Children's Books discussion

This March we have 5 books from which to choose. Depending on the availability to you of each, and your interest in each, and your time and energy, come and share your thoughts about any or all of the following 1935 honor books:

Mr. Popper's Penguins by Richard Atwater
Nino by Valenti Angelo
Hello, the Boat! by Phyllis Crawford
Leader by Destiny: George Washington, Man & Patriot by Jeanette Eaton
Penn by Elizabeth Gray Vining (aka Elizabeth Janet Gray)

I can tell you right now I'll be enjoying Mr. Popper's Penguins for about the 6th time. And I'll probably just skip the bio of Washington. The others I have to check for availability - I've never heard of them.

See you in a few weeks!

Penn, Hello, the Boat! and Nino look interesting; I hope that I'll be able to find them, I have not had all that much luck lately with the older Newbery books (and of course, Mr. Popper's Penguins.

I've read Hello, the Boat! (almost typed Hell, the Boat! haha) because I really liked another book I read by Phyllis Crawford, Last Semester, which was a college story. I was underwhelmed by Hello the Boat, and didn't keep my copy, and hardly remember anything about it. But maybe this will be another one of those cases like Winterbound, which also made little impression on me, and the rest of you who read it will enjoy it!

Could be! Glad to hear from you both.

I hold humor in the highest regard when it comes to fiction, everything from understated E. B. White to raucous Roald Dahl. I found Mr. Popper's Penguins delightful. The ludicrous plot unfolds in a straightforward manner highlighted by deadpan humor such as: 'When the ladders had been taken away, the manager had twelve ice-cream cones brought in for the penguins. Then Janie and Bill began to cry, so the manager ordered several more, and everybody had one.' Robert Lawson's illustrations complement the story well. I particularly enjoy Mr. Popper's old-fashioned bartender hair and mustache look.

This book is still popular; in fact, I picked up a copy at a thrift store just a couple of weeks ago. When I told my 18 yo son we were reading it and that it won an honor, he reminded me that he read it several times 'as a kid' and maybe will again this month. I, too, read it several times when I was young, and again when my son's big brothers were MG.

I just finished the audio version of Mr. Popper's Penquins and it is absolutely delightful. Nick Sullivan is the perfect narrator for this fun 2 hr 14 min story. There's music and sound effects that never overpower the reading; if you haven't tried the audio version you will love it. Steve, I agree with you, it is completely ludicrous but perfect laughability for youngsters hehehe. I think the pictures in the book would have been nice to see and possibly that is a better way....listen and look at the same time. Thank you group for suggesting this book, I enjoy all reading challenges and am so happy I was able to participate in this one.

I was unable to find Hello, the Boat or Nino in audio, which is really the only way I read now. Whenever I find any books in this format it's a pleasure to join in challenges.

My kids and I (and my mother) all enjoy Mr Popper's Penguins a lot. Sweet-spirited humor can sometimes be hard to find. Probably worth having the discussion with the kids, though, that arctic and antarctic animals are not the same and that it would probably be a really bad idea to import penguins to the north pole! Lots of kids already feel pretty smart to know that penguins are from the south pole and polar bears from the north, and have heard about problems with invasive species, and are well able to think about what the real implications of Mr Popper's plan might be... while still very much enjoying the book as humor.

I read Mr. Popper's Penguins years ago and didn't care for it all. I don't exactly remember why but remember feeling it was annoying rather than funny. (Unfortunately, I think my humor bone is somewhat underdeveloped...or at least many things that others find funny are not humorous to me. In a real life book club which I belong to, anytime someone prefaces their intro to a book that this will be a funny one, I groan a bit inside because I will probably not find it funny....and will most likely be the only one that doesn't. Not that I never find books funny...just my taste seems to be different than others.). Anyway, perhaps I will give it another shot.

Anne, I definitely agree with you. I find it odd that so many ppl *still* don't think about the difference between the North and South pole habitats, even though scientists *contemporary to this story* were trying to get ppl to stop doing stupid stuff like importing European starlings to the New World.

Jenny, I've often found myself in your situation. Lots of stuff others enjoy, esp. stuff hyped as humorous, doesn't engage me the same way. If you don't care for it, you don't - simple as that... but I am curious, if you reread this, if you can figure out how to explain what it is about that makes you feel the way you do.

Powder River Rose, so glad to have you be able to join us. I have a friend who loves 'text to speech' which is apparently a feature on some devices that simply reads an e-book aloud. That still means you have to find e-books, which I know isn't always easy. If you want, I can ask her for more information. I know I'll be wanting it in a few years, myself. Also there's www.librivox.org which I use a lot. Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed this listen. :)

(Spoilers)


I enjoyed the fun and fanciful Mr. Popper's Penguins. The illustrations were wonderful, especially the full-page black/white/blue ones. Admiral Drake was made out to be quite the hero, in narrative as well as illustration! I was happy to see Mr. Popper set out on an adventure at the end of the story. Mrs. Popper seemed certainly content to go back to the routines of daily life for a time on her own, too.

This was just an adorable story.

Started reading Nino, and this is lovely and poetic, a paean to life in 19th and early 20th century rural Italy. One thing that I find enlightening is that even though I am now already on page one hundred or so, and that food and food preparation is constantly and for me deliciously and informatively being mentioned, there has not been any mention of pasta, although polenta is constantly being mentioned and prepared.

I think this shows that like with many so-called ethnic foods, these foods can often be more popular in a certain region of a given country. Polenta seems to be the standard, the food base for Nino and his family and neighbours (and we don't hear about fields of durham wheat, which is used for pasta, but fields of corn, which is what is used to make polenta).

Although I am really really enjoying this book immensely, I do wonder whether the book is really something that most children would also enjoy (I think I would have enjoyed this book even as a child, but anyone wanting a story with conflict and excitement, and not episodic vignettes of rural Italy, might be a bit disappointed).

Finally, I love the use of Italian throughout and how the author has both translated some of the expressions but has also left quite a number to be deduced from context and familiarity with other Romance languages, like French and Spanish.

Nino sounds like it might be reminiscent of another book we read in this club, Dobry. I enjoyed it, but opined that most kids wouldn't.

Glancing through the list of the earliest Newberys, I see many that I was not able to read, but that might also be included in this sub-genre. But most have some adventure, are about a period of political upheaval. Even Children of the Soil: A Story of Scandinavia had some politics.

I don't have the vocabulary to share my idea clearly, but I'm going to try anyway. It seems to me that the Newbery committee was fond of books that promoted American ideals, especially in foreigners. It seems like there was a 'look children all over the world can be brave and fight for freedom, so don't take your own freedom for granted.'

I hope I get a chance to read Nino - *I* look forward to an old book that doesn't have a political agenda.

Btw, I do now have Penn from my library and should be able to read it soonish.

Cheryl wrote: "Nino sounds like it might be reminiscent of another book we read in this club, Dobry. I enjoyed it, but opined that most kids wouldn't.

Glancing through the list of the earliest Ne..."

Well, I am on around page 120 now, and there has not really been any type of action as yet. I certainly do not mind, but I wonder if children might. And while I love the episodic vignettes, I am not sure they would appeal to all. I especially wonder whether the descriptions of Catholic Italian culture and tradition might bother some (although, the descriptions seem in no way as though the author might be trying to convert individuals, in fact, I would actually say that the descriptions of American Protestant church culture encountered in the Little House on the Prairie books are, in fact, more preaching and preachy than any of the descriptions encountered here).

Margaret wrote: "Gundula wrote: "Started reading Nino, and this is lovely and poetic, a paean to life in 19th and early 20th century rural Italy. One thing that I find enlightening is that even thou..."

I think it's a book that's definitely worth reading, as long as you realise that it is descriptive, episodic and that not a lot happens. Right now, the only question I actually have with regard to the book is this. Why, since Nino's family is comfortably off and lives in a village where everyone helps one another and harvests are described as plentiful (and food is thus as well), is Nino's father living and working in the USA? I know that this was often this case, but it also usually occurred when the family was very poor, farming was hard and the like, and I just don't see this with regard to Nino's family or even his entire village (there is, at least so far, not really a good reason being given why Nino's father is working in the States).

The book blurb says this is autobiographical. Let's assume that's true.
I wonder if there were political movements afoot that made father think it's a good idea for him to pave the way for the family to emigrate to the US. Perhaps the ideas shared on this http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch01.htm page of history of Europe are relevant. They're certainly interesting....

I sure do hope I get a copy of this!

Cheryl wrote: "The book blurb says this is autobiographical. Let's assume that's true.
I wonder if there were political movements afoot that made father think it's a good idea for him to pave the way for the fa..."

It feels autobiographical, and perhaps the father was not interested in farming and thought he could find better non farming opportunities in the US. And Europe was in a state of political flux then. However, I still find it a bit strange that after almost one hundred pages, basically the only thing we really know about Nino's father is that he is living and working in the USA (no reasons why, at least not yet, perhaps that will still come).

I know that, reading this as a child, I would have wondered about the father's absence.

Finally got the chance to read Mr. Popper's Penguins! I enjoyed the story and found the characters humorous and unique for this time period. I even learned a couple of things. When the newspaper published the photo of Popper it was printed "in rotogravure." I had to look this up and found that this kind of printing method uses a cylindrical plate instead of a flat plate. It was relatively new printing method since the early 1900s. Then an idiom puzzled me. Mrs. Popper didn't want to leave to go on the road with the penguins and leave things in the house "at sixes and sevens" while they were away. I had never heard this phrase and had to look that up. It just means "chaos, or messy" and must have been more frequently used back in the 1930s. What bothered me the most was when Mr. Popper went to the North Pole to scientifically advance a new race of penguins and allow the men to "play" with his well-trained birds. I know this is a fantasy story and back in 1938 a fun book for children might have helped young readers in learning about penguins, but today we are so into environment issues, it was hard for me to get past the idea of "using" the penguins. Polar bears beware! Otherwise I liked the book and will try to find the movies to compare it to.

Cheryl wrote: "I know that, reading this as a child, I would have wondered about the father's absence."

I am actually not minding the absence, but I would like a bit more information as to precisely why the father is living and working in America. Most books I have read where this is the case (both children's fiction and adult fiction), there are reasons why this is the case and the reasons are shown or at the very least hinted at (which I have not noticed with regard to Nino's father).

I've started Hello, the Boat!, but I'm finding it a bit slow going and not all that interesting (actually, that's wrong, some parts are interesting, but descriptions of boats and the like are not keeping my interest all that much), certainly not liking it nearly as much as I've enjoyed Nino.

Wow, you were able to get several of these, despite being in Canada. Penn came in for me, but none others...

Cheryl wrote: "Wow, you were able to get several of these, despite being in Canada. Penn came in for me, but none others..."

I actually ended up buying these, that is, I found them at a local used book store that was going out of business and selling cheaply (otherwise, I would have been out of luck).

Oh, wow, nice.

Cheryl wrote: "Oh, wow, nice."

lucky!!

I had to give up on Penn. It presumes we know some British history, and so doesn't explain Cromwell, Roundheads, etc. Sorry, if I'm an American child, that's a bit much to expect. Nor is it engaging Apparently not enough is known about Penn's family or childhood to make a story. My library copy appears unread. There is a bibliography.

Cheryl wrote: "I had to give up on Penn. It presumes we know some British history, and so doesn't explain Cromwell, Roundheads, etc. Sorry, if I'm an American child, that's a bit much to expect. ..."

It's too bad I could not find a copy of this, as I think I would have enjoyed this more than you did.

You might. ... Have you liked any of the Newbery biographies so far? This one kinda reminds me most of the one about Audubon, I think....

In any case, I can promise you that you're not missing an amazing read. :)

Cheryl wrote: "You might. ... Have you liked any of the Newbery biographies so far? This one kinda reminds me most of the one about Audubon, I think....

In any case, I can promise you that you're not missing an..."

Not enough to consider purchasing a copy (I've found some of the older Newbery biographies I've managed to get through ILL a bit of a slog).

Reread Mr. Popper's Penguins...although actually this time I listened to it on CD. The narration was fun...but I still have a pretty mixed reaction to this book. I don't hate it...probably liked it more this time than when I read it originally. But it is a bit too absurd for my liking (I understand that it is meant to be ridiculous and humorous...but it is too far fetched for my fairly common sense personality.). First, the idea of keeping one penguin in a home is ridiculous ...but a dozen? Not to mention it isn't in the penguins' best interest to be kept as pets. And Mr. Popper can barely feed his family...but yet spends large sums to care for the penguins. Not to mention what a bad idea it is to send the penguins to the North Pole. But I think the kicker was the ending (Sorry...spoiler alert!) Mr. Popper is invited, last minute, to head to the North Pole and his wife says sure she'll miss him but no problem go ahead and we will see you in a couple of years. I get that this is his dream and perhaps a once in a lifetime opportunity...but I also think a wife and mother sending her husband off like this with just a moment's notice and no concern was just too farfetched. The whole thing was just too over the top, too implausible for me.

It is for me, too, now. But when I was a kid I loved this to pieces.

I'm still trying to figure how it got a Newbery Honor.

Other children's books published in 1938 (according to my quick research) include:

King Cotton by George Wright: http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/37128588...

A Dog of Flanders by Marie Louise de la Ramée (which was made into a movie)

The Circus is Coming, aka Circus Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

To me, any of those seem more 'educational,' which seems so far to have been the focus of the Newbery Committee. Maybe they decided they were sick of the dreary, boring histories and biographies of famous white men and wanted to open the door to lighter reads? Or maybe they read some deep satirical allegory in Penguins that we're all missing, but that contemporary readers would have caught? :shrug:

Nino

What a sweetly poetic story! Informative, gentle, and Nino's artistic nature is certainly shown, often in contrast to the more mundane (but equally endearing) nature of his best friend Julio, who seems to always be hungry, is more mischievous than Nino, but is very very musical. I love the gentle and supportive family and neighbourhood atmosphere, and that early 20th century rural Italian life is so lovingly and descriptively depicted, albeit perhaps somewhat nostalgically and overly positively.

Right at the end of the novel, a letter comes from the father (who does not appear as a character in the novel, as he had immigrated to the United States a few years previously), and it looks like the mother, Nino and the grandfather will now be joining him in the USA. But really, no reason has ever truly been given (within the scope of the narrative) as to why the father ended up immigrating to the States, and I continue to be left with a feeling of Nino, his mother and grandfather giving up a type of rural paradise (and one where even art and famous artists, where culture and cultural achievements are honoured and feted) for a rather uncertain future in America.

As much as I have enjoyed this novel (and I think I would have enjoyed it even as a child), I do wonder a bit if modern children (who seem to have been raised on novels with much more excitement, adventure and "issue based" themes) would appreciate and be able to savour Nino, and yes, I do wish that the author had provided a map of the region, especially since the area, the villages etc. really do exist (I did some research on Wikipedia, but it would have been easier, had the book contained even a rudimentary map).

Did you reread this? I need to go make sure it's on my wishlist.

Cheryl wrote: "Did you reread this? I need to go make sure it's on my wishlist."

Well, I realised I had never actually written my review, so I reread it and it was as much of a pleasure now as it was when I originally read it. You should try to get a copy; I found the book most enjoyable.

Thank you!

I finally got a chance to read Nino and I did enjoy it. It reminded me much of Dobry, a quiet story of a happy boyhood in the Old Country. But of course Valenti Angelo's book is autobiographical: http://www.catholicauthors.com/angelo....

But, no, I cannot guess why the father went to America. I find no evidence he would have been an activist escaping persecution or anything like that, as there was no revolution or civil war at the time. The family was one of the more comfortable in the village, Nino makes clear in the chapter about harvest and the gleaners. There's no evidence of local scandal. It's just odd.

Cheryl wrote: "I finally got a chance to read Nino and I did enjoy it. It reminded me much of Dobry, a quiet story of a happy boyhood in the Old Country. But of course [author:Valent..."

That was the only thing I find odd as well. For me, with the glowing descriptions of Italian agricultural life and culture, it always felt a bit like Nino, his mother and grandmother were leaving a utopian existance for a rather uncertain future in America (and as you pointed out, there was never any reason given as to why the father had gone to America, neither financial nor political).

Haven't read Nino, but despite how nice the "old country" might sound, over four million Italians came to the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century. Surely we can see there was appeal, not uncertainty, yes? These weren't all refugees. My understanding is that Italian immigrants sent tales of new-found prosperity back to their native land, resulting in more and more immigrants.

Michael wrote: "Haven't read Nino, but despite how nice the "old country" might sound, over four million Italians came to the U.S. around the turn of the 20th century. Surely we can see there was appeal, not uncer..."

What I and I believe Cheryl find strange is that throughout the entire book, there is hardly any mention of the father or of his life in America (no letters, descriptions, why he chose to immigrate, nothing). It just makes the letter at the end and the then almost immediate departure of the family to America feel kind of like it was a bit tacked on and hard to fathom and comprehend (I know that letters took long, but I have some trouble believing that the father would not have written other letters, including ones describing America, as the family seems educated and of a comparatively higher social class). And since as you point out, there were tales upon tales sent back of opportunity and prosperity, why was this never really shown in the book? The father amd the fact that he is in America remain an almost total nonentity until right at the end, when the letter is received (and then, everything changes, it is America or bust so to speak and the father suddenly becomes almost godlike).

Personally, I think I would have liked it more, had the decision to immigrate, had the letter and the scene on the train (going towards the port from which the mother, the grandfather and Nino would sail to America) not been the end of the novel, but somewhere in the middle (that we would have read about the journey, meeting up with Nino's father, how family dynamics worked, especially since the mother and father had long been separated, and how the three, how Nino especially, liked America). The book just did not feel like it had a to me absolutely satisfying ending.

Yes, the father sends for them after being away for eight years, apparently he left very shortly after Nino's birth (if not before). The artist's autobiography, from the link, makes no mention of the father, either. It just seems like there's a reason it's not talked about.

Anyway, I was curious about Jacobo's gift to Nino, "a della Robbia bambino" and found this: http://www.museumsinflorence.com/foto.... Jacobo definitely understood the boy's longing for art & beauty.

Well, I never actually did manage to complete Hello, the Boat!, but think that I read enough to know that this was not really all that much a story for me.

I purchased a used but still readable copy of Phyllis Crawford's 1939 Newbery Honour winning Hello, the Boat! in February 2015, as we were reading it for the Newbery Club in the Children's Literature Group (and because the title and book description interested me, as I am generally pretty much an eager fan of historical fiction type children's literature books, both from current, recent and more historic, older eras).

That being said, and while I indeed did commence reading with much eager anticipation, I quickly lost most of my interest and Hello, the Boat! has actually been languishing on my "Currently-Reading" Shelf for nigh two years now, the main culprit for my lack of enthusiasm being that the constant and minute descriptions of boats and especially their specific mechanics, I found (and still find) more than a bit distracting, to the point of frustrating tedium and really not all that well incorporated into the body of the text, into the main narrative either (and as such much too technical). The idea of a store boat on the river (and a family who actually permanently resides on said boat, hawking and selling their products and goods as they make their way down the latter) was and even remains intriguing and historically interesting for and to me (and was actually enough for me to buy Hello, the Boat! online), but the appealing promise and premise did not at all materialise into an interesting and attention holding, rewarding reading experience (and thus, I will simply consider Hello, the Boat! as abandoned, although I do still consider that I have nevertheless perused enough of the featured narrative to be able to with confidence claim an interesting enough subject matter, but one that has been conceptualised and presented in a manner that is simply not "for me" and not really able to be even all that much appreciated "by me").

Two stars (and I am actually being rather generous here, in my opinion, as I really do NOT at all like the author's narration and writing style). And thus, Hello, the Boat! while definitely not a terrible or inappropriate novel, is also NOT really recommended except to and for those potential readers who are serious Newbery completists and want or need to peruse each and every award winning offering (and I also leave the more than necessary caveat that Hello, the Boat! features rather a goodly number of references to North American Indians being savages to be killed, and while this does chafe and massively bother me, I actually do still somewhat grudgingly applaud Phyllis Crawford for including a painful but important historical truth and not simply omitting this sorry fact or pretending it away).

Thanks for the update!

Cheryl wrote: "Thanks for the update!"

It certainly did not hold my interest.