When Shlemiel went to Warsaw, by Isaac Bashevis Singer

This book is (as the title suggests) a collection of short stories. They all take place in Eastern Europe in a Jewish cultural setting. I found myself wishing I had someone to read these out loud to - they're very much in a storytelling style, and beg for it. Enough that I did a little reading aloud to myself, when nobody was around! The stories are clever and entertaining, and it was a fun read. I think kids aged roughly 9-11 would enjoy it a lot, as they will feel smarter than a lot of the main characters in the stories (I mean, a man gets turned around on a journey and ends up back at his house, but he thinks he's ended up at a house exactly like his own somewhere else!) and have fun guessing what might happen.

I will say that the stories could be a bit confusing for a kid without much exposure to Jewish culture - I know, for example, roughly what a Golem is, and why candlesticks would be important for the Sabbath, but I really wouldn't have when I was a kid, and a lot of the details of these stories would have been entirely lost on me. Which is not to say the exposure wouldn't have been good for me - it certainly would have! But a certain degree of familiarity with the setting is taken for granted, and this might be worth addressing if your reader is completely new to the idea.

Overall, definitely worth picking up - an entertaining read for an adult, would make an excellent read-aloud book, and a great exposure to one of the 20th century's great storytellers. I enjoyed it so much that I plan on looking for some of the author's adult books after this.

Dobry, by Monica Shannon

This book follows Dobry, our title character, as he grows from a boy into a young man in his village in rural Bulgaria. He lives a typical peasant's life with his mother and grandfather, his father having been killed "in the war". The book occasionally references the unhappy times of Turkish occupation, so one can only assume that that war was one against the invaders, although this was never explicitly stated. The book observes the regular village and household chores that occur throughout the year- baking bread, stringing peppers from the autumn harvest, the migration of the storks, the coming of the gypsies in the spring, caring for the farm and animals.

We also meet Dobry's neighbors- the mayor, the widowed shoemaker and his daughter, Nena (who, in time, becomes Dobry's love interest), the schoolteacher, the miller, etc. Of special importance is Dobry's grandfather, who is known far and wide as the best storyteller. Throughout the book he shares many tales with Dobry and the villagers. Dobry also has his own art- he has become skilled at drawing, an unheard of skill in a rural village where more practical skills are needed to earn a living. Over time he also teaches himself to sculpt and carve. At the end of the book it is decided that he will go to Sofia to study to become a professional artist.

While this book was reasonably simple and Dobry is a charming character, I have to admit that I found it overall pretty bland. I know that there are readers who will find this one simply enchanting; it just didn't speak to me.

Big Tree of Bunlahy: Stories of My Own Countryside, by Padraic Colum

Another fabulously fun book of tales by Padraic Colum! This time, the tales in the book are from the author's own small village in Ireland, and are a mixture of Irish folklore, and the stories of the men who lived in the village. The book gets its name from the large tree in the center of town that served as a sort of town square- visitors would go there to learn about the area, and the townspeople would go there to talk and to work outdoors.

Some of the stories are simple tales of the community and the people who live (or lived) in it, and others are more elaborate tales with magic, witches, and mythological creatures similar in some ways to Grimm tales. There are also hints of religious tension in the book (no doubt unavoidable then, as now) but Colum doesn't presume to tell you which side he favors (although you can probably guess). Wikipedia confirms my suspicion!

The author must have had an exciting life; he came to the US to participate in the gold rush, returned back to Ireland and lived an activist's life, eventually returned stateside, and died in Enfield, Connecticut, so he's almost local! In any case, a very enjoyable book.

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.

The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales from the Fionn Saga, by Ella Young

Wow, I haven't Newbery blogged in a while and I feel like a bit of a slacker. Time to plunge back in!

I'll admit that I had a bit of difficulty with this one. I'm not remotely familiar with Irish folk tales. I'm sure these stories are marvelous for those who are. However, for me, I felt like I was dropped into an unfamiliar world and left to fill in the gaps on my own. The book has multiple short stories all centered on Fionn, how he was raised, and his many adventures. These stories, despite being chronological, do not follow or build on one another, so don't need to be read in any particular order. This was not the book for me; I wanted continuity (you don't just introduce the son of your protagonist and then never mention him again!).

However, I did want to be fair to the book so I loaned it to a coworker who's a biiiiig iriphile (Eirephile?) to read over the weekend. As a former teacher she was pleased with its readability, and she enjoyed it because she was already somewhat familiar with the cast. So today's American kids probably need a bit of curriculum support to get into it fully, but it has its time and place.

The Boy Who Was, by Grace Hallock

This book is a volume of short stories throughout the history of Ravello, Italy, which are bound together by a common character. Nino, a young goatherd, was once a friend of a Siren named Parthenope. She would sing stories to him and paint pictures in his imagination of far-off places, and Nino was her playmate. One day, Odysseus and his men sail by, with Odysseus lashed to the mast. They escape unscathed, the first time the Sirens have ever failed to lure their target. Parthenope and her sister retreat, defeated, never to return. But before she leaves, Parthenope sings one last song for Nino. She blesses him with eternal youth, able to watch over the city and its comings and goings into all eternity.

Other chapters in the book focus on significant events that occur there, and how Nino (and his goats) pay a role in their successful resolution (volcanic eruption, invasions, etc.). Cute stories, but one has to wonder what happened to him eventually!

The Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo

I'm giving this one a poetry tag even though it's not strictly poetry. It's a collection of short stories and whimsical poems that take place in many places and times. Think "The Book of Virtues", but the stories are generally longer. Characters of all races are equally picked on, and there isn't any overt racism, just fun. The book itself is very large, and would be great to read aloud to a child.

Many thanks to the Bangor Public Library for the interlibrary loan. Many of my requests are routed from there and I can't help but think that if they'd hired me when I applied, they wouldn't have to keep mailing books to me ;)

The Wonder-Smith and his Son, retold by Ella Young

This book is a compilation of Irish folk tales collected by the author, about the Gubbaun Saor. The book was a bit tricky for me because it generally lacked description but had a lot of action, so it felt as if I was lacking some necessary background information to really connect with the story. Additionally, the Wonder-Smith's son is not technically his son. He had only a daughter (and the book fails to tell us how he acquired her, so we can only assume that Mrs. Gubbaun Saor was short-lived and of little significance). One day while lamenting that he had only a daughter to whom he could pass on his wisdom and skills, a woman upon the road was weeping likewise for her fool of a son. Each thinks the other to be in a better position than himself, so they decide to trade. The Wonder-Smith does regret his rash choice- his daughter was both beautiful and wise, and his new son is rather lazy, refusing to learn and only playing music to charm the animals. However, he does eventually marry the Wonder-Smith's daughter, reuniting the family. This was the tale that I enjoyed the most from the book.

Interestingly, this volume is illustrated by the same fellow who did the fabulous black-and-white illustrations for Gay Neck, Boris Artzybasheff. It does seem a little unfair that this guy got to do two of the three 1928 Newbery books, but hey. He's clearly very versatile- Gay Neck's illustrations put me in mind of Russian folktales, while the Wonder-Smith illustrations were much more Celtic and suited to this book. But unfortunately, as is common with many older books, after a point the illustrations fail to align with their proper place in the plot, often falling quite a few pages before the depicted event occurs in the text. Quite a shame!

190 pages but still quick- the story doesn't begin until page 23, and each of the 10 illustrations takes up at least 3 pages between the image itself, its caption, and additional white pages. Also printed in very large font.

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.

Tales from Silver Lands, by Charles J. Finger

Unlike Shen of the Sea, this book is a collection of actual tales that the author learned from various people (and peoples) during his travels through South America. What makes them seem much more plausible is the fact that birds and flowers and animals come in such unusual shapes and bright colors- fantastic tales of such things seem a bit more believable in that context. Additionally, the unbelievable dangers of the Amazon make it a bit easier to believe in horrendous giants and beasts concealed among the trees.

Finger presents a very rich landscape: rivers and streams, grassy flowered meadows, high cold mountains, dense forests, places of pleasant temperatures and places of bitter cold. Witches and enchantments are a common theme, much like in the Grimm's tales.

This book was a very fun read overall. I found it a bit long, but that's probably only partly true in reality- I've just been very busy lately, which explains why it took me so long!

Shen of the Sea, by Arthur Bowie Chrisman

Here is another title which I had completely misunderstood. I'd assumed that the Shen in question was some little boy who lived on the coast. In the book, however, Shen are spirits with domain over one element or another, usually malevolent toward people. Who knew? This original cover with its kite-flying soldiers does little to make that clear, but the newer cover helps a bit more.

These are stories of purported Chinese origin, which claim to tell the tales of how items or customs originated. For example, china place settings originated with a Chinese princess and her obsession with mud pies (which an invading dragon kindly, but unintentionally, baked for her). There are also several tales of obstinate and downright horridly disobedient little children, whose parents' indulgence of them causes them to unintentionally "invent" things like, say, printing.

The stories are fun and sure to entertain middle-aged children. It's also clear that the author had some familiarity with Chinese language and custom. So I was a bit disappointed to learn that none of these stories have any origin in actual Chinese folktales; they're purely a product of the author's imagination. So they're certainly fun to read, but don't expect them to give you any common ground with a Chinese child!

The Dream Coach, by Anne and Dillwyn Parrish

When I saw this one in the list I had no idea what to expect. I initially expected it to be a baseball book (and I also expected quite a bit of trouble getting my hands on it, since there are only about 50 copies in WorldCat, and it hasn't been digitized in Project Gutenburg). So imagine my surprise on both counts when the Simmons College library was willing to ILL it to me, and it was really about a coach-and-horses coach!

This coach is the kind that brings dreams to everyone in the world. Every day his driver packs it full of all sorts of dreams to carry about to people who need them (and, like Santa Claus, he uses them to dispense a bit of justice to the naughty and nice of the world). Spending much of his time in the heavens as he does, he's also in frequent communication with the angels, who assist him in selecting dreams for certain children who are especially noteworthy.

After the initial introduction of the coach and its purpose, the chapters focus on the dreams of four children. The first is a princess who has just had her fifth birthday. She has been paraded about in uncomfortable clothes, made to eat bland and unappetizing foods (as all of the best ones have been saved for the celebration), given some valuable but boring gifts of treasure from her parents (which are immediately locked away for safekeeping), and then shuffled off for an early bedtime so that everyone else can celebrate without a child in the way. Needless to say, a very disappointing day for a five-year-old princess! So she is given seven (well, six, since the last dream goes missing) nights of charming and happy dreams to make up for it all.

The second child we meet is Goran, a little Norwegian boy. He has been left all alone while his grandmother has gone to town to pick up supplies before the winter snows isolate them. Since he is a bit frightened to be home alone, the dream coach sends him a very funny dream. All of the animals and flowers in the house come to life and begin to speak, the Queen of Clubs from his playing card starts taking charge, and everyone feels sorry for Goran's snowman, left outside in the cold all alone. The Queen soon orders him to be brought inside, but he begins to melt. No one listens to his pleas, and he is brought near the fire, and eventually put into bed below warm covers. However, his kind mouth falls out of his melting face, and when it is replaced upside down, the angry-looking snowman quickly reasserts himself and is moved outside where he belongs!

The third child we meet is a little Chinese Emperor. One day when he is very bored, he becomes enchanted with the singing of a little brown bird and demands that it be captured so that he can enjoy it inside his own home. The bird becomes despondent and stops singing, and is soon forgotten. To right this wrong, the coach sends the Emperor a dream that he wakes up in a cage watched by giant birds who criticize his voice, pull on his queue, and suggest wringing his neck for supper. He manages to escape but is far from home in winter and cannot survive alone. When the Emperor awakes, he rushes to his bird with fresh greenery and assures him that as soon as the weather is warm again, he will be released.

And our final child, Philippe, is a little French boy who is visiting his grandparents at their home. His younger cousin Avril is also there, and they are waiting for his Uncle, Pablot, to return to tell them all about his journeys abroad. As he waits, the children play that Philippe is the King, and Avril is a servant charged with bringing him whatever he desires, lest she lose her head. After Pablot arrives, he gives each child a gift (a whistle and a decorated garden spade) and describes the exciting things he saw in various exotic countries. Philippe quickly grows tired after a dense supper, though, and the dream coach brings him a dream in which his grandmother is really the bringer of rain, his grandfather the bringer of snow, his uncle the wind, and his cousin the bringer of flowers. It appears that Philippe really is a king, and his subjects' best reward is to be used and appreciated well.

This book was very short- only 142 pages. It was also cute and charming, but I've read so many books of this type that it hardly seems unique. It also lacked any sort of conclusion; I expected it to come back to the coach at the end as the driver winds up his busy night. But we end with Philippe being carried back to his parents' home, fast asleep. Cute, short, but not exemplary.

Good Masters! Sweet Ladies! Voices from a Medieval Village by Laura Amy Schlitz

I remember hearing about this book on public radio soon after it received the Newbery Award, and thought it sounded like a unique and fun idea for a book. I never got around to finding a copy, though, but when I visited my library's Newbery Award section for this project I found several copies proudly displayed on the top shelf. And with good reason; it's a beautiful book!

The book is designed to be a class project of sorts; there are twenty-three short essays or poems meant to be read/recited/performed, each from the point of view of a child in a medieval village. The collective performance, then, will give the audience a little view of the life of the falconer's son, the miller's son, the "half-wit" boy, the lord's daughter, and so on. Religion and class differences are explored, and you leave with the realization that while the details of life have changed a lot, there are also a lot of ways in which nothing has changed at all.

As a kid, I would have liked that you saw village life from the children's point of view. I would also have enjoyed the sidebars explaining parts of medieval culture that wouldn't be familiar to a modern child. They were frequent enough to help with context, but the text was not so full of asterisks that it became distracting. I would have loved it if my class had taken on the performance of this book as a project! I also think that two kids with time and inclination could have a good time with it, reading back and forth (or occasionally together - there are a couple of duet pieces). You could also read it with one or both of your parents. The entries are written in varying styles of poetry and occasionally prose, which was fun for me to read as an adult, and would make a good teaching point in a classroom setting. My only real issue with this book, in the end, is that it's not very friendly to the silent reader, a bit like reading a play on your own. It would be easy to be drawn to it, with its gorgeous format and interesting subject matter, and then find that it's not really meant for you to read to yourself.

I can definitely see the appeal of the book as a class activity, and why teachers would want to use it. My biggest regret, reading this now, is that it wasn't available for my own 5th grade class in 1990! I give it a 10 for a class or team project idea, and a 7 for reading alone.

The Golden Fleece and the Heroes who Lived before Achilles, by Padraic Colum

I was not one of those kids who had a fascination with mythology, so I have to admit that I approached this one with a little dread. However, I was pleasantly surprised. The book tells the tale of Jason and the Argonauts, which I had been completely unfamiliar with. It starts with his birth and upbringing by the centaur Chiron, and continues as he assembles his crew and boards the Argo on a mission to steal the fabled golden fleece from Colchis. He is frequently waylaid by natural barriers, gods, and mythical creatures.

Throughout the story, the members of the crew and the people they encounter often tell stories of the gods, and under ordinary circumstances I'd find these frequent stories-within-a-story distracting. But in this book, they actually worked. Despite all the foreign names in the text, I didn't have a problem remembering who the main cast members were and what they were up to at the end of their storytelling. And although there are a lot of characters, they are introduced in a reasonably slow and orderly manner which reduced confusion for me. The storytelling is also simple and doesn't get weighed down in lengthy description, so I found it a light and easy read despite the length (289 pages in my library's edition).

The copy we have in our library is the 21st edition of this book from 1960, and it speaks well for the writing that the same book was being reprinted and enjoyed so long after its original publication date (amazon.com lists a 2004 paperback edition).

So, on Melanie's ratings scale, it's a perfect choice for those kids who love mythology or are curious and would like an introduction. Instead of being a volume of short myth summaries, it combines them all well into a great story.