Children's Books discussion

Come join us to discuss the Medal Winner,
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron

and/or the Honor books:
Penny from Heaven by Jennifer L. Holm
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson
Rules by Cynthia Lord

Quality and availability should no longer be an issue. I'm looking forward to all four of these and would love to have conversations about them!

AHH GoodReads ate my reply!

LOVE LOVE LOVED Penny from Heaven. It broke my heart and made me cry. This so easily could have been my own family story. I had a briscola-playing Nonnie as well and her older sister always won and everyone swears she cheated but no one knows how. Like Penny's dad, they were brought to the U.S. as children after WWI. Other relatives came and went back and forth a few times. I didn't quite realize the extent of incarceration of Italian-Americans during WWII. Everyone talks about the Japanese and rightly so but no one talks about how my beloved grandmother could have been tossed in jail. She would have fought that one kicking and screaming while her sister would have fought it with kindness and food. Their mother would just smash her rolling pin over the heads of anyone who tried to tell her what to do.

When I read this story I also realized how un funny the story of my 3 year old dad trying to put his new baby brother in the washing machine actually is. YIKES! I've SEEN wringer washers but only the hand crank kind.

I also LOVED Hattie Big Sky so much the first time I read it. I loved the realistic characters and how the history was woven into the story. The hatred for the Muller family was shocking and horrid based on nothing but their name and country of origin. They're such a nice family and their story is so sad. I related a lot to the spunky modern Hattie. However, the second time I read the book I didn't love it as much and I did graduate research on single women homesteaders and none of them were actually solo women like Hattie! They had family and friends work the land for them, helping out when they could. Some were even married, like Elinore Pruitt Stewart. I really want to read this ancestor's diary that inspired the story.

Kirby Larson is a great writer and I have enjoyed most of her middle grade books I have read and even the sweet American Girl Bitty Baby books I read my niece when she was little.

Oh, thank you; now I am even more looking forward to them!

I, personally, could only give Penny from Heaven three stars. My younger self would have not liked it all.

The thing that made this episodic, usually silly story Newbery worthy is that it's mostly historically very true, most of the stories are directly from Holm's family history, and, yes, it wasn't just Japanese-Americans who were interred, but also Italian-Americans.

Conveniently for educators, this actually takes place after the war, so the early 1950s are also explored, what with polio, wringer washers, milkmen, etc. Oh, and to get the 'boys' in class to read it, there's also baseball, treasure hunting, and criminal activity.

I am glad that I had a quiet afternoon and could read it in one day, though, as I don't care to spend more time with these folks. I found it boring, tbh.

I'm so sorry you didn't enjoy Penny. I loved Penny but it was very personal to my family. My dad is a little younger than Penny and grew up in a mostly ethnic community. His American-born uncle was in the Navy in the Pacific during the war and a real hero to the community so I'm not sure what happened to Penny's dad would have happened to my Nonnie's family but it COULD have to my grandfather's parents who were less educated and didn't have sons in the war. Luckily they signed away all rights to money and property in Italy denouncing fascism, etc. etc. My 2xs great-grandparents and their youngest son went back after WWI though and remained through WWII.

That's wonderful that you know so much about your family history. Thank you for sharing!

And, as you say, different readers will enjoy the book differently. I'm definitely not saying it's a bad book or unworthy the honor!

QNPoohBear wrote: "AHH GoodReads ate my reply!

LOVE LOVE LOVED Penny from Heaven. It broke my heart and made me cry. This so easily could have been my own family story. I had a briscola-playing Nonnie a..."

Sure, it is important to talk about the incarceration of Japanese Americans, but it also needs to be mentioned that Italian Americans, German Americans, pacifists, Socialists also were incarcerated (and that in the UK, even if you were a Jewish refugee, you were often considered a potential enemy spy).

My SO’s (who is much older than me) first girlfriend was Italian Canadian and her uncle was arrested and placed in a camp during WWII simply because he was a pacifist and a Socialist (that he also constantly condemned Mussolini did not matter).

And that's another thing not well known in the US, that Canada had internment camps, too.

Cheryl wrote: "And that's another thing not well known in the US, that Canada had internment camps, too."

And Canadian internment camps were not only the same as in the USA but sometimes with harsher conditions.

And most Americans (and even many Canadians) do not know that in WWI, thousands of Ukrainian Canadians were interred as supposed enemy aliens.

Didn't know that either. Gosh. :(

Oh wow I didn't know about Canadian Ukrainians being incarcerated during WWII. That's crazy. Here in the U.S. it's common knowledge about the Japanese but it wasn't until the 1980s or 90s here on the East coast anyway. None of the textbooks or museums EVER mentioned anyone else.

Cheryl wrote: "That's wonderful that you know so much about your family history. Thank you for sharing!

And, as you say, different readers will enjoy the book differently. I'm definitely not saying it's a bad bo..."

My Nonnie lived to 101 (minus one month)! We six grandkids were very close to her and miss her a lot. We older grands were also close to her older sister and their baby sister's husband helpfully compiled her memories. I wrote down everything my Nonnie told me about her childhood. My dad remembers his grandparents well. I don't know as much about my grandfather's family. He died when I was a kid and his parents died when my dad was very tiny. Every time I asked, my grandfather didn't remember. We found his family the hard way through records and sheer coincidence.

I can absolutely see my dad, uncle and cousins searching out treasure in their grandparents' house. They didn't have to look too far. They would have gotten into the wine first before the money.

I'll have to recommend this book to the nieces and see what they think. They're "too old" for middle grade books (teenage eyeroll) but they may be interested in learning more about Nonno's lifetime and what our family may have experienced, or their friends and neighbors, restaurant customers. They knew my Nonnie too! If I reread this book I'll probably cry more missing my Nonnie even more than when I read this the first time.

Aww.... Thank you for the stories. I'm so happy for you that you have memories.

An article from New England History on incarceration of Italian-Americans during WWII. I didn't quite realize the extent of it.

https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.c...

Gosh. Wow.

And then there's this, from the end of the article:

"On Columbus Day 1942, Attorney General Francis Biddle announced Italians living as long-term residents in the United States were removed from the list of enemy aliens. He had political reasons to do it. Italian immigrants made up an enormous voting bloc and congressional elections were coming up."

Ah, the irony.

All of which means that the book, Penny from Heaven, is truly important, and well worth the Newbery Honor.

Hattie Big Sky

I just can't seem to find much to say about this historical fiction. I have no interest in the sequel. I'm confident that the source was spare and that far too much of this story was invented to refer to it as any sort of 'true.' Many aspects seemed invented to add color and drama.

The time period is interesting, the book enlightening. Montana still had homesteading in the 'teens. So, war, anti-German bullying, modern technology, the implication of the fight for women's rights... all that comes into play as it does not in Wilder's 'Little House' books.

However, there is absolutely no mention at all of Native Americans. Couldn't someone have said "I remember when the (name of Nation) lived here" or couldn't someone have had a buffalo hide robe, made in "the Indian style" or something? Were they all gone? Killed off, or confined to small reservations?

Btw, my library sent me the large print edition, and I see they don't have it tagged as Juvenile or YA. Default being adult. Well, Hattie does try to do the job of an adult! And much of the material is either too sophisticated or too violent for younger juveniles. I'm thinking I would not have wanted to read it any younger than age 12, even though I really wanted something to read after I'd gone through all the Little House books several times.

Cheryl wrote: "Hattie Big Sky

I just can't seem to find much to say about this historical fiction. I have no interest in the sequel. I'm confident that the source was spare and that far too much of..."

I have not read this, but absolutely NO mention at all of Native Americans is in my opinion kind of worse than how they appear negatively portrayed in the Little House on the Prairie series, as no mention of Native Americans at all just seems as though they are being ignored as though they never even existed.

It may be, perhaps, that there just weren't any around, and no evidence of them either (at least to a young woman with other stuff on her mind). I'd have to be more interested in history to research it.

Cheryl wrote: "It may be, perhaps, that there just weren't any around, and no evidence of them either (at least to a young woman with other stuff on her mind). I'd have to be more interested in history to researc..."

You might be right, but I am definitely a bit suspicious.

I doubt any of the settlers who benefited from the Homestead Act would have thought twice about the people who were the original stewards of the land and if they did, it would not be in favorable terms. Remember Custer? I learned recently where the term "redskin" comes from and it's pretty gruesome. It ties into western expansion and the railroads and the thought process that gets Laura Ingalls Wilder cancelled for having her characters say. You can look it up in the Wikipedia article under "Pejoration".

Thank you!

I didn't have much to say about The Higher Power of Lucky and I only gave it three stars. I read a discarded library copy in near mint conditions, which implies that, perhaps, kids didn't find it appealing, either.

An Honor book, sure. But not a Newbery winner. Then again, it wasn't the strongest year ever. The thing is, there is so much to love here, but it's not satisfactory. It's such a concise book. There are sequels which might bring things together, but I'm insufficiently interested to read them.

Rules, otoh, charmed me. I loved the details like the fact that Catherine is an artist, and we get to watch her work. We get to know the other characters a little bit, even minor ones like the new neighbor. We are right with the girl as she figures things out. Theme is universally important (people are more than their diagnosis). I will look for more by the author, and am giving it four stars.

The Higher Power of Lucky
I read this back in 2007 and gave it 2 stars; my one word review: "Boring."