Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, by Jean Lee Latham

I was at a bit of a loss to tag this book. It's a somewhat-fictionalized biography of Nathaniel Bowditch. Since all of the dialogue, however plausible, must have come from the author's imagination, I'm tagging it as nonfiction and based on a true story; take your pick!

The story starts with Nathaniel as a young boy, a few years after the start of the Revolutionary War. He lives with his parents, grandmother, and siblings in Salem, Massachusetts. His father was once a famous sea captain, but after losing his ship he lost his taste for sailing.  Now he works as a cooper, but struggles (and sometimes fails) to make ends meet. Nathaniel is a talented student and excellent at mathematics, and the community has high hopes for him to attend Harvard and be a credit to Salem.

However, fate has other plans for him. Unable to feed his family, twelve-year-old Nathaniel's father apprentices him to a Ship's Chandler as a bookkeeper for nine years. Nat is devastated, but he knows that he has a responsibility to take care of his sisters, and part of that responsibility is to never let them worry. During his time in the warehouse, he learns all about the various tools and parts that go into outfitting a ship. He also makes use of his apprenticeship to study navigation. But in order to learn thoroughly, he needs to study volumes that were written in other languages. And the only way to do that is to actually learn the languages (primarily Latin and French). Although he never makes it to Harvard, he is invited to be an honorary member of the Salem Philosophical Library (in other words, he is permitted to make use of the library without paying the subscription cost). Many of the quality volumes were taken as a prize by a privateer during the war.

After completing his apprenticeship, Nathaniel is offered a position as a clerk on a ship captained by an old friend. Having no other obligations or options, he decides to go, as well as invest his savings in freight that he can hopefully sell at a profit. During his time on the Henry, Nathaniel is able to put his theoretical knowledge of navigation to practical practice. And thus begins the fascinating story of the man who wrote one of the most foundational books in ocean navigation, hand-checked many of the numerical tables used at the time, and created new methods for more easily calculating longitude. He did an amazing job of using every talent he was given to create a fascinating career, and to help others benefit from his knowledge through his publications and in-person instruction.

Black Fox of Lorne, by Marguerite De Angeli

I wasn't familiar with this author before picking up this book.  But when researching her a bit after finishing it, it appears she's written one that I've at least heard of (The Door In the Wall) and the topics of her children's books sound like things that I'd be very interested to read. I'll have to come back to her after I finish the two books I'm currently in the middle of!

Brus and Jan are thirteen-year-old Norwegian twins, the youngest of four in their family. The eldest sons left to seek their fortunes and never returned. Due to overcrowding limiting the family's opportunity to prosper, their father, Harald, decides that the family should resettle in a part of England where his wife's Danish relatives have found a welcoming spot. They pack the family, goods, and some livestock into three ships, with the men (and the twins) in the first and strongest to defend the others should need arise.

During the voyage, a storm separates the twins' ship from the other two, and eventually sinks it. Most of the men wash up on the shore of Scotland. Because the land is unfamiliar and the mood of the natives unknown, Brus is advised to stay apart from everyone else, in case his likeness to his brother can be used to advantage. The wisdom of this soon becomes clear; the men are found by local Thane Bègan Mòr and "invited" to a feast celebrating his daughter's engagement to Gavin Dhu, Laird of Lorne (the titular Black Fox) that evening at the castle. Jan is taken to ensure their attendance.

The men have no choice but to attend, and as drink flows freely, the evening's mood turns sour. Bègan Mòr has all of the men, Harald included, slaughtered, their bodies thrown from the castle walls. Jan is held in a cell until the time of Gavin Dhu's departure and will be enslaved to him. Brus manages to locate his father, barely alive, and drags him to a cave for safety. But when he leaves to go find fresh water, he returns to find his father dead, and his heirloom jeweled brooch missing from his cloak. Brus is certain that Harald has been murdered, but is absolutely helpless. He has no choice but to follow "Black" Gavin's men, and his brother, and hope that he will somehow find a way to avenge his father's murder.

During the long travel, Brus is able to signal his presence to his brother, and they swap places several times during the journey, initially to ensure that both are equally well-fed. They vow to continue to keep their twin-ness a secret and hope that it will help them to someday avenge their father. Over time, they become invaluable in Black Gavin's castle, although only one can make an appearance at a time. And they discover that Black Gavin is their father's murderer as he frequently wears the dead man's brooch. Brus wants to kill him at the first opportunity, but Jan (whose name morphs into the Scottish Ian) has had numerous encounters with Christians and prefers to bide his time, not only because he knows that Gavin has many enemies and would prefer not to act in haste, but because he has also been cautioned that vengeance belongs to God alone. Brus, on the other hand, thinks his brother is going somewhat soft and is indignant that he has lost his allegiance to Thor, Freya, and the other gods his family venerated.

Suffice it to say that all more or less turns out as it should by the end of the story, and the twins make their peace with their new homeland and this curious new religion professed by so many.

I really enjoyed this book more than I expected. I'm really not a fan of adventure-y sorts of stories, but this one really held me (apart from the author's occasional tendency to narrate rather than show the reader what she wants him/her to know). I was also impressed that she did all of her own (very good) illustrations. I'm going to have to look into her other titles.

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.

Seabird, by Holling Clancy Holling

Seabird begins by introducing us to Ezra, a fourteen-year-old Ship's Boy on his first sailing trip from New Bedford.  While scouting through dense fog, he sees a white bird in the mist.  Its unique flight pattern alerts him to the presence of an iceberg in the waters ahead, and he's able to warn the crew in time to save the ship.

Not long afterward, the crew encounters an Arctic native who trades in skins and furs.  Ezra trades with him for two walrus tusks, and sets about carving a replica of the bird that saved the ship.  He adds a few gems as features, and the seabird becomes a good luck token of sorts.  From that moment onward, it is Ezra's constant companion as he rises through the ranks and eventually becomes the captain of his own ship.

Seabird is next passed on to Ezra's son, and then in turn his grandson, each becoming the engineer and captain of a progressively more modern mode of transportation as his father's vessel becomes obsolete.

The book does a great job making you familiar with Ezra as he grows and learns, although less time is spent on his son and grandson.  Each chapter is short, just one page, with a full-page color illustration facing it.  What I especially liked was that in the margins of the text page, anything that would need a more detailed or technical sketch is illustrated in black-and-white.  For example, how Seabird was assembled, the different features of a whaling boat, or the formation of a tropical island.  I really enjoyed this slim volume from the author of Paddle-To-the-Sea.

New Found World, by Katherine Shippen

I tried, I truly did, but I couldn't engage myself enough in the subject matter of each chapter to finish this one.  But I'll summarize what I've got!

The book as a whole is concerned with the entire history of the Americas (quite ambitious for a children's book of around 250 pages).  It begins by discussing some of the earliest cultures of Latin America in particular.  From there it describes the impact that the region's "discovery" by European traders and settlers had on the cultures, and how the lives of the native people were changed.

Beyond this point the chapters become much more specific in content, although continuing to proceed generally chronologically.  Chapters include such diverse topics as the missionary work of Father Kino, attempts at revolt against European-based governments, and the eventually liberation and development of a number of different nations.  Since this seemed like more of a useful reference work to me, rather than a narrative to be followed from beginning to end, I simply didn't have to motivation to finish.  Some of the subject matter has no doubt been disproven in the intervening decades, and some of the topics are handled much more lightly than we would today (for example, the "import" of African slaves, but you can only ask so much of a book published before the Civil Rights era).  But the book is thoroughly researched and has both a comprehensive bibliography and an index at the end, which still makes it reasonably adequate to keep around for school projects.

Fog Magic, by Julia Sauer

Even though the main character in the book does not take a sea voyage, I'm labeling it anyway.  Fog Magic takes place in the small village of Little Valley, on the coast of Maritime Canada.  The village, and larger community, is supported by the sea voyages of the men.  Life is difficult but predictable, but what makes Little Valley unique is its frequent, long-lasting, thick fog.  Burdensome to the sailors and housewives alike (how can you dry clothes without mildew if the air is always wet?), it's generally considered a nuisance.  But not to young Greta Addington.  Greta has always loved the fog, being in it, wandering in the woods, and exploring the stone foundations of the long-gone homes of the original settlers along the old Post Road.

Although her mother can't begin to understand Greta's fascination, she is resigned to it.  After chores are completed, Greta is packed a lunch and permitted to disappear into the fog for the afternoon, provided she agrees to return at a reasonable hour.  She enjoys this time alone in the fog, although she wonders if it causes her to hallucinate- she once saw a house standing where she was certain that only a foundation had existed when she had passed before.  But one day in the fog, she is certainly not hallucinating when a woman dressed in fine silks drives by in a carriage and offers Greta a ride to Blue Cove, just over the mountain.

The mysterious woman drops Greta off at a cottage, where she meets Retha, a girl her own age.  She spends the afternoon getting a tour of Blue Cove and meeting Retha's family.  Some things she sees and hears seem vaguely familiar, as if from an old memory.  She is told that she is always welcome to visit and that they'll look forward to seeing her again, and send her on her way with a slice of fresh pie.  But when Greta arrives home, the pie has disappeared!  Retha's parents seem to have a sense of where Greta is from, but say nothing about it.  Greta doesn't quite understand how the fog is transporting her between two worlds, or what her role is, but she knows that she must never talk about one side while on the other.  But Greta knows that she can't wait to disappear into the fog again and learn more about Blue Cove.

Fog Magic is exactly what I expected from reading the back cover, both in tone and content, and I think that's fantastic.  I like to read a book with proper expectations!  It's a short novel, at barely 107 pages, but feels like a much longer book- the author does a great job bringing you completely into Greta's world .  Unfortunately, the book doesn't have broad appeal.  The reprinted copy I borrowed has been cataloged for  two years, but I'm clearly the first to borrow it.

Inside Out & Back Again, by Thanhha Lai

Intended to be semi-autobiographical, this novel in verse tells the story of Hà, a young Vietnamese girl.  She lives a happy, although somewhat deprived, life in Saigon with her two brothers and mother.  Their father disappeared while on a military mission and hasn't been heard from since, but the family is hopeful that he will return.

As the Communist forces from the north approach, however, it becomes clear that their home is no longer safe.  Because Hà's father was in the military, his family (with many others) is entitled to passage on one of several ships which will stealthily leave carrying refugees.  The story follows their family to a camp in Guam, and then to another in the United States, before they are finally sponsored by a family who wants one of Hà's brothers to work in his auto garage.

Hà has a great deal of difficulty adapting to her new home in Alabama.  She is only gradually learning English.  No one in her school looks remotely like her.  The neighbors avoid her family, and she is bullied by classmates.  But with the help of her family and a few kind friends, she is able to carve out a home for herself, even though it will never be like the home she left.

Although I think this story could have been told equally well, and perhaps more fully, if not in verse, the sparse prose does seem to emphasize Hà's difficulty in finding the words to understand what is happening, and her inability to communicate with people.

Nansen, by Anna Gertrude Hall

It's kind of funny choosing these books from a list of titles not knowing anything about them.  A book with this title could easily have been some historical coming-of-age romance, named for its protagonist.  But no, it's a biography, of some one I'd never heard of, and I'll tell you a secret- I REALLY liked it.  That says a lot; I've been disappointed by many of the juvenile biographies that the Newberys have led me to.

This biography is named for its title character, Fridtjof Nansen, who passed away just 10 years before it was written.  Fridtjof grew up in rural Norway, and from his youngest years showed an incredible inclination for anything outdoors.  He loved to hike and swim and ski, and had incredible endurance.  But he also developed early engineering skills as well, spending his fair money on tools and disassembling (and then reassembling) the household appliances.

Nansen had a wide range of academic gifts, and chose to study zoology (despite having a preference for other fields) because he thought it had more potential for allowing him to work outdoors in nature.  During his time at the university, it was suggested he join an expedition to the Arctic Ocean, and this was the start of his great love for Arctic exploration.  He noticed that in Greenland, driftwood washed up on the shore.  However, the country was devoid of trees, and the varieties of wood found must have traveled from Siberia.  Since the Gulf Stream was the only local current known at the time, Nansen decided that he needed to discover the course of travel for himself and head to the Arctic.

He is able to secure private funding for a fantastically-designed ship, which would rise above, rather than be crushed by, Arctic ice floes.  Because the expedition could last a minimum of three years, it was outfitted with a machine shop, a library of over 1,000 volumes, games, tools, musical instruments, food sufficient for three well-balanced meals daily, and kayaks, skis, sleds, and dozens of sled dogs to pull them on the ice for further exploration.  Partway into the journey, Nansen and one of his many companions decide to set off on foot because of their proximity to the North Pole, and attempt to reach it.  However, they can only travel so fast, and in September they had to dig themselves a small room in the snow and ice and hole up alone for months on end until they could safely travel again.  The adventures and accomplishments of this expedition (not even counting the ship) are almost beyond belief.  You should look them up because they're mind-boggling.  Also, the extreme conditions and suffering he endured in pursuit of knowledge are no laughing matter, either.

Later in his life, although he had no interest in politics, he found himself continually drawn into leadership roles.  He was pivotal in negotiations and the political maneuverings that allowed Norway to separate from Sweden into an autonomous nation.  And moved by the suffering in the First World War (the only World War ad the time of the book's publication) he took a personal interest in seeing the League of Nations established, persuading many of the smaller countries to ally themselves, and soliciting funding on behalf of prisoners of war that had been stranded inside Russia with no help of getting home.  And afterward, when the collapse of Russian government sent a new flood of refugees outward, he argued passionately for funding to help that country's starving peasants (although, he was dismayed to learn, his colleagues still held a grudge against Russia and denied the funding, arguing that it should instead come from private sources).

Fridtjof Nansen was quite an incredible individual, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to learn about him!  And Sue, this is totally a you book.

Also, our illustrator, Boris Artzybasheff, illustrated several other Newbery Honor books (Gay Neck and The Wonder Smith and His Son).

All Sail Set, by Armstrong Sperry

Ah, nothing like a Sea Voyage!

Our protagonist is a teenaged boy named Enoch Thacher. He lives in East Boston, near a shipyard, and is good friends with his neighbor Messina Clark, a retired sailor. Enoch and Messina spend hours and hours and hours discussing life at sea, and Enoch just itches to go to sea himself. One thing leads to another, and he ends up an apprentice on The Flying Cloud, one of the most famous clipper ships in history. This book describes her maiden voyage, and Enoch's (or Thach's, as we learn to call him) experiences as the ship goes from New York, "around the Horn", to San Francisco in record time.

I have mixed feelings about this book. Honestly, I probably would have given up on it if I weren't reading it for the blog. The first 80 pages or so were dry as toast to me, and full of nautical jargon without even being set at sea (yet). But, reading on my own assignment, I persevered, and was glad for it in the end. Once Thach is on the ship, things move along, and there's a lot more actual story. There are good descriptions of life on board the ship, such as sleeping quarters, work schedules, food, general exhaustion, etc. And in what is largely a narrative tale, the reader gets a surprisingly good sense of what it must have felt like to be out on the sea for the first time - getting sea legs, climbing the rigging for the first time, working out disagreements,  and most poignantly of all, the emotional connection to the ship herself. The end, for me, was completely unexpected and left me with a lot of respect for the book, as many writers of children's fiction would hesitate to go there.

I am now left wondering (as I often do, with Newbery historical fiction) how much of the story is true. The parts involving The Flying Cloud herself all seem to check out - she really did make record time between New York and San Francisco on her maiden voyage, and really epitomized the romance and spirit of the clipper ship during its heyday. I couldn't find anything (online) about the fire at the end, though, or whether there really was an Enoch Thacher aboard as apprentice.

In the end, I'd say read it - but with the caveat that the reader should a) generally like the sea voyage genre, b) have a lot of patience (or be willing to skip or skim the first few chapters), and c) be aware that there is a very helpful glossary of terms at the end of the book! I think the genre isn't for everyone, but this is a great example of the genre.

The Twenty-One Balloons, by William Pène du Bois

This book got off to a slow start - at least for me - with a lot of philosophical talk about the benefits of slow vs fast travel, and the way the "atomic age" would soon be changing things entirely. But after a few pages of that, it really picked up, and I was as curious as the mobs in the book about how Professor Sherman could possibly have ended up in the Atlantic Ocean with twenty deflated balloons, when he had only a month before set off over the Pacific with just one!

The answer involves an immense diamond mine, a secret Utopian society on the island of Krakatoa immediately prior to its infamous explosion, many fantastic inventions, and a complicated restaurant-based economy. The inventions made me laugh, and you can tell du Bois enjoyed thinking them up - there is electrical furniture which raises up from the floor (and more importantly, sinks back to be flush with the floor, allowing easy cleaning), there is a bed with a continuous belt of sheet that rotates every morning so that a new section is on the bed and another section is washed in the basement, and there is a "balloon carousel" with twenty balloons connected in a circle, among many others.

In the end, a lot of fun! It would make a great read-aloud book (I'm saying that a lot lately, but it keeps being true!), and the author's illustrations fit the character of the story really well. They even *look* French (which the author was - I had to do a little bit of digging to figure out how this was eligible for a Newbery award, but it turns out he moved back to the US as a teenager).

An interesting tangent is the author's note at the front of the book, which I will quote here and allow you to enjoy in its entirety:

Just before publication of The Twenty-One Balloons, my publishers noted a strong resemblance between my book and a story by F. Scott Fitzgerald entitled "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," published by Charles Scribner's Sons. I read this story immediately and discovered to my horror that it was not only quite similar as to general plot, but was altogether a collection of very similar ideas. This was the first I had heard of the F. Scott Fitzgerald story and I can only explain this embarrassing and, to me, maddening coincidence by a firm belief that the problem of making good use of the discovery of a fabulous amount of diamonds suggests but one obvious solution, which is secrecy. The fact that F. Scott Fitzgerald and I apparently would spend our billions in like ways right down to being dumped from bed into a bathtub is altogether, quite frankly, beyond my explanation. William Pene du Bois, 1947 

I haven't read Fitzgerald's story yet (though I do intend to!) but other reviews point out that although there are strong similarities on the face, the two stories' tones differ significantly. It does make one wonder, though, if there are certain things, both fantastic and fantastically mundane, that naturally come to mind when one thinks of diamonds and diamonds and diamonds...

Swift Rivers, by Cornelia Meigs

My goodness, this is the fourth book by Cornelia Meigs that I've reviewed for this blog. I'm glad to say that her writing definitely improves with time! This book actually takes place along the Mississippi and nowhere near the ocean, but I'm giving it a "sea voyage" tag anyway because I think it's close enough.

Chris Dahlberg lives in Minnesota, in farming country with his Uncle Nels. Both of his parents are dead and Nels has pledged to care for Chris, but Nels is a temperamental man who has grown to resent the young man more and more over time. Fortunately, Chris is well-liked in his small community and very beloved by his grandfather, Alexis Dahlberg.

Alexis was one of the region's first settlers and has marked the passage of time by a large walnut tree growing outside of his cabin. Unfortunately, as he has aged, Alexis has become weaker. Although he'd scarcely admit it or ask for help, he needs it. Chris can clearly see it, and after the winter's major work is completed, he defies his uncle to go stay with his grandfather for a few days to see that he is settling in well for the season ahead. He feels helpless to ensure his grandfather's security, and his own security becomes uncertain when he returns to Nels's home, only to find that the gate has been barred to him for his act of defiance. In the midst of a snowstorm, Chris is forced to turn around and is fortunately able to take shelter with kind neighbors.

This exclusion from Nels's home, however, turns out to be a great blessing to Chris, because he is now free of obligation to the man and is able to truly take his future into his own hands. He met a man the previous fall who had told him of the great fortune to be made in timber in Saint Louis, and since land closer to the city had become deforested, Minnesota would be in a good position to profit if they could fell trees and raft them down the Mississippi. Alexis agrees that this could be a great venture for his grandson to undertake, and to show his confidence, he himself fells the great walnut tree on his property. As soon as spring thaw begins and the river swells, Chris begins his journey.

The remainder of the story reminded me in many ways of a Grimm fairy tale- Chris is a kind and trustworthy young man who is rewarded for his honesty and candor. When he greets strangers with assistance and kindness, he later encounters them and finds that they are in a position to be of great help to him. He does encounter trials and dishonest men during his long journey, but also makes a number of lifelong friends of good character and skill. All works out in the end, including his issues with Nels. Not a bad little book at all, and more easily accessible due to a 1994 reprint (which I've done some investigation into, but that's a tangent post for another day, when I've gotten more resolution!).

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.

Glory of the Seas, by Agnes Danforth Hewes

Sea voyages really must have been all the rage in the 1920's and 1930's, since we've had to create a tag for all of these similar books. This novel takes place in pre-Civil War Boston. We're introduced to a shipbuilding company who is concerned because the invention of larger and swifter cutter ships is interfering with their ability to trade quickly with both the South and with California, and funds for investing in the new technology are tight. Also, the Fugitive Slave Act has recently been passed, a great offense to the north. The book proceeds more or less as you'd expect and doesn't contain any great surprises, which is why it took me six weeks to finish; it just wasn't exciting. Additionally, like many books written in this period, it begins in the meeting room of a large company (in this case, Mr. Pinkney's ship building firm) where an exciting event is being discussed and all of the principal characters chime in with their opinions. This may work for a movie, but there's something about the way that books of this era are written that makes it impossible for me to distinguish so many male principal characters when they're introduced in this way. And not to be gripey and all, since the author was female, but only two women exist in the entire world of this book- an aloof and often absent love interest, and a cook. How these many men went on to (presumably) reproduce I'll never know.

I'm probably not being fair to this one, but I'm just worn down from all of the like books, darnit! 20's and 30's, it's time for more creativity out of you.

Spice and the Devil's Cave, by Agnes Danforth Hewes

This was a very busy year for illustrator Lynd Ward- he also illustrated The Cat Who Went to Heaven, the Newbery Award winner this same year.

Although the cover leads one to believe that this book takes place primarily on the open sea, it is actually set in the port city of Lisbon, Portugal, in the late 1400's. Bartholomew Diaz has recently completed the first known European voyage around the southern tip of Africa, and he and a number of other prominent men (some real, some invented for the story) are making plans for further voyages to determine whether this could be the beginning of a new trade route toward India. This would allow Lisbon to become a major trading port and hopefully edge out Venice, its primary competitor.

Throughout the book, everyone is anxiously awaiting the return of Vasco da Gama, who has set sail with a number of ships to attempt to see if it is possible to reach India and the spice islands by continuing Diaz's voyage. However, after no word is received for some time, the sailing community is beginning to lose hope. At the center of the story is Abel Zakuto, a Jewish Banker, who also has a keen interest in mapmaking and sea navigation. One evening he and his wife Ruth find a young girl of undetermined race peering into the window, appearing to be fleeing something (or some one). They take the bedraggled creature in and care for her, but they are unable to coax her name, or any language at all, from her to determine her origins. Meanwhile, things become uncomfortable for them- the king of Portugal has formed an alliance with Spain through an engagement, one of the conditions of which is the expulsion of all Jews from Portugal.

The book takes place in interesting times and has a well-developed stage and cast of characters. I'll admit that when I first saw the cover my first though was "Not ANOTHER seafaring book. I'm going to hate this". It certainly proved me wrong. The author also has tremendous insights not only into the political and trade relationships between various nations and people groups at the time, but also into the cultures of the Arab world (she had the fortune to be raised in Syria as the daughter of missionaries). Although the initial chapter is confusing in the way it introduces so many characters without placing them, it quickly redeems itself!

Meggy MacIntosh, by Elizabeth Janet Gray

I'm amazed that I was able to find a good cover image for this book online, even though this book seems much more rare than Garram the Hunter, the cover of which I scanned myself for lack of anything at all in Google Images.

I enjoyed this book *so so* much. It's probably kind of premature, but it's definitely my favorite book of the 1930's so far.

Meggy MacIntosh is the descendant of a proud Highland family. However, her life has become meaningless and dull. After the death of her father at Culloden under the command of Jaime Frasier, she is forced to leave their small stone castle in the hills and move to Edinburgh with her aunt, uncle, and cousin. Her cousin Veronica is kind to her, but is a typical socialite. As the older of the two, Veronica is very busy having her hair styled and being fitted for clothes and attending parties and generally making herself known. Meggy knows that she will never be an equal to her cousin, and it wearies her to see the disappointment on the faces of young men when she goes out in Veronica's hand-me-downs. And although she used to have time to at least share her day with Meggy, Veronica is becoming too worn with her busy social life to have much to say. The only highlight of Meggy's day is her tutoring with Mr. MacPherson, and even this small pleasure is ending because the old man wishes to return to the hills to retire.

Meggy's life seems to be coming to a standstill until she is presented with a surprising opportunity. One of Veronica's many suitors, Ewan, will be sailing for America in just a few days time. He has asked Veronica to slip away from a party that evening, be escorted by his traveling companions, join him on the boat, and marry him en route. Veronica, a fickle sort, has decided by morning that the idea doesn't suit her. But Meggy knows by then that she will go in her place. She takes from their hiding place all that remains of her family's jewels (two ruby earrings and an imperfect emerald), packs her bag, and boards the ship. She stays in bed, feigning exhaustion, until the ship is well out of port and she feels safe that it will not return.

Ewan, understandably, is furious when the exchange is discovered. Meggy attempts to reassure him that she plans to pay her own passage and not burden him, and be self-sufficient once she reaches the colonies, but it does little to cool his anger. All of her life she has heard stories of the beautiful Flory MacDonald, who helped smuggle Bonny Prince Charlie out of harm's way. Meggy is certain that if she can just get to Flory, she can be of some use. In any case, she is already better off than many of the passengers, who will be sold into indentured servitude for ten years to work off the cost of their passage.

During the length of the trip, Meggy (as one of the few who does not become seasick) makes herself useful as companion and nurse to those who need her, and upon arriving in Wilmington, is offered a place to stay with relatives of a fellow passenger who had grown fond of her. This relative, Mr. Clayton, has two daughters, about Meggy's age, and for the first time she is able to delight in the company of peers who are not only kind, but interested in her, and see her as an equal.

And we're only on page 90 of 274!

Meggy isn't able to go to Flory in North Carolina right away. But as she slowly acclimates to Wilmington, and gets her land legs back, she starts to see the political tension that is building (and will eventually lead to the American Revolution). She is torn about her own feelings on the matter, though- she has friends on both sides. She understands why people would want to be loyal to the land and to their neighbors here in America. However, she wants to better understand the position of her former countrymen- how could Flory MacDonald and others who lost so much fighting the King at Culloden be willing to put the same force and passion into fighting for the king in America? Unlike many books written for children about the Revolution, this one paints both sides as genuine and good people. Usually, what you see is that all of the characters you like are Patriots, and the ones you don't like so much (like the stodgy old grandfather in the Felicity series) are the stuffy, unsympathetic loyalists.

Also, the close contact with indentured servitude (and lifelong servitude, in the case of plantation slaves) sheds light on this aspect of American history that children's fiction usually doesn't talk much about. There are some very cringe-worthy terms used for black slaves in this book, but they are historically accurate and not deliberately unkind.

The Black Pearl, by Scott O'Dell

I never read The Black Pearl as a kid. I remember other people in my class reading it (I was in a different reading group) and saying it was boring, so I never picked it up.

The book is set in Baja California, in a town known for its pearling trade. The protagonist is a 16 year old boy named Ramon. The biggest day of his life is the day his father makes him a partner in his business - and Ramon is very happy. But... a desire lingers. It's all very good, being a partner and working in his father's business, but he'd really like to go out pearling with his father. After much discussion, he is allowed to go out in the boat, but not dive. There is one man on his father's crew, the best pearl diver, who bothers Ramon. He is known mostly as The Sevillano. This guy is a bragger and everyone knows most of his stories aren't true, but somehow Ramon is kind of threatened by him. He develops a vision of finding the "Pearl of Heaven" - a big, perfect pearl - that will prove to The Sevillano that he's not all that.

In order to achieve this, he develops a plan. The next time his father is out on a pearling trip, Ramon talks to a man he knows who can teach him to dive for pearls himself. And he gets permission to dive in the man's lagoon. One day when the man is not able to go diving with him, Ramon decides this is his chance - and he goes into a cave that he has been warned is the territory of the "Manta Diablo" - a monster of local legend, mostly used to scare children into behaving themselves, but also truly feared by many local men of the sea. Ramon doesn't worry about this, and is happy when he finds exactly what he wanted - a pearl the size of a grapefruit, and practically perfect.

From here things get a little out of control. When his father tries to demand a high price for the pearl, and none of the local merchants will pay it, he spites them all by giving it to the church instead. And when his fleet is ruined, leaving only one survivor (you guessed it, The Sevillano), Ramon starts to take the whole Manta Diablo thing seriously. For the rest of the book we watch Ramon try to take the pearl out of its bad omen status - first by trying to put it back in the ocean, then fighting for it and eventually giving it to the church himself.

I'm not surprised that my friends in 5th grade didn't like this book much. The language style doesn't read smoothly for a speaker of modern American English, and the plot is mostly inside of Ramon's head - very little actually happens in the book, until the last couple of chapters. But it does pose interesting questions, and I see why it gets used for reading groups. Why didn't the Manta Diablo like when Ramon's father gave the pearl to the church? Would he have been happier if it sold? Did Ramon's actions at the end, after his father's fleet is ruined, actually help? Do you think the Manta Diablo liked Ramon's gift of the pearl to the church better than his father's? What did Ramon have to prove to The Sevillano? Who is the higher power here, the Church or Manta Diablo?

The essay questions practically write themselves.

Clearing Weather, by Cornelia Meigs

I have to admit that I dreaded this one. My last experience with Cornelia Meigs was simply dreadful and I couldn't believe it when I saw that she was on the Newbery list a minimum of three times. But this one is infinitely better, and totally in keeping with the unmistakable bias toward seafaring-themed books that I've noticed in the 1920s.

As in The Great Quest, we have a nephew who lives in a coastal Massachusetts town (Branscomb) in the care of his uncle. Nicholas Drury is tending to the affairs of his uncle, Thomas, who is ill and unable to tend to his home, The Blackbird Inn, and his shipyard. Unfortunately, since the Revolutionary War (in the not so distant past), the demand for new ships has dropped. The town, which depends on the shipbuilding business, is in danger of becoming destitute, and Nicholas is in the unfortunate position of writing the notice declaring the business's bankruptcy. However, he becomes distracted noticing footprints in the frost on the grass in his yard and investigates.

Nicholas makes the acquaintance of Etienne Bardeau, a Frenchman, and his friend from the Carolinas, Michael. He's been in hiding on this side of the Atlantic because he possesses evidence that Darius Cortland, a local businessman, actively supported Britain and sabotaged the colonists during the Revolution. Unfortunately, Mr. Cortland is a very influential man and he has been pursuing Etienne to keep him silent. Before escaping on a ship, Etienne passes this evidence on to Nicholas.

Rather than letting down the town and his uncle, and letting the estate pass into the hands of Mr. Cortland, Nicholas and Michael create a plan. They decide to design and build the grandest ship ever produced in Branscomb. The townspeople will all participate by contributing materials, labor, and staff. The ship will then set sail in hopes of turning a profit.

The remainder of the book follows the progress of the town wondering when, or if, the Jocasta will ever return. It also chronicles the two-year voyage of the ship. Rather than head to Europe as most trading ships would have done, the crew headed to the Caribbean, up the west coast, and eventually to China.

This volume was *much* better than the author's previous book. It does have unfortunate instances of sexism/racism which were common for the times. But a great adventure story.

The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, by Hugh Lofting

First, let me say that this was a lot of fun! I had seen the Disney movie from the 60s (with Rex Harrison) a long time ago, but the movie didn't exactly thrill me and I never picked up the book. I'm not a huge Eddie Murphy fan, so the newer movies didn't increase its appeal. But the "hype" around the book, I now understand!

The edition I picked up from the library happened to be a revised edition, "for 21st century readers". The editors explain that they took the job very seriously, and tried their very best to keep Mr. Lofting's style, while removing some cultural insensitivities that were okay in 1922 but not 2001. I couldn't tell where they had made changes, so I think they must have done a good job! I'll see about finding an "original" edition to compare, later on.

For those unfamiliar, Dr. John Dolittle is an extraordinary doctor in that he can speak the languages of animals. He considers himself not a vet, however, but a naturalist. He would probably talk to plants, too, if he could. His attitudes toward animal husbandry are actually quite modern - he grows furious at the thought of a bull fight, and is emphatic in his belief that big cats should never be caged, as two quick examples. In this book, which is actually a sequel (more on that later), the story is told by Tommy Stubbins, who is 9 at the start of the book, and is eventually the Doctor's assistant in exchange for room, board, and education. Tommy accompanies Dr. Dolittle on a voyage to a floating island somewhere near the coast of Brazil, along with the African Prince Bumpo, Polynesia the parrot, Jip the dog, and Chee-Chee the monkey. Along the way they also make friends with some bulls in Spain, porpoises, polar bears, a few fish, and a giant snail. The characters are delightful, and the story is exciting enough to keep you turning pages (yes, even as an adult) yet not stressful enough to frighten younger children much.

While the book was carefully edited for overt cultural insensitivities, there are some more subtle ones that remain. On the floating island, the crew finds an Indian village full of friendly but woefully ignorant people. Their chief dies of a cold early during their stay, and a mother comes to the doctor desperate to have him save her baby - who is merely cold. These people don't know about fire! So the Doctor gives them fire. Their chief having died, they elect him as their new king, and though he is reluctant about accepting, Dr. Dolittle takes his new position seriously. He immediately goes about "improving" their lives. With Doctor Dolittle in charge (who they have renamed Doctor Thinksalot), there are roads, and theaters, and better houses, and better farming practices, and healthier babies... Doctor Dolittle, though, is not content. He's a naturalist at heart. But he feels he cannot leave the people now, because they couldn't manage without him. In the end, his crew convinces him to take a holiday, and from there convinces him to catch a ride with the giant snail back to England. Though for months he couldn't bear to leave his subjects alone, he finds the best solution is to disappear without any warning. We don't know how the people manage without him, but hope for the best, I suppose. The colonial implications here are obvious, and yet... it's hard to know what to think of the solution.

As I mentioned before, The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle is actually a sequel. The first book, The Story of Doctor Dolittle, was actually a compilation of letters written by Lofting to his children from the Front during WWI. While recovering from an injury in an army hospital, Lofting found himself thinking about how humans got medical help when severely wounded, but a horse only got relief in the form of a single shot to the head... and that in order to really help animals, it would be immensely helpful to be able to speak their language. As he later told an interviewer, there were not many things to write to children about that were not either too boring or too horrible, and so he ended up writing stories for them about a doctor who could talk to animals. And thus Doctor Dolittle was born.

As for this book, I'd recommend it. It's a lot of fun, and the language has aged well (sentence-wise, it feels like it could have been written this year!). I think the colonial overtones would be a great thing to talk to a kid about, as or after they read it - there could probably be interesting discussions about whether the Indians really needed Doctor Dolittle's help as badly as he thought they did, and whether his solution to the problem was the right one.

The Voyagers: Being Legends and Romances of Atlantic Discovery, by Padraic Colum

I was looking forward to this one after reading Padraic Colum's previous honor book, The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived before Achilles. This one, although similar in format, works just as well because the formula still applies.

In the case of this book, Prince Henry of Portugal often looks over the ocean with a sense of adventure and a strong desire to explore the Atlantic Ocean. Men from all over Europe come to him to tell their tales of ocean voyages, which vary from the mythological (Atlantis) to the actual (Columbus). Without getting into long detail, the stories presented in a very enjoyable and readable fashion are:

• The Legend of Atlantis
• The Voyage of Maelduin (an Irish tale)
• The Voyages of Saint Brendan
• The Children of Eric the Red
• The Voyages and Explorations of Christopher Columbus and his Men

I would strongly recommend this one for any child (although this child is usually a boy in my mind's eye) who loves adventure stories. Also, with the immense popularity of the Percy Jackson series, mythological compilations such as this and Colum's other works could easily make a comeback. It's a shame many of them are out of print.

Hitty: Her First Hundred Years, by Rachel Field

I first read Hitty when I was 10 or 11, and I remember loving it. As in really wishing I had a small wooden doll that I could make clothes for and carry around everywhere I went. And looking in flea markets and yard sales for quite some time for one with the right personality. I didn't exactly find one, but I did do a lot of doll-clothes sewing for a little while, and I think there is a doll somewhere with her name cross-stitched on her undershirt.

Hitty, short for Mehitabel, is a small wooden doll carved by a peddler in rural Maine in the early 1800s for a small girl named Phoebe. We follow Hitty for, well, a hundred years, as she goes on adventures with her young mistresses and is eventually either lost or abandoned by each of them in turn. I'll tell you a little about each:

Phoebe, daughter of a whaling ship captain. It is due to Phoebe's cross-stitched "Hitty" on Hitty's chemise that the doll is able to keep her name through all her adventures. Most notably, Hitty accompanies Phoebe on a voyage on her father's ship, and we learn a lot about how the whaling business worked. One thing leads to another, and Hitty is dropped by a sleeping Phoebe onto a street in Bombay.

Thankful, daughter of missionaries in India. Hitty was picked up from the street by a snake charmer, who used her as part of his act until Thankful's parents happened to notice her, and thought she would be a good present for their little girl. They were essentially right; Thankful did love her. She got sick, though, and was sent back to live with her grandparents in Philadelphia, since "India is no place for a child". One thing leads to another, and Hitty is stuffed in a couch, where she remains for several years.

Clarissa, a young Philadelphian Quaker girl around the time of the Civil War. Clarissa's cousins discovered Hitty when they were playing on the couch in the attic. Hitty's life is more stable while she is living with Clarissa, and Hitty tells us that she is able to write her memoirs now because of the time she spent on Clarissa's desk at her little dame school. When Clarissa goes off to boarding school, Hitty is packed in a box with mothballs.

Isabella, daughter of a lawyer and his wife in New York City. Isabella is less well-developed as a character than Phoebe, Thankful, and Clarissa, but we do know that she is headstrong and spoiled, but a good-natured child in her way. One thing leads to another, and Hitty is stolen from Isabella by a pack of ruffians on New Years Day.

From here Hitty's life is fairly unstable, and I won't go into further details.

Reading this now, I was a little impressed with my 5th grade self for sticking with the book in the beginning. It picks up nicely for most of the middle, but it is hard to stay engaged with for the first couple of chapters (a long time spent under a church pew, and then a crow's nest, are described in painful detail), and toward the end of the book Hitty travels with an artist who paints her in still-life, two old ladies in New Orleans, an elderly lady who collects china animals, and finally the owner of an antique shop in New York. It's just less interesting. The book is also pretty un-PC in parts, like when the "natives" on a desert island are described, and the way the dialect of former plantation slaves is handled during the short time Hitty spends with a girl named "Car'line" there. I honestly had no recollection of this section of the book from my first reading of it - reading it now was truly reading it anew.

The descriptions of historic events are accurate as they go, though, if the perspective on some has changed since the book was published. For example, a modern reader might be surprised at how things like peeling the blubber off the whale and the "Nantucket Sleigh Ride" are glorified during Hitty's time with Phoebe, and the description of some immigrant tenement children is not at all kind. But we also hear about the Civil War from a Quaker perspective, the Fresh Air Fund (though not mentioned by its name, I'm pretty sure this is what was going on), and more everyday things like the sensation that a wonderful opera singer Adelina Patti caused in Philadelphia, and what it might have been like to meet Charles Dickens, as well as changes in fashion, schooling, and what were considered basic manners. 

I think the appeal of this book would vary widely by child. I think it's safe to say that it's more a girls' book than a boys' book, and one for fairly patient girls at that. It probably helps if they like dolls, and can grasp that perspectives on some things have changed. But for that quiet, doll-liking, patient girl with perspective, it's a great book!

Note: I have found several websites devoted to Hitty, with recreations of scenes in the book, timelines, etc. It's worth a google if you're so inclined!