Boy of the South Seas, by Eunice Tietjens

Ten-year-old Teiki, the son of the chief, enjoys a reasonably stable life on one of the Marquesas Islands (in French Polynesia). One day, his island is visited by a schooner. Such visits are rare, and exciting for the island. The inhabitants of the ship, both white and Pacific islanders, usually come with rare fish, fruit, and metal objects to trade. In the excitement, Teiki wanders about the ship, seeing what there is to see. But the heat of the day and his exploration tires him, and he falls asleep in a lifeboat, undiscovered. When he wakes, the ship has already departed and is too far from the Marquesas to return him. Although the captain is less than impressed to have a stowaway, the crew sympathizes with Teiki. They give him tasks to perform and see that he is fed. He prefers, however, to sleep in the open in the lifeboat, rather than in the cramped, smelly bunk he is assigned.

When the ship nears an island, Teiki sees his chance. He dreads landing at Tahiti, which sounds too bustling and crowded for him. Teiki jumps from the ship and swims to the shore of the island of Moorea (also in French Polynesia, more or less adjacent to Tahiti), and commits to knowing the island on foot and seeing what kind of people live there before making his presence known. Over time he is adopted into a family, attends school, and becomes part of the community. But he finds life on this island is a bit too easy and lacks challenges. Teiki is unsure how to remedy this lack, but in the meantime, excels at everything he sets his hand to through hard work, so that his father would not be ashamed of him.

Eventually Teiki is able to see a definite future for himself and pursue it, though a series of events in the book. However, for a book with so many cultures and sea voyages in it, it's not very exciting. I much preferred Call It Courage, for something along similar lines but more engaging.

The Truce of the Wolf and other Tales of Old Italy, by Mary Gould Davis

The copy of the book I borrowed had no jacket or cover image at all, and this is the only picture I was able to find online, so there we have it. The title story is The Truce of the Wolf, but the picture we see is of Nanna the donkey eating clover, from an entirely different story. Ah, well.

The seven short stories in this book were taken either from well-known Italian sources or were told directly to the author. However, they're not especially exciting or exceptional anyway- even the ones with an element of the supernatural aren't developed enough for my tastes. I've read a lot of fairy tales in my time and none of these will be memorable for me when competing with, say, talking cheeses or fortune-seeking brothers or murderous fiancés. I'm not sure what about it so enchanted the committee.

Jane's Island, by Marjorie Allee

Alas, the jacket for this particular title seems to be lost in time, so we'll have to make due with the cover itself. I've given this title an "island" tag although the book doesn't take place on one- there's still enough coastal boating around islands, and poking about on islands, to make it qualify, I think!

Twelve-year-old Jane Thomas lives with her parents and brother in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, every summer. Her father is a scientist who is studying marine organisms in a laboratory there and needs warm-weather access to the water, as well as fresh specimens, so each year their family makes the trek to the coastline and rents a home there. The Thomases have their concerns about Jane, however, who is impulsive and not very ladylike. Instead of shaking the sand from her shoes upon entering the house, and folding her clothes neatly, and being quiet and calm, she'd rather run amok about the town, picking wild berries, turning over rocks in the water to help her father find new lab specimens (or herself to find new pets to sneak into the house in buckets), or boating around the coastline. Summer wouldn't be nearly as enjoyable if devoid of these prized activities, and when faced with the her parents' (well, mostly mother's) frustration, she imagines that some day when she is grown, she will live alone on a small island where she can have everything exactly as she likes it, the wishes of parents and society aside.

To help rein her in and ensure Jane's safety, the Thomases have engaged Ellen, a freshman college student from Chicago, to live with them and be her companion this summer. Ellen learns quite a bit from Jane, but has her concerns about her ability to manage the girl to her parents' satisfaction. As she tells Dr. Thomas, "I would be a fraud if I let you think I could always manage her. Of course I could pull her out of the water if she needed that, and I hope I could see that she didn't get hurt, but I think that Jane will mostly manage me!" Fortunately, Mr. Thomas is sympathetic and much less concerned about Jane's energy and failure to keep her clothes neat than Mrs. Thomas!

The book follows the two girls and their community over the course of the summer. Dr. Thomas is hoping to secure grant funding to continue his research on planaria. However, an old friend from Germany is also working in the laboratory, pursuing evidence to support a completely contradictory theory, and is competing for the same funding. Jane immediately dislikes Dr. von Bergen, who speaks sharply and is grouchy (perhaps on account of a crippled leg), but Dr. Thomas is pleased to see his old friend and welcomes him warmly, although Dr. von Bergen hardly seems in the mood to visit or reminisce. Through the months Ellen and Jane get to know him better, as well as the other scientists and members of the community.

It's an easy-to-read story and I did enjoy Jane quite a bit. But I wouldn't call this book especially exceptional but for its depiction of the area from a time that's mostly disappeared from recent memory- it probably is enjoyed by the region's inhabitants (the Woods Hole Historical Collection took it upon themselves to reprint the book in 1988 to make it available to a new generation).

Out of the Flame, by Eloise Lownsbery

Out of the Flame takes place in the mid-1500's in France, and centers around the "Children of France"- the three sons and two daughters of François I, as well as a ward of the king's, Pierre de Bayard. Pierre is truly the book's protagonist.

The story begins after the return of Princes Henri and François II to France- after the nation suffered a devastating loss to the Spanish, they demanded that the two princes be retained in a dungeon in place of the King himself. They had been imprisoned for three years and Henri especially is withdrawn and on edge. It becomes apparent that he feels he has to compete with Pierre, who has lived at court and has had education and experiences that Henri himself was deprived of for three years. Pierre, with the assistance of his tutor, is struggling to maintain his demeanor and prior friendship with Henri; he is a page in the king's court and has hopes of advancing to knighthood, devoting his life to the service of king and country.

Over the course of the book, the children mature and are engaged, and Pierre continues to struggle with his desire for scholarship and his need to uphold his family's reputation and honor as a knight, two ambitions which seem inconsistent with each other. The course of history also continues, with the various children becoming betrothed and then married, being amazed by a visiting delegation of North American Native Americans, and Pierre being briefly kidnapped by pirates loyal to Spain.

Other bloggers have complained of the blandness of this book. Frankly, I disagree. I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Yes, there was more dialogue than action at many times, but it was an easy read where I certainly learned a lot.

The Fairy Circus, by Dorothy Lathrop

I feel so fortunate to have been able to get my hands on this book! It wasn't reprinted, and is very rare and expensive, so I was amazed when my interlibrary loan copy came in the mail. The Fairy Circus is a very simple story- a circus comes to and covers the entire meadow, and the fairies find themselves trapped inside the tent. After being utterly amazed, they decide to create their own circus using improvised instruments and friendly animals, but they have to move quickly before the full moon disappears! Salamanders become seals, turtles double as elephants, squirrels become lions complete with manes (after wrapping their tails around their necks), and the fairies themselves perform on improvised trapezes.

Much of the text is description, but the true wonder of this book is in the author's own illustrations. For a sample of them, see here. The book itself isn't difficult to summarize, but the illustrations make it truly exceptional.

Waterless Mountain, by Laura Adams Armer

What a relief to read this one after Ood-le-uk the Wanderer. Laura Adams Armer is actually well known as one of the first women to extensively research the Navajo and Hopi Indians in person. The trust that they were able to place in her made it possible for Armer to create ground-breaking film and photography, bringing many elements of these cultures to the wider world. The original cover for the book (shown below the image of the cover of my copy) is actually a composite painting, derived from two of Armer's own photographs. This is an author who actually paid her dues and knew her material before putting pen to paper, and I have immense respect for that.

On to the plot summary!

Little Brother is a young Navajo boy who lives with his parents, as well as Elder Brother and Little Sister. The time is the present- that is, the 1930's, so native traditions are preserved, but the family also comes into contact with whites, primarily the owners of a remote trading post where they can sell furs or silver and turquoise jewelry (such as the kind Father is especially skilled at) in exchange for essentials such as canned goods or wire.

Little Brother has his own little flock of sheep that he drives out every day, and them home again. But he always carefully observes what he sees around him, with respect to all living creatures and signs of the Ancient People. And despite his relatively routing life, Little Brother sees enough strange signs and visions that Uncle, a medicine man, suspects great things ahead for him.

As Little Brother grows in wisdom over the years, we are able to experience many of his tribe's milestone events, traditions, and sacred stories. Although the book is not "exciting" in the sense that Little Brother ever experiences actual life-threatening danger, it's easy to become fond of him and wish to take part in his life.

Calico Bush, by Rachel Field

Calico Bush is the story of Marguerite, a 12-year-old French girl, who has found herself orphaned and "bound out" to an English family settling in what is now Maine in 1743.

I remember having this book recommended to me by my 5th grade teacher, but being unable to get into it. In short, I abandoned it. Reading it today, I have no idea what my problem was! It was a quick-paced, engaging read, and Marguerite is a well-developed, likable character.

Marguerite is bound out to a family with several children younger than herself, and one son a year her senior. The family makes its way to Maine, and to the plot of land they acquired from a friend - only to find that the house has been burned down by Tarratine Indians. Despite neighbors' warnings that the site is somehow important to the Indians, and the resultant risk of raids, the family's patriarch decides to rebuild. We watch as Marguerite learns about roof-raising festivities, corn-shucking bees, and other daily trials and tribulations of settlers of the "New World".

We also hear referenced the war with the Canadian French, protestant/Catholic tensions, and about conflicts with the Indians in the area. Marguerite herself actually finds a cave with the remnants of a white victim of a relatively recent raid; however, she also makes friends with an Indian she happens to cross paths with on Christmas Eve. That chance meeting sets the stage - and probably outcome - of a later meeting with a large group of Indians, who show up at the door of the family's cabin. Marguerite takes the situation in hand, and first gives the Indians all the food in the house, and then, in desperation, rips apart a fine linen sheet from her mistress' hope chest to make ribbons for a maypole. She does her best to show the children, and the Indians in turn, how to weave the ribbons around. It doesn't exactly work, but the Indians are enchanted, and when the maypole breaks, they take pieces of the "ribbons" and go on their way, leaving the family unharmed. As a result, the point of land where all this took place is named "The Maypole".

I wasn't able to find out via google, though I plan to do some local research when I get a chance, how true this story is. However, there is a point called The Maypole on one of the Cranberry Isles off the coast of Maine, and there is also a grave in one of the old cemeteries of a woman named Marguerite LaCroix, "the French wife of one of the early settlers". So I think Ms. Field may have been working from a local legend when she wrote this book.

Modern readers might be surprised by the treatment of Indians (more often referred to as "Injuns") in this book; at the same time, the attitudes of the English people in the book toward the Indians are probably fairly accurate. It would be worth discussing with a child reader, but for a book of this period, the treatment is not too bad. We do see their human side, thanks to Marguerite's encounters.

The book also contains some really insightful passages about Marguerite's transition from her former life in France with her grandmother and uncle, to living with this English family who don't like to hear her talk about anything Catholic or French, and who forbid her use of French with the children. She talks, for example, about noticing the first time that the thoughts in her head are in English, not French, and worrying about forgetting all of her French songs and stories, while at the same time being desperate for approval and inclusion in this new world she's found herself in.

I'd definitely recommend this book, especially to classes who are learning about early settlers of New England, for a perspective other than the Plymouth Pilgrims. It also gives a good background for discussions about French/English/Indian conflict in the 18th Century. Maine children could probably be especially interested, but I think it's a good story for a child anywhere. I'm sorry I missed out on it as a kid!