Elizabeth Gray ViningBesprekingen

I read this the summer between sixth and seventh (elementary and junior high), as one of the books I got from my elementary school library during their purge of the shelves.

Its beat up, missing its dust jacket, somewhat torn up and shabby with aged tape markings and pages torn out from the front and back. Its originally from 1945 and its age, even back in 1996, showed. Its one of the books I affectionately called "Baby Boomer Teen Lit".

Its hard to connect with Sandy for me now, though as a 12 year old it was easier as I had no idea what being a teenager meant.

I also find it hard to stay interested in what is essentially a story about a girl relaxing for the summer. Her biggest problem is the new family maid, who resembles the witch from Hansel & Greta, and the guy she admires catching her at her worst moments. She doesn't seem that upset about her future plans (or lack thereof).

Its just her going through her days. A kind of slice of life book I had little interest in.

AR: 6.5

Eleven-year-old Adam loved to travel throughout thirteenth century England with his father, a wandering minstrel, and his dog, Nick. But when Nick is stolen and his father disappears, Adam suddenly finds himself alone. He searches the same roads he traveled with his father, meeting various people along the way. But will Adam ever find his father and dog and end his desperate search?

I was seven when my parents signed me up for the Calling All Girls Book Club so I would have books in English to read when the Air Force sent my family to Honduras. The Cheerful Heart was one of the books I received. Alas, I 68 now and have arthritis in one ankle, which I turned last week. I can't fetch my copy.

Tomi Tamaki and what's left of her family (elder sister killed, elder brother missing and presumed dead), are trying to get their lives back after the end of World War II. Their original home was bombed out. Japanese regulations regarding resources permit only a small house to be built. Tomi, her parents, her grandmother, and her little brother (most precious to the family with elder brother gone), must crowd into it somehow.

I read the book many times. It taught me something about both the human spirit and Japanese culture. I still remember the saying, "bee sting on a crying face" for a misfortune that follows an earlier misfortune - not unlike our "adding insult to injury".

Yes, we have a custom of "hostess gifts" for visits or going to a dinner party, but imagine having to give a gift just for visiting someone else's house. The family loses one of its surviving treasures because of such a visit, but they would be shamed if they were like a visitor to their house who had brought only dried squid.

I learned about various festivals. The one where little figures of teru teru bōzu, the priest who makes the sun shine, are tied to trees in the hope of good weather helped me decades later, when I ordered a Tetsuwan Atomu [Astro Boy] calendar. The famous robot, his sister, Uran [Astro Girl], and Prof. Ochanomizu [Dr. Elefun] visit different planets. One of them is the rain planet. Uran carries a little teru teru bōzu as they slog through the water. I explained it to a fellow anime fan.

I think it was at New Year that they played a card game where famous poems are split and printed on two cards. The object of the game is to find the other halves of one's cards. Tomi is growing up because she suspects something about what her dad does during the game every year.

One of the incidents in the book is when Mr. Tamaki, who works with an American man, tells the family that the American finds the meaning of their family name [jewel tree] funny. He tells them what the American's surname means in Japanese. The family roars with laughter until their sides ache, and Mrs. Tamaki sets them off again with a joke about it.

Tomi is given a bicycle to help her run errands. The bicycle gets stolen. The family gets a black puppy with big feet to grow up and be their watchdog.

Winters in Japan had to be suffered without the benefit of central heating units. Poor Tomi's hands are so full of chilblains that she can hardly hold her brush to write during lessons. Imagine having a hibachi pot of coals under the table and tucking a quilt around one's lower body to try to stay warm.

I learned about netsuke, those carved ornaments used as toggles on the obi, or sash, of a kimono, from what happens when Tomi finds her bicycle at a shop, but the shopkeeper can't afford to just give it back. He bought it in good faith. An American woman would pay a good price for a girl child's kimono for her granddaughter. Must elder sister's childhood festival kimono be lost in order to get the bicycle back?

At last the Tamaki family have permission to make their house bigger. Tomi is rejoicing in finally having her own room, however small, when something unexpected happens.

This is a very good book for children and adults alike. We all need to experience other cultures.

A classic. Thoroughly enjoyed the story and narration.

FROM AMAZON: Eleven-year-old Adam loved to travel throughout thirteenthcentury England with his father, a wandering minstrel, and his dog, Nick. But when Nick is stolen and his father disappears, Adam suddenly finds himself alone. He searches the same roads he traveled with his father, meeting various people along the way. But will Adam ever find his father and dog and end his desperate search?

I've owned this since I acquired it as a library discard when I was in junior high, and that's when I last read it. I'd really forgotten all details of the story.

This Newberry Award winner from 1943 follows Adam, an 11-year-old minstrel, son of a minstrel named Roger. As the book starts, Adam is being educated in an abbey, eager for his father to return from what is essentially a business trip to France. He loves his spaniel Nick and his harp best of all things in the world. When Roger returns, they set off on a road trip. Another minstrel steals Nick, and when father and son set off in pursuit, they are soon separated. Adam spends months on his own, meeting a variety of people around England in 1294.

Foremost, I was surprised by the wealth of medieval details worked into the book. Gray's research was immense, and she gracefully incorporates everything. This is also very much a boy's adventure book. Girls and women have almost no roles, and Adam regards all girls with outright disdain after one thinks cats are better than dogs. The ending feels weirdly tidy and abrupt. I do adore the Robert Lawson illustrations throughout--he's one of my favorite illustrators and authors of this period.

I don't think this is a book I need to keep on my shelf after thirty years, but it was good to read it again.

Essays, most of which were originally included in two Pendle Hill pamphlets, Anthology with Comments (PHP #18) and The World in Tune (PHP #66), published in 1942 and 1952 respectively.

Various prayers as interpreted by this Quaker witness.

Well-known aspects of this famous Quaker, such as his championship of religious liberty and city planner, are contrasted with his deep mystical faith.

A collection of quotations from some of the author's favorite mystics with interpretive commentary.

The author explains how she has developed her writing style over 40 years using the inner self.

The author offers excerpts from the writings of W.H. Davies, George Herbert, James Stephens, St. Francis, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Thomas Ellwood, and William Blake, among others, with her interpretations.

Adam is a young minstrel, son of a minstrel, in medieval England. He loves his father, Roger, his dog, Nick, and being a minstrel. We meet the characters and go along with them for a good third of the book before Adam becomes separated both from his dog and his dad. Nick is stolen, and in the chase to catch the dog-napper, he loses his father as well. The rest of the book is Adam's quest to find at least one, but preferably both members of his family. Each chapter is its own small adventure, and we definitely are given a view of the middle ages through heavily rose-tinted glasses.

I had mixed feelings about this one. Definitely enjoyed it more than most Newbery winners as old as this (1942 copyright), so it holds up better than some. Adam was a likable protagonist too. But the tale didn't seem have much of a point beyond just following Adam around England hunting for his father and dog. He didn't really learn any lessons, or become a better person. So, while an entertaining enough book, it felt sort of empty at the end. Enjoyable, but probably forgettable.

The author tells of her four years as a tutor to the young crown prince Akihito.

C.3 has the letter from EGV regarding her arrangements for her speaking tour of California, 1962

Reprinted 1994.

The record of the author's four years at the Imperial Court, where she helped to teach and guide the young Prince from a chubby child to a poised, attractive youth with a high sense of responsibility.

Adam is an eleven year old son of a minstrel, and training to follow in his father's footsteps. While out on the road Adam's dog is stolen, and then he and his father become separated. Alone in thirteenth century England Adam uses his wits and talents to not only survive, but to locate both his father and his dog.

This book deserves its Newbery Metal, as an extremely well-written, believable, and exciting story for all ages.

Any book by Elizabeth Gray worth reading.

A Quaker classic: the autobiography of the Philadelphia Quaker who, after spending some time as a librarian at UNC-Chapel Hill, became the tutor to the Crown Prince of Japan.

Meggy is a young orphan living with her aunt, uncle and cousin in Edinburgh, feeling unwanted, lonely and restless, until a random opportunity to jump a ship to North Carolina gives her the chance at a new life, even if it is amidst colonies on the brink of war with England.
A nice little read, with a strong female lead who had me rooting for her from the start.

This is an extra-long pamphlet, 89 pages, about the early history of Quakers in America and their influence on American democracy and the Constitution, and on various movements and institutions. These include, among others, the treatment of Native Americans, ending slavery, women's rights, and prison reform. While it is interesting and informative, and there is much to celebrate in this Quaker history, I think today it would be written a little more humbly.

A biography of William Penn, written for kids, of course.
Meh. S'okay, but not exactly riveting, I'm afraid.

A fictional account of the life of John Donne

A pleasant jaunt through medevil England with a young minstrel and his beloved dog, Nick. Children may have enjoyed learning about this time and imagining what it might have been like for a boy walking all over England, playing for his food and bed. Not sure though if it would be enjoyed today.