Todd Klein's Blog, page 2

Rereading: BUTTONWOOD ISLAND by Lavinia R. Davis

Davis’s second book and my second favorite after “Hobby Horse Hill.” As you can see, I colored in some of the great Paul Brown line illustrations with crayons in my youth.

Lyb and Sandy Hardwicke are having a great summer. Their mother is recovering from an illness, but home with them again at last, and that means no more governess telling them what to do. Both children have horses they can ride, but Lyb is a bit afraid of hers, Sunny Jim, because he gets rambunctious. Sandy is happy to ride the plodding plow horse. One day they explore an area at the edge of their property they haven’t seen before, a small island in the Black River created recently during flooding. It has a huge buttonwood tree and an old barn in need of repairs. The two decide it would make a great place to visit regularly. Then they’re joined by another boy they haven’t met, Sig, on his horse Mliss. Sig and his father have just moved into the farm next door, also bordering on the island. After initial misunderstandings, the three become friends and decide to form a riding club on the island. But some strange things happen there. Some of Sandy’s Indian artifacts disappear, and a visitor tries to scare them away with tales of the island being haunted by an Indian brave called Black Feather. Then Sig’s horse is frightened and runs away. The children are determined to get to the bottom of these mysteries, even while helping each other with their horses, and taking part in horse shows. It becomes the most memorable summer of their lives, but then they learn the island has been sold. Is their time there over?

Excellent book if you can find it. Some of the Native American-related material like digging for artifacts wouldn’t fly today, but it’s of it’s time.

The post Rereading: BUTTONWOOD ISLAND by Lavinia R. Davis appeared first on Todd's Blog.

My Music: WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU

Written in December, 1979 and recorded soon after, this is one of several songs of mine with a similar theme of longing for love. I think it’s all there in the lyrics. I like the recording and the song, can’t sing or play it as well now, so I’m happy to have this version. Waiting to Hear From You.

Waiting to Hear From You is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

The post My Music: WAITING TO HEAR FROM YOU appeared first on Todd's Blog.

Rereading: THE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS by Dodie Smith

Illustrated by Janet & Anne Grahame-Johnstone

The Disney film based on this book is one of my favorites, but the book itself is also well worth reading, and different enough to keep one guessing even if you’ve seen the film.

Pongo and Missis are a mated pair of Dalmations living with a mated pair of humans they own, Mr. and Mrs. Dearly, in London. Missis is soon to have puppies when an old acquaintance of Mrs. Dearly, Cruella De Vil stops by. A more dreadful person it would be hard to imagine, and she’s dead set on knowing when the puppies will be born, even though the Dearlys say they won’t be for sale.

The puppies arrive, and there are fifteen of them, more than Missis can feed. Mr. Dearly finds a stray female Dalmation who has been searching for her own lost puppies, and brings her home to help with feeding. They name her Perdita. The two female dogs become friends, and all is well for a while, but then one day, while Cruella keeps the housekeeper busy, all the puppies are stolen by two men driving a van. Pongo is sure this was Cruella’s plan. He goes to a nearby hill on their next walk and sends out a call for help on the Twilight Barking network, and the news spreads across London and the countryside beyond. Soon word comes back that the puppies have been seen in a large ramshackle estate house some miles out in the country. Pongo and Missis decide they must set off to try to rescue them. They face many dangers along the way, but are also helped by other dogs who have heard about their plight. When they arrive at the house, they learn it’s owned by Cruella, and find it holds not only their puppies, but dozens more all destined to become dog-fur coats. How can they get them all away from the two bad men and back home? It seems an impossible task.

Highly recommended.

The post Rereading: THE HUNDRED AND ONE DALMATIONS by Dodie Smith appeared first on Todd's Blog.

Rereading: THE LOTUS CUP by Jane Louise Curry

Cover art by Ed Martinez

An interesting but specialized sort of story revolving around a particular setting and trade, pottery making in Ohio. Corry Tipson comes from a line of potters, her great grandfather owned a successful Ohio pottery, her grandfather was a talented artist and potter, but not a good businessman, and by Corry’s generation her family has fallen on hard times. Her father died in an accident when she was young. Her mother makes a small living from baking and decorating fancy cakes for weddings and events, and renting part of the old family home to an elderly couple. Corry is struggling to find her way at school, shy and having a hard time with school work, not sure where her life is going. Then a visit to the local pottery museum sparks a new interest when she finds beautiful work there by her grandfather that she didn’t know about. Gradually, with help from friends and her cousin, she begins to learn how to make pottery herself with the goal of recreating one of her grandfather’s masterpieces. Corry’s mother is not always supportive, and both her male friends are helpful, but competing for her attention. Little by little Corry learns how the old pottery was made, learns about herself and her family, and how to manage the new relationships in her life. Recommended.

The post Rereading: THE LOTUS CUP by Jane Louise Curry appeared first on Todd's Blog.

My Music: LOVE

I wrote this in November, 1979 as a kind of parody of pop music hits that gained attention by repeating a short, catchy melody or lyric over and over. I didn’t record it at the time, didn’t really think much of it to be honest, but unlike many other songs in the same situation, the melody of this one did stick with me. When I was going through those in the fall of 2024 looking for old songs to record, I realized that perhaps the catchy melody did work as intended. So I decided to record it, but to do it in an over-the-top way that I found amusing. Nothing exceeds like excess, as they say. See what you think. Love.

Love is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

The post My Music: LOVE appeared first on Todd's Blog.

Rereading: GALLANTRY by James Branch Cabell

The tenth book in Cabell’s epic “Biography of the Life of Manuel” was originally published in 1907, and revised in 1922 to add references to Manuel and Jurgen, making it part of his epic, just slightly. Unlike other short story collections from Cabell in this series, the ten stories in Gallantry are one continuous narrative time wise, set almost as plays full of witty dialogue, with at least some characters from each story also appearing in the next, and later stories. It takes place in 1750 beginning in England, and moving to France, following a group of upper class, military, and theatrical people through romances, marriages, abductions, escapes, war, and politics. Some of the stories are exciting adventures, others are quieter romances. Cabell’s wit and humor are evident throughout, and his characters are all a bit cynical in an entertaining way. I enjoyed the reread. There’s no magic at all in this one other than the magic of clever tongues and wily characters. For that reason I will only mildly recommend it.

The post Rereading: GALLANTRY by James Branch Cabell appeared first on Todd's Blog.

Rereading: THE COWARDLY LION OF OZ by Ruth Plumly Thompson

Cover and illustrations by John R. Neill

Thompson’s third Oz book, published in 1923, has Baum’s Cowardly Lion as a main character, but he doesn’t show up right away. The story begins in a desert-like corner of Oz’s Munchkin section, where Mustafa, an ill-tempered monarch, collects live lions, and he wants one more: the Cowardly Lion. The sudden arrival of two people in his kingdom give him a plan for that. Notta Bit More is a circus clown working at a small circus in Pennsylvania with a volunteer from the audience, an orphan boy named Bob. Through a mysterious verse that Notta doesn’t know how he knows, the two of them are transported to Mudge, the Oz kingdom ruled by Mustafa. The crabby ruler commands them to find and bring him the Cowardly Lion, who they are shown a picture of in a book, and a magical curse is put on them if they fail or try to run away.

Meanwhile, the lion himself has gone on a quest into a forest near the Emerald City. He is terribly tired of being cowardly, and someone has suggested that if he finds, catches, and eats a very brave person, it will cure him. While he’s not sure about this idea, he decides to try it. The person he captures is Notta the clown, and soon the lion and the two visitors from America begin to work together to try to break the curse and get help from Ozma, who does not allow magic other than under her supervision to be used in Oz. On the way they encounter the usual odd people and places that are a feature of all Oz books, including an island that floats around in the air, a kingdom of doors, one where all the inhabitants are preserved in jars, and giant stone man brought to life by magic. Ozma finally learns of their trouble, but will it be in time before her friend, the Cowardly Lion, is destroyed?

A fun read, a bit more random in plot than Thompson’s previous two Oz books. I generally don’t like clowns, but Notta Bit More is better than most as a character.

The post Rereading: THE COWARDLY LION OF OZ by Ruth Plumly Thompson appeared first on Todd's Blog.

My Music: EASTERN

Me at my desk at DC Comics, 1979, photo by Jack Adler

I wrote this song in September of 1979, and it’s still one of my favorites. The recording is from around the same time in my living room in Highland Park, NJ. While I didn’t live in New York City, I commuted to work there every week day, and perhaps an urge to break away from city life came through in the song, though in an amusing way, I hope. The title refers to it being a western song, but from a different perspective. The song: Eastern.

Growing up, I never made it further west than Washington DC and Pennsylvania until I went by plane to Kansas City in 1970. Then I went to art school there for one semester, and returned the following year for a few months. Kansas City is not really the western range, of course. I didn’t see that until a cross-country drive around 1980, and then only driving through it. I didn’t really experience the west until my honeymoon with Ellen in August, 1989 in the Canadian Rockies.

Eastern is © Todd Klein, all rights reserved.

The post My Music: EASTERN appeared first on Todd's Blog.

Rereading: RIDERS AND RAIDS by M. E. Atkinson

The fifth book in the Fricka series takes place, for a change, all at the country home, Combedene, of Fricka and her father the sculptor, who they call The Bear, and Fricka’s three cousins Hugo, Sugar, and Adrian, taken in by The Bear on the death of their parents. They are home from school after being exposed to whooping cough, and having a fine time. Fricka and Hugo are training their ponies for an upcoming show, Sugar is helping them, and Adrian is making up his own fun.

Fricka and Hugo also hunt with the local group, the Silverton Hunt, and Fricka wants to get them to hunt from Combedene, which has never happened because there aren’t many foxes in their area. Fricka plots to scare the local farmers into thinking there are foxes after their chickens, but then she’s in an accident, rescuing a terrier from an approaching car, is struck herself, and then laid up in the hospital with a concussion. Hugo and Sugar continue with a plan to get the Hunt to come to their home, but the plan keeps going wrong. Will they be able to do it as a gift for Fricka when she gets home?

Fun reading if you like stories about kids and animals, especially horses. Recommended.

The post Rereading: RIDERS AND RAIDS by M. E. Atkinson appeared first on Todd's Blog.

Rereading: BLACK AND BLUE MAGIC by Zilpha Keatley Snyder

Illustrated by Gene Holtan

I’ve read dozens of books by Snyder, and this, her third, is my favorite.

Harry Marco lives with his mother at her boarding house in San Francisco where he tries to help out, even though his clumsiness causes lots of accidents and bruises. His father was a stage magician who died too young, and Harry knows he was supposed to follow that career, but he’s just not good at stage magic, or much of anything involving physical dexterity.

One summer Harry meets a strange little man with a huge suitcase and invites him to come stay at the boarding house. Mr Mazzeeck agrees, and he and Harry become friends. Mazzeeck says he is a salesman, and his suitcase has some very strange contents, like a large sword, and an oil lamp. Eventually Mazzeeck reveals that his items are magical, and that he is an ancient being charged with bestowing magical gifts to heroes that can use them for good deeds. He has been given permission to give one of these gifts to Harry, a small bottle of ointment that causes Harry’s shoulders to sprout large angelic wings, allowing him to fly, if he can manage to learn how without killing himself or letting anyone else know. That’s the challenge that Harry takes on, and it leads to many adventures, thrills, close brushes with disaster, and even good deeds. What will happen when the magic is over?

Highly recommended.

The post Rereading: BLACK AND BLUE MAGIC by Zilpha Keatley Snyder appeared first on Todd's Blog.