Bright Island, by Mabel Robinson

This was one of the older books I didn't expect to come across anytime soon since it was available through my local library system.  But the library came to the rescue anyhow- I found it somewhat randomly in the digital collection.  So this is the first book (for this blog or otherwise) that I've ever read on my phone.  It was an interesting experience.

The book is a short novel, punctuated with some beautiful, although somewhat understated, Lynd Ward illustrations.

Thankful Curtis is the youngest of five siblings.  Her four older brothers have long since married and moved to the mainland, and she remains on Bright Island with her practical Scottish mother and her gruff sailor father.  She loves the rhythms of her days- early morning swims, sailing in her boat, and doing any of the manual labor that needs doing.

Unfortunately, her family doesn't see the life she loves as completely suitable for a girl.  Her recently-deceased grandfather willed money for her education, and her family (and especially her meddling older sisters-in-law) have decided that this is the the year that Thankful will head to the mainland to attend school.  Her mother has taught her all she can, and her father believes it's time for her to learn "what a girl's for."  New clothes are chosen for her to replace her practical denim and overalls.  But thankful does take a few things into her own hands- she immediately sails her girdle out to sea and drops it overboard, and refuses to live under the thumb of a sister-in-law while on the mainland.  She decides to spend some of her inheritance to board.

The remainder of the book deals with Thankful's one year of school (she's sufficiently advanced from home study that she will be able to graduate after just two terms).  She has to adjust to the school schedule, being surrounded by crowds, speaking in class, having a roommate, and not having constant access to the sea, while maintaining her own identity and choosing her own path.

It's a nice, gentle coming-of-age story and has a few similarities to the Anne of Avonlea miniseries that I was automatically a fan.  It also occurs during the nice lull where the first World War is too far away for the protagonist to be affected by, and the second is not yet on the horizon.

Pecos Bill: The Greatest Cowboy of All Time, by Dr. James Cloyd Bowman

This very fun book relates a number of chronological tales about Pecos Bill, the fabled cowboy.  It starts with how he is lost by his family and raised by coyotes, and then how he comes to learn that he is actually a human.  After that he meets the members of the IXL ranch and becomes their leader, and because life among the coyotes taught him the languages of the animals and gave him great strength, he performs a number of fantastic feats (such as taming Pegasus, the most ornery and wild horse ever seen).  A number of common-sense practices are attributed to him as well (such as cattle branding).

The chapters are of moderate length but are quick and easy reads.  And they all have a lot of dry humor; I can see this book having made a really fun classic Disney film (live-action, of course).

On the Banks of Plum Creek, by Laura Ingalls Wilder

This book was my favorite in the series for a very long time.  Probably in part because it was the only book in the Little House series that I actually owned for quite a while, but also because I loved when snotty Nellie Oleson got her comeuppance, covered with leeches!

On the Banks of Plum Creek follows the Ingalls family as they settle along the aforementioned creek, first in a dugout purchased from a Norwegian homesteader, and later in a beautiful home built of boards (which Pa had purchased on credit against the following year's crop of wheat).  The surroundings are beautiful, the family is able to have access to town, church, and school, and the land is rich.  Things are looking good for the Ingallses!

Unfortunately, reading this book through an adult's eyes makes me so much sadder.  Before long, the promising wheat crop is destroyed by what could be described as no less than a plague of grasshoppers, which descend on the countryside and devour it until no living plants are left.  Laura has to give up her beloved rag doll, Charlotte, to a neighbor's bratty child (but is fortunately able to retrieve it later).  I feel sad for the family and wish Pa could catch a bit of luck so they could stay stable for a bit, and he wouldn't feel compelled to buy their necessities on credit, which usually doesn't work out well for him because something always happens to his crops (which certainly explains why Laura, later in the series, is determined not to marry a farmer).  Other things that happen during this time period but are not portrayed in the story are moves to Wisconsin (to the Big Woods!) from Kansas before settling on Plum Creek, as well as the birth and death of Laura's younger brother, Charles.  And between this book and the sequel, On the Shores of Silver Lake, the family is struck with scarlet fever, causing Mary to permanently lose her sight.  Pioneer life was hard!  It's amazing that with so much sorrow, there is also so much happiness in these books, and you can't help but falling in love with the family.  The hope they have is absolutely incredible.

The White Stag, by Kate Seredy

I read The White Stag when I was in 4th grade. I remember the edition I had, and where I was sitting in the classroom when I read it. But my ultimate takeaway from the book was, I now realize, seriously lacking. I remembered it vaguely as a hunting story.

In reality, it is an epic tale of the journey of the Huns and the Magyars from Asia to the Hungarian countryside. With some distance (there have been a few weeks between the reading and the writing of this post) I think the story is a good one, if you like epic-style stories. There are prophesies, a little magic (not too much), multi-generational journeys, struggles... it's all there. It's a little like Exodus, with the Magyars and Huns instead of the Hebrews (and different enemies, of course). But it's told in such a style that the reading required a lot of effort for me. Instead of feeling grand and prophetic, it mostly just felt laborious.

That said, the illustrations, by the author herself, are gorgeous. I actually got a couple of comments on them as I read on the train! And while I found the writing of the story itself really hard to get into, I did really appreciate Kate Seredy's introduction. She talks about the difference between a story and the facts that fill books of the 20th century, and how valuable the stories are even without hard facts. If I didn't appreciate the storytelling, I did love the idea behind the story!
I did a little online poking and found that some people suggest this as a companion to The Trumpeter of Krakow - I can see the appeal, since this book is from the perspective of the conquerors, and Trumpeter is the story of a member of the conquered in a similar geography. But unlike Trumpeter, I would seriously hesitate before recommending this one to an elementary-aged kid - they should be REALLY into the sort of story before they'll get much out of it. 
I'm pretty impressed with my 9-year-old self for getting all the way through it. Even if I did miss the point entirely at the time.