Book Review: The Door Before by N. D. Wilson

Several years ago, I mentioned to Diane that I thought The Door Before was my favorite of N. D. Wilson’s books and that Hyacinth was my favorite of his characters. She asked me why I felt that way. I struggled to articulate something tangible. I think I mumbled that it has something to do with how Hyacinth was a reluctant hero. I was never able to really figure out why I felt that way, so I never wrote my review of The Door Before. Years later, I am re-reading the Cupboards books, and I continue to be impressed with Hyacinth.  
 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/the-door-before

Book Review: Ain’t Nothing But a Man

"Ain’t Nothing but a Man is a 60-page version of Nelson’s 200+ page book for adults. Every page has photographs or drawings to show locations and people of the post-Civil War era, and to illustrate what the railroad slang from the songs mean. 
In “How to be a Historian” the co-author, Marc Aronson, lists the six stages of Nelson’s search:
Finding what is known already
Checking their sources
Finding gaps and disagreements and formulating your own questions
Looking for new evidence
Expanding the search
Sharing what you have found
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-picture-book-reviews/aint-nothing-but-a-man-my-quest-to-find-the-real-john-henry

Book Review: Hannah of Kentucky by James Otis

Written in 1912 by James Otis, this exciting and absorbing young readers’ novel tells the true story of Boonesborough from the point of view of a young girl. Written with excellent language and writing, this story is very alive and a joy to read. The reading level is comparable to something like a “Childhood of Famous Americans” book, whereas the point of view is something like the “We Were There” books. While Hannah and her family are fictional, Otis tells us, through the character of Hannah, about Boonesborough as if she was giving us a real first-person account.
https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/hannah-of-kentucky/ 

Book Review: The Penderwicks

The Penderwicks is a series that is recommended everywhere. It is not a series that I have in my library. In my years of moderating a massive book group, I found that this was a book series that really divides people. I read the first two books (or was it three? I can’t remember for sure) and found that I fell into the “this had so much potential to be brilliant but falls into modern tropes and makes me frustrated” camp.
For years I have mostly stayed quiet about it because those who love The Penderwicks  really  love  those stories. And there is nothing inherently wrong with the books that I read, so I just didn’t think it mattered what I thought. Years later, however, I heard so many people asking about them, so I thought it prudent to articulate my objections.
The first book, The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy, was delightful. Not perfect, but refreshingly fun for a modern book. The problem is that readers very rarely are willing to read one book and not the others in a series. And the second book, The Penderwicks on Gardam Street, was definitely not delightful. Instead of a sweet and interesting family story, the girls are petulant and angsty. They are rude to each other and disrespectful of adults. I was so disappointed.
One of the recommendations for the series is that readers claim there are so many lovely literary references that bibliophiles are delighted while at the same time, the children are modern and living like we do, so it makes those old book references come alive. Maybe. Probably. However, that doesn’t negate the bad behavior of the girls.
Some claim that these are like Beverly Cleary’s books. They show girls going through real growing pains, and it gives our children someone to identify with. But, as I said in my article, In Defense of Beverly Cleary, Cleary was writing about the whole family. In her stories, adults are more than present, they are worthy characters themselves, and they provide good boundaries for their children.
In the Penderwicks books, there is a strong sense that the children know better than the adults and that they have a moral obligation to teach the adults how the world works and how to live better. Again, this is not what we see in Cleary, or Gary D. Schmidt, or N. D. Wilson. In those stories, the children understand their own value, but they do not discredit the adults who are there to love and lead them.
Some critics of the series object to the “modern realism” themes of divorce, remarriage, teenage dating, etc. I don’t object to those themes. I do, however, object to how they are presented in modern books. I can’t really say how those play out throughout the series because I stopped early in the series, but I did not love what I saw.
One of the challenges of writing a series about sisters who have a substantial span of age is that it is hard to know who the target audience is. Should children as young as the youngest sister be reading? Or are these for children who are as old as the oldest sister? In Hilda van Stockum’s The Mitchells series, we see children who are babies in the same family as children who are in high school. To make the story suitable for all ages, Hilda did mention some dances and possible romance, but she did so only very lightly. In the second Penderwicks book, teen romance is a key theme. Just because the oldest sister is old enough to be interested in boys doesn’t mean that our younger readers need that explained in detail complete with hormonal discussion.
I think that while these stories could be lovely, they miss the mark. With so many better options out there, I am keeping these out of my library.
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/the-penderwicks
 

Book Review: I Am David by Anne Holm

The concentration camps were so horrific that stories about them are usually done with incredible care and some trepidation. When we think of children in the concentration camps, many of us rightly cannot hold that idea in our minds for very long. It is just too awful. Children were there. Most were killed but some were there. But few of us have the fortitude to consider that idea very closely or for very long.
 
But what about children in the camps? What happened to them? Anne Holm gives us a small window into that idea in I Am David (reprinted as North to Freedom). Mercifully, however, the story opens with a guard telling twelve-year-old David about the escape he has planned for him. David breaks out of a Bulgarian concentration camp in the first few pages, so all of our knowledge about his experiences in the camp comes to us through his memories when he is safely on the other side.
“In his mind’s eye David saw once again the gray bare room he knew so well. He saw the man and was conscious, somewhere in the pit of his stomach, of the hard knot of hate he always felt whenever he saw him. The man’s eyes were small, repulsive, light in color, their expression never changing; his face was gross and fat, yet at the same time square and angular. David had known him all his life, but he never spoke to him more than was necessary to answer his questions; and though he had known his name for as long as he could remember, he never said anything but “the man” when he spoke about him or thought of him. Giving him a name would be like admitting that he knew him; it would place him on an equal footing with the others.”
The guard tells David that when he lights his match, the circuit will be cut and David will have 30 seconds to get across the yard and over the fence. David is baffled by the man’s suggestion that he should escape and is sincerely concerned that the man is setting him up to be shot.
“And then quite suddenly David decided he would do it. He had turned it over in his mind until his head was in a whirl, and he still could not understand why the man had told him to escape. David had no wish to make the attempt: it would only be a question of time before he was caught. But suppose it were a trap and they shot him – it would all be over quickly anyway. If you were fired at while trying to escape, you would be  dead within a minute. Yes, David decided to try.”
The man not only provides a means of David’s escape, but he also promises that hidden in the field on the other side of the fence there would be a pouch with a little bread, drinking water, a knife, and a compass. He tells David which way to run and to head for Italy. And, once there, to go North. And just keep going North until he gets to Denmark. He does not say why David must get to Denmark, but he insists on it.
Once David successfully breaks free of the concentration camp, we realize that he has no memory of any life outside of the camp. He has no idea what cities look like, how normal people interact with each other, or what a beautiful mountainside looks like. Every experience is new and terrifying for him. His journey is a bit of a pilgrimage. And he is learning how to be human after only ever being a caged animal. In some haunting ways, he reminds me of Dr. Frankenstein’s monster – hiding in the woods, watching people in order to understand how to be really human.
As he goes along, we learn that David was kept separate from other children in the camp. He grew up in a place where his only companions were men from many different countries, a teenage mentor, and the guards. Consequently, David learned many languages by mimicking all of the men he heard speak. He speaks Oxford English, noble Italian, everyday French, official German, and robust Yiddish. His linguistic abilities serve him well in his journey North through Europe.
At one point, David spends some time with a wealthy Italian family. The mother gives him milk and vitamins. He realizes that in the camp he had been given milk and vitamins. At the time, he thought they were poison meant to keep him weak. In light of the love of this Italian mother for her children, he realizes these were good things. And he ponders why “the man” would have given him good things to make him healthy. He reflects on how everyone in the camp eventually died of starvation-related complaints. And yet, he was being given nourishing milk and smuggled vitamins. Why?
In the camp, David had one friend. A French teen named Johannes who was assigned to be David’s companion and tutor. Johannes died in the camp of a heart attack. Before that, however, Johannes taught David not just languages and history but also ethics and manners. As David journeys North, he realizes that that too did not make any sense. Why had “the man” taken such an interest in David’s education? If everyone was destined to die in the camps, why bother to educate the child and teach him how to be human?
David was not raised with any religion. But, he was not unaware of many of the faiths in the camp. On his trek, he decides that he needs a god to believe in. He remembers a man in the camp praying to the God of green pastures and still waters. Once he sees the beauty of the mountains for the first time, he realizes that that is the God he longs to serve. Without anyone to teach him how to pray, he fumbles his way into a relationship with that God hoping that he has chosen the right one. The storytelling here is excellent. David’s mistakes and his faith are innocent and beautiful and God does not abandon him.
This story has some hard parts, but it does end well. The ending is a bit miraculous but not unbelievable. I would recommend this for a mature middle school reader and above. The context is hard but not graphic. This would be a wonderful first concentration camp story for young readers who are not yet ready for sadder or more devastating classics like The Hiding Place. I think this would be even better than Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl.
The audio version of this book is excellent. You can learn more about this fascinating book at Biblioguides.com.
There is a dog in this story. If you are concerned about what happens to the dog, please scroll down. If you do not want any spoilers, read no further.
 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/i-am-david-aka-north-to-freedom 
 

Book Review: The Mystery of Harry Potter by Nancy Brown

Who among us does not know about Harry Potter? Love, fear, or hate him, we all know something about Harry Potter, because he is very much a part of our culture. Few books of our age have caused as much controversy as those about “the boy who lived” because of the sacrificial love of a mother.
Teachers love Harry Potter because their students will read thousands of pages of well-written narrative in lieu of playing video games. Libraries love Harry Potter because the books have wide appeal and are routinely checked out again and again by repeat readers because they are so enjoyable to read more than once. Vendors love Harry Potter because of all of the merchandising opportunities. Parents love Harry Potter because their kids are reading. And, some Christians love Harry Potter because the story is steeped in characters who exemplify virtue and who act courageously.
But Harry Potter is not loved by all. In fact, he is despised and feared by many. Large groups of Christians chief among them.
This article is not about the worthiness or lack thereof of Harry Potter. My own personal opinions on this series are still being formed. But I think it is important to mention that I am a devout Catholic Christian with traditional values and a great deal of sensitivity to the power of story. I have no use for the Netflix travesty which ruined Anne of Green Gables. I wrote a piece on the Handmaid’s Tale which garnered thousands of views and horrible hate mail. And, despite the recommendations of friends I love and respect, I think that The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place is problematic, that the Penderwicks books are lacking, and Percy Jackson is prohibited in my home. I think it is safe to say that I am extremely conservative but also, I hope, a thoughtful reader.
Typically, a reader of old books, I view new books with quite a bit of skepticism. With regard to the Harry Potter books, I read them as a young adult, and I loved them. As I became more formed in my faith and my reading taste, I began to understand some of the concerns that others had about them. As a young mother, I was at a loss for what to do with Harry Potter.
This book articulates the primary objections and concerns that Christian families may have with regard to Harry and responds to them with commentary from other critics, evidence from the text, and good research. I am incredibly grateful for that!
I am not sure that I agree with all of Mrs. Brown’s arguments. And I am not suggesting that every reader will either. But I am exceedingly grateful for this text and am happy to have it in my library for other families to consider.
How did we resolve the Harry question for our family? We delayed inviting our children into the world of Harry Potter. And by the time we did, they had so many other books and series they loved more, that none of my children have ever cared to read more than a couple of the books.
Several years ago, when I was falling in love with Chesterton, I discovered Nancy Brown. Mrs. Brown is a Chesterton scholar and has written a biography on Frances Chesterton as well as some children’s adaptations of Father Brown. In my discovery of her work, I discovered a marvelous little book that she wrote called The Mystery of Harry Potter: A Catholic Family Guide. This is what I wanted! I wanted someone who was well formed in my faith to take me by the hand and to help me understand the spiritual concerns with the Harry Potter books and then give me enough information about the books and about reliable Catholic commentary so that my husband and I could prayerfully discern how to handle the books with our family.
 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/the-mystery-of-harry-potter 
 

Book Review: The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom

In a genre that really tests our limits to endure the dehumanization and suffering of others, this text stands out as entirely different. WWII Holocaust literature is critically important to the story of Western Civilization, and it is essential that we all have a few titles get through us so that we never forget what hate and godlessness can do to entire nations. 
While The Hiding Place has some genuinely tough passages, it is totally unique in that it is never, ever hopeless. The very worst moments are lightened by the beautiful witness of Betsey, who truly understands the Gospel.
Like the Old Testament lamp that never ran out of oil and the Ravensbruck vitamin bottle that never ran out of medicine until new medicine was provided, this story is miraculous in its ability to keep you filled with just enough hope and just enough awe to keep reading without feeling gutted.
To be thankful for the fleas – because they provided incredible, miraculous protection from something much worse – is the epitome of the message of the Ten Booms and their beautiful true story.
To the reader who does not think they can read one more Holocaust book, I understand. I resisted this one for years. Now I understand. I wish that I had read this at the same time that I had read In My Hands and others – it would have given me a healthier helping of hope. Most of this book is not about the concentration camps. Most of this story is about real people and their real lives before, during, and after the war.
This is a classic. A healing and hopeful classic.
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/the-hiding-place

Book Review: Sergeant Reckless

“The small red mare whinnied for her supper. But Korea was at war. Towns were shattered. Fields were scorched. And the racetrack was abandoned. No one paid attention to the hungry little horse.” – Sergeant Reckless by Patricia McCormick
The “scrawny sorrel mare with a white blaze and three matching socks” was abandoned and not much to look at. But when Lt. Pedersen of the U.S. Marines found her, she reminded him of a pony he’d had as a child, and he decided that maybe she could help them carry shells for the powerful new cannon, the “reckless” rifle. Not only was the little mare in sorry shape, but she was a spirited racehorse, not a steady mule who could be trained to do its duty in battle.
When they got the little horse to the camp, they realized that she would need extensive training and conditioning if she were going to be helpful in battle. They decided to enlist her in the Marines. Private Reckless had to learn to duck incoming fire, to retreat on command, and to carry heavy loads through battlefields. Her trainer, Sgt. Joseph Latham, worked with the mare, and she quickly became a member of the unit.
When the time came for real fighting, Pvt. Reckless proved herself to be incredibly loyal and brave. Despite being hit above the eye and in her left flank with pieces of shrapnel, she made fifty-one trips up to the cannon, going a distance of thirty-five miles up and down steep terrain fully loaded, and carrying nine thousand pounds of ammunition. The impressive little mare helped to change the entire course of the war.
This picture book biography of the little mare who is the only animal to hold military rank and be awarded two purple hearts officially is heartwarming and fascinating. The writing is perfect for a book like this, and the illustration is a work of art. Sherry Early of Meriadoc Homeschool Library recommended this one to me when she knew that I was working on a unit of the U.S. Military for our history club at our Plumfield Library. This book is worth tracking down!
 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-picture-book-reviews/sergeant-reckless

Book Review: Dandelion Fire, Book 2 of the Cupboards Series by N. D. Wilson

A few years ago, Audible asked me to be part of a test program for a children’s project they are working on. I was asked to preview and evaluate a new series of children’s stories that were episodic and designed in the style of radio-theatre. As I listened, I was absolutely disgusted. Drawing on the premise of a fairy tale, their program included a short story that sounded an awful lot like Jack and the Beanstalk, except that the main characters were three sisters. In this “new fairy tale,” the sisters escape a giant, save a king, and do all of the things that modernity has taught us girls should do. This program was trying to convince their young listeners that young girls are smarter than kings, craftier than giants, and rescuers of fellow women who are stuck in abusive relationships with ogres. There wasn’t a worthy boy or man in the story. Oh, and, the kids are always smarter and better than all of the adults, of course.
In Dandelion Fire, we have the antidote to this poison. In the first book of the Cupboards trilogy, Henry doesn’t know who he belongs to or where he fits. In this middle book, we spend far more time inside the worlds within the cupboards. We meet Henry’s family, we discover new evil, and we spend a lot of time laughing at bureaucratic faeries. 

Book Review: Lines of Courage by Jennifer A. Nielsen

In our June 2023 episode of Our Reading Life, Tanya mentioned that she was reading Jennifer A. Nielsen’s Lines of Courage and loving it. I tried to find it, but it wasn’t easy to do for less than twenty dollars. It is a new enough book that it is only available in hardcover, and the paperback isn’t due to come out until February, 2024. I thought I would just wait on this one until I could get it for our library. But then a patron read it and wanted to talk about it. Motivated, I got the Audible version and enjoyed it so much that I ordered an expensive copy. Interestingly, Tanya and I loved the book, but some of our friends were less impressed with it. My patron enjoyed it, until the end. She felt like the end was just too unbelievable. I think that this one might make a good podcast book club because I thought the ending was interesting and plausible.Read More: https://plumfieldandpaideia.com/lines-of-courage/