Six Degrees of Separation: From Life After Life to The Luckiest Girl

Six Degrees of Separation is a monthly link-up hosted by Kate at Books Are My Favourite and Best. Each month a book is chosen as a starting point and linked to six other books to form a chain. A book doesn’t need to be connected to all the other books on the list, only to the one next to it in the chain.

This month it’s a wild card – the chain begins with the book that ended our July reading, which means that my starting book is Life After Life by Kate Atkinson (2013).

Helen Keller's Teacher by Margaret Davidson #1965Club

This is my final entry in the #1965Club, which collected reviews of books published in 1965.

Who else remembers this iconic cover?

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper #1965Club

The 1965 Club is a meme in which two prolific bloggers, Simon from Stuck in a Book and Karen from Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings, promote a specific year of published books. Anyone can join in by reading and reviewing a book published in 1965 and adding a link to that book's review in the comments on Simon's blog.  1944,1968, 1951,1977 have also been promoted.

Title: Over Sea, Under Stone
Author: Susan Cooper
Publication: Atheneum, hardcover, 1965 (paperback reprint 2000)
Genre: Children’s fiction/fantasy

Plot: Simon, Jane, Barney, and their parents travel to Cornwall for a holiday with their Great Uncle Merry. He has rented an old house in the village of Trewissick that comes with a friendly dog, Rufus, and a seemingly jolly housekeeper, Mrs. Palk. On their first excursion, the children discover a mysterious yacht and make an enemy, an unexpectedly hostile local boy. They also explore the house and find a hidden door that leads to a fusty musty dusty attic, in which they are lucky enough to find a secret map tucked under the floorboards. It is delightfully ancient with Latin inscriptions, and is so clearly a treasure map that the children instinctively agree not to tell their parents they found it. However, their attempts to search for what they optimistically hope is King Arthur’s grail bring them into dangerous contact with menacing individuals who want the unknown loot for themselves. As the children fight to locate and save the treasure, Great Uncle Merry turns out to be the key to the vanquishing their rivals in a surprisingly dark introduction to The Dark is Rising series.

Audience: Fans of juvenile fantasy or classic 20th century English adventure stories

credit: Alison MacAdam, NPR

My Impressions: Cooper’s first book is a family adventure with only hints of fantasy in it: is the sought-after treasure King Arthur’s grail and do the dark enemies in pursuit have supernatural powers? I enjoyed Over Sea, Under Stone as a child but had forgotten both how scary it is for the children when the bad guys are after them (especially when they are separated and being pursued or have been kidnapped alone) and how different this book is from subsequent entries in the series, which are straight fantasy. It was obvious that Cooper’s style and interests had evolved but in this edition she actually explains that she wrote the book in response to a competition honoring E. Nesbit, which sought a “family adventure story” in return for a £1,000 prize and publication. The Arthurian elements emerged once she began writing and, as in many such stories, the parents are either gone or primarily absent.

I met Cooper, who lives in Greater Boston, on two occasions but unfortunately they were the type of crowded autographing sessions where you barely get time to murmur your admiration. It is interesting that her second marriage was to Hume Cronyn, who performed, with his then wife Jessica Tandy, in the Broadway production of Foxfire, which he co-wrote with Cooper.  The two couples became friendly, stayed in touch, and consoled each other later on.

Source: I bought a Puffin paperback on a family vacation to Bermuda when I was 11. I hope it is not lost but it certainly isn't on the shelf with its siblings.  I had to get a copy from the library when I had a yearning to reread.  If you have not read this series, it is not too late, even for adult readers.

Off the Blog: Today, I was doing a presentation on credit building earlier to a group of Hispanic elementary school parents in East Boston.  Someone was there to translate my English to Spanish but it was challenging to simplify the concepts so they wouldn’t get lost in translation yet still get the message across.

More on 2018 Reading

In 2018, I read 177 books in various formats or 57,618 pages (this does not count the books you pick up to check one thing, although sometimes that leads to several chapters). Most of these were some kind of mystery or suspense (50 adult, 7 romantic suspense (adult), and 6 juvenile or YA suspense). My next most read genre was 32 Young Adult novels (including fiction, fantasy, and suspense). Next was 29 historical fiction (including 5 YA and 5 juvenile).

I listened to 20 audio books (primarily in the car on weekends or on short trips). To my surprise, I read 29 books electronically. This is not really my preference but a lot of my review copies are PDFs or ebooks these days, and occasionally I find books are available at the library only in ebook format. By adjusting the font size on my Kindle, I can read while I run (slowly) at the gym but it is a surly gadget, always with a low battery.

Best Audio: The Thief, Kill the Boy Band, The Wright Brothers

Multiple Author Reads:
5 – Nicci French, K. M. Peyton (this included rereads)
4 – Jill Shalvis (write a book about a group of friends and you may draw me in to read several)

Cotton in My Sack (Book Review)

Title: Cotton in My Sack
Author/Illustrator: Lois Lenski
Publication: Dell Yearling paperback, originally published 1949
Genre: Children’s fiction

Plot: Joanda, age 10, is part of an Arkansas sharecropper family on the Cotton belt. Children help their parents pick cotton and school only takes place in the off season. It is a hard life but it is all the Hutley family knows and they have fun together despite their hard work and financial worries. The sharecropper life is very bleak for Joanda’s parents: they don’t see any escape and do not know how to save so are constantly at the mercy of unexpected disasters such as illness or can’t pay for daily living expenses due to their own feckless spending. Yet the Hutley parents are good people, well-liked by their peers, respected for their work ethic, and compassionate toward others. The story is told from Joanda’s perspective as she becomes more perceptive and begins to glimpse how the work done by her father and others fits into an economic system its participants are unaware of.

Ricky Hutley gets hit by a tractor - no health insurance!

Audience: Lenski wrote this story at the request of Arkansas children who had admired her Newbery Medal winner, Strawberry Girl. I don’t remember reading it as a child, although if it was in my library I probably did, but I see so much more in the story as an adult reader: the feckless yet well-intentioned father, the teacher trying to save the Hutley family’s pride yet provide a nourishing hot lunch, the kind uncle instilling savings lessons in the family that likes to spend every penny it earns on junk.

My Impressions: As an adult I was interested in Lois primarily in her role as illustrator of the first four Betsy-Tacy books but enjoyed a recent biography, Lois Lenski: Storycatcher. This described Lenski’s American Regional series, a group of 17 books, of which Cotton in My Sack is one. Lenski began writing these books in the 40s, setting them in different parts of the United States to show how real children lived – initially, regions she observed while driving to Florida but later she responded to specific requests as she did here, visiting Arkansas twice and picking cotton herself. I enjoyed the book as a slice of Americana and found the description of rural farming and sharecropping fascinating but sad. Joanda herself is a bright girl who loves words and books. Her home has newspapers pasted on the wall instead of plaster that she reads:

Joanda loved to read. There were no books or magazines in the house, only the newspapers on the wall [instead of plaster]. The words – strange words she did not know the meaning of – had a fascination for her. She used to ask Daddy to explain what they meant. But he couldn’t – he only went to third grade, he said.

Later a kind teacher lends Joanda a pioneer story she brings home to read aloud with her father:

The book told of hard work and courage and struggle. It had happiness, meanness and sorrow in it. At the sad parts they all cried. Daddy and Joanda read each evening after school until the end was reached.
“It sounds like real to me,” said Daddy. “I feel like I know them folks somehow.”
“That’s ‘cause they’re just like us. They had the same troubles in them days too,” said Mama. “We’re not the only ones had it hard.”

This was Lenski's reason for writing such books - to show these children there were families like theirs with similar challenges.  Joanda’s teacher would have been gratified to know how much the Hutleys liked the book, but unfortunately Joanda drops the book in a mud puddle and is too terrified to return to school. Of course, I thought about the lost library book in All-of-a-kind Family and the kind librarian who works out a payment plan with Sarah to save the family’s pride. In fact, Joanda could have paid for the book from her cotton picking money but the children are allowed to squander their earnings on Saturdays.

Joanda is surprised to learn the landowner's wife has financial worries too

Along with the spoiled toddler, this is the most upsetting part of the book – watching the Hutleys carelessly spend their money at the Goodwill store every week while the father goes off to get drunk. Fortunately, Mrs. Hutley’s uncle is as worried as I am about the family’s future and comes up with a scheme to help them focus on savings. Given that my job is all about asset building for low-income residents, I felt that Uncle Shine and I were working together on this feckless family!

Source: I recently picked up a copy of this book for my friend Nicole but naturally had to read it before giving it to her. While Lenski’s books are not fun the way the Betsy-Tacy books are, I enjoyed this and recommend it.

Images copyright to the publisher

Campion Towers by John and Patricia Beatty #1965Club

Title: Campion Towers
Author: John and Patricia Beatty
Publication: Macmillan, hardcover, 1965 (now available as an ebook for $2.99)
Genre: YA historical

Plot: When 15-year-old Penitence Hervey travels from Salem in the Massachusetts Bay Colony to England, she arrives in 1651 as the country is still embroiled in Civil War. As a Puritan, Penitence is wary of her new family, the Killingtrees of Campion Towers who are unabashed Cavaliers, and she agrees to spy on them for Cromwell. Her relatives are unfriendly: her grandmother is dying and mistakes her for her deceased mother, her grandfather is furious to see her, her aunt is critical, her cousin Douglas is a spiteful girl her own age, and they lock her into her room at night. Pen is delightfully flawed – quick to anger and jump to conclusions and less respectful than most girls her age (although, surprisingly, this helps to win over her grandfather). She is also appealingly intrepid and as she explores her home and the Worcester area she learns some of the family secrets, including that her handsome cousin Julian, outlawed by Parliament, is a boon companion of Charles Stuart, the rightful king of England. Soon Pen finds herself caught by the claims of old and new loyalties, inspiring the kind of courage that delights readers and which makes a compelling story with unexpected twists.

Betsy-Tacy Convention, Day 3

All too soon, it was Sunday morning.  Josephine had allowed us to sleep a little later but everyone had started gathering in the lobby. Beyond Domestic Science: Recipes from Betsy-Tacy, and some were mainlining caffeine.  This was a morning that showcased the NewBetsys, including Barb Fecteau as Mistress of Ceremonies!  were finally picking up their soon-to-be treasured copy of the new Betsy-Tacy cookbook.

Josephine Wolff and her mother, Perri Klass (both NewBetsys currently living in New York State), began the morning with a presentation entitled: “Stories About Girls Who Want Curly Hair for Girls Who Want Straight Hair.” This was based on the premise that they, both curly-haired, had been afflicted their whole lives (I started to say they had suffered in silence but I suspect they'd agree neither one is – exactly – silent). They moved on to share both the history of curling appurtenances, incidents we all know well (think: Jo/Meg/sizzle), and the many (mostly hilarious) quotes surrounding Betsy and her hair. Laughter and applause accompanied their delivery. I am still thinking about some of those old-fashioned curling irons which look like something a medieval dentist would use. As my mother has been known to say, “Don’t yearn for time travel: in books the heroine may end up as a member of the aristocracy but it’s more likely you’d be a scullery maid living in an era without Novocain!”

Heather described her "recruitment"

Next up was Heather Vogel Frederick, author of The Mother-Daughter Book Club series and other books, who grew up in Massachusetts, attended college in the Midwest, and lived in Oregon for years before we NewBetsys reclaimed her. Heather told the story about how she became a Betsy-Tacy fan, which gets funnier every time I hear it. As many good stories begin, she was minding her own business, busy promoting her book when Things Started Happening. First, a former listren in the Midwest urged her to read BT and BTT. Then, Heather happened to be speaking at a librarian conference in Portland where she was dangerously close to several of our more spontaneous Betsy-Fans. They accosted the unsuspecting Heather, anxious to persuade her to have her Mother-Daughter Book Club characters read Betsy-Tacy! This was obviously a good idea but might never have come to pass if Heather’s enlightened husband hadn’t urged her to accept an invitation to dinner from our own Radhika. I believe they withheld dessert until Heather agreed to read the whole series. She began to like the crazy women who were holding her hostage (Heather, this is known as the Stockholm Syndrome) although if she really liked them as much as she claimed, I don’t think she would have moved East, do you? Now she is a real member of what my sisters call “your cult” and we are delighted to have her (especially because she has more dignity than the average NewBetsy, and it might rub off on us, or not – see below, reading Forever in the hot tub). Heather interspersed her presentation with letters she has received from fans, some of whom now love Maud Hart Lovelace as well as Dear Mrs. Frederick.

Betsy-Tacy Convention, Day 1

Betsy-Tacy fans from all over the US and Canada headed to the Twin Cities yesterday and today for the 2018 convention, organized by Josephine Wolff, who only a short time ago was a well-read 8-year-old and is now an adult and accomplished member of the RIT faculty.   Although Delta tried to tempt me by offering me $500 to give up my 8:00 am flight, I made it to MSP and found the shuttle bus to the hotel.   It turned out that Mary Gebben, recently moved to Massachusetts from Georgia, was on my flight, along with a congenial family whose daughters (5^th and 7^th grades) attend my alma mater.

Where the Violent Study Club met

The Hawthornes' home

Once at the hotel it was fun to see so many familiar faces!   Lots of hugging!   I had lunch with the inimitable Kathy Baxter, Radhika Breaden, Jan and Mike Sasser, and when you are with Betsy-Tacy friends you forget that you haven’t seen them for 9 years!   We barely tore ourselves away in time to get on the bus for a tour of some key Minneapolis sites.   These included 4941 Lyndale Avenue South, the home of Jimmy and Marbeth Cliff, hosts of the Violent Study Club, and 4649 Dupont Avenue South, home of the Hawthornes (and Sally Day) where Delos proposed to Maud.

My Blog's Name in Childhood Favorites

Desperate Reader spelled out the name of her blog from her collection of Virago Modern Classics and Simon from Stuck in a Book used books from his TBR but I thought I would do it from some of my favorite children's books:

Jonica's Island (Book Review)

Title: Jonica’s Island

Author: Gladys Malvern

Illustrator: Corinne Malvern

Publication: Julian Messner, Hardcover, 1945

Genre: Juvenile Historical Fiction

Plot: Back in 1660 when New York was Nieuw Amsterdam, a struggling settlement on the edge of the wilderness, Evanthus and Hielke Van de Voort were raising a family of six boys. When 13 year old Jonica Kleiger’s ne’er do well father is banished from the village for repeated drunkenness, Jonica is threatened with the almshouse. 

Lois Lenski, Storycatcher (Book Review)

Title: Lois Lenski, Storycatcher
Author: Bobbie Malone
Publication: University of Oklahoma Press, hardcover, 2016
Genre: Biography/Children's Literature

Description: Many 20th century children – including, surprisingly, Oprah – grew up with Lois Lenski (1893-1974) as author and illustrator, and as a writer she expanded the experience of American children by writing regional fiction which depicted the ordinary lives of children from diverse backgrounds throughout the country. In this goal, she was supported by her editors and also by children who read her books and wrote to her, inviting her to come visit their communities so they could share their stories. Lenski won the renowned Newbery Medal in 1946 for Strawberry Girl and probably should have won it for Indian Captive in 1942 (both Indian Captive and Little Town on the Prairie were runners up to The Matchlock Gun (seriously)).

Favorite Reads from 2016

According to Goodreads, I read 142 books in 2016 (this does not include rereads, however - my own calculations indicate that I read 149 books, not to mention that reading four Game of Thrones books is like reading a dozen ordinary books!).  Here are my favorites:

Suspense

The Dead House, Fiona Griffiths, #5 – Harry Bingham
This is the most compelling suspense series you haven’t heard of and I insist you go back and start with the first book in the series, Talking to the Dead. Set in Wales, this one is set against the backdrop of a mysterious monastery. Fiona is an extremely odd but endearing detective whose commitment to victims she is assigned to investigate (and those she is not) takes precedence over everything else in her life. She is also desperate to decipher the secrets of her birth, and it seems likely these two story lines will stay connected as the series continues.

I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh
The despair of Jenna Gray, the main character in this novel of suspense is almost too much to bear and requires occasional application of Kleenex. The story begins with a fatal car crash, then follows Jenna, as she tries to escape from her past in a remote cottage in Wales, while back in Bristol, two detectives are trying to track her down. I liked the detectives and hope the author will return to them in a future book.

Book Scavenger (Book Review)

Title: Book Scavenger
Author: Jennifer Chambliss Bertman
Publication: Henry Holt & Co., hardcover, 2015
Genre: Middle Grade Fiction

Plot: Emily’s father idolizes Jack Kerouac and On the Road and both parents are determined to live in each of the 50 states although Emily longs to stay in the same school long enough to make close friends. One consolation has been the fun she has with Book Scavenger, a game in which participants hide books and place clues online to lead others to the hiding places throughout the country. When Emily’s family arrives in San Francisco, her landlady’s grandson James becomes a companion in this game and they find themselves in the middle of a puzzle much more dangerous than anticipated.

Audience: Fourth or fifth graders. 

What I liked: This is a fun read full of delightful book descriptions and quirky characters, and the author is clearly a kindred spirit (as demonstrated by mention of some of her favorite books). Readers will relate to Emily’s longing for a friend and sympathize with her as she realizes that being a friend requires sensitivity to the other person’s needs and interests. The mystery is entertaining, and Edgar Allan Poe is the perfect choice to be the centerpiece of an elaborate game by the Book Scavenger creator.  As someone who was always fascinated by scavenger hunts, I yearned to participate with Emily and James.

Bertman was clearly inspired by a classic, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin - although for some reason that I can’t remember I preferred her other book, The Mysterious Disappearance of Leon (I mean Noel) - but both are great reads, and I applaud Bertman for adding to this genre. She doesn’t reach Raskin’s heights but Book Scavenger is well worth reading and I hope to see more about Emily, James, and her brother Matthew.

 

What I disliked: I got tired of James' named cowlick but that is a minor complaint.

Source: The copy I read is from the library but I bought one for my nephew’s birthday and coincidentally his mother bought him another (great minds think alike - we also bought the same book for her daughter's birthday)!  My nephew James enjoyed it and is looking forward to a sequel.  I am eager to hear what others thought about this book.

Note that this book was edited by Christy Ottaviano.  She is a fellow Radcliffe Publishing Course alumna and I remember being pleased when she got her own imprint at Holt.  She is very talented and I should read all the books she edits, were there world enough and time. . .

Green Gables, Prince Edward Island

Anne of Green Gables has been one of my favorite books since I was 11, 

and I finally made it to Green Gables in July!

"It would give me such a thrill, Marilla, just to wear a dress with puffed sleeves."

Anne's room was just as I imagined it.

We walked through the garden to the Haunted Wood...

where we met Anne Shirley, strolling by...  

Looking back at Green Gables from the Haunted Wood

Which Anne of Green Gables character are you?  

I was afraid I might be Rachel Lynde, based on some of my 

answers, but I am Anne, of course!

Visiting Lucy Maud's grave

For my Top Ten Anne Shirley-Gilbert Blythe 

Most Romantic Moments, 

click here. 

Someone is Watching

My younger sister gets an email from the school library every time her six year old checks out a book.  This would have infuriated me as a child because I liked reading books adults often thought were too old for me.   I remember three specific incidents:  in third grade I was reading The Fellowship of the Ring, and although my mother had read The Hobbit to my middle sister and me I suspected she might think this book was too scary or over my head[1] so I kept it tucked in my desk drawer with a red felt pen I used to write down an occasional vocabulary word.  On Teacher’s Night, Mrs. Freilich[2] exposed my secret to my parents!  I think my mother was amused and my father reclaimed his pen (which were apparently banned at school, although no one had told me) but I certainly never trusted her again.

The next year my parents were duly waiting their turn behind a husband and wife they knew very slightly.  These people were complaining that someone in the class had given their daughter an extremely unsuitable book.   Somehow my mother guessed it was me and waited apprehensively to see what it had been. Then Miss Barnes said audibly, “Maybe Suzanne wasn’t quite ready for The Secret Garden but it is a lovely book she will enjoy some day.”   See, I was just helping her improve her mind!   Miss Barnes and I did not always see eye to eye but she read aloud often and introduced me to some wonderful books:  On to Oregon, The Black Stallion, and The Phantom Tollbooth (this latter became such a favorite I chose it to giveaway in World Book Night last year.

Later, in seventh grade, at a new school where the library contained little new fiction but was full of Mary Stewart, Victoria Holt, and religious-themed books like Miracle at Carville, I discovered Anya Seton and became entranced by her masterpiece, Katherine.   I must not have been very good at concealment because, thinking the book was very racy based on the cover, I hid it under my pillow where my mother, innocently changing the sheets, found it.  I came into my room to find her curled up with John of Gaunt, and she happily told me she had read that book the year she finished high school when it was serialized by the Ladies Home Journal.   The only remonstrations I ever got from her regarding my choice of books was her desire that I would not race through an author too quickly, denying myself the pleasure of anticipating a delightful read. 

---

[1] My mother would not have been totally wrong.  I had read Carolyn Haywood’s book, Primrose Day, the previous year, which features an English girl named Merry (and inspired my interest in evacuation stories).  As a result, I thought Tolkien’s hobbit Merry was a female hobbit.  There were plenty of male possessive pronouns but I airily dismissed those as typos and wondered about a possible romance between Merry and Pippin for some time.   I paused in my reading when Gandalf fell in the Mines of Moira and did not return to the Lord of the Rings until I turned 11 or 12.

[2] She already had a conflict of interest issue that had been unaddressed.  She had previously taught the other first grade section and one of her students, Laura Rabinowitz, who later attended Brown, was a flower girl at her wedding.  Fourteen months later, Mrs. Freilich began to teach third grade and Laura was in our class!  Favoritism resulted.

What to Read in a Blizzard or During the Long Winter

My part of Boston got about ten inches of snow yesterday so it's the perfect time to recommend some winter favorites!  These are books that would make you feel the cold even if it were a warm July day.

Children's:

Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik (illustrated by Maurice Sendak) - This is one of the first books I remember, and I can hear my mother's voice reading to me:  It is cold.  See the snow. See the snow come down.  Little Bear said, "Mother Bear, I am cold. See the snow.  I want something to put on."

Snowbound with Betsy by Carolyn Haywood - Several years before I encountered Betsy Ray, I had met this other Betsy, an outgoing girl with pigtails and (later in the series) a little sister named Star.  I read every book by Haywood several times and even named my Teddy Bear after a minor character.  In this book, a storm cancels school the week before Christmas and some travelers are stranded at Betsy's home.   

Winter Cottage by Carol Ryrie Brink - A father and two daughters, down on their luck, appropriate a Wisconsin summer cottage when their car breaks down.  The father tries to repair their fortunes by entering contests while teenage Minty yearns for a permanent home.  Along with Two are Better Than One, this is my favorite Brink.

Through a Brief Darkness (Book Review)

Title:  Through a Brief Darkness
Author: Richard Peck

Publication Information: Viking Press hardcover, 1973

Genre: Juvenile Suspense / Young Adult Suspense

Plot:  Ever since sixth grade, Karen has known, deep down, that her father is a criminal, but for years she has been at boarding school and her infrequent contact with him never made it easy to ask tough questions.  Her fondest memory is from a summer in Wisconsin when she was nine, playing with the normal family next door and their 11 year old son, Jay Fielding. The present is dreary and lonely so Karen is startled but intrigued when she is suddenly pulled out of boarding school and sent to England to stay with her deceased mother’s relatives.  But soon she realizes there is something creepy about her English cousins; she’s worried about her absent father; and she is afraid she is in danger – or is she?

What I liked:  Peck won the Newbery Award in 2001 for A Year Down Yonder but his body of work is extremely diverse, some serious and some lighthearted.  This is not one of Peck’s funny books.  It is dark and written in an oddly detached style that adds to the sense of growing dread.  At first Karen is pleased to meet relatives who share stories about the mother she lost when she was three, and she enjoys seeing London, although wishes there were more museums and less shopping with Cousin Blanche. 

There’s something worse, Karen thought, than being in danger.  And that’s being in possible danger.  Not being sure.  Risking the wrong word to the wrong person.

For years she has written letters, but never mailed them, pouring out her worries to her childhood friend Jay.  But when they’d lost touch he’d been talking about going to Eton, so now that Karen is frightened she writes to him at Eton, asking for help.  Once Karen has backup, she is ready to make her escape. 

What I disliked:  The plot relies on a lot of coincidences and people conveniently placed to assist Karen.  How on earth did an ordinary boy from Illinois not only wind up at Eton but also is an admired sixth former?   That seems extremely unlikely for many reasons although Jay is a very charming young man.  And would he really turn up so quickly for a girl he hadn’t seen since he was 11?

Source:  The only copy in the Minuteman System is at Framingham State College.  They ignored my electronic request until I called the reference department, then (astonished) sent it to my branch.  I had never come across this Peck book but think it must have been mentioned on Goodreads, inspiring me to hunt it down.

Holly Hotel (Book Review)

Title:  Holly Hotel: a Mystery
Author: Elisabeth Kyle             Illustrator:  Nora S. Unwin

Publication Information:  Houghton Mifflin Company, hardcover, 1947

Genre: Juvenile Mystery, set in Scotland

Plot:  After 12-year-old Molly Maitland’s father dies, there isn’t enough money to subsidize her home, Holly House, in the Scottish village of Whistleblow.  Afraid her mother will sell the house and move them to Glasgow, Molly tries to persuade Mrs. Maitland to turn Holly House into a small hotel, and she puts up a few notices for visitors as a test.  To everyone’s surprise, several guests appear, beginning with Julian and Jane, affluent orphans sent to the country for fresh air by their uncle.  Several mysteries ensue:  one involves a legendary poet, Mungo Blythe, whose descendant (another Mungo) is on a quest from America to Whistleblow because of a rumor that Blythe an unpublished work hidden in his home town.  Will Mungo Kerrigan find the lost poetic work so he can provide for his mother?  Who is the mysterious Mr. Brown who also seems interested in the lost poems of Mungo Blythe? Will the success of their venture enable Molly and Mrs. Maitland to save their home? 

What I liked:  I read several of this author’s books as a child but never came across this one.  My favorite was Princess of Orange, about the Mary of William and Mary (she was the sister of the Old Pretender).   This book is billed as a mystery for 8-12 year olds set in a whimsical Scottish village.   Sometimes one cannot but be amused by hard-up families in fiction who still can afford a loyal servant.  Here, it is made clear that Mrs. Maitland hasn’t been able to pay Locket, the elderly housekeeper and former nanny, but Locket stays out of loyalty to the family (and does not have anywhere else to go).  Once Molly has lured the first paying guests, Locket makes sure her wages are covered.  There is eventually a financial solution for the Maitlands, and  I wondered if there was a possibility down the road for romance between Molly’s widowed mother and Julian and Jane’s bachelor uncle.

I have come across the art of illustrator Nora Unwin previously but had not realized she was a scion of the famous English publishing family.  Surprisingly, she spent much of her adult life in America, living in Wellesley, MA in the late 50s and then settling in New Hampshire.  She wrote and illustrated 12 books of her own but was primarily known for her illustrations of other books, approximately 100.  She is best known for her collaborations with Elizabeth Yates, author of Amos Fortune, Free Man, a Newbery Honor Book.

What I disliked:  The story is pleasant but very tame.  I love reading about hotels and boarding houses so was more interested in the hotel than in the mythical poet; in addition, the mystery was not extremely absorbing.  I would have enjoyed this book more at 8 or 9, but I doubt I could get any of my nephews or nieces to read it now.  Their appetite for quiet country fiction has been destroyed by action-filled Harry Potter and Rick Riordan.

Source:  This book came from the Woods Hole Public Library, thanks to CLAMS – Cape Libraries Automated Materials Sharing. The librarians in Osterville could not have been nicer as I ordered dozens of books for my nephews to read this month, plus a few for me that are not available at my own library.  Gail, the children's librarian, was especially welcoming to us.

Betsy Was a Junior, Group Read, Part 9 - Finishing Up

Julia’s Career – Although Julia was dropped by the Epsilon Iotas, the sorority relented and voted her in at the last minute. Her talent (she had a significant part in the U’s production of The Mikado) and personality had impressed alumnae as well as the young women who had been rushing her, and at the last minute Norma (from whom Julia had snagged the boyfriend) was persuaded to remove her opposition. Julia wound up pledging and come home to Deep Valley to tell the Rays. However, when Mr. Ray told Julia that he and her mother now understood her commitment to music and were willing for her to go to Germany to study music, rather than return to the U for her sophomore year, Julia did not hesitate: “You’ll never be sorry,” she said, turning a joyful face to her father. We have discussed many times the wonderful parenting of the Rays. Julia knows that her father would prefer she used her voice for lullabies and her mother would prefer she stay at the U and enjoy the social life there, but their love and understanding of her goals makes them support her desire to study in Germany despite the expense and distance.

Tar – As has been discussed, Joe had always had to work to support himself and has not had much time for Deep Valley extracurriculars apart from the Essay Contest. This year, the day after the Essay Contest results are announced, Betsy and her friends arrive at school to find that someone has painted PHILOMATHIAN in orange paint on the high school roof. A stripe of tar underneath the letters prevented angry Zets from removing it. Miss Bangeter inspects the shoes of all the Philomathian boys for tar and identifies Squirrelly, Tony and Joe as the culprits. The school and doubtless Miss Bangeter are surprised that model student Joe is involved in this prank, but it is a sign that Joe has gained in confidence and is ready to become a real part of the Class of ’10.

Cab’s Father – The Sibleys host a lovely graduation party for Carney where Betsy hopes to encounter Joe but he has already left to spend the summer making money in the harvest fields. But there is bad news: Cab’s father dies and Cab decides to give up his plan of becoming an engineer to help run the family furniture store. This is the “time to grow up” message that Betsy had not fully absorbed after the disbanding of the Okto Deltas. I don’t recall noticing previously that the funeral was held in the Edwards’ parlor but I know the wakes for my father’s mother and grandfather were held in his home around 1940, not in a funeral parlor (I am sure the actual funerals were held in St. Theresa’s Church in Boston). Do any of you remember funerals or wakes of family members held at home?

Growing Up – Betsy goes to her music lesson and says goodbye to Miss Cobb’s nephew Leonard, who is going to Colorado mountains for his health. When she comes home, she finds a postcard from Joe! It says, “Did anyone ever tell you that you’re a good dancer? Joe.” Perhaps is a sign that Betsy is starting to mature (and that she knows Joe is The One) by the fact that she doesn’t skip about and show it off to her mother or to Julia. Instead she starts thinking about her behavior this past year, about the milestones in her life, and how her friends, such as Cab and Carney, are growing up. She realizes that all their choices are shaping them into the adults they are going to be, and she knows she wants to be a better human being than she has been this year. Betsy starts making one of her famous lists with goals for the future and the book ends with Betsy putting Joe’s postcard carefully into the cherished Uncle Keith’s Trunk.

What a satisfying end to Betsy Ray's tumultuous junior year! The stress and build up to the romantic dance at the banquet, and then the postcard from Joe which is jaunty and casual but sends a message for the future.

Betsy Was a Junior, Group Read, Part 8

Junior year is coming to a close, and a Deep Valley tradition is the Junior-Senior Banquet.  You will recall that Betsy was disappointed not to be appointed to chair a committee for the banquet, but due to the generosity (and perhaps humility) of Hazel Smith, who chaired the Decorating Committee, the trio are fully involved with the planning (which necessitates many meetings and even a sleepover at the Ray house).  The juniors labor to turn the school into a park, and those gifted domestically apparently cook the entire dinner.  Betsy spends so much time planning that she forgets to worry whether Dave Hunt, silent as to his intentions per usual, will turn up to take her to the banquet.  She even wears an old dress (unlike Betsy; also unlike Rosamond duJardin heroines who always have a new formal for every occasion).  Everything is perfect on this special day and evening: Hazel appreciates Betsy’s work planning the banquet; Stan seems to apologize to Betsy for having usurped her spot in the Essay Contest (although it wasn’t his fault he got chosen instead); Joe has created literary menus (I always love these); Stan and Miss Bangeter make great speeches.  Then it is time for dancing and the moment we’ve all been waiting for finally arrives (the moment that even those who don’t like BWAJ eagerly anticipate) when Joe approaches Betsy and says, “May I have a dance, Miss Ray?”   Her dance card is full but Betsy is determined not to wreck this opportunity as she has let others slip away:

In her freshman year he had asked to walk home with her from a party and she had had to turn him down.  After a long time he had asked to walk home with her from the library one evening.  Again she had had to turn him down.

“This would be three times and out,” she thought. “I have to break this jinx.”

She smiled.  “I’m going to give you a dance.  Some of these people who took two can just give one up.”

Joe’s dance card now has every dance marked for Phyllis except the second to last for Betsy.  Georgette Heyer would probably advise him that it is not seemly to dance with a young lady more than twice in an evening even if one is her escort, but we know that Phyllis is indifferent to the opinions of the polite world.   She does not, however, like rivals.  As the news that Joe asked Betsy for a dance spreads through the hall, Phyllis finds out and insists on being taken home.

Betsy is standing by the dance floor, partnerless, wondering if she should go hide in the cloak room when Joe reappears and sweeps her onto the floor, and as they dance Betsy wonders, understandably, what this means in terms of their future relationship.  Betsy knows that Joe isn’t the type to dump Phyllis but because Phyllis is a senior, she will graduate and disappear – leaving lots of possibilities for Betsy and Joe’s senior year.  “He whirled her as she had never been whirled before,” and the reader knows it is the long awaited beginning of Betsy and Joe’s romance and rejoices.

The other good news from the banquet is that Tony attends, dances with all the girls from the Crowd, and promises to come to Sunday Night Lunch.

(image above copyright to Betsy Was a Junior, HarperCollins)