Children's Books discussion

Come join us to discuss either or both of these laudable books from 1962:

Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas

Men Of Athens by Olivia E. Coolidge

Thistle and Thyme is avl as an ebook download from my sons' library in OKC (yay!). I'm going to skip Men of Athens unless someone here raves convincingly of it.

I just purchased Thistle and Thyme on Amazon a couple of weeks ago and it arrived last week. I will be reading a story a day in it during this month. The edition I purchased has 18 stories which were originally published in two books: Heather and Broom: Tales of the Scottish Highlands and Thistle And Thyme: Stories And Legends From Scotland.

Oh, nice!

I bet nobody is going to read Men of Athens. There are certainly no rave reviews from the GR community on the book page.

Cheryl wrote: "I bet nobody is going to read Men of Athens. There are certainly no rave reviews from the GR community on the book page."

The Library does not have a copy and I am not really interested enough to try to purchase a copy.

I don't have the time right now to read it straight through, but Men of Athens is a very good book that imparts the flavor of ancient Greece through fictionalized accounts of historical events. It is very engaging while providing a lot of names and facts. I could see it being useful as ancillary reading following a more straightforward account of the history. Names are provided without much explanation and the expectation seems to be that this would not be the first time encountering them. I have a first-grade student right in the midst of this period, so I think we'll see how this works as a read-aloud.

The one thing I wish this book had included is source notes. Clearly the dialogue is invented, but upon what primary sources is each chapter based?

Thank you Michael, good to know.

I do still plan to read Thistle and Thyme, and in fact look forward to it! I just over-committed in other discussion groups so I'm letting this slide, probably at least another week.

I thoroughly enjoyed the stories in this compilation. My edition combined 2 books (see message #3 above), for a total of 18 unique stories. Many of them were humorous. LeClaire Alger (aka Sorche Nic Leodhas) wrote an introduction giving some info on storytelling and stories in Scotland. In the table of contents, the listing for each story includes the area of Scotland from which it came. The author also noted that each of the stories in the collection was told to her.

Wonderful!

I've just started the e-book of Thistle and Thyme, this cover: Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland. Unfortunately the illustrations have been removed, which is awful as Evaline Ness is wonderful!

The introduction is interesting and helpful. It even gives pronunciation clues - I had not idea that Cèilidh is pronounced kay-lee!

The first story is fun, and I love that the strong-willed girl is also kind and so deserves to have her way and win her choice of husband. There's an unfortunate reference to a thieving Gypsy, but children are likely to overlook it, or families could discuss it.

So far I say that I would have loved this book when I was a child, and now I want to own it (or the omnibus) for the rereading opportunity and the illustrations!

Does the omnibus have the illustrations, Beverly?

The second story is v. short, a St. Cuddy pourquoi tale.

The third gives us a better look at gypsies, and includes revelations about the Sidh. And oh the mother's courage and cleverness!

I love the author's voice; she makes the stories sound so musical. Reading this aloud to children would be a joy.

I looked a bit at her author page here and see that I have actually read several other books by her before. Some are avl. on OpenLibrary, too.

I'm enjoying Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland so much that I'm not making time to make notes here! I'm also going to put it on my 'to re-read' shelf. The stories are light and short, for a younger audience than many of the older Newbery books.

Themes are generally about the virtues of courage, kindness and honesty, as characters exhibiting those traits get rewarded. And in the story of the bee-keeper, it's the gypsies that actually help the young man. Often though the helper is an old woman, a sort of good witch. And often the hero is a woman.

Cheryl wrote: "Does the omnibus have the illustrations, Beverly?"

No, there are no illustrations inside the book; only an illustration on the front and back covers by Mairi Hedderwick.

Phooey. Thank you!

Men of Athens was described as "definitely my favorite school book" by the six-year-old today.

That's great! Thanks for the report.

It has been many years since I picked up a book of short stories. As with most short stories, Thistle and Thyme: Tales and Legends from Scotland is written in a detached manner and it took me a while to get going as I couldn't really get into any of the characters, as the story finishes in a few pages.

The style is olde-worlde, taking me back in time. I liked the Scottish terms like las and bairns. Prior to this book, the only brownies I knew were the rich, chocolatey kind. I had never come across them as mythical creatures.

Ah, sounds like the Newbery committee picked a good book to spread cultural awareness then! ;)