War is not Healthy for Children and Other Living Things

Ten million is an enormous number, almost impossible to comprehend, especially in the context of World War I, when it was estimated that ten million soldiers died. Great Britain lost three quarters of a million young men. The brutality of the war, with its trenches and heavy artillery, was well-documented. Steven Spielberg has captured the horror in War Horse, a movie as brutal as it is beautiful. There is a scene in the movie in which hundreds of British mounted cavalry soldiers charge into a line of German machine guns. You see the soldiers riding towards the guns, you see the guns firing, and then you see hundreds of horses continuing to gallop ahead, riderless. There are more horrific battle scenes as well, told through the perspective of a horse. Joey, the titular War Horse, also spends some time on the German side, which allows the filmmaker to show the humanity and inhumanity on both sides. It is also thought that ten million horses were killed in the war. As the mother of two animal lovers, one of whom is an accomplished horsewoman herself, it was hard to watch scenes were horses are treated as expendable tools of war.

What do War Horse and World War I have to do with my first two Newbery books? First, thinking of this cataclysmic war made me feel more charitable toward the Van Loon Story of Mankind, which was written shortly after the war ended. I think the author did a good job trying to have some perspective on this event.

Surprisingly, there is an even stronger connection between World War I and its horses and The Voyages of Doctor Dolittle, the second winner of the Newbery Medal. The author, Hugh Lofting, served in World War I. as a member of the Irish guards. He was in the trenches at the front lines and saw the same horrific events that are depicted in War Horse. Lofting did not want to describe the horrors of war in letters home to his wife and young children and so he created the character of Doctor Dolittle and his ability to talk to animals. The stories in these letters formed the foundation of his Doctor Dolittle series. Lofting also said that he had been so impressed by the behavior of the horses and mules who served in the war that he invented Doctor Dolittle to do for them what was not done for them in the war.

Hugh Lofting created Doctor Dolittle’s imaginary world as an escape from the horrors of war. It is also a pretty nice retreat from the annoyances of daily life.  

From Versailles to River Heights

I am still plodding through The History of Mankind and still having trouble imagining children - even the well-behaved children of yore - enjoying this book. I am actually finding it quite irritating. Mr. Van Loon seems to assume a fairly extensive depth of knowledge while using a narrative tone appropriate for a third-grader. I have also been somewhat taken aback by his apologies for some of the more repressive actions in history. He actually prefaces one statement with the phrase, "In all fairness to the Church, the clergy, and the Inquisition. . . " Perhaps I have seen one too many Monty Python sketches, but I thought the Inquisition was a bad thing (and not only because it was unexpected.)

I did enjoy the chapter on the French Revolution. We visited Versailles this past summer. In addition to the opulence of the place, I was particularly impressed by Le Petit Hameau, the mock farm where Marie Antoinette went to relax away from court. Like the gardens of Versailles, the little hamlet was beautiful. 

However, the idea that Marie Antoinette and her ladies were playing at being milkmaids and shepherdesses while the actual French peasants were starving and rioting for bread is pretty striking.

I still have a bit more to go in the Van Loon book, so let's pass the time by talking about my library. One thing that hubby and I have in common is our love of books. Even after we have read them, we remain attached to them, so much so that we looked around one day and realized that our books were everywhere. Luckily we didn't actually have to make a choice between books and our children because around that same time, our older daughter took her first little flight out of the nest and into her own apartment, opening up some room in the house. After a trip to IKEA and to Lazy Boy and some spirited discussions about theories of library organization and shelving (I'm not kidding), we had created my favorite room of the house. It is reserved for reading and relaxation. I do like the way the books look on the shelf, but our books are certainly not just for show. They are well-read and well-loved. It is an eclectic collection because although hubby and I have a love of books in common, our specific taste in reading material is somewhat different. Hubby reads science, math and science fiction and I love history (except apparently Mr. Van Loon's version), fiction and children's literature. You will also find another major difference between us. Hubby only puts books in the library once he has read them while my library additions are sometimes more aspirational. I know that I will get around to reading all of these books someday!

I do have many books I have already read including many nostalgic selections. 

This shelf contains a few books from a series called The Best in Children’s Books. They generally included short stories, fairy tales, and excerpts from longer books. I really enjoyed them as a kid, but have even more of an appreciation for them as an adult. Here is a fun blog post, including several examples of the cool illustrations. 

The other books on the shelf are Nancy Drew books. I cannot tell you how much I loved these books, featuring River Heights girl detective Nancy Drew. I devoured them (and wanted to devour the delicious-sounding food Nancy's housekeeper Hannah was always preparing.) I don't remember when I stopped reading them, but I do recall that it got to the point where I could read one in about half an hour. I also enjoyed the late 1970’s TV series that alternated between Nancy Drew mysteries and Hardy Boy mysteries, but that had less to do with Nancy Drew than with the fact that Shaun Cassidy and Parker Stevenson were dreamy. 

Shaun, Parker and I will see you soon.

New Year's Resolutions

I like lists and I like new beginnings. The beginning of each year finds me making lists and resolutions, all in the hope of becoming a healthier, thinner, fitter, more productive person, but it doesn't always work. The fitness goals falter because I am generally lazy, but  I also blame cedar pollen, which fills the Austin skies with a yellow haze and reduces me to a sneezing, itchy-eyed, energy-sapped dud every January.
This year I came up with a resolution that is much more appealing than diet and exercise and can be accomplished indoors - reading! I have been collecting books for a couple of years now and have focused on Newbery-award winning children's books, but I have not read them, so that is the project and the resolution. I will read the Newbery books in chronological order. I would love to do it in a year, Julie and Julia-style, with the thought of a future movie documenting my race to the finish, but there are 90 Newbery-medal winners and I am not sure that reading has enough drama to have movie potential. Can you picture Meryl Streep in a chair, turning pages faster and faster as the calendar approaches December 31? Me neither.
So I embark on this project, with no hope of movie fame, but much anticipation of what I might find between the covers of these books, each of which was determined to be "the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year." [You can find more information about the Newbery Medal at the website of the American Library Association.] I have already read a few of the books. I remember From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler with particular fondness from my own childhood. I also had great fun reading Holes, by Austin's own Louis Sachar, with my daughter, but most of these books will be new to me and I am excited to read them.
The first Newbery medal winner, published in 1921, was The History of Mankind, by Hendrik Willem Van Loon.

It is an interesting choice. It is almost 500 pages and follows human history from the time we waded out of the water to World War I.  I am enjoying the book though it is hard to imagine any child seeing this book as a treat. Not surprisingly, the book has a particularly Anglo and Eurocentric perspective that would probably give a modern historian fits and would have Howard Zinn rolling over in his grave, though Mr. Zinn might be happy to learn that Mr. Van Loon was teaching his young readers about the concept of plutocracy. The chapter on Carthage describes it as  "ruled by a small but exceedingly powerful group of . . . merchants who met in a back room. . . and regarded their Fatherland as a business enterprise which ought to yield them a decent profit." Van Loon noted that this system was only as successful as the economy."As long as there was plenty of work and wages were high, the majority of the citizens were quite contented . . . but when no ships left the harbor, . . there were grumblings and there was a demand that the popular assembly be called together as in the olden days." Hmmmm. . . #Occupy Carthage anyone?
As I write this, 150 pages into the book, Carthage is gone and the Roman Empire has fallen. I am looking forward to this journey. Feel free to travel with me.