Plumfield Moms

Our Reading Life: May 2024

Join us for our May 2024 Our Reading Life episode where we talk about spies, codebreakers, and geeky grammar. 
 
Tanya’s References 
The Pink Refrigerator by Tim Egan
D-Day Girls: The Spies Who Armed the Resistance, Sabotaged the Nazis, and Helped Win World War II by Sarah Rose
Sarah Kim’s References
Hollowpox: The Hunt for Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
The Little Ships: The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk During World War by Louise Borden
The Dolphin Crossing by Jill Paton Walsh
The Lamp, the Ice, and the Boat Called Fish: Based on a True Story by Jaqueline Briggs Martin
Sara Masarik’s References 
The Mark of the Thief Trilogy by Jennifer A. Nielsen 
The Woman All Spies Fear: Code Breaker Elizebeth Smith Friedman and Her Hidden Life by Amy Butler Greenfield
The Fifth of March by Ann Rinaldi - Sara's Review
Ben Hur: A Tale of the Christ by Lew Wallace 
Diane’s References
The Wordhord: Daily Life in Old English by Hana Videen
Dreyer's English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style by Benjamin Dreyer

Book Review: Good Luck Duck

"When the Ferris wheel seems to be running again, Timothy and the duck get stuck at the top. 'Up above, the duck on the seat whispered excited little whispers to Timothy. He liked it far above the noise of all the crowd. He was glad to be away from all that noise. He flapped his wings and whispered. He quirked and jerked his stubby tail. He was proud to be so high.'
Throughout Timothy’s adventure, several people think the duck has brought them luck. In the end, Timothy is lucky to have a pet, and the duck is lucky to have found a quiet home." 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-picture-book-reviews/good-luck-duck 

Reflection: Our Dwelling Place

"As I think about it in terms of wishing, in the midst of all our moves, for a place to nestle, I can see how gently persistent God was in teaching me to find my true dwelling place in him. He had moved me from what had become my comfort to a new state where we were strangers. Then he took us to a different country altogether, one where we knew we were sojourners. After some time to get used to that, he left me there with my children and took my husband to war. He seemed to be saying, You’re catching on. Now it’s time for a test."

Special Project: 1924 Books

1924 Project
It was indeed a different era. What was going on in 1924 when these books were being published and read? The 1924 Paris Olympics, Leopold and Loeb murders, the premiere of Rhapsody in Blueby Gershwin. Vladimir Lenin died, and Mallory and Irvine disappeared while attempting to summit Mt. Everest. Robert Frost won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, and crossword puzzles were all the rage after Simon snd Schuster published their first book of crosswords.
 
As far children’s literature was concerned, the field of books written especially for children was just coming into its own. The Horn Book Magazine, the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children’s literature, was founded in Boston in 1924. The Newbery Medal for “the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children” was only a couple of years old. The medal-winning book for 1925 (published in 1924) was Tales from Silver Lands, a book of Central and South American folktales, collected and recorded by Charles Finger. Two other 1924 books were “runners-up” for the Newbery: The Dream Coach by Anne Parish and Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by New York Public Library’s head children’s librarian, Anne Carroll Moore.
 
Unfortunately, all three Newbery-honored books from 1924 seem to me to be not horrible, but forgettable. The South American folktales are perhaps of interest to scholars and storytellers, but I doubt the average child would glom onto them. The other two books are more the sort of books that adults think children should like than they are the kind of story that children do enjoy.
 
A reading team comprised of librarians and excellent readers made it a goal to read as many of the books published in English in 1924 as possible and record their thoughts as they went. Sherry and our book friend Terri Shown joined Sara and Diane on the podcast to discuss the project and what we learned. You can find out a lot more about the books themselves, here. 
Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag
Sherry's 1924 Blog Post
The List
We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Theras and His Town by Caroline Dale Snedeker
Nicholas: A Manhattan Christmas Story by Anne Carroll Moore
The Dream Coach by Anne Parrish
Tales From Silver Lands by Charles Joseph Finger
The New Moon: The Story of Dick Martin's Courage, His Silver Sixpence and His Friends in the New World by Cornelia Meigs 
Down the Big River by Stephen Meader 
Down the Big River - Sara's Review
America’s Children by James Otis (Living Book Press)
The Boy Whaleman by George Fox Tucker 
The Boy Whaleman Sherry's Review
The Pearl Lagoon by Charles Nordhoff
The Pearl Lagoon Sherry's Review
Boy's Games Among the North American Indians by Edith Stow
Rascal by Sterling North 
Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field
Calico Bush by Rachel Field
Taxis and Toadstools by Rachel Field
The Child’s Garden of Verse by Robert Louis Stevenson 
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
The 1964 Project

Book Review: Virginia Hall, an Extraordinary Woman

Whether they loved her or hated her, everyone who knew her considered her an amazing and memorable woman. Klaus Barbie, the infamous Butcher of Lyon became obsessed with finding the “Limping Lady of Lyon.” He had posters made and offered a huge reward for information leading to the arrest of “The Enemy’s Most Dangerous Spy.”
 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/virginia-hall-an-extraordinary-woman 

Reflection: Bad Company Corrupts Good Morals

"Don’t you love this sort of pithy proverb? You can toss the platitude to a teenager whose friends you don’t approve of with the assurance that its truth is indisputable and needs no context – exactly the way we like our favorite Bible verses.     
Because the maxim is simple to understand and examples of its truth abound, it was a perfect topic for an essay assignment for my writing class. Since I asked my class to contemplate the saying, I thought I should do the same. What, precisely, do the few words mean? Do they have anything to say to me?"

Book Club: That Hideous Strength - Ransom Trilogy Part 3

Out of the Silent Planet by C. S. Lewis
Perelandra by C. S. Lewis  
The Biblioguides Online Community – Plumfield Reads 
The Abolition of Man by C. S. Lewis 
The Screwtape Letter by C. S. Lewis 
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
George MacDonald 
Till We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis 
The Walking Drum by Louis L’Amour 
The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William Shirer
Landmark Book Club: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler by William Shirer
That Hideous Strength Audiobook 
The Princess and the Goblin by George MacDonald 
The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald
Cautionary Review of the Space/RansomTrilogy 
 
 

Book Review: The Shy Stegosaurus of Cricket Creek

"What child wouldn’t love to discover a living dinosaur in the backyard? What if that dinosaur could talk? That’s what happens to Joey and Joan Brown, freckled, red-headed twelve-year-old twins. On the first few pages of the story, we are made aware of the family Problem." 
 
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/the-shy-stegosaurus-of-cricket-creek 

Book Review: Snow Treasure

Part of the plan to sneak the gold out right under the noses of the Nazis involves teams of Riswyk children each carrying 75 pounds of gold on their sleds down to a fjord where the crew of a fishing boat waits to load the gold for transportation to America.     
The plan works seamlessly. Until the snow starts to melt before they have transported half the gold. And until the Nazi Commandant decides the lazy, impudent children need to go back to school. And until the children realize they have been discovered by one Nazi soldier who has been spying on them.
https://plumfieldmoms.com/plumfield-moms-book-reviews/snow-treasure
 

Reflection: Go and Learn What This Means

The Pharisees dogged Jesus so relentlessly they should have known his teachings as well as his disciples did. It’s tragic that they weren’t trying to learn anything from him other than how to discredit him.  
Have I learned what Jesus meant when he said, “I desire mercy, not sacrifice”?
It is hard to misunderstand what he means in the first chapter of Isaiah.
“‘What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices;’ says the Lord; ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats . . . Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean! Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, correct oppression; bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s cause.’” (Isa. 1:11, 16, 17 ESV).