Todd Klein's Blog

Rereading: HORSESHOES AND HANDLEBARS by M. E. Atkinson

Illustrated by Sheila Rose

At the end of her writing career, children’s novel author Atkinson abandoned series books for two standalone stories, this is one, and it’s quite good.

Five children are staying for the summer at a cottage run by a middle-aged woman, Miss Shepperson. Returning for a second year are Guin and Margaret. Guin loves riding, and Margaret also rides, but is more inclined to read and relax. Michael is on his own, and the youngest, but also a fan of horses, and hoping Guin will teach him to ride. Then there are Fabian and Richard, brothers from the city, who are not happy about being in the country, and have no interest in horses, though they do ride bicycles. A rivalry between Guin and Fabian leads to a challenge: a four-day cross-country trek, horses versus bicycles, to see which can get to the end first. It’s a fun idea, and Atkinson makes it more exciting by having Guin unexpectedly entering a point-to-point horse race along the way to help out an ailing cousin. Then one of the horses runs off, and everyone has to search for it, with surprising results.

I enjoyed this, and the illustrations are excellent. Recommended.

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Rereading: THE PHANTOM DEER by Joseph Wharton Lippincott

Published in 1954, Lippincott was ahead of his time in advocating for the preservation of the tiny subspecies of White-Tailed Deer that live in the Florida Keys. This book is about that.

Old Man Hickey lives alone in a cabin he built on Big Pine Key, one of the larger Florida Keys. He gets along by fishing in his skiff and selling what he doesn’t eat. Hickey is close to nature, and loves his world, especially the dwindling population of Key Deer, now less than 100 individuals. There’s a hunting season for them, but the deer’s biggest threat is poaching parties of hunters led by Fat Finney and his dogs in the off-season. Hickey opposes him when he can. One day the old man finds a fawn orphaned when its mother was hit by a car, and decides to try raising the young buck in his cabin. To his surprise, he’s able to get the fawn to drink milk, and soon it’s thriving and following him everywhere.

Hickey’s nephew Jack comes for a summer visit, and at first he seems out of place in the natural world, but the fawn wins him over, and the two youngsters become friends. Jack sends for his dog, Towser, who also fits in well, and the three do a lot to thwart the poachers. When Jack goes back to Miami to school, Towser stays with Hickey.

As the fawn grows, he finally joins his own kind, running free on the Keys, and in time becomes a handsome buck that’s the prime target of Finney and his gunners. Much of the story revolves around their attempts to shoot this Phantom Deer that seems to have wisdom beyond its years, but still the herd continues to dwindle. And Hickey’s getting older, how long can he stave off the guns of Finney?

I love this story, and have since my childhood. In fact, the first time I reviewed it was in 1962 at age 11. I’m happy to say that the Key Deer have long been protected, and current numbers for the herd puts it at over 700, though they are still endangered by habitat loss. I’d like to think Lippincott’s book made at least some difference in their survival.

Highly recommended.

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My Music: FAITH IN DREAMS

Some time in 1980 I began dating Kathy, who had a fine singing voice and played the piano. We sometimes sang together in my apartment with me on guitar (I didn’t have a piano), my songs or songs by others. At some point we created this song together, words by her, melody and arrangement by me. I have a typed copy of the lyrics from Kathy, and I made this song sheet for us to practice with, more elaborate that anything I usually did, but she could read music, so it made sense to put the notes in for her. I recorded it in my living room in September 1980, and I’m happy with the way it came out. Faith in Dreams

Kathy’s lyrics are a celebration of the optimism of youth and a desire to do great things. Sadly, I lost touch with her many years ago, I hope some of her dreams came true.

Faith in Dreams is © Katharine Corcoran and Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Incoming: THE SPECTRE OMNIBUS VOLUME 1

Images © DC Comics

Just arrived, this large hardcover includes issues 1-31 of the original series by John Ostrander and Tom Mandrake as well as a glow-in-the-dark dust jacket. Page count is 888 pages, weight is 5 pounds. I haven’t checked, but I believe I lettered them all, and it was an entertaining run. Includes a new introduction by Ostrander and new additional material by Mandrake. Original retail price is $125, release date is November 4th.

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Rereading: THE AMBER SPYGLASS by Philip Pullman

Cover art by Eric Rohmann

The third book of Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy came out in 2000, and I bought and read it then. I didn’t have good memories of it, and I recall thinking that if the second book, “The Subtle Knife” was somewhat disappointing, this one was more so, and the first book, “The Golden Compass” was the best of the lot. That opinion changed during this reading, so I’m glad I revisited it.

Lyra, the girl who was the focus of the first book, met Will in the second book, each of them with powerful magic instruments. Lyra has her Golden Compass, which allows her to find out many hidden things and get advice on what to do next, while Will has the Subtle Knife, the most dangerous weapon in all the worlds, and also a way to travel from one world to another. At the beginning of this book, Lyra has been captured by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, who is keeping her in a drugged sleep hidden in a cave in the Himalayas, but she and Lyra are the focus of searches by many groups, including a church armed force, an armed force from her father, Lord Asriel, and Will accompanied by two low-level angels and the mighty bear warrior Iorek, Lyra’s friend. There are also witches searching, and another friend of Lyra’s, Dr. Mary from Will’s Oxford. Many of these groups converge, but Will manages to get Lyra away into another world through a door he cuts with the Sublte Knife. Two tiny warrior spies sent by Lyra’s father stick with them, and soon Lyra and Will make a new plan based on what Lyra has learned in her drugged sleep and from the Golden Compass. It’s a frightening plan: they will find their way into the land of the dead so they can help friends and relatives there.

The plan succeeds, and it’s a harrowing journey perhaps second only to Frodo and Sam’s to Mount Doom in “The Lord of the Rings,” and difficult to read. Fortunately we get other stories about Lord Asriel and his planned war on Heaven, and Dr. Mary’s interesting adventures on another world to give us some relief. All the story threads come together in the climactic battle between Lord Asriel’s and Heaven’s forces. What will happen to the children then?

I liked this much better than in my first read, I think then I found the holy war elements hard to accept, but this time through it all worked for me, and I thought the conclusion moving and satisfying. Highly recommended.

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My Music: SUMMER’S GONE

In 1980 I became friends with Brenda Sloan through a mutual friend, and we shared things we had written with each other. She gave or mailed me three poems she’d written. On the typed page is this note: “Written October 1974 – first time away from home. Not really poetry, just talking to myself.” I liked them, particularly the first one, above, and liked it enough to set it to music. Summer’s Gone

I wrote the music and recorded the song in April, 1980 in my home studio using a phase-shifter effect box on both the guitar and voice. I still like the way it sounds. Bee and I remain friends, I visited her in Oregon earlier this year. I think she likes it too.

Summer’s Gone is © Brenda Sloan and Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THE WONDERFUL GARDEN by E. Nesbit

Illustrated by H. R. Millar

Caroline, Charles, and Charlotte have parents away in India, and they live with an aunt and uncle who are rather dull. They’re delighted to learn their Great-Uncle Charles has invited them to stay at his large home for the summer. They’ve never met him, but when they arrive, they find him friendly, though the housekeeper is less so. They’ve heard about this house’s wonderful garden, and it’s beautiful and full of all kinds of flowers and plants, tended by a gardener, from a long line of gardeners in that role.

While exploring the house, the children find several books about flowers and herbs: one explaining how flowers can be used to send messages, the others are very old books using plants for healing and magic spells. They decide to try some of the spells, and surprisingly, they do seem to work, though there are always other more mundane explanations.

While en route to their summer home, the children had met a slightly older boy, Rupert, who was very unhappy with HIS summer lodging with a very strict tutor, and Rupert runs away and ends up in the wonderful garden, where the children help him hide out from the police. Later, their uncle allows Rupert to stay, and the four children have all kinds of adventures with and without the magic spells.

As a child I was disappointed that the magic in this book was not “real,” as it is in some of Nesbit’s books. This one is closer to her non-magic books about the Bastable family, but lacks the clever narration of Oswald Bastable that made those so amusing. Still worth a read and recommended.

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Rereading: THE DIAMOND IN THE WINDOW by Jane Langton

Cover and illustrations by Erik Blegvad

Eleanor and Edward live in an unusual Victorian house in Concord, Massachusetts with their Aunt Lily and somewhat confused Uncle Freddy. The house needs work, and they are well behind on taxes. Aunt Lily does her best, but can’t seem to keep up, and Uncle Freddy, with his obsessions about local authors Thoreau and Emerson, is more hindrance than help.

The children discover a hidden attic room with a remarkable diamond window and two beds, as well as a collection of toys, and for the first time hear about their long-lost Uncle Ned and Aunt Nora, as well as Aunt Lily’s boyfriend Prince Krishna, who all vanished mysteriously before they were born. The window includes a poem that hints of hidden treasure, and Eleanor and Edward are determined to find it and help the family, and once they begin sleeping in the attic room, soon find themselves having unusual magic dreams that involve that treasure. But there’s also a menacing figure that threatens them. Is that who stole away the missing people?

Langton began a long series about the Hall family with this book, combining magic, mystery, and the philosophy of Concord’s native sons in entertaining adventures. Recommended.

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My Music: GOIN’ TO SEE HER

Time Was CD cover, 2007

I started this song in March of 1980, but did not finish and record it until 2002. By that time it was very much about my wife Ellen, remembering our dating days in 1987-89. In 2002 I had gotten back into recording my songs after not doing any of that since the early 1980s, and I had some new tools. I bought a used Harmony electric guitar, partially seen above, but more important was a Boss BR-8 digital 8-track recorder. It had its limits, but worked well for my needs, recording one or two tracks at a time in synch with whatever had already been done. It included a digital drum machine, used on this song, and once all the tracks were recorded, I could mix them on my computer after importing them. The guitar played through the BR-8’s digital amp, which had lots of different sounds I could choose from. I still used my acoustic guitar as well, but these recordings were more complex and fun to put together. Here’s the song: Goin’ To See Her.

In 2007 I put together a new CD of these new and some older songs that I had for sale on my website for a while, but there wasn’t a lot of interest, so I no longer do that. All the songs I wrote or co-wrote have already or will soon be on my blog in this series.

Goin’ To See Her is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

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Rereading: THOMASINA by Paul Gallico

My copy does not have a dust jacket, I found this image online, so I don’t know who the artist is.

Mary Ruadh MacDhui lives with her father Andrew, a veterinarian, in the small Scottish town of Inveranoch. Mary’s mother died a few years earlier when she was very small. The doctor employs a live-in housekeeper, Mrs. McKenzie, and employs an assistant, Wullie, but Mary’s dearest friend is her cat Thomasina, where she places much of the love in her heart. Mary carries Thomasina around with her everywhere, something the cat dislikes, but puts up with because of her own love for Mary. Some of the story is narrated by Thomasina herself, so we know what she thinks.

Andrew MacDhui is a difficult man, often angry and short-tempered. He feels he missed his calling, wanting to be a doctor of people, but pushed instead to follow his father’s profession of veterinarian. He has never recovered from the hurt of his wife’s death, though he loves Mary dearly. He’s the only vet in town, so the people come to him, despite his temper and harsh words, and apparent lack of love for the animals themselves.

One day Thomasina has a fall onto her back, and the next day she’s unable to stand or move her hind legs. Tearful Mary brings the cat to her father, sure he will make her well, but the doctor is busy trying to save the life of a blind man’s dog hit by a car. Taking a quick look at Thomasina, he declares she has no hope of recovery, and tells his assistant to put the cat to sleep and put the body out back to be disposed of later. Mary is distraught and hysterical, but her father is too busy to take much notice. Thus a great tragedy falls hard on Mary, who vows to never again speak to her father, and she begins to waste away. Other children rescue the body of Thomasina and they hold a wake for the cat, burying it in the forest, where it’s discovered by Lori, a young woman considered by the town to be a witch. She’s a good but simple person who is a friend and healer to wild animals, and when she uncovers Thomasina, finds the cat is still alive, and is soon able to move normally. Thomasina has forgotten her past and has been dreaming of the cat-gods of ancient Egypt, and she now believes herself to be one of them. She takes up a new life with Lori and other animals in the forest home.

Thomasina does somehow know that Andrew MacDhui is her hated enemy, and when the doctor comes to Lori seeking help with his ailing Mary, begins to plot a revenge. Andrew finds Lori not what he expected, and he begins to help her with her injured animals, but what can she do about a heartbroken girl?

The Disney film of this book captures the essence of the story well, but the book has lots more to enjoy, and is beautifully written. Highly recommended.

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