You Know, For Kids!

One summer I read began reading a book aloud to my grandsons Jeffy and Ethan who live close by. Every time I visited them we read a chapter. We chose Dear Mr. Henshaw by Beverly Cleary. It starts out so cute and funny and totally kid-appropriate. The class is reading a book about dogs and the boy writes, "We licked it." Ha-ha-ha., laugh Jeffy and Ethan. The boy reads the same book, Ways to Amuse a Dog, over and over, and every year he writes a book report on it. Jeffy chuckles.  Then the boy's favorite author writes a new book, Moose on Toast and Ethan practically rolls on the floor in hysterics.The biggest problems in the story are how the family has moved and how somebody keeps stealing the yummy stuff out of the boy's lunch. Then about 1/3 of the way through the book, the story turns dark and heavy. The boys sees that his parents don't love each other anymore, the dad is never there, they are getting a divorce, the dad never calls or writes to his son. We're sitting there reading and I feel Jeffy (age 8) start inching away. "What's the matter, Jeffy? Is it too sad?" "Yeah," says Jeffy. "I don't like when daddies are like that." After some weeks leaving the book alone we decided to finish it to see if it ended happy but it didn't, just a little up in the air. I know it won the Newbery but it's not my favorite. Ramona got to have a normal childhood even with some troubles, but Leigh Botts's was just too troublesome for Jeffy. 

I guess moderny children's authors think they have to reflect the world as it is, not as it should be. Wouldn't want anybody to feel left out, right? Wrong. Literature that merely reflects life is no fit guide for it, so says Flannery O'Connor.

Not many summers ago I decided to reread some books I loved when I was nine or ten, books by Elizabeth Enright. I wondered if I would still love them. And I did. It was a wonderful experience. Yes, in the Melendy family series the children have lost their mother (before the story begins) and World War II is going on, and in one book they meet a boy who is being raised by his mean adult cousin who dies in a fire. But these are not the things the children worry about except in child ways, such as they love their nanny/housekeeper lady as much as a grandma and their dad is gone a lot helping with the war and is their hero, and the family ends up adopting the orphan boy. They keep themselves busy and creative, as in putting on plays and collecting junk to help the war effort. And oh, the adventures they have, mostly outdoors. In other words, despite life as it is they get to be normal children. They aren't weighed down with adult problems. The books are absolutely beautifully written and the content age-appropriate. There are lots of references to classic literature and music and nature and traditional values. (Some details are dated but still work in context.) I don't think anybody is reading these books anymore.
The Melendy family series consists of: The Saturdays, The Four-Story Mistake, Then There Were Five, and A Spiderweb for Two. Enright won the Newbery for Thimble Summer. My fifth grade teacher read Gone-Away Lake to us. And then there's Return to Gone-Away. My favorites are Spiderweb and Gone-Away Lake. It has been a refreshing treat to reread these lovely books. (The above charming illustration is  by E.E. from Then There Were Five. She was also an artist.)