The Matchlock Gun

This book, by Walter D. Edmond, was written in 1941.  It is very short... Cole read it in twenty minutes, it took me about 45 minutes to read it.   In the foreword it talks about a lullaby that Gertrude VanAlstyne sings in the story.  It says, "It is a real old Dutch song, and lots of mothers sang it to their children up and down the Hudson Valley and in and around Albany in 1757..."

 

The songs goes like this...

 

"Trip a trop a troenje (Up and down on a little throne; {mother's or father's knee}

De varken en de boenjen,  (The pigs are in the beans)

De koejen en de klaver, (The cows are in the clover)

De paardje en de haver, (The colts are in the stable)

De kalfie en de langen gras, (The calf is in the long grass)

De eenjen en de vater-plas (The ducks are in the pond)

So groet myn klynen pappetje vas" (So big my little baby was)

 

Since Norm's mom is Dutch, I love it when I come across anything Dutch. Even though, by blood, I am not Dutch, my children and my husband are so I feel, in a strange way, a connection to all things Dutch... except for pickled herring.. I am not connecting to that in anyway shape or form.  

 

This is another part in the foreward I found interesting/funny...

 

'It was not unusual to find Spanish guns in Holland, for the Spaniards had once invaded that country and believed they had conquered it.  That is something no one should believe, for the Dutch are never good at staying beaten.  In fast when you say, "Doesn't that beat the Dutch?"  you mean, "Isn't that just about incredible.?"

 

I have never heard that saying but I am going to start using  it... I always love finding anything Dutch and I love to share it with Hans.  I emailed her all this last night when I read it.

So, the book is set in the mid to late 1700s around Albany area.  A young family the Van Alstynes were real people.  The husband was Teunis and the wife was Gergrude.  Their children were Trudy and Edward.  Teunis was in the militia to keep the Indians and the French from invading their territory.  He left one evening and was gone over night.  Edward was 10 and was left as the man of the house.  They had a Spanish Gun above their fireplace.  They way they describe it, is that it is "longer than a grown man"  It was a huge gun and Edward wondered why his father never took it with him on his militia duties.  That next day, a militia man rode his horse to their little farm house and said that the Indians had broken through their lines, Teunis was okay but he wanted them to go to his mother's house.  She lived in a big brick house just a little up the road from them.  Mrs. Van Alstyne was a little crusty.  She didn't approve of Gertrude because she had no "Van" to her name.  Gertrude felt more comfortable at her house and decided to stay there.  She made a plan with Edward to guard their house.  She took down the spanish gun, loaded it with two bullets, some nails and coins.  She cut a hole in their window, propped the gun on the table and got a candle ready for Edward to discharge the gun on her signal.  She knew she would not be able to see if the Indians were coming if she was in the house.  She set Trudy up in her room with a doll and some lumps of sugar and told Edward to listen for her to call his name and he was to shoot the gun.  She went outside on the pretense of picking beans so she wouldn't look suspicious.  When she saw the brick house on fire, she noticed five or so Indians coming towards her house.  She started running and they were chasing her.  When she got to the stoop she yelled for Edward, she went down and was hit in the shoulder with a tomahawk.  Edward discharged the gun and killed four of the Indians and the others ran off. Edward had Trudy take off her shirt and he stuffed it into his mother's gaping wound after he took the tomahawk out of her shoulder. 

 

The bravery shown by the mother and the children, as well as the father is amazing.  I think in today's times we have to be brave, but not at the risk of losing our lives like that.  It is good to read things like this to put our lives into perspective.  I can often make me think that we don't have it so bad.  I don't have  a mansion, but I do have carpet.  I don't have a maid or a chef but I can just waltz into Costco and get my food and turn on my oven and cook something. I may not have a jetted tub but I do have indoor plumbing.  It may be hard to make ends meet but I don't worry about my husband or my children getting attacked by Indians.  Such different lives, such different perspectives...  It's just good when you can get that in a 40 minute read.

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

We finally ventured to our new local Sandy Library.  It is quite a big bigger than the West Jordan.  I was perusing the shelves in the youth non fiction area and I came across four or five shelves that had ALL the Newberry Winner Books in one section!  They had multiple copies of each book all right there.  No more looking it up on the computer and trying to find one.  I can just browse through them all in one spot.  Ok, enough said... I chose three or four that were very short.  I finished "Number the Stars" in two days.  It is about a Danish Girl during WWII when Denmark is occupied by the Germans.  She has  Jewish friend named Ellen.  Ellen's family must flee in the middle of the night so Ellen comes to stay with Annemarie.  They talk about the Resistance in Denmark and how many people helped so many Jewish escape across the sea to Sweeden.  At the end of the book the author explains a few neat facts that were actually true.  The fisherman would smuggle the Jewish people in their fishing boats.  The German Soldiers discovered this ploy and brought in German Shepherd dogs to sniff them out.  There were Sweedish scientists that came up with a concoction they would soak handkerchiefs in and it would attract the dogs and then numb their noses so they couldn't find the human scent on the boats.  I love that people of different backgrounds and religions were willing to sacrifice so much, even their lives and their families lives to help another that was being so unjustly treated.  One of my favorite parts was at the end when the occupation was over and the Jewish were able to return to their homes and they came back to immaculate houses and apartments.  Their friends and neighbors for over a year, had been dusting their furniture and polishing their silver for them while they were gone.  Such acts of kindness when everyone had so little.  No sugar, no butter, no milk... but the still found it in their hearts to give so much service.  Why is it that those of us who are blessed with so much find it difficult to find the time to serve others as much as we should? This book has changed my perspective on being willing to help those in need.

More books, not Newberry, but GREAT ones

I discovered a new author from a recommendation from Shelley Buckley.  Her name is Sandra Dallas and I have read two of her books.  The first one, "Prayers for Sale", is a quaint story about a small mining town in  Colorado in the 1930s.  Hennie, 86, and Nit, 17, become best of friends.  The women quilt, pick berries, make pies, prepare for a baby and help each other out so much.  So much of daily life in that time was physical labor that the women banded together for support.  They were so much closer and relied on each other so much.  I truly enjoyed the mannerisms and some of the sayings that are used in the book.  The title, "Prayers for Sale", is on a sign that hangs on the main characters fence post.  She doesn't go to church but feels so blessed in her life that she doesn't need to offer many prayers for herself but will "sell" her prayers and offer them up for others.  She makes a point that most of us are truly blessed every day and there are often so many others that are in far worse circumstances that we can offer prayers for.  It makes me think that we should offer an unselfish prayer every now and again.  Prayer for everyone else and not yourself.  You know, how you offer those gratitude prayers, and only offer thanks and don't ask for anything.  Maybe trying to  only think of others once and a while will put things in perspective for us.

The second book of hers that I read was called "Tall Grass"

It also, was set in a small town in Colorado during World War II.  They established a Japanese Internment Camp in this town and it displayed how they all interacted with each other.  The main characters were beet farmers and they had a son go off to war and a daughter at home.  It again, was mostly about their daily life, the way of life during the 1940s.  There was a little murder mystery invovlved also.  I really enjoyed learning more about life during the war and how it affected those living here in the States.

"The Hunger Games"

The books in this series are not Newberry winners, but I LOVED them.  I read the first two books in less than a week and now have to wait until August for the third and final book to come out.  Cole read them before I did and thoroughly enjoyed them.  When I started the first book, I had this eerie feeling that our America could end up like this... Panem.  Not the Hunger Game part, but just the fact that society and commerce have failed and even though there is technology people are living back in pioneer-like circumstances.  They have to grow their own food, hunt in secrecy, and obey all the crazy government rules.  I loved that the book was something totally different.  I loved the imagery of the clothing, and obsession oo physical appearance that the residents of the Capital had.  There was so much suffering and poverty in all the districts yet the people living in the Capital had all the luxuries they could ever ask for.  I loved the suspense of the games and the mystery of the love triangle.  I recommend this series for all who love a good suspense.  I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the third book in August.

The Westing Game

I just finished the Westing Game.  It was good but not great and not one of my top favorites.  I felt it was very confusing and hard to follow.  There were so many characters and they were all intertwined and hard to keep track of.  I like a good mystery, who-done-it, type.  I did enjoy the mystery.  My favorite character was probably Turtle.  She is a super smart stock-savvy ten year old.  She figures it all out and outwits, outlasts and outplays all the adults.  Hey it's the original Survivor.  Good, short read.

Up, Up and Away

I just finished "Twenty-One Balloons" by  William Pène du Bois, published in 1947 and awarded the Newbery Medal  in 1948.  I actually had listened to this on CD with the kids in the car while driving up to Bear Lake last year.  Because of many interruptions in the car, I wanted to read it again.  I had thoroughly enjoyed listening to it but I felt like I missed some of it with all the stopping and starting.  I don't know why kids have to talk to you so much, especially in the car. Anyway, I just finished and I still loved it.  It is a great book.  The imagery is so wonderful and the writing is amazing.  I loved how the descriptions caused such great pictures to appear in my mind.  I wish I was a screen writer so I could make this into a movie.  I think it would be fascinating.  I loved how they had a restaurant-style government, that each family changed their name to a letter of the alphabet, how each house was built after a theme of a country that started with the letter of their name.  The whole idea of balloon travel and the way it is described is, again, I will say, fascinating.  The imagery (I think I need a new word) of the island, as a volcano, and the ground rolling up and down was incredible.  It was entertaining for adults and kids.  I think it would be a good read-aloud for a class.  It is a short, quick read but thoroughly enjoyable.  One of my favorites.

Miss Hickory.... cookoo

Okay, this book was really weird... I can totally picture a Tim Burton animated film.  Let me explain.... Miss Hickory is a "person" made of an apple tree twig for her body, arms, legs, etc.. her head is a hickory nut.  She wears clothes and cans berries.  She starts out the story living in a house made of corn cobs, she talks to crows, her house is taken over by a chipmunk, but crow flies her up to a next and she turns that into a humble abode.  She somehow makes facial expressions even though her face is a hard nut.  She eats somehow even though, again her face and mouth are a nut and her body is a twig.  She also talks to pheasants and cows.  A fawn and a cow become friends.  I wonder where Miss Hickory finds her tiny little mason jars to do her canning.  This book was really short but I just couldn't finish it.  I read about 60 pages and I couldn't get where this story was going.  It eluded, at the beginning, that there was some little girl that had set up her house, and would bring her things, like a stove or a teapot, but then there was no more talk of the girl.  They thought she moved away.  I am all about fantasy, I know Harry Potter isn't real and I really shouldn't wonder how Hedwig can find anyone to deliver a letter. But, that story is all set up with explanation, it's MAGIC!  duh...  But Miss Hickory is just a lady made of a twig and a nut that cans and wears clothes.  It doesn't say it's a magical forest or anything.  I don't know I thought it was weird.

Here is a doll someone had made that LOVED the book.  A little creepy if you ask me, but hey this book was not my cup of tea.  I guess not every book can be a home run (as my Dad would say)

I have decided that if I attempt to read, and don't finish the book, it still counts and I can check it off the list.  I had to get confirmation from my sisters, Lauren and Adrienne on this.  I have on my Bucket List to read all of the Newberry Book Winners, and I didn't know if I didn't finish them if it would count.  They said YES so hallelujah, I don't have to finish the books for them to count.

"The Story of Mankind"

This is the first book to have been awarded the Newberry Medal. It was in the year 1922.  It is literally the story of mankind, the history of the world.  It is interesting, but I cannot quite figure out how this is a children/junior literature book.  It is written in simple terms, but what kid would read 500 pages of this.  I find it very intriguing but, even though I don't want to admit it, I am OLD... I  no longer fit into the junior category.  The author, Loon, has some weird ideas.  I say weird, because they are different than what I believe so maybe I should say different ideas.  The way he describes the Earth "appearing", the way people came to be on the Earth, the story of Jesus... different.  I don't know where he is getting his facts from but the title of the chapter about Jesus is "Joshua of Nazareth... The Story of Joshua of Nazareth, Whom the Greeks called Jesus"  I have never heard of Jesus being called Joshua.  I have asked around and no one else has heard of that either.  So, I am now wondering about some of his other information.  So far I have skipped the chapters on our earliest ancestors (the single cell swimming in the ocean that sprouted legs and "learned" to breathe air), The Setting of the Stage (how the earth was a flaming ball and it burned itself out and then the incessant rains caused cells to take root in the slimy sediments...).  I have read 28 of 77 chapters and some of my favorites have been about the rise and fall of Egypt, the Greeks, Rome vs. Carthage, Mohammed.  I have a long ways to go...400 more pages, but I think I will finish it.  It is pretty easy reading, but not as fun as "Bud, Not Buddy", but I feel like I am learning and relearning some history.

From the bottom up...

So, I requested the three oldest books on the Newberry list.  The first book was from 1922.  I think this is my new plan to read them in sequential order.  I haven't picked them up from the library yet but am anxiously awaiting their arrival. I don't know how I should feel that no one else is requesting these books, I was #1 in line.  I am not letting that cloud my judgement before I even read them.  Hopefully it is not some kind of a sign.

I think I might be the sole survivor... do I win a million dollars?

I don't know if I outwitted, outlasted or outplayed anyone but maybe outread newberry books.  Too bad that doesn't qualify you for anything.

I just read "The Whipping Boy"... very short but a good one.  The premise of the story is quite a barbaric one.  It is illegal to lay a hand on the prince so they have a whipping boy to take his lashings if the prince misbehaves.  The two run off together and have all sorts of problems and realizations.  It wasn't funny like some of the others but I still liked it.

I reread "A Wrinkle in Time"... even though all my sisters said YUCK...once was enough for me on that book.  I remember having my 4th grade teacher read it outloud to us but I didn't remember the book.  I thought it was okay actually but I don't have a desire to read it again.

I listened to "21 balloons" with the kids while we were driving to the cabin.  Loved, this one,and I probalby will get the book and actually read it. There is something to reading the words and visualizing the things in your head.  Listening to it is fun too but I prefer to read.  I loved the clever descriptions and settings the author uses.