Rascal by Sterling North (9y & 7y)

General Vibe:

I remember loving Rascal as a child because I was fascinated with the idea of having a raccoon for a pet.  As an adult approaching this book, I am struck with how much Rascal is a side character and incidental.  The chapters don't really revolve around his adventures and mishaps so much as they take the time to paint a portrait of what early 20th century life was like.  We hear about the war which his older brother is fighting in and the Spanish flu; local fairs with pie eating contests and a horse vs car race; and North's victory garden that he grows to sell vegetables.  In fact, it's quite a lonely and quiet life as North's father is often away on business, and North is left for literally weeks on end at home alone. The moments spent camping or in nature are lyrical, but I never felt my kids' attentions wane. A lot less goes on in these stories than say what happens in My Family and Other Animals, with less outrageous characters.  The details of life are intriguing and the novel still holds its allure, even though the aspect of allure has changed with time (and age). 

Plot and Characters: 

As mentioned above, you get less outrageous characters but the characters are finely if more subtly drawn.  A house keeper who cannot put up with animals, a metropolitan-modern visiting sister who is shocked by the canoe being built in the living room, a fly fisherman who North meets in the woods while camping, a leather maker who, since his business mostly revolves around making horse tackle, hates automobiles, a bully who meets his comeuppance twice, a neighbor who has it in for Rascal, and a hard put upon aunt who relates that she hopes that heaven is nothing more than a continuation of working on the farm. Rascal his lovingly portrayed as well, as well as pet crow, and his dog.

Future Recommendations: 

I'm not inspired to read anything else by Sterling North.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare (9y and 7y)

 

General Vibe:

Reading a play aloud is quite difficult because you have to say the character's name--colon--and what they say.  In the beginning, it was awkward to listen to, as well.  Furthermore, I had to stop every so often in the first couple scenes to set the stage.  "Oh that's Egeus, Hermia's father.  You don't need to know about him.  The Duke wants Hermia to marry Demetrius but she loves Lysander.  Nuptial hour draws on apace? Oh it means that Theseus and Hippolyta are going to get married soon.  Hippolyta?  She's the queen of the amazons.  You know who they were? Etc..."  Once the characters are down, and the motivations and plot set, it's really not hard to fall into the story, and the scenes are quite short and manageable.  The language, of course, is so rich, even for Shakespeare. 

Characters and Plot: 

There are no better characters--and especially no better plots--that are both as culturally relevant and as deeply embodied as in these plays.  It was quite fun revisiting this work, and, as always, you notice something new.  This time around I was noting that the entire last act is the performance of Bottom's play for the Duke's wedding--which is quite striking because you've been seeing them rehearse the play all along and you already know the plot of this story and the characters.  However, the performance remains interesting by the live-reactions of the in-play audience, made up of the four lovers and the Duke and Duchess, who are enjoying it as a bad piece of art, similarly to how folks are drawn to seen junk movies together, just for the joy of making fun of it.  When Shakespeare ends the play, and he has Puck come out to ask the audience not to judge the play too harshly "If we shadows have offended..." I think it is a way of reminding the audience to just enjoy the delights present and to not be too critical.  It's an interesting argument for low brow art, in what we assume is a piece of high brow art.  But it's not, really.  And totally suitable for kids. 

A Book of Wizards by Ruth Manning-Sanders (9y and 6y)

 

General Vibe:

A Book of Wizards is one in a series of "A Book of ..."s all compiled by Ruth Manning-Sanders.  We've also read, for example, A Book of Dragons, and there exist such titles as A Book of Mermaids, A Book of Witches, and A Book of Ghosts and Goblins.  I don't know if she compiled the stories, collected the stories herself, or worked off of translations.  The end result is a tidy and expansive collection of tales from across Europe, Asia, and Africa, all flowing with a consistent style and all centering around the intriguing figure of the magician.  As an adult, I appreciate reflecting on all of these tales, comparing one to the other, especially considering the differences in culture, and considering what makes these tales about a wizard figure so compelling.  The same was true for a A Book of Dragons: why do we consistently have these tales about dragons?  You begin to wonder, what do dragons--or in this case, wizards--mean?  The kids liked these tales, but they don't form an over-arching narrative.  Sometimes the wizards were wicked and sometimes they were good.  This was similarly true of the book on dragons, and I wonder if it might not be better to try a book where the figure is not so much of a trickster figure but is more consistently seen as good or bad to see if they would fall into the stories more easily. 

Plot and Characters:

As I'm writing this in a little bit of retrospect, I can't quite remember any of the story lines particularly. Quite a few tales had farmers performing decent and kind deeds to what they presumed was a ragged traveler, only to realize much later that they were wizards, and benefiting richly afterwards.  One especially intriguing tale had a jealous woman being told by a magician that he would double in wealth whatever she cut from the time the sun went down to the time it rose again.  The woman spends the entire night cutting her curtains and all of their fine pieces of clothing, but of course is too greedy and still is cutting away at all of her rich possessions when the sun finally rises and the spell is broken, leaving her having destroyed everything in her house. 

Future Recommendations:

I will definitely read more "A Book of"s to the kids this winter.

Adventures with Waffles by Maria Parr (9y and 6y)

 

General Vibe and Plot and Characters:

Adventures with Waffles was a total surprise; a gifted book and strong recommendation led me to reading this book aloud without knowing a thing about it.  The book is told from the perspective of Trille, a boy who has a best friend who lives next door, Lena.  Lena lives and moves recklessly and usually she is the one who instigates the adventures and also the one to end the adventures with an explosion, a crash, or broken limb.  If this book was merely a collection of small adventures, it would be a solid read with interesting characters in an interesting, modern Norwegian town.  However, there are deeper questions that start to inflect the narrative.  Trille really looks to Lena as his best friend, but he cannot tell if Lena thinks of him in the same way.  The book, especially on reflection--because it does not spell these themes out heavily--is really meditating on ideas of what is a family, what is friendship, and what is a community, and what is passed down through the generations.  They explore the nursing home down the road, a mad man on the hill who's best friend is a horse that he has to sell to get slaughtered, Trille's three generation, multi-ethnic household, the small harbor community where they live, and even Lena's family who is being raised by a single mother and the humorous returned-to question, "what is a father for?"  At one point in the narrative, the story turns and becomes shockingly real as one of the characters dies.  There is no build up to this; rather, just like in real life, one day that character is there, and then they are gone.  I've never read a book where the death of the character is such a gut punch.  As I read this chapter, I could barely register what I was reading, and my voice cracked and changed toned, unintentionally. There were some sniffles that night.  But I've also never read a book that has dealt with death and loss so beautifully.  The resolution has so much integrity that I really cannot recommend the book too highly.  That being said, the book has so much humor and goodwill that it's really not a heavy or dark read.    

Recommendations for future reads:

There's a sequel that I will read in a couple of years as it takes place a couple years later called, Lena, the Sea, and Me.  I'm too curious to know if Maria Parr captured lightening in the bottle with the one book or if she is such a gifted novelist that she can reproduce such magic again and again.

Winnie-the-Pooh (7y and almost 5y)

General Vibe:

Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne is a collection of stories you will likely recognize, even if you've never read this compilation.  I think I have heard parts of a narrated version on tape/CD, and honestly, as I read this to my kids, I kept thinking that the version on tape was probably better.  Most of A. A. Milne's work, including his collections of poetry, Now We Are Six and When We Were Very Young, is written in a style of a very distinct type of humorous voice, which I find very hard to establish or connect with as a reader.  Many of the poems I had to read 5 or 6 times before I felt I could hear and "perform" the pace and humor of the voice.  So in general I find that his writing rewards repeated attempts at capturing the tenor and tone of the voice--and by the end I concluded that the professionals have done an excellent job with it already.  You want to give each character a specific voice as well but--just because the way it is written--you almost have to rehearse the scene before you read it so you don't get the voices mixed up.  Sometimes the humor connects--there were a couple hearty, surprised laughs that I got out of my kids--but often the humor was of a variety that went straight over their heads.  In one story, for example, they go out to look for the North pole, and Pooh reflects that there is probably a East pole and a West pole as well.

Plots and Characters:

The plots are good--not excellent.  The plots themselves are just enough to hold my kids' sustained attention.  What makes these stories compelling are the characters.

Owl at Home (7y, 4y 9m)

General Vibe:

My family loves reading the Frog and Toad stories, Mouse Soup, and Grasshopper on the Road.  I love everything I've read of Arnold Lobel.  His stories are short, simple, and consistently satisfying in plot, pacing, character development, and humor!  However, this particular volume of stories that center around the character "Owl" are just a little bit too simple.  One story, for example, has a promising beginning when the Owl notices too bumps at the bottom of his bed (my 7 year old said right away, "it's his knees!") and is worried that they might grow big during the night.  He is so troubled and can't figure out what the bumps are that he can't go to sleep and ends up sleeping on his chair next to the fire.  That's it.  Perhaps this book was aimed at a younger audience, but even Frog and Toad is accessible to very young kids and still has satisfying stories that really raise the stakes and resolve the stakes in a satisfying and often humorous manner.  

The Case of the Marble Monster and Other Stories (7y, 4y 9m)

General Vibe:

The Case of the Marble Monster and Other Stories is the only book I know of by I. G. Edmonds but it's a lovely introduction to short, light detective stories with a Japanese flourish.  I remember reading this book as a kid.  Specifically, I remember the story of a poor student who ate plain rice at the same time each day that a cook was frying fish, claiming that the smell added satisfaction to his meal.  The cook heard this and demanded monetary recompense for the "stolen smell."  The judge, who readers follow throughout each case, agrees that the student must pay for the smells.  He takes the money the student gives him and runs it through his fingers making a pleasant clinking noise.  As he makes the noise of the clinking coins, the cook smiles in happiness.  The judge concludes, cleverly enough, that the price of the smell was justly paid for by the sound of the coins.

Plot and Characters

There aren't many reoccurring characters besides the judge who has several distinctive character traits.  For example, my 7 year old pointed out, "whenever his ears turn red--that means he's getting embarrassed."  The stories are great and the solutions are always a bit more clever than one suspected from the beginning.  They are great for my 7 year old who likes to think about the justness of some of the decisions, and they are also interesting for my almost 5 year old who is impressed by the characters and funny business that goes on.  The stories are also quite short and appropriate for my 5 year old.  I usually read two stories and my almost 5 year old is sleeping just about after the first story is over.