day.

SamuelEatonLunch

At the end of the day, Samuel is very tired and has blisters, but he is proud of the work he has done, and the men congratulate him.

The end of the book has a section that explains a little about the real Samuel Eaton, who eventually had his own farm when he grew up, and the boy who reenacted his life, Roger Burns.  There is also information about the clothing of the period, the Wampanoag people (seen briefly when Samuel is helping to gather mussels for the family’s dinner), the rye harvest, and the Plimoth Plantation living history museum.  The book also provides the lyrics to the song that Samuel and the others sing to entertain themselves while they’re working in the fields, The Marriage of the Frog and the Mouse.

Sarah Morton, a girl who was featured in an earlier book in the series, also appears briefly in this book.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

SamuelEatonSarah

Posted on by TracyC

Tapenum’s Day

Tapenum's Day

Tapenum’s Day by Kate Waters, 1996.

This is about a day in the life of a Wampanoag boy living in the area around Plymouth, Massachusetts during the 1620s.  His life is reenacted by Issac Hendricks, who was a participant in the Wampanoag Indian Program at the Plimoth Plantation living history museum.

In the beginning, Tapenum introduces himself, explaining a little about his people and the strangers who have only recently come to their land, the English colonists, whom the Wampanoag call wautaconuoag (meaning “coat-men”).  Tapenum has just learned that he was not among those young men chosen to train as pniesog, a special kind of warrior among the Wampanoag who also possessed spiritual powers and acted as advisors and diplomats for their chief.  It has come as a great disappointment to him that he was not chosen for training.  To improve his chances of being chosen later, Tapenum has decided to train himself to improve his strength and hunting abilities.

Tapenum's Day Begins

Tapenum goes out hunting early in the morning, while his mother and sister are still asleep.  He starts before eating anything because he says that being hungry “makes the hunter more serious.”  Eventually, he catches a rabbit and a squirrel.  His mother is pleased with his catch, although his father has done even better by bringing home a wild turkey, which is even more difficult.

Tapenum's Day Hunting Trip

Later, Tapenum meets up with a friend, Nootimis.  The two of them go fishing in a canoe.  Nootimis knows that Tapenum is disappointed about not being chosen, but Tapenum says that at least he can still spend time with him before (hopefully) going away for training next year.

Tapenum's Friend

After fishing, Tapenum goes for a run as part of his training, and he sees smoke.  When he investigates, he finds an old wise man named Waban making a canoe.  Waban was a pniese himself when he was younger, and Tapenum offers him the fish he caught, hoping that Waban can tell him some things that will help him to be chosen for training.

Tapenum meets Waban

Tapenum ends up spending the rest of the day with the older man, learning and perfecting his skill at fletching arrows.  Waban also explains to him the importance of patience.  Tapenum is in too much of a hurry to grow up and begin serious training, but growing up takes time and so does developing the kind of strength and wisdom that he will need as warrior.

Tapenum learns some lessons

There is a section in the back of the book that explains more about the Wampanoag people, the the Wampanoag Indian Program, the Plimoth Plantation living history museum (now called Plimoth Patuxet), and the boy reenacting Tapenum’s life.

This is part of a series of books focusing on the lives of children in Colonial American history.  It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Games From Long Ago

Historic Communities

GamesLongAgo

Games From Long Ago by Bobbie Kalman, 1995.

GamesLongAgoForfeitsThis book is about games people would play in 19th century America.  There is a variety of different types of games, although the main focus is on parlor games.  Many of them have been passed on for generations by word of mouth and are still played today, such  as Charades and Blind Man’s Buff, although the book discusses games that are no longer common.

One important concept in 19th century games was the “forfeit”, where losing players would have to perform a kind of silly stunt. The other players might hold onto an object belonging to the losing player, holding it as hostage until they performed the stunt.  Forfeits were a common part of parlor games.

The book also talks about popular tabletop games such as dominoes, cards, tiddlywinks, and pick-up sticks.  Because dice were often associated with gambling, movements in board games were often determined by spinners or special numbered spinning tops called “teetotums,” which look something like dreidels but with more sides.  Board games for children were often educational, teaching them about subjects like history or geography or moral lessons, rewarding “good” decisions and penalizing “bad” ones (although, since movements in these games were determined by spinners, the players were at the mercy of the random chance as to which of these choices their playing pieces landed on, not making actual good and bad decisions by themselves).

GamesLongAgoTeetotum

There are also examples of games played at work parties, parties or “bees” organized around farm tasks such as barn-building or harvests.  These parties might include a hay maze (like a corn maze, but with hay sheaves), a game of Gossip (an early version of Telephone, played exactly the same way), or Bobbing for Apples.

GamesLongAgoHoliday

There is a short section about games for specific holidays, although there are only three given.  Two of them are for Christmas (one of those is a basic version of Pinata called Bag and Stick), and one for Valentine’s Day.  There are also sections about outdoor games and sports.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

GamesLongAgoOutdoor

Posted on by TracyC

Strega Nona

StregaNona

Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola, 1975.

Strega Nona is a witch who lives in a small town and uses her magic to help people in various ways, everything from small cures or love potions.  However, she runs into problems when she hires Big Anthony to help her around her house.  Big Anthony is helpful, but he doesn’t always pay attention or follow orders.

StregaNonaAnthonyPot
Strega Nona has a magical pot that makes pasta.  To get it to make a never-ending pot full of pasta, she recites a certain rhyme.  To get it to stop making pasta, she recites a different rhyme and blows three kisses to it.

Big Anthony is forbidden to use the pasta pot himself, but he can’t resist telling people in town about it.  At first, no one believes him because it sounds so strange.  Everything thinks he’s just making it up.  Big Anthony is offended that no one believes him, so one day, while Strega Nona is gone, he sets out to prove to everyone that this magical pot exists.

Big Anthony knows the rhyme to get the pot to start making pasta, and he uses it to make pasta for everyone in town so they will know that he was telling the truth.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t really know how to get it to stop because he didn’t know that Strega Nona blows kisses to the pot.  With the pot now sending a massive river of pasta through the town, what can Big Anthony do?

This is a Caldecott Honor Book.  It is currently available online through Internet Archive.

StregaNonaPastaRiver

Posted on by TracyC

The Five Chinese Brothers

FiveBrothers

The Five Chinese Brothers by Claire Hutchet Bishop and Kurt Wiese, 1938.

Although this picture book has faced some criticism for promoting Asian stereotypes (largely about the way the characters are drawn), it has nostalgic appeal for some people and is still in print.  What I find interesting about it is that it is actually based on an old folktale, Ten Brothers.  Folktales of this type, where people with different types of super-human powers must help each other to overcome obstacles, can be found throughout the world.  Another story on this theme is How Six Made Their Way in the World.

In this story, there is a family in China with five brothers who look alike, except that each brother has a unique super power (listed by birth order):

  • One can swallow the entire sea, although only for a limited amount of time.
  • One has a neck as strong as iron.
  • One can stretch his legs extremely far.
  • One is impervious to fire.
  • One can hold his breath for an unlimited amount of time.

They live in a village by the sea and make at least part of their living by fishing.  One day, a young boy asks to go fishing with the brother who can swallow the sea (they don’t have names in the story, they’re just referred to by ability or birth order).  At first, the brother is reluctant to allow it, but when the boy begs, the brother agrees only on the condition that the boy obey him and return to his side as soon as he gives the signal.  The brother swallows the sea and allows the boy to collect as much fish as he likes from the empty sea bed.  However, the boy gets too wrapped up in all the amazing things he finds on the empty sea bed and ignores the brother’s frantic signals to return.

FiveBrothersSeaSwallow

Finally, the brother cannot hold back the sea any longer and releases it.  The boy drowns, and the brother is arrested for the boy’s death.  The judge decrees that the brother will be executed by having his head cut off.  Before the execution, the brother has a last request: that he be allowed to return home to say good-bye to his mother.  The judge allows it, and the brother switches places with his brother who has a neck like iron.

FiveBrothersHead

Needless to say, the execution doesn’t go as planned, and everyone is astonished when the executioner cannot cut off the brother’s head.  The judge decrees that he will be executed by drowning instead.  However, he does grant the brother’s request to say good-bye to his mother once again, giving him the chance to switch places with another brother who can safely face the next ordeal.

FiveBrothersBurn

The process continues through one form of execution and another as each of the brothers survives, using his own special power.  Finally, the judge decides that if the man (he doesn’t know there’s more than one, apparently) cannot be killed, he must be innocent and pardons him.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

FiveBrothersFamily
Posted on by TracyC

Meg Mackintosh and The Mystery at the Medieval Castle

Meg Mackintosh Mysteries

MMCastle

Meg Mackintosh and The Mystery at the Medieval Castle by Lucinda Landon, 1989.

Meg is visiting Dundare Castle with her teacher and some other students.  Dundare Castle is a special museum where people can learn about life in Medieval times, although it used to be a private home.  The owner’s family came from Scotland, and they built their home to look like their ancestors’ castle there.  Eleanor, the owner, now calls herself the Duchess of Dundare, and with her staff, dresses up to recreate the lives of people from the 1300s.

MMCastleTour

One of the Duchess’s prized possessions is a silver chalice studded with jewels that has been in her family for generations.  She keeps it on display in the castle’s “abbey,” guarded by the actor playing the part of a knight, Knight Henry.  But, when Meg and her classmates get to the abbey, the chalice is gone, and Knight Henry is lying on the floor, unconscious!

MMCastleTheft

Not long before they found Knight Henry, the kids had seen a robed figure run across the courtyard.  Monk William falls under suspicion, although the Duchess doesn’t really believe that he is guilty because he’s been with her family for a long time.  There are other possible suspects, and Meg believes that both the thief and the chalice are still in the castle.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

MMCastleSearch

My Reaction

I love this series because the books are interactive, giving readers the opportunity to figure out the clues and solve the mystery along with Meg. As Meg interviews the other actors in the castle and explores every room, readers are invited to study the pictures and consider the evidence to see if they can solve the mystery before Meg can.  At various points in the story, there are questions for the reader to consider, giving them the chance to pause and see if they’ve noticed what Meg has seen. I recommend that adults who are introducing children to the mystery genre read a couple of these stories along with them and discuss the clues as they go, helping children to learn how to notice details, solve puzzles, and think critically. It’s a good learning opportunity as well as a fun mystery!

Posted on by TracyC · 2 Comments

Meg Mackintosh and The Case of the Missing Babe Ruth Baseball

Meg Mackintosh Mysteries

MMBaseball

Meg Mackintosh and The Case of the Missing Babe Ruth Baseball by Lucinda Landon, 1986.

MMBaseballAlbumThis is the first book in the Meg Mackintosh series, and it was the first mystery story that I ever read, when I was about seven years old.  It started a life-long love of mysteries!

Meg’s grandfather shows Meg and her friend Liddy some old family photographs and tells them about the time when his cousin Alice took his prize possession: a baseball autographed by Babe Ruth.  Alice was a bossy girl who always liked to tease him, and so she created a kind of treasure hunt, challenging him to solve it in order to get the baseball back.  Unfortunately, he could never figure out the clues and still doesn’t know what happened to the baseball.

Meg’s brother, Peter, has a Detective Club, but he refuses to allow Meg to join, saying that she needs to prove that she can solve a mystery.  Seeing this as her chance, Meg decides that she’s going to solve this old puzzle and find the Babe Ruth baseball!  However, she also has competition from Peter, who thinks that he’s the better detective and tries to send Meg off in the wrong direction.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

All of the books in the Meg Mackintosh series allow readers to try to solve the mysteries along with Meg, stopping periodically to ask them if they’ve noticed a clue that Meg has noticed or if they know what the significance of a clue is.  There are pictures to help, and readers are invited to stop and study the details before moving on. I think this is a good way to introduce children to puzzle-solving and help them develop critical thinking skills and an ability to notice details. I would recommend adults reading these books, or at least the first one or two along with children, so they can discuss the stories and clues with them, helping them spot clues as they begin to get used to the format of the books.

This is an excellent series for introducing children to the mystery genre for the first time! When I was young and just learning what mysteries were, I was fascinated to discover that I already had all of the knowledge I needed to solve this mystery along with Meg because all of the clues to Alice’s treasure hunt had to do with nursery rhymes. If you can recognize the rhymes in the book, you’re well on your way to solving the mystery!

Posted on by TracyC

The Twin in the Tavern

TwinTavernThe Twin in the Tavern by Barbara Brooks Wallace, 1993.

Young Taddy has lived with his Aunt and Uncle Buntz in Virginia ever since he can remember. When they die during an epidemic, he is left completely alone and afraid that he will be sent away to a work house. Before his uncle dies, however, he tells Taddy something that gives him even more reason to be afraid. He tells Taddy that nothing is how it seems and that Taddy is not really their nephew. He says that Taddy will only learn the truth when he finds his twin, but he must beware because he is in danger. Unfortunately, he never says where Taddy’s twin is or what kind of danger he is in.

Before Taddy can decide what to do, a couple of thieves, Neezer and Lucky, come to rob the house because they heard that Mr. and Mrs. Buntz were dead. When they discover Taddy in the house, they bring him with them to Alexandria and make him work in their tavern. Taddy is only given scraps to eat and he must sleep under a table in the kitchen with another boy who works for Neezer called Beetle. However, by coincidence, Neezer and Lucky may have brought Taddy to the very place he needs to be to find the answers about his past and his true identity.

Danger seems to lurk around every corner in the city, and Taddy doesn’t know who to trust. Even when Neezer hires him out to work in the home of the wealthy Mrs. Mainyard and her two daughters, sinister characters surround him, from the suspicious Professor Greevy to the stern John Graves, who visits the family.  At one point, Taddy thinks that he’s found his twin, but the boy mysteriously vanishes. Will Taddy find his twin and the secret of his past, or will the danger that his uncle warned him about find him first?

This book was a BOOKLIST Editors Choice Book in 1993 and won the 1994 Edgar Allan Poe Award.  It is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

This was one of my favorite mystery stories when I was a kid!  Orphans with mysterious pasts are staples of children’s literature and make for compelling mystery stories, and the addition of a secret twin makes it even better!  Secret twins can be somewhat cliche in stories, but this one is good because there’s an unexpected twist for Taddy that he never considered until the truth is finally revealed.

Many of Barbara Brooks Wallace’s mystery books involve sinister characters with hidden agendas and children who don’t know who to trust because they don’t fully understand the plot they’re caught up in.  This book is like that because Taddy doesn’t know the real source of danger to him.  Like other children in stories of this type, Taddy frequently depends on the help of other children because he doesn’t know which adults to trust.

The story is set at an unspecified time in the past, although it appears to be sometime in the 19th century.

Posted on by TracyC

A Ghost in the House

GhostInTheHouseA Ghost in the House by Betty Ren Wright, 1991.

At first, Sarah Prescott enjoyed her family’s new house.  The house wasn’t really new.  Other members of Sarah’s family had lived there before, but it was the first place where Sarah hadn’t had to share a room with her younger brother.  Then, Sarah’s Great-Aunt Margaret came to live with them, and everything changed, in more ways than one.

Aunt Margaret is the one who actually owns the house where Sarah and her family are living.  She’s is elderly and sick and has been living in a nursing home.  The rent that Sarah’s parents pay her pays for her care at the nursing home.  However, Aunt Margaret has been doing a little better, and she would like to come and live with the family.  Having her move in with the family would not only be good for her but for them because Sarah’s father has been in and out of work, and Aunt Margaret wouldn’t charge them rent or at least not much if they all lived together and they helped to take care of her.  However, it would mean some sacrifice on Sarah’s part.

Aunt Margaret had once slept in the beautiful room that Sarah has been using, and Sarah must give it up for her now that she will be living with them.  It’s difficult for her to deal with, but Sarah is also restricted on when she can have friends over because Aunt Margaret needs her rest, and the family’s lack of money means that Sarah won’t be able to go to the concert that everyone at school as been talking about.  These family problems and teen angst could be bad enough, but from the moment that Aunt Margaret moves in, strange and frightening things start happening that only Sarah and her aunt ever witness.

Whenever Sarah and Aunt Margaret are alone in the house, rooms get cold, and Sarah hears weird things like footsteps walking around when no one should be there and a girl’s voice singing that particularly unnerves her aunt.  Sometimes, Aunt Margaret’s things are moved around or broken, and there is something mysterious about an old painting that has been in the house for years.  Over time, Sarah begins to notice that the painting darkens, and sometimes she can see a man in the painting who wasn’t there before.  The presence of the painting also upsets Aunt Margaret, although she refuses to say why.  Although Aunt Margaret at first suspects that Sarah is the cause of some of the weird things that are happening, Aunt Margaret is the actual cause, and she is afraid to admit the dark secret from her past that has come back to haunt her.

A long time ago, when she was young, Aunt Margaret had a best friend called Anne, whose father painted the mysterious painting.  Anne had a very unhappy home life, and when the opportunity arose for Margaret’s family to adopt her, Margaret wasn’t sure if she wanted to share her home with her friend, although she cared for her a great deal.  Because of her hesitation, her parents decided not to adopt Anne.  In her old age, she admits that she was a spoiled girl.  Unfortunately, her friend went to live with other relatives and ended up dying in a fire, so Margaret never had a chance to make things right with her.  Although Anne’s death was a freak accident, Margaret felt guilty because Anne would have lived if her family had adopted her.  Anne’s father also blamed Margaret and her family for not doing more for his daughter, although it was his drunkenness and violence that ruined his home life and led him to give up his daughter in the first place.  Before he died, he threatened revenge against the family in some way.  Now, his vengeful spirit has found a way to use the old painting to reach Margaret once again, and unless Sarah can find a way to stop him, he will make sure that Margaret joins Anne in death . . . and possibly Sarah, too.  However, there is also Anne’s spirit to consider.  In life, Anne was the only person who ever stood up to her father.  Would she be willing to do it one more time for Margaret’s sake?

Part of the story is about being willing to sacrifice for the ones you love.  Years ago, Margaret hesitated to give up some of her pampered life for her best friend, and she regretted it forever after.  Sarah also comes to see how her earlier worries about giving up her room and about sleepovers and concerts were petty when compared to helping a relative who loves her.  She also sees how it’s important to do the right thing when there’s time because sometimes there is no opportunity to do it later.

In a way, I felt like the problem was solved rather easily, but there were some pretty scary incidents in the story and a failed attempt to get rid of the painting that brought some suspense.

The book is currently available online through Internet Archive.