Children's Books discussion
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June 2020 — Novels With a Summer Theme
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It is hard for certain types of parents to act responsibly and to adequately reign in their children if needed since so many seem to have the same childish attitude that their desires, wants and their right to fun and diversion seem count more.
I love Hound and my dad would totally have brought our beloved terrier everywhere. He did most of the time. My grandfather brought his awful Miniature Poodle everywhere except church. I can easily see myself and my siblings and cousins in this story. It reminded me of the summer we went on vacation to Prince Edward Island, Canada.
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I do not have an issue with them bringing Hound (except that I do find him rather badly behaved and trained) but they really should have asked Mrs. Tifton whether the rental unit was pet friendly, whether she objected to them bringing a dog (some people are allergic to dogs, some people are afraid of dogs, some people just do not all that much like dogs).
Manybooks wrote: "(some people are allergic to dogs, some people are afraid of dogs, some people just do not all that much like dogs).But that doesn't matter! I won't associate with those people anyway. My dad brought her with us to friends', family, cat households. She did not come on vacation when we went far away. My brother is not following in the family footsteps but I would!
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But that doesn't matter! I won't associate with those people ..."
I guess we will have to agree to disagree here. I just think it would have been better for the Penderwicks to have told Mrs. Tifton that they were bringing a dog.
Manybooks wrote: "I guess we will have to agree to disagree here. I just think it would have been better for the Penderwicks to have told Mrs. Tifton that they were bringing a dog."
She also could have said no pets and no young children and set ground rules. That's what I would do, aside from pets. I'd say... "leave the humans at home and send your dogs on vacation to me instead!"
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I guess we will have to agree to disagree here. I just think it would have been better for the Penderwicks to have told Mrs. Tifton that they were bringing a dog."
She also coul..."
That’s true, Mrs. Tifton did not really establish ground rules either. But after Jeffrey told the Penderwicks that his mother would not be thrilled with having Hound at the cottage, if this had been I, I would have made sure that at the very least, Hound did not get into the gardens and behaved himself inside.
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I reread this now because 1. it's Henkes and 2. it takes place in summer. Turns out that viewing it 'through the lens of' the summer setting revealed more explicitly a lot of depth in the story. For example, because it's summer, the annoying big brother is away on a trip and only part of the background. Because it's summer, Spoon's parents (who are teachers) are spending all day in their garden, growing & nurturing both flowers and vegetables (you see the metaphor). Spoon and his sister have more freedom to walk over to their grandfather's home, or squabble, or find projects to do together, or seek privacy... lots of time for Spoon to figure out how to become self-directed and how to get along with the more extroverted 5 yo. The summer setting is almost like a supporting character in its own right.
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And the sisters did not really seem to at all care that for Mrs Tifton, her gardens and doing well at the contest were very important. If I were trying to win an award for my gardens, you bet I would be at the very least a bit annoyed if a bunch of children (even if not on purpose) were always getting into the gardens and wrecking things.
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I just added Sun and Spoon, as the idea of summer not just being a season and a setting but kind of like a supporting character is really appealing. Thank you.
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Yes, I agree, a totally and utterly false choice. I certainly think that she needed to be more understanding towards Jeffery, but the in my opinion seeming glee with which the author describes Mrs. Tifton’s gardens being repeatedly ransacked (even if sometimes not intentionally) by the Penderwicks and their dog, both felt majorly uncomfortable and also made me increasingly impatient with the entire Penderwick Family, as it just kept happening and there was never really a consideration that this kind of behaviour was not really all that acceptable.
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It really was a dream come true for me to visit PEI in the summer, too.
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I love the Maritimes in the winter and in the autumn as well. I went to university in New Brunswick. However, because there was no university courses in the summer when I was attending, I was always back home in Alberta during the summer and thus did not experience summer in the Maritimes.
Kathryn wrote: "Cheryl wrote: "I didn't appreciate Swallows & Amazons either.A random very short book from my library is Summer Fun by Carolyn Haywood. Yes, the same author who wrote..."
Oh my goodness, I forgot about the Betsy series. I adored that around age 8. Thanks for bringing back some good memories!
I think some of the Ginnie books took place in the summer. Perhaps Ginnie and the Mystery Doll and Ginnie Joins In by Catherine Woolley (aka Jane Thayer) would be good options for ages 8-11.
PEI in the summer is magical! We all really enjoyed the visit. We stayed in cottages near the ocean and not far from Green Gables. We all went to Green Gables and after that, my dad took my siblings to the beach and the little amusement park while my mom and I visited the museums. My grandmother cooked lobsters and my great-aunt went berry picking with a neighbor. We kids stayed up late running around with our new friends. There was a farm next door with dairy cows. It was very much like what LMM describes in her novels.
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Yes, it is magical! But I did not enjoy that there is this huge golf course right through the national park.
Manybooks wrote: "Yes, it is magical! But I did not enjoy that there is this huge golf course right through the national park."While I knew that, I don't remember seeing it. We walked through Lover's Lane to Maud's grave so we must have seen it but I don't have any memories of that, fortunately. I was 12 and focused on Anne's world. I was disappointed not to see the red roads though. What silly romantic tween wants paved roads?!
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Ginnie and the Mystery Doll
Catherine Woolley
Jane Thayer
Gus Was a Friendly Ghost
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While I knew that, I don't remember seeing it. We walked through Lov..."
There are still many of the red roads in PEI but some actually want to pave them all, sigh. Did you also go to Park Corner?
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Noooo! I was happy to see a few red roads when we were there. How wonderful that you've been able to see PEI in all seasons. I imagine it would be beautiful no matter the season. I would love to go back someday.
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:-) You're very welcome. I'm glad to see that some of them are still in print as many of the themes are still so perfect for children today. My seven-year-old son loved them, and the Little Eddie books by the same author.
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Noooo! I was happy to see a few red roads when we were there. How wonderful that you'..."
I am hoping there is enough public pushback for this not to happen.
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Noooo! I was happy to see a few red roads when we were there. How wonderful that you'..."
Well, I actually have not seen PEI in the winter and fall, but the area of New Brunswick where I did my undergrad has a similar climate.
Manybooks wrote: "There are still many of the red roads in PEI but some actually want to pave them all, sigh. Did you also go to Park Corner?
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I don't remember seeing any but it was a very long car ride and some of us were car sick. Mom and I went to Park Corner. I took lots of pictures of the Lake of Shining Waters. I remember that very well. I'll see if I can post some pictures later. I apparently had my own kid-friendly camera... or I "borrowed" my little sister's. What I remember most is playing outside all night (until 10:00 anyway but it seemed like all night). Those are the kinds of books I like to read, where kids actually play with no electronics in sight.
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There are still many of the red roads in PEI but some actually want to pave them all, sigh. Did you also go to Park Corner?
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I don't remember seeing any but it was a very lon..."
We also took a hayride to the Lake of Shining Waters.
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Agreed! They are increasingly rare these days :-(
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Oh, how wonderful! I had actually written up a little "travelogue" with some photos from the trip we took about ten years ago... but it was posted in the Kindred Spirits group which was deleted and it would be rather time consuming for me right now to go back and recreate. But, we saw many of these sites you are mentioning and it was wonderful! It's nice you were both able to stay for a long visit. We only had a few days on the Island but I'm grateful to have had them.
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Oh, how wonderful! I had actually written up a little "travelogue" with some photos from the trip we took about ten years ..."
I do miss the Kindred Spirits group. That group is how I came to join Goodreads. I was doing research on L.M. Montgomery in November 2009 and up popped the group.
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Oh, how wonderful! I had actually written up a little "travelogue" with some photos from the trip we took about ten years ..."
One thing we also did (it was kind of a surprise for me) was that we drove over the Confederation Bridge to New Brunswick and then continued on to Sackville to visit Mount Allison University (where I did my undergrad from 1985-1989). It was both nostalgic and strange.
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Ah, what a wonderful way to be introduced to GoodReads :-)
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Ah, what a w..."
Yes it was! I miss the Kindred Spirits group.
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Thank you! I sometimes find books from the UK on AbeBooks and reasonably priced considering the international shipping. I'll see if I can find it by that title :-)
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Me, too!
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I would be nice to start the group up again, but I think I would probably want to ask Abigail if she minds before I even would consider doing this.
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I believe there have been other LMM-focused groups but I don't think any took off quite in that way. I likely would not even have time to participate at this point but I do have fond memories of the group and wish it still existed.
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I might consider asking Abigail if she thinks we should resuscitate the group.
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I loved that there was no drama. It even friendlier and gentler than a Ramona or Henry Huggins book. Some families are truly happy, and I think it's grand that there's a book that shows us that.
All that joy and optimism means there's not a lot to say about the story, though. It's just about the mini adventures, like learning that a current can make you lose your place along the sand, and going for a long walk with your dad, and visiting a raptor rehab center, and playing sandcastle games with other children you meet on the beach... and learning more about your family, yourself, and your place in the world.
I recommend it and will consider more by the author.
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I would probably not participate at this point in time due to lack of time but if you get something like it going again and I would consider joining in the future, time permitting.
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I loved that there was no drama. It even f..."
I really loved the story as well and for all of the same reasons you did, but I also felt just a little bit jealous of the close relationship between Alix and Jools (and their parents) because things were never quite like that in my family.
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I loved that there was no drama. It even f..."
I have now added everything else she's written to my lists... ;)
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I'm a big Carol Ryrie Brink fan and it was such fun to discover this little account of her fifteenth summer, which she spent with three chums and her aunt at her aunt's homestead in the pine woods of Northern Idaho in 1911. As is so often the case with stories of this chapter in American history, I am struck with the bravery, ingenuity and generousness of the homesteaders. Since homes were so few and far between, it was common courtesy to have anyone (even a suspected outlaw!) to dinner at at any time -- the newcomer would simply fire a few shots when he was getting near the homestead so that auntie had enough time to put a bit more food on the fire. I would love to learn more about this woman homesteader, this aunt of Carol's, and what made her want to undertake the homestead on her own.
As it is, the story belongs to the girls. I'm reminded both of how mature and how innocent teenage girls of yesteryear could be. Here are four girls from town who go out into the wilderness, live in a rustic one room cabin, rub shoulders with rangers and lumberjacks, go fishing, ride horse through perilous conditions, make their own meals, etc. and yet they are all giggles and imagination and fun.
Stopping for lunch in the mountains on their way to the homestead, the girls were warned of the drifts of snow up to twenty feet deep into which the horses might flounder. They had to walk some of the way because of the danger of this. Aunt wrote in a letter home, "These girls are truly brave. I thought Lucile [who had never ridden a horse before] was going to lose out once or twice when her horse would fall down in the snow up to its belly, but she did not cry."
When they entertain Jack, the young son of a neighbor, Carol writes, "Partly for little Jack's benefit, but largely for our own, our amusements at this time became very juvenile."
They celebrated everyone's half birthdays that summer. Carol writes of hers, "[Jack] and I stayed down by the stream 'till dinner time, then they called us and took us into the house. The table was all decorated with ferns, candles in bottles with red shades, columbines and a lovely birthday cake with 'C.R.' on it in currants... Aunt and Jack made a picture frame of pine cones for me, Charlotte made me the cutest little doll out of a pine cone and dressed in leaves and flowers, and Lucielle gave a swell speech and placed a crown of maple on my head. After that we played 'follow the leader'--Jack leading--and had a lot of fun."
Another account reads, "Thursday was circus day at home so we thought we would have a parade. We had everything in readiness and then it had to go and rain, so we haven't had it yet, but we are going to. Pete* was going to lead the procession, dressed in an old night-gown fixed Grecian style, in a crazy little chariot that Aunt will make and she is going to blow a very battered tin horn that Jack found, Spike* was to be a clown in another old muslin night gown, whcih she split up the middle and sewed into legs. Pink tissue paper spots were pinned all over it and a tiny little hood with a tissue paper bow on top went on her head..."
I love the part where the girls are longing for some romance. "We were always looking for excitement and the kind of romantic adventure which we had met in books but never in real life. Aunt used to laught tolerantly at us when she heard us wishing for a handsome outlaw escaping from justice whom we might hide and protect from danger. Of course, our imaginary outlaws were always more sinned against than sinning, and they were always paragons of masculine beauty. 'I'd furnish you one, girls, if I could,' said Aunt, 'but I'm afraid the best I can do is to make you a cocoanut cake for supper.' We sighed. Why were handsome heroes, who needed to be saved by attractive High School girls, so very scarce? It seemed as if the woods should be full of them."
The way aunt finally furnishes one is hilarious.
Reading this, I was reminded of Little Women, Anne of Green Gables and other tales of yesteryear where teenage girls still played and imagined, where homemade charms were best. I cannot imagine four fifteen year old girls who would want to undertake the challenges that Carol and her friends so readily and astutely dealt with in such a rugged setting, nor who would engage in such "juvenile" play. I know they are out there. I was one such teenager. I hope that this book, or one like it, wanders into their hands so they will know that they are not alone, even if a hundred years separates them from girls who would be such kindred spirits.
An interesting note at the end mentions that, a year later, the government put that section of forest into a reserve, which meant the homesteads were taken from the homesteaders. "Aunt had put a good deal of time and money into the place and we loved the homestead dearly. Yet it was never really intended as a home, and it is a pleasure now to know, that it remains an unspoiled, virgin forest, part of Idaho's rich heritage."
*The Forest Ranger gave Charlotte the nickname "Spike" and the packer nicknamed Luciele "Pete" -- Charlotte writes, "It is still a matter of shame and sorrow to me that nobody gave me a nickname. Later in the summer one of the lumberjacks began to call me 'Fluffy-Ruffles' but that only added insult to injury."
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I'm a big Carol Ryrie Brink fan a..."
I find it encouraging that the aunt and the four girls clearly had no anger at the government for making their homestead area into a forest reserve, but I do wonder whether other homesteaders might have felt resentful and angry.
Also, with the concept of inviting anyone in to share a meal even if they might be an expected outlaw, I do wonder if that general hospitality would also extend to individuals of different ethnicities, if the homesteaders would also be welcoming to African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans etc.
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I was frankly rather surprised that her aunt was not upset about it. I imagine many were. Even if you believed in reserves it would be hard to have to give up your home and place of livelihood.
I don't recall the book mentioning anything about welcoming people of different ethnicities, but that's a good point. I would hope so. But, I imagine some individuals were and many were not, unfortunately.
Children's Books
Books mentioned in this topic
Rules of the Ruff (other topics)Rules of the Ruff (other topics)
Silhouette of a Sparrow (other topics)
The Summer Book (other topics)
Silhouette of a Sparrow (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Richard Armour (other topics)Richard Armour (other topics)
Catherine Woolley (other topics)
Catherine Woolley (other topics)
Catherine Woolley (other topics)
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The dog in the Penderwicks really annoyed me. Hound is obviously never leashed and when he misbehaves, the family seems to think that this is funny and not a possible area of concern. And not checking if the landlady of your rented vacation home is actually comfortable with you bringing the family pet along is really not at all being responsible and reasonable.