Blog – Page 2 – Deb Watley Books

2017 Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction: FULL OF BEANS by Jennifer L. Holm

In my quest to read all of the books that have earned the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction, this month I’ll be talking about the 2017 winner, Full of Beans, by Jennifer L. Holm.

In Full of Beans, a middle grade novel, ten-year-old Beans Curry lives in 1934 Key West, Florida, when Key West is a bankrupt town full of trash, but few jobs. Beans’ father leaves town in search of work, his mother takes in laundry, and Beans and his younger brother do whatever odd jobs they can find.

Life’s not all bad. Beans and his gang are the reigning marble champs, they enjoy Cuban food, and Beans goes to the movies to watch the new child actors whenever he gets a chance. However, when he decides to take a job for a shady townsperson, he reaps consequences he wasn’t expecting.

Instead of writing a traditional review of each of the Scott O’Dell Award winning books, I write about the historical facts and the writing craft lessons that I’ve learned. I find that even in books I don’t enjoy, there are often things I can learn.

History lesson—Depression-era Key West

During the Depression, Key West was so broke it had quit picking up trash and there were piles of trash around town causing a terrible odor. The main employers had left. Jobs were scarce. The federal government had decided to either close the town or make it a tourist mecca.

The New Deal employees came in to clean up the trash and paint the houses. Actually, the federal government paid for the supplies, but most of the labor was supplied by volunteer labor, including that of the kids of Key West.

Key West did become a tourist mecca, and it was largely because a marketing campaign.

Writing lesson—Flawed, yet likable protagonist

I think Beans is kind of the neighborhood tough guy. He’s street smart and he’ll take advantage of others to get ahead. Yet he loves his parents and his siblings. He’s a leader and loyal to his friends. He seems to be able to read adults and know if they’ve good or bad intentions. And he has dreams and a conscience.

Holm does a good job showing all these different aspects to Beans, making him a rounded, likable kid even though he makes some unlikable choices. In fact, in the first scene, Beans knows he’s being taken advantage of by an adult, but he goes along with it so he can take care of his hungry younger brother.

This made me enjoy spending time with Beans even if I didn’t like all his choices.

What kids books have you read set in Florida or during the Depression? What books have you read where the protagonists may not be the greatest role models, yet you still enjoyed spending time with them?

Summer Stories Set in the Past Delight Me in the Now

This summer I read two wonderful books that are both considered British children’s classics. I missed them as a kid, so this was my first time to experience the wonder and delight of reading them.

The two books were The Railway Children by E. Nesbit, published in 1905, and Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, published in 1930.

Both of these would be lumped into the historical fiction genre for today’s readers.

However, I’d place them into a sub-genre I refer to as Past Contemporary. By this I mean that although both of these stories are set in our (as readers) past, the authors set them in their own contemporary time periods.

Now they are historical stories, but when published they were contemporary stories.

For a discussion of the three sub-genres of historical fiction, see my previous article, Historical Fiction: My Definition.

It seems like I’m splitting hairs, but it is helpful for readers to know they might need to do a little legwork to understand all the cultural references the authors assumed their readers would get.

It’s also nice to know that the way the time period and culture is portrayed is through the characters’ and authors’ eyes, and not interpreted by later authors imposing their own thoughts and feelings onto the past.

Past contemporary stories give a truer glimpse into how people thought in the past.

Granted, both of the books I read seem to give an idealized account of childhood. I would accept that about Swallows and Amazons. The children have lovely adventure without being in any danger. True evil never touches them. The story is an ode to play and imagination and adults getting out of the way.

In The Railway Children, however, the children are dealing with the dire consequences from someone’s wrongdoing. Their mother hides the worst from them and helps them see their situation as an adventure.

I love how both books show loving families and healthy relationships. Their “innocent” lives are a huge part of why I enjoyed the books. Dark stories are generally not my cup of tea.

I also enjoyed the glimpse into rural England in early Twentieth Century. These stories truly did bring me to another time and place.

Whats your favorite children’s Past Contemporary book? What do you like about it?

Happy Birthday, America!

July 4 will be the 243^rd anniversary of The Declaration of Independence!

How did you learn about our nation’s birth?

I feel like I’ve always known. History was an important part of my life even when I was a very young child. I probably knew more about American history than I did the time I was actually living in.

I’m sure part of that is due to my parents’ interest in historical fiction books and tv shows. Those were some of my earliest influences.

In addition, America’s Bicentennial celebration was the first event of national importance I remember.

The Story of the Declaration of Independence (Cornerstones of Freedom series) by Norman Richards (1968), see photo above, was one of my childhood books. I don’t remember when I received it, but I’d guess it would’ve been about the time of the Bicentennial.

I re-read my copy recently, and I appreciated how it told the story of our country’s birth in an informative and interesting way and reminded me of events I had forgotten.

Have you ever been to the National Archives to see The Declaration, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights? If you get the chance, go! It’s inspiring!

How will you celebrate Independence Day? Parades, picnics, fireworks? Those are great ways to celebrate! I like to watch patriotic movies, too. National Treasure, anyone? A few years ago, my family had the opportunity to see the musical 1776 performed on July 4 in Colonial Williamsburg! That was a treat!

This year I’m trying something new—I plan to memorize the opening lines of The Declaration.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.
The Declaration of Independence

This is from the parchment version of The Declaration signed in August 1776. However, the draft the Continental Congress approved in July 1776 does not contain the phrase “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.”

What kids’ books–fiction or non-fiction–about The Declaration or Independence Day would you recommend?

Nine Books for D-Day

As Americans commemorate Memorial Day, and as the 75^th Anniversary of the D-Day Invasion of Normandy follows closely on June 6, here’s a list of books about D-Day where so many Americans, Allies, and French died for freedom.

D-Day books for younger readers:

Fiction:

D-Day: Battle on the Beach (Ranger in Time series) by Kate Messner (2018)—fiction—This novel features Ranger, the rescue dog, who time-travels back to June 6, 1944, to Normandy to save a Jewish boy and an African-American soldier. Messner handles the events and horror of WWII and D-Day in an appropriate way for readers of this chapter book, giving them facts and background info without overwhelming or traumatizing them.

How I Became a Spy: A Mystery of WWII London by Deborah Hopkinson (2019)—fiction—This middle grade novel features Bertie, a young London boy who volunteers for the Civil Defense, and Little Roo, his rescue dog, who find a notebook of a woman who may be a spy. The book is set several months before D-Day and shows what life was like for Londoners, as well as the Occupied French, and some of the tactics of the spies who helped the invasion succeed.

The Battle of D-Day, 1944 (I Survived series) by Lauren Tarshis (2019)—fiction—This chapter book focuses on a fictional French boy who lives near Omaha Beach in Normandy, rescues an Allied paratrooper, helps the French Resistance aid the Allied soldiers prior to and during the D-Day landing, and witnesses the horrific landing.

This book focuses on what life was like for the Occupied French, the Resistance, and the Jewish people, yet it portrays everything through the experience of an eleven-year-old boy who could’ve plausibly been at the invasion.

For young adults and adults:

Fiction:

The Journal of Scott Pendleton Collins: A World War II Soldier (A Dear America Book) by Walter Dean Meyers (1999)—fiction—This novel is written at a middle grade level, but since it focuses on a soldier’s experience from right before the D-Day landing on Omaha Beach through the next ten weeks of fighting in France, it’s level of violence and mild sexual content would be best for readers older than twelve.

Non-fiction:

D-Day: The World War II Invasion That Changed History by Deborah Hopkinson (2018)—non-fiction—This book contains about 300 pages of information about D-Day, including the necessity, the planning, the invasion itself, and the aftermath. It features the words of many of the participants. Hopkinson’s writing is interesting and she gives a very thorough overview, plus providing almost 70 pages in back matter.

I’d recommend it for readers ages twelve and up because it covers so many people and so many aspects of D-Day. It might be tough for a first introduction of D-Day to younger readers. Hopkinson does talk about the soldiers’ deaths and woundings, and there is much mention of blood and vomit, but she handles it in a sensitive way to keep the book from being overly graphic.

D-Day: The Invasion of Normandy, 1944 by Rick Atkinson and Kate Waters (2014)—This book is adapted for children from Atkinson’s book, The Guns at Last Light (that I haven’t read). D-Day gives a good overview of the planning and the actual landing, and it has a reading level for upper elementary readers and up, but like Hopkinson’s book it’s so full of information that it may be best for readers older than twelve. I even found myself overwhelmed in facts.

The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan (1959)—I believe this non-fiction work was the groundbreaking work about D-Day. Historian Ryan used official records, but he also used information from hundreds of survivors—from the Allies, the Occupied French, and the Nazis.

On a personal note, when I read this book twenty some years ago, it wasn’t my first read about WWII, but I think it was my first one about D-Day. I remember finding it among my husband’s books, sitting on the floor to start reading it, and being captivated by the stories of the people who lived through the D-Day invasion.

Eisenhower’s Guerrillas: The Jedburghs, the Maquis, & the Liberation of France by Benjamin F. Jones (2016)—This scholarly work examines how the teams of Jedburghs, comprised of British, American, and Free French agents, worked together with the Maquis, also known as the French Resistance, to prepare for D-Day and it’s aftermath. Jones also discusses how the political situation between the leaders of America and the Free French affected the effectiveness of the guerrilla warfare by the Allies and French.

Band of Brothers: E Company, 506 Regiment, 101st Airborne From Normandy to Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest by Stephen E. Ambrose (1992)—I haven’t read this yet, but I’ve seen parts of the television mini-series based on this book and know that it brings D-Day and the rest of the liberation of Europe to horrifying life.

What books would you add to this list?

Celebrating Historical Fiction: FINDING LANGSTON Earns 2019 Scott O’Dell Award

I’m in the process of reading each of the winners of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction and sharing something I learn about the craft of writing historical fiction and something I learn about history. I’ve collected my previous articles about the award winners on a separate page of this website.

I just read the 2019 winner, Finding Langston by Lesa Cline-Ransome. This is such an appropriate month to talk about this middle grade novel because it features poetry, and April is also National Poetry Month.

In Finding Langston, young Langston and his father are recent newcomers to 1946 Chicago from Alabama and are grieving the death of Langston’s mother. Langston also misses Alabama rural life, tries to avoid the bullies at school, and is at a loss how to talk with his father.

He finds unexpected refuge in a nearby library—unexpected because he’s not barred from it because of his skin color—and the poems of another Langston.

Writing lesson:

Appeals to young boy readers—Although this book will appeal to both boys and girls, I believe it will especially appeal to boys ages nine through twelve who may struggle to sit and read a book.

First, the novel is short, only about 100 pages. Second, it’s written in present tense and moves quickly. Third, it’s written in first person point-of-view, so the reader lives through Langston’s thoughts, emotions, and experiences. Fourth, Cline-Ransome keeps the time period and setting details to a minimum.

All these craft choices by Cline-Ransome culminates in a book that will grab those young readers who might be new readers of historical fiction who might otherwise feel bogged down in details or who’d rather be doing other things besides reading a novel.

In addition, although Finding Langston deals with themes of poverty and racial discrimination and inequality, it also speaks to universal emotions of loss, loneliness, and tensions in family relationships, and finding hope in expressing those feelings.

History lesson:

Langston Hughes—I know very little about poetry, and even less about Hughes. I appreciated how Cline-Ransome sprinkled in a few details about Hughes but always focused on the connection between her main character, Langston, and how he felt reading Hughes’ poetry.

Hughes was born in 1902. As a child and young man, he lived with various family members in a variety of towns. He traveled widely and held many jobs. Yet, his first book of poetry was published when he was only about 24 years old, even before he had earned his college degree.

Hughes was known as a poet and novelist who spoke for and to his readers—average, working-class black Americans. He also became known for his part in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s.

To read more about Hughes:

Langston Hughes (Poetry Foundation)

Langston Hughes (Academy of American Poets)

Langston Hughes (America’s Story from America’s Library)

For more info about Cline-Ransome:

Lesa Cline-Ransome

Have you read any of Hughes’s works? If so, what’s your favorite piece? What other children’s historical fiction make good introductions of the genre to a very young audience?

3 Picture Books Featuring Famous Wordsmiths

With the combination of storytelling and illustrations, picture books go beyond a factual recitation of facts to introduce children to important historical people.

Here are three good examples of picture books about people who used words to help others.

So Tall Within: Sojourner Truth’s Long Walk Toward Freedom by Gary D. Schmidt, illustrated by Daniel Minter (2018)

This picture book focuses on Sojourner Truth’s tallness of spirit that helped her walk away from slavery, appeal to the law for the return of her son, and walk for years and years (her sojourn) to speak the truth about slavery.

Tallness is featured in the title, the text, and the illustrations. Schmidt used repeating, parallel sentences showing various stages and aspects of slavery time and freedom time. To go with this text, Minter used vertical, symbolic illustrations. In addition, in his illustrations of Sojourner, she is extra tall compared to other people.

This book would probably be better for older elementary kids. I knew very little about Sojourner, so I appreciated the author and illustrator notes.

Abe Lincoln: The Boy Who Loved Books by Kay Winters, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter (2003)

This book spends a lot of time on Abe’s early life in the wilderness. It showed how much and what kinds of work Abe and his family had to do to survive, his hunger for learning and words, and what he’d do to satisfy that hunger and then use those words to help others.

Both the text and illustrations show what life was like for young Abe without getting bogged down in too much detail. I’d recommend this second or third grade and up.

John Ronald’s Dragons: The Story of J.R.R. Tolkien by Caroline McAlister, illustrated by Eliza Wheeler (2017)

This book covers Tolkien’s life up to the point of the dragon Smaug entering John Ronald’s life in his book, The Hobbit.

The text is spare and focuses on John Ronald’s use of his imagination for pleasure and as a way to cope with hard things in his life.

The author provides a more thorough biography in the back matter, as well as information about dragons that influenced John Ronald and dragons that he created.

The illustrator also left extensive notes to explain the historical clues she put into her illustrations. Make sure you check out the endpapers in both the front and back of the book!

Sojourner told the truth about slavery, Abe spoke and argued for a strong nation united in freedom from slavery, and John Ronald delighted and encouraged readers through the use of his imagination and words.

What picture books about other wordsmiths do you enjoy?

Eleven Children’s Books For Presidents’ Day

The United States will celebrate Presidents’ Day as a federal holiday on Monday.

The third Monday of February is officially known as Washington’s Birthday, in honor of our first president George Washington who was born on Feb. 22, 1732.

However, the federal holiday received it’s unofficial name from our 37^th president, Richard Nixon.

One of our other major presidents was also born in February so it seems fitting to expand the holiday. Our sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln, was born on Feb. 12, 1809.

My favorite ways to honor the presidents is to read about them.

This is my newest addition to my collection of children’s books about our nation’s past presidents:

Thomas Jefferson and the Mammoth Hunt: The True Story of the Quest for America’s Biggest Bones by Carrie Clickard, illustrated by Nancy Carpenter—published in 2019—picture book

Here are the rest of the books in my collection:

Face To Face With Mount Rushmore by Jean L.S. Patrick (a South Dakota author), illustrated by Patrick Faricy—2008—picture book

Presidential Politics by the Numbers by Mary Hertz Scarbrough (a South Dakota author)—2016—early chapter book

Woodrow, the White House Mouse, written and illustrated by Peter W. Barnes and Cheryl Shaw Barnes—1998—picture book—imaginative way of describing the White House and the job of the President

Farmer George Plants a Nation by Peggy Thomas, paintings by Layne Johnson—2008—picture book

George Washington’s Teeth by Deborah Chandra and Madeleine Comora, pictures by Brock Cole—2003—picture book

Worst of Friends: Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, and the True Story of an American Feud, by Suzanne Tripp Jurmain, illustrations by Larry Day—2011—picture book

Teddy Roosevelt: Young Rough Rider (Childhood of Famous Americans series) by Edd Winfield Parks, illustrated by Gray Morrow—first published in 1953—middle grade

Theodore Roosevelt (History Maker Bios series) by Gwenyth Swain—2005—early chapter book

Theodore by Frank Keating, paintings by Mike Wimmer—2006—picture book

To Dare Mighty Things: The Life of Theodore Roosevelt by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by C.F. Payne—2013—picture book

I haven’t divided these into fiction and non-fiction because even most of the ones that have been told as historical fiction still provide facts and make the presidents’ lives feel real. Many of the books offer factual back matter, too.

Most of us commemorate the presidents once a year. But my state, South Dakota, celebrates the presidents in artistic ways year-round.

First, South Dakota is the home of the Mount Rushmore National Memorial sculpture featuring Washington and Lincoln, as well as our third president, Thomas Jefferson, and our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt.

Actually, this sculpture wasn’t necessarily celebrating the men, as such, but was to be a personification of the United States’ “history and the ideals.” I learned this in Face to Face With Mount Rushmore by South Dakota author Jean L.S. Patrick. (See above.)

The second artistic way presidents are honored is by bronze statues in the City of Presidents, also known as Rapid City.

To learn more about the presidents and Presidents’ Day:

Presidents’ Day on the U.S. Mint website

Presidents on the White House website

City of Presidents on the Downtown Rapid City website

Do you notice any huge holes in my collection?

Somehow I don’t own any books about President Lincoln, one of the Rushmore presidents! This needs to be remedied!

What books about President Lincoln should I add to my collection? What books about other presidents I should add?

2003 Winner of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction

I’m on a multi-year quest to read and blog about all the winners of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. I don’t do a traditional review. Instead I write about the history and writing craft lessons I learn.

This month I read the 2003 winner, Trouble Don’t Last by Shelley Pearsall.

This middle grade novel begins in 1859 Kentucky and features Samuel, an 11-year-old slave boy, who runs away with an aged slave, Harrison, who doesn’t always seem to have all his wits about him.

Writing Lesson:

POV (Point of View)—Pearsall wrote this novel in 1^st Person which allows the readers to experience the story from the main character’s point of view. As I was reading this book I found myself frustrated with Samuel’s childishness. He’s a bundle of excessive fear, and at one point he nearly gives away his and Samuel’s hiding place.

Then I remembered Samuel is a child—one without parents, who has known hardship and cruelty, and who has never been away from the only home he knows.

Pearsall did a very good job portraying what a boy in Samuel’s position might have experienced—including his emotional reactions. She also captured Samuel’s childlike wonder in terms that he would’ve used. For example, the first time he sees a steam train he doesn’t compare it to ships or wagons. I love how he describes it:

“Coming across the field in front of us was an enormous black cookstove, big as a house. Black smoke poured from its wide chimney….Behind the stove came a whole line of houses and sheds, flying on wheels.”
Samuel in Trouble Don’t Last

History Lesson:

Human nature–As I was reading Trouble Don’t Last, I was struck by the variety of people who help Samuel and Harrison: black, white, religious, non-religious, educated, and laborers. They helped for a variety of reasons, some selfless and some self-serving. But all those people helped, even though they were risking serious repercussions. Why?

This book is a good example of why historical fiction remains relevant. It’s not just stories about people who lived unrelatable lives a long time ago. Yes, times change, and events, beliefs, and technology are different. But we humans and our nature are the same as in the past.

We still have the capacity to love, hate, aid, hurt, seek revenge, and offer forgiveness, etc. We still choose to do right and choose to do wrong, often at the same time.

I believe historical fiction helps us understand past events and people, but it also helps us understand ourselves. And sometimes it’s easier to understand ourselves when we’re looking at someone else.

For more info:

Shelley Pearsall

Previous posts about Scott O’Dell Award winners

Have you read Trouble Don’t Last? How about other books that have done an excellent job at letting you experience a child character’s point of view? What have you read that helped you understand yourself?

Christmas Tradition: Cookies

Cut-out cookies have been a Christmas tradition for centuries. Originally they were made of gingerbread and were a staple of the European Christmas fairs.

I don’t make cut-out cookies every year. Sometimes I skip the cookies altogether, and once I bought pre-made cookies so we could decorate them. But they didn’t taste right.

They weren’t made with my mom’s sugar cookie recipe.

Now I always use her recipe.

I recently checked with my mom to learn the source of the recipe. We knew she’d been using it since I was young, and she thought it might have come from her mother. However, it turns it’s the Sugar Cookie recipe from the 1965 printing of the Better Homes & Garden New Cookbook (1953 edition)!

Since the recipe is protected by copyright, I won’t reprint it. But I can tell you that it has several unusual ingredients: shortening, milk, and orange peel! The citrus tang balances the sugar and makes for an awesome cookie.

A couple years ago my sons decorated Christmas cookies (see above photos). I love how they put their own spin on the cookies! I bet none of you have seen an Ugly Christmas Sweater on a dinosaur or a cookie Star Wars Storm Trooper or Star Trek Expendable Crewman!

What traditional food do you eat at Christmas or Hanukkah? Do you add your own modern spin on them? Do you use family recipes? Do you use old cookbooks?

Learning History and Writing From Scott O’Dell Award-winning Historical Fiction for Kids

I consider myself a fan of historical fiction for children, so a few years ago I checked a list of the winners of the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction. To my surprise, of the thirty-some winners, I had only read four!

I then challenged myself to read all the winners and to report in my blog-at-the-time what I learned about history and about writing. I only have about five books left.

To make it easy for you, I’ve gathered all my articles to a separate page on this website, and I’ll keep adding to the page as I complete the rest of the books.

The Scott O’Dell award is given each year to an American author for a children’s historical fiction book. If O’Dell’s name sounds familiar, it’s because he wrote The Island of the Blue Dolphins and then a host of other historical novels for kids.

Which Scott O’Dell Award-winning books have you read?