Honor in all Seasons

“Yes, I remember those red poppies!” Eyes bright with recognition, an elderly friend reached for my book and eagerly turned the pages.  Soon others in the lobby of the assisted living center joined her. They had stepped back in time to greet a woman who turned a simple red flower into a tribute of thanks.

THE POPPY LADY: Moina Belle Michael and Her Tribute to Veterans by Barbara Elizabeth Walsh, paintings by Layne Johnson, Calkins Creek, 2012

Moina Belle Michael was a determined woman. In WWI women were limited in what they could do for the war effort, but Moina helped wherever she could. She knitted socks and sweaters, rolled bandages, and gave enlisted friends and students who were going overseas little remembrances to take with them. 

That was not enough. Moina delivered books, candy, and magazines to the nearby camps, invited boys home to dinner, and saw them off at the train station.

Moina wouldn't stop there. She trained to be a canteen worker for the YMCA. At the completion of her training, she was told she was too old to go overseas. Her age? 49.

Moina would never be classified as a quitter. If she couldn’t go with the soldiers, she would help them before they left.  She set up a comfortable gathering place in the basement of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall for soldiers, sailors, marines, and secretaries to rest and relax during their free time.  Moina decorated the space with fresh flowers, became a good listener to those who wanted to talk about home, and wrote notes and letters to their families and sweethearts.

Still, Moina wanted to do more. A poem by a physician who served in the war but could not save everyone on the battlefields of Flanders inspired her. Then she saw a picture of the field of red poppies covering the graves. No names on the cross markers. No way to know who slept beneath the red poppies at Flanders Fields.

When she set her mind to something, Moina Belle Michael did it. She made her own pledge, to always wear the “poppy red”  “in honor of our dead,” the “poppies of Flanders Fields.”

Veteran’s Day and Memorial Days are set aside for us to remember those who put their lives on hold or gave them up entirely so the rest of us can live in freedom. We can honor these brave men and women on other holidays in other seasons, too. 

Some who have seen the trailer for The Poppy Lady, or read a review, or held an actual copy in hand, see this as an opportunity to tell their children of the sacrifices made to keep them safe today. As a Thanksgiving  memorial, what better way to show our thanks than to present a book like The Poppy Lady  to a children’s school library? It’s a lasting gift that will serve teachers who plan Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day events.

The trenchant paintings of illustrator Layne Johnson lead the reader into the midst of each crowd, whether it be soldiers on a train, in the heat of the battle, or relaxing in the room Moina prepared for them. His cross marked battlefield of red poppies is absorbing, a time for reflection. Johnson is also the creator of the stirring trailer on the author’s web page.

 

The play of expressions across Moina’s face, a tribute to the illustrator’s talent, captures the reader’s imagination. What was it like to sit across from this woman and tell her of home?

Author, Barbara Elizabeth Walsh, discovered the answer to this question

when she was ten years old and found a postcard written to her mother and signed “Pat’s Poppy Lady.” Who was this lady? Why was this note, written during WWII on behalf of her father, so important to her mother? Walsh was determined to find out. This fascinating story is related in a video featuring  the author, Moina Belle Michael’s two great nieces, and the author’s father, Pat Antrilli, still remembering fondly fifty years later the kindness of the Poppy Lady. 

As the author researched and came to know this incredible woman, her admiration grew. Those who visit the author's web page will see a recent addition to the page. The author's home in Mantoloking, NJ incurred a great deal of storm damage from Hurricane Sandy.  Her comments will inspire anyone unable to escape the wrath of a natural disaster. It is as if the courage of Moina Belle Michael has come to the aid of her biographer. Like Moina, author Walsh is not a quitter. Readers could choose either woman--or both--as role models.       

 

Families who don’t know what to give grandparents or great-grandparents who seem to have everything, take note. The Poppy Lady is a warm reminder that a grateful nation remembers. Senior citizens’communities and assisted living centers usually have libraries, too.  Vivid art and the larger type of a children’s picture book are easy on aging eyes.

One senior whose eyes lit up at sight of this book recalled seeing poppies sold on every street corner when she was a little girl. Her parents told her the money was used to benefit veterans. It delighted her to know that the author of The Poppy Lady has directed that a portion of this book’s proceeds will support Operation Purple, a program of the National Military Family Association, which benefits children of the U. S. military.

The red poppy remains a strong symbol. The story behind it, its meaning, and the young woman whose motto was “Whatsoever your hands find to do, do it with all your might.” is well crafted in this moving biography.  

 

She Called Him Papa

We often celebrate the accomplishments of single mothers, and so we should. Their roles are difficult. The paths of single dads are also rocky and steep.

FISHERMAN’S DAUGHTER, Patricia Nikolina Clark, Bridgeline Books, 2012

This is not a contemporary story, but it rings with the truth of family bonds that bind generations.

The year is 1922. 11 year old Katia longs for a life much different from the life of her mother who died four years ago. Katia wants to stay in school, to read, to write poetry, to become a teacher. Her papa has decided she should stay home and care for the family which includes five year Annie who, until recently, lived with relatives.

Although the rugged setting for this novel is harsh, it is filled with promise. In the early 1900s hardy immigrants from Yugoslavia (now Croatia) settled in California on the coast north of San Francisco. They came for the same reason so many came during those years, to build a better life for their families. Inspired by her mother’s life in the richly described coastal area now preserved as the Point Reyes National Seashore, the author drew upon details from lives like her own grandfather who pioneered commercial fishing in Tomales Bay, in a string of sandy coves remembered as “Little Yugoslavia.” Armed with firm religious beliefs and fishing skills, these pioneers adapted, survived, raised families, created homes and took root in an isolated area readers will enjoy discovering.

Parents who choose this book for their tweens and young teens will appreciate the relationships and interactions within this brave family. Katia’s siblings, Papa’s brothers, a distant maternal aunt and her scheming husband, and the impact made by the new school teacher keep the plot spinning but it is the interactions that keep the reader wondering how it will all turn out.

Katia’s struggles as she makes a number of major decisions beyond her ability are authentic. The courage with which she handles each set back reflects the “good stock” from which she has come.

Papa is tough, not rigid. Honest. Caring. In one of her poems, Katia relates the many names by which her father is known in this new land:  Immigrant. Fisherman. Widower. Captain. Hero. She concludes that no name is better for capturing her father’s goodness than the one she calls him, “I called him Papa.”

Patricia Nikolina Clark has been writing for children for more than 20 years. In Fisherman’s Daughter she shares evocative photos from her family albums and pays tribute to the love, faith, and determination that kept the families of her ancestors strong.

I could easily have chosen this book by its cover. Picture me on a sidewalk with a littering of gold and crimson leaves. It’s fall in a small town, any small town which still has an inviting little bookstore and a tinkling bell to announce me. “Just looking,” I say to the owner who pokes his head above a glass case filled with treasures. I amble down the rows of bookshelves and lose myself. When I find Fisherman’s Daughter, the cover alone makes me want to bring it home.

Happily, the promise of the cover is kept by the author and her story. 

A Nation of Immigrants

What does it mean when we hear political ads and campaign speeches calling our country a nation of immigrants?

 

HOPE AND TEARS, Ellis Island Voices, by Gwenyth Swain, Calkins Creek, 2012

Voices mixed in essays, stories, poetry, prose poems, and plays trace the chronology of Ellis Island, entry to the land of opportunity for so many of our ancestors.  One quarter of all Americans have an ancestral link to Ellis Island which was open from 1892-1954.  Peak years were 1903-04 when it’s thought five-thousand men, women, and children may have passed through each day.

Those who served the immigrants faced interesting challenges. Cooks struggled to feed people from diverse backgrounds. Religion or culture or lack of familiarity with available foods made it difficult to plan menus everyone could or would eat. Imagine seeing a bowl of spaghetti for the first time and thinking it’s a bowl of white worms!

Inspectors didn’t speak the many languages they heard from the throngs of people they had to process.  One inspector suggested a smile can be helpful in any language.

 

Nurses wanted to kiss babies to comfort them but were told not to, for fear of picking up a contagious disease. (Some did it anyway, when they thought no one was looking.)

The author visited Ellis Island to research and write the stories and to gather historical images and take photographs. You can visit, too at excellent library and history web sites. The bibliography includes books for young readers.

As one would expect from both author Swain and imprint, Calkins Creek, the material is well researched and documented with a reader-friendly index.

Ellis Island is no longer an immigration point, but a museum with a library and an oral history collection. As the book draws to a close, “Lisa”, a National Park Service Employee, wonders as the museum  closes for the day, whether there might be spirits in the shadows. Would anyone want to spend the night there? Probably not.

After you listen to the voices on each page, revisit the faces. They will stay with you a long time. Are they frightened? Are those tears from exhaustion or from mourning what was left behind? What are they thinking? What are they hoping? Here’s food for thought at your next family dinner table.

 

Guess Who’s Writing For Kids Now?

TV stars, members of the royal family, first ladies, and many other celebrities have added “children’s author” to their resume’s. It must be important work or so many famous people wouldn’t be willing to pursue it when they are already successful in their own fields. And now, rabbits are writing.

MR. AND MRS. BUNNY—DETECTIVES EXTRAORDINAIRE! By Mrs. Bunny, Translated from the Rabbit by Polly Horvath, illustrated by Sophie Blackall, Schwartz & Wade Books, 2012

I love this book! It’s a family read-aloud. Before you object that this would never take place in your family of different ages and stages (“What? You want us to read together a book about rabbits?”), picture yourselves crammed into a stuffy motel room during a rainstorm at the beach. A desperate situation requires desperate measures. Try it. Read the first chapter or two aloud to your family, and see what happens. I’m writing as fast as I can to nominate this hilarious mystery for your games and book bag.

Mr. and Mrs. Bunny find middle schooler Madeline sitting glumly in the middle of the road pondering her next move in order to find her missing parents. What luck!  Mr. and Mrs. Bunny (“for so they are called,” Mr. Bunny says, often) have just decided to become detectives. A deal is struck and off they go. It’s during this exchange that Madeline realizes she is speaking Rabbit. This comes in handy as you might imagine.

Madeline’s hippie parents who want to be called Flo and Mildred instead of Mom and Dad have been kidnapped by foxes, led by the cruel and chilling titan of industry, the Grand Poobah. The Grand Poobah and fellow foxes learned about humans by studying TV sitcoms.  They speak English because they think humans are too stupid to learn how to speak Fox. After all, humans have not figured out who the owners of Fox Television really are.             

The foxes want a code cracked and so does everyone else. The plot depends upon it. The most likely code cracker is Madeline’s loopy Uncle Runyan, but he slips into a coma on purpose because he says this always helps plots on TV.

Meanwhile, nurturing Mrs. Bunny thinks all human children are orphans because in the children’s books she reads, the parents have died. She doesn’t come right out and say this, but the reader will sense that Mrs. Bunny would adopt Madeline if she could. Problem: Madeline doesn’t fit inside their lovely hutch with light blue shutters and a light blue door. Even so, Mrs. Bunny finds that advising a young teen is not quite the same as raising rabbit children.

Parents will laugh out loud at the human interactions between Mr. and Mrs. Bunny.  (Has someone bugged our kitchens and listened in on us?) Paragraph after paragraph has a subtle underlying meaning for someone. Can you imagine what message this sends to children when they see their parents enjoying a book that belongs to kids? Reading is more than fundamental. Reading is fun.

Obviously, it takes a talented writer to master the art of translating from the Rabbit. Polly Horvath, has done this well. She’s already a National Book Award winner (The Canning Season), and her book Everything On a Waffle, won a Newbery Honor. Illustrator Sophie Blackall,  is no stranger to honors, either, having illustrated the Golden Kite winner, The Big Red Lollipop by Rukhsana Khan. Surely, she speaks Rabbit body language (along with Fox, Marmot, and English.) Marmot? You’ll have to read Mrs. Bunny’s account. Be glad Polly Horvath made this book available to the rest of us.    

Oh—and you don’t have to wait for a rainy day at the beach. Read this rib-tickling story on your own. Family members and co-workers will hear you laughing out loud. Of course, they’ll ask why. Before you know it, Mrs. Bunny’s debut novel will be a best seller.

Surrounded by Sound

You’re comfortably settled in a hammock at the beach enjoying musical alphabeasts (see previous post) with your youngest readers and you wish you had something just as engaging to part the sea of boredom sloshing around your young teen(s). Here’s help in the form of sounds for them, too. And it has nothing to do with ear buds.

SOUND BENDER by Lin Oliver and Theo Baker, Scholastic, 2011.

Leo Lomax is a good kid. Life has turned on him, however. He’s 13, his parents have disappeared in a plane crash in Antarctica, and he and his younger brother Hollis are sent to live with an uncle who makes weird look normal. The setting is New York City, but the Lomax apartment and the creepy Uncle Crane’s Brooklyn warehouse (did I tell you that uncle is creepy?) are worlds apart.

Then Leo discovers his power. He is a sound bender. Objects have memory. That memory is relayed to Leo when he touches the object. For all those tourists who wander around antebellum houses opining, “If only these walls could speak,” Leo would be an ideal travel guide. He could tell them what those walls have to say.

Leo and Hollis do not have to change schools when they relocate, and this keeps them grounded in old friendships. Leo’s side-kick and best friend, Trevor, borders on genius. Leo depends on Trevor’s smarts and his compassion, too, as the plot thickens, and the scene shifts to the Pacific tropics. Not to be overlooked is that special place Leo “goes” when objects “speak” to him. Lots of DayGlo colors there!

The villain is sinister and his henchmen may be evil, but the reader will wonder just how evil they really are. They seem to show up and give Leo a helping hand or a tiny bit of affirmation, just when he needs it the most.

Vivid, action-packed perfectly paced scenes have roots in the movie production background of author Lin Oliver. Pitch and timing are part of her craft. She understands how they work together.

Co-author Theo Baker is Oliver’s son. His fascination with sounds from childhood inspired this novel which will engage and intrigue boy or girl readers. Reluctant reader boys especially will be happy somebody pointed them toward this book.

Lots of threads cross and criss-cross in Sound Bender. Some threads still dangle. Leo’s parents’ bodies were never found. Aha! Could a sequel be simmering on the authors’ back burners? Readers will hope so. This one does.

Summer Among the Alphabeasts

Somewhere near you, on this hot and sweltering day, an alphabeast is lurking and rehearsing.

A IS FOR ALLIGUITAR by Nancy Raines Day, illustrated by Herb Leonhard, Pelican Publishing Company, 2012

What, exactly, are alphabeasts?  According to Nancy Raines Day, it’s a creative mix of animals and musical instruments.  

The author revved up her imagination and created a jamboree of jacosity. I can be imaginative, too. I made that word up. But it seemed to fit this fun-filled book.

Picture books, including the ever-popular alphabet books, should always work on several levels, and of course, this one does. Light, happy A-Z rhymes, animals, musical instruments, and an imagination on the loose make this one of those books you’ll be handed by your toddler over and over again. Get ready to read.

To keep yourself sane, think of all those animals and musical instruments YOU could merge. Older children will be only too happy to get in on the madness.  

All the animals, no matter where illustrator Leonhard shows them rehearsing, have a destination. Is it Carnegie Hall? (Only the author knows this!)

The contrababoon serenades a fairly interested looking family of gorillas while the monkey in the apartment next door is not as happy with his similar looking simian, the drumonkey. Wonder why?

Where the sand is hot and cacti offer little shade, the llamaracas hoof it up. Ask your little listeners if they can hear them coming.

Meanwhile back on city streets, the tromboa is all wrapped up in his work. Ask a five year old to tell you the tale of that tail.

The illustrations are wild and wacky. Like the imaginative verse, the artwork will inspire your budding artist to sketch and color his creations, too.

Then strike up the band. On the last page all the alphabeasts come together on a stage under the direction of an exuberant conductor who looks like a penguin. Author Day has not provided him with a verse. Maybe she’s challenging her legion of readers. That’s you. Challenge or not, the author promises, “They make music together like you’ve never heard.”

Now, isn’t it exhilarating to do something besides point and click?

Think Cool!

If your tween or young teen is miserable and moping due to the climbing summer temperatures, here’s a popsicle in book or e-reader form.  This story will transport her far away from the heat and humidity no matter which delivery system she chooses.

SUGAR AND ICE by Kate Messner, Walker & Co., 2010

Claire is a normal 12 year old who loves her life on the farm in Mojimuk Falls, NY. She goes maple sugaring with her parents, swaps made up stories with her kindly grandpa, and creates story lines and plays with her two rambunctious younger brothers.  Not only is she a talented skater, but she enjoys the distinction of being the youngest coach in the Northern Lights Skating Club.  The youngest coach is in charge of the smallest skaters.  Claire spends many happy hours at the skating club with her best friend, Natalie, who, by contrast, is a devoted beekeeper.  

Then Claire is offered a scholarship with Russian skating coach Andrei Groshev. It’s a chance to train with elite skaters in Lake Placid which is an hour and a half away from her home. She agrees and then learns how demanding this can be. For starters, she’s expected to practice in Lake Placid three times a week. Even the full support of family and friends doesn’t stop her wondering if the real competition isn’t between her farm life and her performing life. How can she manage her life and keep the best of both worlds?

And those other skaters?  The “elites”? A working title for this book could have been Mean Girls on Ice.

In spite of the intense personal competition, Claire makes at least three good friends in the skating world. One, Luke, is as excited about math as Claire is. He regales her with his Fibonacci jokes.  Another conflict looms. Claire would love to participate in the MathCounts competition, but skating continues to expand to fill her time.

As Claire spins and twirls on the ice, she’s lifted by the music of her routines, Vivaldi’s Autumn, and the theme song from Raiders of the Lost Ark. When the music stops, her mind is still spinning. It’s difficult to be twelve and have so many choices and so many pressures. Home? Friends? Talents?

Moms don’t have to worry about reading this first.  It could be a good springboard to discussion about the kinds of choices that make people happy.

The author decided to write this book when she took her daughter for a basic skills skating camp at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid. When she saw how intensely competitive sports can be, she also became interested in sports psychology, which runs throughout Sugar and Ice, too.

It's hard to stop with one popsicle. That’s also true of writing a book—or reading one. One always leads to another.

Learn more at the author’s website.