Thanksgiving Wish
Picture book
"'You never stop missing someone, Mandi,' her father said one
night as he tucked her into bed. 'You sort of forget how much you miss
them until something--like Thanksgiving reminds you again...'"
I think most people who have lost a special someone will relate
to that quote from Michael J. Rosen's Thanksgiving Wish. I lost my
mother in January of 2006. The holiday season that year really caught
me off guard. Probably having three children to make special times
for was the one thing that kept me from totally losing my sanity.
Amanda and her extended family have always spent Thanksgiving at
her Bubbe's house. There was a litany of special dishes. During the
month of November Bubbe would cook one each day.
The year Bubbe dies Amanda's parents decide to host the family
gathering at their new house. At the last minute they decide to make
all the traditional dishes. In the middle of a cooking marathon with
aunts helping out heavy usage overloads the electric system, blowing
the fuses. No more cooking until the hardware store opens the next
day. They're stuck with "Raw turkey, hard potatoes, cold soup, soupy
pies."
Or are they? The miracle they need may be just across the alley.
John Thompson's realistic, detailed pictures really help to
bring to life a touching but not mushy story.
On a personal note, what I enjoyed the most about my Thanksgiving was
spending time with my children, their cousins, and Amber's fiancée.
They get along so beautifully! When they are together under one roof
that time is precious beyond measure.
A great shout out goes out to Amber, Katie, Adam, Caleb, Maggie, and
Brian.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Sunday, November 29, 2015
Librarian on the Roof!
Librarian on the Roof!
Picture book
If you've got the stereotype of the timid, shushing librarian in
your head, feel free to ditch it once and for all. When it comes to
providing services for and protecting the rights of their patrons,
librarians are some of the most hard core women and men around. Take
my BFF, Barbara McDade. A lot of people were not pleased when she
provided safe camping space and wifi access for the Occupy movement a
few years back. When her library needed a new pricey copper roof she
plunged into the fund raising with a can do spirit that would have
impressed Bob the Builder.
Another gutsy librarian hero, Rosealeta Laurell, is the subject
of M. G. King's Librarian on the Roof. When she became the head
librarian of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart Texas it didn't
take her long to realize that the historic building was lacking in
resources for children. She decided there needed to be a comfortable
place in the library for children to access books and computers (which
many families could not afford).
There was only one problem. This would take a lot of money.
Letters to businesses and well off people didn't pan out. It would
have taken far too many bake sales to go that traditional route.
RoseAleta decided to go straight to the top, of the building
that is. For a week, despite some pretty inclement weather and city
official negativity, she camped out on the library roof, promising to
not come down until the money had been raised.
This is one truly inspiring story, very well worth reading and
reading aloud.
On a personal note, I'm going to need a lot of spunk and inginuity in
2016. There are four projects I really need to get started. As
school committee vice chair for Veazie, Maine I need to start a town
wide visioning team, change the town charter so the town council
doesn't have too much power over the school budget, and develop a
student (not lawsuit prevention) centered transgender policy. The
project closest to my <3, though, is starting an organization to
provide help for people who can't afford life saving surgery for their
beloved companion animals. Yikes!
A great big shout out goes out to those rock stars who are our
librarians and to my fellow library volunteers who help them take care
of business.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Picture book
If you've got the stereotype of the timid, shushing librarian in
your head, feel free to ditch it once and for all. When it comes to
providing services for and protecting the rights of their patrons,
librarians are some of the most hard core women and men around. Take
my BFF, Barbara McDade. A lot of people were not pleased when she
provided safe camping space and wifi access for the Occupy movement a
few years back. When her library needed a new pricey copper roof she
plunged into the fund raising with a can do spirit that would have
impressed Bob the Builder.
Another gutsy librarian hero, Rosealeta Laurell, is the subject
of M. G. King's Librarian on the Roof. When she became the head
librarian of the Dr. Eugene Clark Library in Lockhart Texas it didn't
take her long to realize that the historic building was lacking in
resources for children. She decided there needed to be a comfortable
place in the library for children to access books and computers (which
many families could not afford).
There was only one problem. This would take a lot of money.
Letters to businesses and well off people didn't pan out. It would
have taken far too many bake sales to go that traditional route.
RoseAleta decided to go straight to the top, of the building
that is. For a week, despite some pretty inclement weather and city
official negativity, she camped out on the library roof, promising to
not come down until the money had been raised.
This is one truly inspiring story, very well worth reading and
reading aloud.
On a personal note, I'm going to need a lot of spunk and inginuity in
2016. There are four projects I really need to get started. As
school committee vice chair for Veazie, Maine I need to start a town
wide visioning team, change the town charter so the town council
doesn't have too much power over the school budget, and develop a
student (not lawsuit prevention) centered transgender policy. The
project closest to my <3, though, is starting an organization to
provide help for people who can't afford life saving surgery for their
beloved companion animals. Yikes!
A great big shout out goes out to those rock stars who are our
librarians and to my fellow library volunteers who help them take care
of business.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Orphans of the Night
Orphans of the Night
YA fiction
We humans have a penchant for scary tales. Think on the
perrenial popularity of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th,
Goosebumps, and virtually anything penned by Stephen King. There's no
more perfect time than winter, when darkness falls almost right after
kids get out of school, to share stories of the supernatural,
especially when a storm knocks out the power and the blackness outside
is full of spooky sounds.
Orphans of the Night, edited by Joseph Sherman, shows us that
the perennially popular urban legends (think Bloody Mary) are not the
only show in town. This collection of short stories by talented
juvenile lit authors brings us the supernatural beings that are the
stuff of nightmares across time and around the world. If you read it
cover to cover (which I maybe shouldn't have done with my husband
planning to depart soon for some vacation days at camp) you'll learn
about such fine frightening fiends such as:
*the Njuggle, a demon from the Shetland Islands, that will kill by
taking the form of a handsome horse and riding into the water to drown
its rider;
*the Mongolian Sidhi-kur, a living corpse that can be quite a trickster;
*the Ixtabay, a vengeful female spirit that lures men to their death...
My favorite story concerns a Hawaiian Menehune, one of a race of
little people with supernatural construction powers. In A Few Good
Menehune one, with a lot of help from his friends, manages to
transform a too powerful white developer with plans to replace
precious natural habitat with condos.
"They found Mr. Kirk sitting stark naked in the surf, singing
'Tiny Bubbles' to the little fishies. From neck to ankles he had been
tattooed with a perfect pin-striped business suit, oxford shirt, and
power tie. He looked up to met Darlene's gaze with a vacant, cheerful
smile..."
If you have young adults in the house Orphans of the Night might
be a great investment for a night when the power goes out, maybe
rendering the ubiquitous electronics less than useful. It would seem
to be a great boredom buster.
On a personal note, after twenty-five years the oven part of our
electric stove stopped working. Eugene went out and bought a lovely
new one. He thinks it's not so great because it doesn't have fancy
features. I love it. It does all it needs to and has a digital clock
and an oven light. Plus I'm aware of the billions of people who can
only dream of having such a stove, electricity to run it, and ample
food to prepare with it.
A great big shout out goes out to all who collect traditional stories
to keep them alive.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA fiction
We humans have a penchant for scary tales. Think on the
perrenial popularity of Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday The 13th,
Goosebumps, and virtually anything penned by Stephen King. There's no
more perfect time than winter, when darkness falls almost right after
kids get out of school, to share stories of the supernatural,
especially when a storm knocks out the power and the blackness outside
is full of spooky sounds.
Orphans of the Night, edited by Joseph Sherman, shows us that
the perennially popular urban legends (think Bloody Mary) are not the
only show in town. This collection of short stories by talented
juvenile lit authors brings us the supernatural beings that are the
stuff of nightmares across time and around the world. If you read it
cover to cover (which I maybe shouldn't have done with my husband
planning to depart soon for some vacation days at camp) you'll learn
about such fine frightening fiends such as:
*the Njuggle, a demon from the Shetland Islands, that will kill by
taking the form of a handsome horse and riding into the water to drown
its rider;
*the Mongolian Sidhi-kur, a living corpse that can be quite a trickster;
*the Ixtabay, a vengeful female spirit that lures men to their death...
My favorite story concerns a Hawaiian Menehune, one of a race of
little people with supernatural construction powers. In A Few Good
Menehune one, with a lot of help from his friends, manages to
transform a too powerful white developer with plans to replace
precious natural habitat with condos.
"They found Mr. Kirk sitting stark naked in the surf, singing
'Tiny Bubbles' to the little fishies. From neck to ankles he had been
tattooed with a perfect pin-striped business suit, oxford shirt, and
power tie. He looked up to met Darlene's gaze with a vacant, cheerful
smile..."
If you have young adults in the house Orphans of the Night might
be a great investment for a night when the power goes out, maybe
rendering the ubiquitous electronics less than useful. It would seem
to be a great boredom buster.
On a personal note, after twenty-five years the oven part of our
electric stove stopped working. Eugene went out and bought a lovely
new one. He thinks it's not so great because it doesn't have fancy
features. I love it. It does all it needs to and has a digital clock
and an oven light. Plus I'm aware of the billions of people who can
only dream of having such a stove, electricity to run it, and ample
food to prepare with it.
A great big shout out goes out to all who collect traditional stories
to keep them alive.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Go Set A Watchman
Go Set A Watchman
Adult fiction
To be perfectly honest, I did not set out to read Harper Lee's
Go Set A Watchman. This had nothing to do with the hype and
controversy surrounding the book. Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird has for
decades been my lifetime favorite novel. I was Scout last year for
Halloween. I didn't want to take even the slightest chance of its
appeal being diminished. So I did not pick it up until it was right
at eye level on a library new acquisitions shelf.
Again being honest, it took me awhile to warm up to it. I found
the rather slow pace, the decorous description of the South back in
the day to be a tad tedious.
"The possessor of the right to kiss her on the courthouse steps
was Henry Clinton, her lifelong friend, her brother's comrade, and if
he kept on kissing her like that, her husband. Love whom you will but
marry your own kind was a dictum amounting to instinct within her.
Henry Clinton was Jean Louise's own kind, and now she did not consider
the dictum particularly harsh."
Huh?
Jean Louise (Scout of To Kill A Mockingbird) has grown up,
acquired an education, and relocated to New York, returning to Maycomb
Junction for two weeks each year. The first chapters show her latest
home coming as fairly predictable although her flashbacks to her years
as Scout are fascibating and sometimes funny.
After the first hundred pages my patience was well rewarded.
Jean Louise finds a very disagreeable pamphlet, The Black Plague,
among her father's papers. It turns out that prim and proper Aunt
Alexandria finds a lot of truths in it. Her father, Atticus, brought
it home from a Citizen's Council meeting. In fact he's on the Board
of Directors. The Henry who would have to marry her if he kept on
with ardent kissing is one of its most enthusiastic members.
Jean Louise is horrified when she eavesdrops on a meeting,
seeing her father sitting at the same table as a slimy politician he
wouldn't have given the time of day to when she was a child and
hearing the speaker:
"...his main interest today was to uphold the Southern Way of Life and
no niggers and no Supreme Court was going to tell him or anybody else
what to do...a race as hammer-headed as...essential
inferiority...kinky wooly heads...still in trees...greasy smelly...
marry your daughters...mongrelize the race..."
Whatever happened to the lawyer who took grave risks to defend a
black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, the father who
brought her up with the idea that all deserved equality and none
merited special privilege? Did she really know the people who shaped
her childhood world? Would the place she grew up in ever feel like
home again?
"The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly
trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she
could point and say with expert knowledge, 'He is a gentleman,' had
betrayed her publicly, grossly, and shamelessly."
The rest of the book is intense with a surprise ending. While I
would highly recommend it, particularly for book clubs, I still say it
can't hold a candle to To Kill A Mockingbird.
On a personal note, the week before Thanksgiving I went to
multicultural Thanksgiving. (Counting gay Thanksgiving and Wade
Center Thanksgiving, the family one was my fourth). It was lovely and
thought provoking. John Bear Mitchell spoke about the day from a
Native American perspective. We had drumming and singing. Then we
feasted. My favorite part was the fruit bread and cherry cheesecake I
had for dessert. I sat with a group of very interesting students from
China. Afterward I was able to get to church in time for choir
practice.
A great big shout out goes out to my multicultural center friends who
put on such a fine event.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Adult fiction
To be perfectly honest, I did not set out to read Harper Lee's
Go Set A Watchman. This had nothing to do with the hype and
controversy surrounding the book. Lee's To Kill A Mockingbird has for
decades been my lifetime favorite novel. I was Scout last year for
Halloween. I didn't want to take even the slightest chance of its
appeal being diminished. So I did not pick it up until it was right
at eye level on a library new acquisitions shelf.
Again being honest, it took me awhile to warm up to it. I found
the rather slow pace, the decorous description of the South back in
the day to be a tad tedious.
"The possessor of the right to kiss her on the courthouse steps
was Henry Clinton, her lifelong friend, her brother's comrade, and if
he kept on kissing her like that, her husband. Love whom you will but
marry your own kind was a dictum amounting to instinct within her.
Henry Clinton was Jean Louise's own kind, and now she did not consider
the dictum particularly harsh."
Huh?
Jean Louise (Scout of To Kill A Mockingbird) has grown up,
acquired an education, and relocated to New York, returning to Maycomb
Junction for two weeks each year. The first chapters show her latest
home coming as fairly predictable although her flashbacks to her years
as Scout are fascibating and sometimes funny.
After the first hundred pages my patience was well rewarded.
Jean Louise finds a very disagreeable pamphlet, The Black Plague,
among her father's papers. It turns out that prim and proper Aunt
Alexandria finds a lot of truths in it. Her father, Atticus, brought
it home from a Citizen's Council meeting. In fact he's on the Board
of Directors. The Henry who would have to marry her if he kept on
with ardent kissing is one of its most enthusiastic members.
Jean Louise is horrified when she eavesdrops on a meeting,
seeing her father sitting at the same table as a slimy politician he
wouldn't have given the time of day to when she was a child and
hearing the speaker:
"...his main interest today was to uphold the Southern Way of Life and
no niggers and no Supreme Court was going to tell him or anybody else
what to do...a race as hammer-headed as...essential
inferiority...kinky wooly heads...still in trees...greasy smelly...
marry your daughters...mongrelize the race..."
Whatever happened to the lawyer who took grave risks to defend a
black man falsely accused of raping a white woman, the father who
brought her up with the idea that all deserved equality and none
merited special privilege? Did she really know the people who shaped
her childhood world? Would the place she grew up in ever feel like
home again?
"The one human being she had ever fully and wholeheartedly
trusted had failed her; the only man she had ever known to whom she
could point and say with expert knowledge, 'He is a gentleman,' had
betrayed her publicly, grossly, and shamelessly."
The rest of the book is intense with a surprise ending. While I
would highly recommend it, particularly for book clubs, I still say it
can't hold a candle to To Kill A Mockingbird.
On a personal note, the week before Thanksgiving I went to
multicultural Thanksgiving. (Counting gay Thanksgiving and Wade
Center Thanksgiving, the family one was my fourth). It was lovely and
thought provoking. John Bear Mitchell spoke about the day from a
Native American perspective. We had drumming and singing. Then we
feasted. My favorite part was the fruit bread and cherry cheesecake I
had for dessert. I sat with a group of very interesting students from
China. Afterward I was able to get to church in time for choir
practice.
A great big shout out goes out to my multicultural center friends who
put on such a fine event.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Poisoned Apples
Poisoned Apples
YA poetry
The first poem in a collection of fifty (Christine Heppermann's
Poisoned Apples), The Woods, faces a photograph of a grove of trees.
"The action's always there.
Where are the fairy tales about gym class
or the doctor's office or the back of the bus
where bad things also happen?...
No need for a bunch of trees.
You can lose your way anywhere."
In a volume slim enough to slip into just about any backpack or
messanger bag Heppermann shows us that in today's society the
expectations our society has for girls and the situations they find
themselves in provide dangers the Brothers Grimm never imagined back
in the day.
*A beautifying spa treatment is compared to the preparation of a
turkey for the dinner table with the implied concept of consumption by
another being;
*Mannequins make a 13-year-old girl feel like a failure;
*An anorexic girl pushes past the point of no return.
Many of the poems contain elements of the original stories,
sometimes in very surprising ways:
*Rapunzel decides she's going to sleep in rather than let down her
hair so a prince can climb it;
*The miller's daughter, instead of entering into the mission
impossible that has her making deals with Rumplestilskin, gets an
apartment, takes classes, waits tables, and won't tell the secret
ingredient in the gravy;
*Little Red much prefers her drinking and smoking Wolfie to the
woodsman whose posterior she will kick if he shows up...
My favorite imagines how period products would be marketed if
guys were the ones who menstruated:
"For pads with Wings, Kotex shows jet fighters.
For Heavy Flow, ninjas surf a tsunami.
For Scented, smiling blondes in bikinis
Enjoy sniffing a crotch..."
Poisoned Apples is a delightful must read for anyone questioning
the relevance of poetry or fairy tales.
On a personal note, I am proud to say I did not spend a cent on Black
Friday. I walked to Orono and back, finding two bags of bottles and
cans to cash in. I cooked a turkey with all the trimmings dinner. I
spent quality time with my precious companion Joey cat.
A great big shout out goes out to all the others who decided not to
battle the crowds in this orgy of spending that ironically happens
after we at least pay lip service to being grateful for all that we
have.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA poetry
The first poem in a collection of fifty (Christine Heppermann's
Poisoned Apples), The Woods, faces a photograph of a grove of trees.
"The action's always there.
Where are the fairy tales about gym class
or the doctor's office or the back of the bus
where bad things also happen?...
No need for a bunch of trees.
You can lose your way anywhere."
In a volume slim enough to slip into just about any backpack or
messanger bag Heppermann shows us that in today's society the
expectations our society has for girls and the situations they find
themselves in provide dangers the Brothers Grimm never imagined back
in the day.
*A beautifying spa treatment is compared to the preparation of a
turkey for the dinner table with the implied concept of consumption by
another being;
*Mannequins make a 13-year-old girl feel like a failure;
*An anorexic girl pushes past the point of no return.
Many of the poems contain elements of the original stories,
sometimes in very surprising ways:
*Rapunzel decides she's going to sleep in rather than let down her
hair so a prince can climb it;
*The miller's daughter, instead of entering into the mission
impossible that has her making deals with Rumplestilskin, gets an
apartment, takes classes, waits tables, and won't tell the secret
ingredient in the gravy;
*Little Red much prefers her drinking and smoking Wolfie to the
woodsman whose posterior she will kick if he shows up...
My favorite imagines how period products would be marketed if
guys were the ones who menstruated:
"For pads with Wings, Kotex shows jet fighters.
For Heavy Flow, ninjas surf a tsunami.
For Scented, smiling blondes in bikinis
Enjoy sniffing a crotch..."
Poisoned Apples is a delightful must read for anyone questioning
the relevance of poetry or fairy tales.
On a personal note, I am proud to say I did not spend a cent on Black
Friday. I walked to Orono and back, finding two bags of bottles and
cans to cash in. I cooked a turkey with all the trimmings dinner. I
spent quality time with my precious companion Joey cat.
A great big shout out goes out to all the others who decided not to
battle the crowds in this orgy of spending that ironically happens
after we at least pay lip service to being grateful for all that we
have.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
This Book Is Gay
This Book Is Gay
YA nonfiction
The young adult years are the time many of us grapple with
questions about sexuality. Our bodies change drastically, not always
in ways that please us or match media standards. Our emotions can
make life seem like a roller coaster. It would be confusing enough if
our responsibilities were not growing, people weren't treating us
differently...
I remember being more annoyed by than attracted to the booger
brained boys I went to school with, particularly the Neanderthals who
felt that I'd suddenly put on a sign that said please touch. I had no
desire to fake an interest in stuff like football or act like I was
stupid. If they married me for stupidity I'd be stuck playing life
size Barbie doll for the rest of my life. So was I a lesbian? Even
as a library geek par excellence I could not find the answer to that.
James Dawson's This Book Is Gay, dedicated to "anyone who has
ever wondered," is a most excellent resource for today's young (and
not so young) people. In addition to his research and personal
observations, Dawson has drawn on the words of over three hundred LGBT
people. His tone is conversational, deeply personal, nonjudgemental.
His book is eminantly readable.
"...loads of young people--gay, straight, or bi; trans or cis--
have oodles of questions about what it's like to be LGBT. This book
has some of the answers. Whether you think you might be LGBT or you
think you're straight and have some questions or you're anywhere in
between, this book's for you."
Some of the topics dealt with are: what the different
categories and others (like A for asexual) mean; the way stereotypes
limit people; strategies for dealing with homophobic and transphobic
people and institutions; and ways to come out and meet compatible
people. The last chapter aims to help parents and caretakers
understand and accept LGBT youth.
This Book Is Gay needs to be placed in every middle and high
school library and the juvenile sections of public libraries.
Teachers, guidance counselors, and others who work with young people
would do well to put this book on their summer reading lists.
On a personal note, I had a really great Thanksgiving. The
festivities started for me the night before when my younger daughter
arrived from Portland to spend the night. We had a nice time to chat
before bed. We had the traditional family Thanksgiving dinner out in
Winterport. I so enjoyed the time I spent with my three kids, their
cousins, and Amber's fiancée.
A great big shout out goes out to my kids, my niece and nephew, and
all of their significant others. You never cease to amaze me.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
YA nonfiction
The young adult years are the time many of us grapple with
questions about sexuality. Our bodies change drastically, not always
in ways that please us or match media standards. Our emotions can
make life seem like a roller coaster. It would be confusing enough if
our responsibilities were not growing, people weren't treating us
differently...
I remember being more annoyed by than attracted to the booger
brained boys I went to school with, particularly the Neanderthals who
felt that I'd suddenly put on a sign that said please touch. I had no
desire to fake an interest in stuff like football or act like I was
stupid. If they married me for stupidity I'd be stuck playing life
size Barbie doll for the rest of my life. So was I a lesbian? Even
as a library geek par excellence I could not find the answer to that.
James Dawson's This Book Is Gay, dedicated to "anyone who has
ever wondered," is a most excellent resource for today's young (and
not so young) people. In addition to his research and personal
observations, Dawson has drawn on the words of over three hundred LGBT
people. His tone is conversational, deeply personal, nonjudgemental.
His book is eminantly readable.
"...loads of young people--gay, straight, or bi; trans or cis--
have oodles of questions about what it's like to be LGBT. This book
has some of the answers. Whether you think you might be LGBT or you
think you're straight and have some questions or you're anywhere in
between, this book's for you."
Some of the topics dealt with are: what the different
categories and others (like A for asexual) mean; the way stereotypes
limit people; strategies for dealing with homophobic and transphobic
people and institutions; and ways to come out and meet compatible
people. The last chapter aims to help parents and caretakers
understand and accept LGBT youth.
This Book Is Gay needs to be placed in every middle and high
school library and the juvenile sections of public libraries.
Teachers, guidance counselors, and others who work with young people
would do well to put this book on their summer reading lists.
On a personal note, I had a really great Thanksgiving. The
festivities started for me the night before when my younger daughter
arrived from Portland to spend the night. We had a nice time to chat
before bed. We had the traditional family Thanksgiving dinner out in
Winterport. I so enjoyed the time I spent with my three kids, their
cousins, and Amber's fiancée.
A great big shout out goes out to my kids, my niece and nephew, and
all of their significant others. You never cease to amaze me.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Friday, November 27, 2015
We Rode The Orphan Trains
We Rode The Orphan Trains
Juvenile nonfiction
These days when an adoption can take quite a few months, involve
reams of paperwork, and cost as much as a brand new truck it may be
hard to imagine a time when one could go to a public building to view
a group of prospective sons and daughters and return home with a
child. In the not so long ago past that was state of the art. Andrea
Warren's We Rode the Orphan Trains explores a fascinating chapter in
United States history through the stories of some of the children and
one of the agents responsible for their safe delivery.
In 1850 New York City it's estimated that between ten and thirty
thousand children resided in crowded, underfunded orphanages or bedded
down on the cruel streets of the Big Apple. Decades before the
importance of municipal sanitation was known, epidemics of diseases
like typhoid and yellow fever orphaned many. Poverty and substance
addictions would leave others parentless or cause them to be
abandoned. The bloodshed of the Civil War would later leave many
youngsters fending for themselves.
In 1853 Charles Loring Brace, a minister, became aware of the
plight of these familyless children. "...Some children sold rags or
matches, trying to earn a few pennies to buy bread. Others became
thieves and pickpockets. They slept wherever they could, on sidewalk
steam grates, in makeshift shacks, or under bridges..."
Brace believed that homes were better for children than
institutions...and, of course, far better than the street. He had
heard about orphan relocation programs in Europe. Surely there were
small town and farm families in the west who could make room for one
more child. Train loads of youngsters were sent to towns and cities,
posters announcing their arrival in advance.
"The object of the coming of these children is to find homes in
your midst, especially among farmers, where they may enjoy a happy and
wholesome family life, where good care, good examples, and moral
training will fit them for a life of self-support and
usefullness...The conditions are that these children shall be properly
clothed, treated as members of the family, given proper school
advantages and remain in the family until they are eighteen years of
age...The Society (Children's Aid Society) retains the right to remove
a child at any time for just cause and agrees to remove any found
unsatisfactory after being notified."
Among the train riders profiled in this fascinating book you
will meet:
*Ruth who was taken to an orphanage when she was three by her widowed
mother who could only take her younger child to her job as a live-in
housekeeper. She was five when she rode the train. After a bad night
with an unsuitable family she was transferee to an understanding
father and a mother and two unmarried aunts who doted on her;
*Twins Nettie and Nellie who were removed from their home at the age
of five by the authorities following the death of a little sister.
They were six when they rode the train. Fortunately their agent knew
that they needed to stay together even though separate placements
would have been easier. A "temporary" home turned into a permanent
haven where there mother vehemently defended against prejudice against
orphans.
*and Howard who was removed from his home because of "scandalous
neglect" on the part of his mother. He and older brother, Fred, were
placed in families close enough to maintain the sibling bond. When he
needed a birth certificate for the navy he was startled to learn that
his birth parents were still alive.
The most fascinating and relevant aspect of history, in my
opinion, is not the memorizing of names and dates of battles and dead
white men, but the lived experience of "ordinary" people. This book
and others about the orphan trains make an excellent introduction to
this concept for children. Youngsters and concepts like home and
belonging are central to this narrative.
On a personal note, the book's theme that real family does not have to
be biological has become very personal to me. My mom had pressured me
to produce grandchildren to the point where at times I felt like
merely the vessel for this acheivement. I was not going to do that to
my kids. Well I found myself captivated by my friend Ed's
granddaughter, a very bright and energetic strawberry blonde toddler.
With my sterling ethics and abilities to bake and read aloud with
expression I figured I was prime great aunt material. I adopted Ed as
my brother. At our stage in life there was no need to involve DHHS.
Now I am happily planning what to give my new great niece for Christmas.
A great big shout out goes out to all who realize that real family is
not limited to blood or marriage kin.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
Juvenile nonfiction
These days when an adoption can take quite a few months, involve
reams of paperwork, and cost as much as a brand new truck it may be
hard to imagine a time when one could go to a public building to view
a group of prospective sons and daughters and return home with a
child. In the not so long ago past that was state of the art. Andrea
Warren's We Rode the Orphan Trains explores a fascinating chapter in
United States history through the stories of some of the children and
one of the agents responsible for their safe delivery.
In 1850 New York City it's estimated that between ten and thirty
thousand children resided in crowded, underfunded orphanages or bedded
down on the cruel streets of the Big Apple. Decades before the
importance of municipal sanitation was known, epidemics of diseases
like typhoid and yellow fever orphaned many. Poverty and substance
addictions would leave others parentless or cause them to be
abandoned. The bloodshed of the Civil War would later leave many
youngsters fending for themselves.
In 1853 Charles Loring Brace, a minister, became aware of the
plight of these familyless children. "...Some children sold rags or
matches, trying to earn a few pennies to buy bread. Others became
thieves and pickpockets. They slept wherever they could, on sidewalk
steam grates, in makeshift shacks, or under bridges..."
Brace believed that homes were better for children than
institutions...and, of course, far better than the street. He had
heard about orphan relocation programs in Europe. Surely there were
small town and farm families in the west who could make room for one
more child. Train loads of youngsters were sent to towns and cities,
posters announcing their arrival in advance.
"The object of the coming of these children is to find homes in
your midst, especially among farmers, where they may enjoy a happy and
wholesome family life, where good care, good examples, and moral
training will fit them for a life of self-support and
usefullness...The conditions are that these children shall be properly
clothed, treated as members of the family, given proper school
advantages and remain in the family until they are eighteen years of
age...The Society (Children's Aid Society) retains the right to remove
a child at any time for just cause and agrees to remove any found
unsatisfactory after being notified."
Among the train riders profiled in this fascinating book you
will meet:
*Ruth who was taken to an orphanage when she was three by her widowed
mother who could only take her younger child to her job as a live-in
housekeeper. She was five when she rode the train. After a bad night
with an unsuitable family she was transferee to an understanding
father and a mother and two unmarried aunts who doted on her;
*Twins Nettie and Nellie who were removed from their home at the age
of five by the authorities following the death of a little sister.
They were six when they rode the train. Fortunately their agent knew
that they needed to stay together even though separate placements
would have been easier. A "temporary" home turned into a permanent
haven where there mother vehemently defended against prejudice against
orphans.
*and Howard who was removed from his home because of "scandalous
neglect" on the part of his mother. He and older brother, Fred, were
placed in families close enough to maintain the sibling bond. When he
needed a birth certificate for the navy he was startled to learn that
his birth parents were still alive.
The most fascinating and relevant aspect of history, in my
opinion, is not the memorizing of names and dates of battles and dead
white men, but the lived experience of "ordinary" people. This book
and others about the orphan trains make an excellent introduction to
this concept for children. Youngsters and concepts like home and
belonging are central to this narrative.
On a personal note, the book's theme that real family does not have to
be biological has become very personal to me. My mom had pressured me
to produce grandchildren to the point where at times I felt like
merely the vessel for this acheivement. I was not going to do that to
my kids. Well I found myself captivated by my friend Ed's
granddaughter, a very bright and energetic strawberry blonde toddler.
With my sterling ethics and abilities to bake and read aloud with
expression I figured I was prime great aunt material. I adopted Ed as
my brother. At our stage in life there was no need to involve DHHS.
Now I am happily planning what to give my new great niece for Christmas.
A great big shout out goes out to all who realize that real family is
not limited to blood or marriage kin.
Julia Emily Hathaway
Sent from my iPod
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