Tag: historical figures

One Thousand White Women; The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus

A friend gave me this book and said “You’ve got to read this; it’s the best book I’ve ever read.”

A big build up.  It sat for about 6 months on my to-read shelf by my bed and every time I ran into my friend, Rocky, he would say…”Have you read it yet?”  and I’d have to say “not yet, but I’m going to get to it soon.”  I put a limit on it for myself;  I needed to finish it by July.
I finished it last night at 11:57, (July 31).  It only took me four days (in between single mother duties as the male half of my family is off on a mission trip to W.Va.) and I liked the book.  I don’t think it is the best book I’ve ever ready but I liked it.  Mostly it points out human frailty and that it has been with us since the beginning of time.  
The book is a bit of historical fiction, according to the author, but not completely.  He’s mixed true factual events and real people with a whole lot of fiction. The book begins with a peace meeting between Little Wolf, the Sweet Medicine chief, addressing the President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, Little Wolf’s request was that if 1,000 white women joined them, became brides of Native men and had babies this would be a clear path to assimilation between the races.  The idea  made perfect sense to the Cheyenne but the peace meeting collapsed and all went home. This book interjects to change the outcome…What if 1,000 white women did marry into the Cheyenne tribe?  What then?

May Dodd is a fictitious character who reads like a real person so well is she created.  She’s a woman of means from Chicago who had the misfortune of falling in love with, Harry, a foreman with her father’s company.  They live scandalously, unmarried, and have two beautiful babies together.  One night while Harry is off drinking, men come and take May and the babies away.  The babies end up with May’s parents and she ends up in a lunatic asylum-her illness is reported as “moral perversity.”

She is approached one day by special permission as she’s not allowed to be near men at all during her “confinement” due to her “condition.”  She and several other women are given the opportunity to volunteer for the Brides for Indians Program.  May signs on immediately as this, in an odd way, is her ticket to freedom.  As these women travel west on the train we get to know them and it is these women and the friendships that make this book worth reading.  My favorite character was Phemie, a strong African escaped slave who made her way to Canada and then signed up for the program to become truly a free woman.  I understood her motivation and her need to connect with the Cheyenne.

There are many interesting themes in this book but the idea of humanity came to me over and over.  I wanted May to grandly discover how beautiful Native culture was-and she does to some extent-but every time she feels that way something negative happens and she is thrown backwards.  Toward the end of the book my mind kept thinking about our current situation in Iraq and Afghanistan, in a no-win situation bullying another culture, just as we did with the Native Americans.

Life keeps circling and humans do terrible things to each other in the name of religion and assimilation.  The book made me think, question some preconceived notions and, especially, appreciate the strong women this book introduced me to.  The image of Phemie on horseback, May writing, Helen painting and the Kelly twins will stay with me for a long time.  This would make a wonderful book club choice as there are so many elements to discuss.

Jim Fergus website

Peaceful Reading…

Friday Feature/Black History Biographies

I’m trying to be consistent by posting this Friday Feature  before I leave school on Friday afternoons.  Today was an unusual day at school for me and one of our school families.  I can’t go into the details but it greatly affected me.  So this post is late but still done because sometimes consistency is all you have.  Have a blessed day.
I’ve been working with third grade students, cementing the idea that the Underground Railroad is a journey slaves took from the Southern plantations to the North and freedom.  I highlighted six great books last week about slave experiences.  This week I want you to know about four fantastic biographies.  There are biographies that are good for research but I like to see if they make good readalouds.  Unless it is someone a teacher points to or someone already talked about in the history books kids don’t pick up biographies which is sad because we have some beautiful ones.  Oh, unless it is a wrestler, pop star or sports figure, i mean.

1.  I, Matthew Henson; Polar Explorer by Carole Boston Weatherford; illustrated by Eric Velasquez
I find Matthew Henson’s life story fascinating and when this book came out I was so happy-I thought for sure kids would pick it up just for it’s cover.  I’ve read this one aloud several times and once you read it to kids they love the story.  Matthew, at just 13, walked himself from D.C. to Baltimore to find a ship he could work on and each page reveals another step he took to become Admiral Peary’s right hand man and fellow explorer of Nicaragua, Greenland and eventually the North Pole.  Gorgeous illustrations.

2.  Satchel Paige; Don’t Look Back written by David A. Adler; illustrated by Terry Widener
We are a baseball family.  We love the sport and my husband has all his old cards from when he was a kid.  Often we are disappointed by players mistakes nowadays-Miguel Cabrera-if your reading this my son is so very disappointed in you.  It makes us happy to read stories like this one where Satchel Paige played hard and spoke his mind when confronted with segregation.  A true hero, Paige played for the Mobile Tigers, a semiprofessional black team after serving time in reform school for stealing toy rings.  He eventually become the first African-American to pitch in a World Series game; the Cleveland Indians against the Boston Braves!  Also amazing illustrations.

3. Talkin’ about Bessie; The Story of Aviator Elizabeth  Coleman by Nikki Grimes; illustrated by E.B. Lewis.  This book is especially unique because it tells Bessie’s story from many different perspectives.  Here’s the beginning of  the “school teacher’s”  memories:  “When it came to knowledge, Bessie was a miser, hoarding facts and figures like gold coins she was saving up to spend on something special.”    This fictionized account helps to explain how Bessie became the first female licenced pilot of African descent.

4. Stealing Home; Jackie Robinson against the Odds written by Robert Burleigh; illustrated by Mike Wimmer.  This book is easy to read outloud with a small amount of text to tell thestolen base story but each page includes a baseball card with added historical information.  A sample:  “Jackie’s mother decided to take her family from rural Georgia to Pasadena, California.  All aboard!  Things were better for black people in California than in than in the South.  But not by that much.  The family found it difficult to rent a house.  Food was scarce.  The children were called insulting names.”  Reading this to older kids it would be easy to add in these extra bits of critical information. 

Honorable Mention goes to Visiting Langston by Willie Perdomo for the amazing Bryan Collier’s collage-style illustrations and it’s easy to read style-told from the point-of-view of a young girl who admires Langston Hughes. 

Have a peaceful weekend.
Love yourself and your family.

Peaceful Reading…

The Sorceress

by Michael Scott

(2009)
488 pgs.

     My son and I picked up The Alchemyst; The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel (2007) from a book store-he was in middle school at the time and still enjoyed reading the same thing as me-  we devoured it pretty quickly.  Eventually we also read The Magician and then The Sorceress.  My son finished it oh, like a year ago and it has been resting peacefully on my tbr bookshelf just waiting for me.  It was a great book to kick off October as it would be so much fun to be Perenelle Flamel for Halloween. 

Nicholas and Perenelle have been married for centuries, which reminds me always of one of my favorite reads, Jitterbug Perfume, which also features a couple who beat the whole aging trick.  I need to reread Jitterbug for another challenge and I think it will fit perfectly on the heels of this one.  I thought when I was reading this one that it was the end of the series-fantasy books often come as a trilogy but as I researched Michael Scott for another post I discovered he has another one out with perhaps two more in the works.  Wow! 

Synopsis:

     Nicholas Flamel’s heart almost broke as he watched his beloved Paris crumble before him. The city was destroyed by Dee and Machiavelli, but Flamel played his own role in the destruction. Sophie and Josh Newman show every sign of being the twins of prophecy, and Flamel had to protect them and the pages from the Dark Elders.

     But Nicholas grows weaker with each passing day. Perenelle is still trapped in Alcatraz, and now that Scatty has gone missing, the group is without protection. Except for Clarent-the twin sword to Excalibur. But Clarent’s power is unthinkable, its evil making it nearly impossible to use without its darkness seeping into the soul of whoever wields it.
     If he hopes to defeat Dee, Nicholas must find an Elder who can teach Josh and Sophie the third elemental magic-Water Magic. The problem? The only one who can do that is Gilgamesh, and he is quite, quite insane.

Here is a snyopsis of The Alchemyst to catch you up:

     The Alchemyst is a contemporary fantasy which opens in modern day San Francisco when brother and sister, Josh and Sophie discover that the owner of the bookstore where Josh works is the immortal French alchemist, Nicholas Flamel. Flamel and his wife, Perenelle, are the guardians of the Book of Abraham which they have protected for centuries. This is a collection of the most powerful spells in the world. When Dr John Dee discovers the Flamels’ whereabouts, he attacks and snatches the book. Josh and Sophie intervene to help Flamel, but now they too are being hunted by Dee and creatures that predate humanity.

                         All of the main characters in The Alchemyst series are based on figures from history or mythology.

     It is the last sentence that makes this series come alive for me.  Discovering and researching the real characters mixed into the fantasy tale make it very intriguing.  The Sorceress especially brought to life some characters (name-dropping…Shakespeare, for example) which add to the overall excitement.  If I found myself between the pages of this book I would love to meet Shakespeare-maybe not many of the other characters, but Shakespeare, yes!  It would be a blast to be Sophie or Josh and discover all these amazing new talents although they do come with a very heavy price.  This book like Harry Potter and Charlie Bone will make kids wish for a magic wand that really works-in this series Josh gets to use a famous ancient sword that he commands. This is a very well-written series and I hope to read The Necromancer in a more timely fashion!! Oh, the fun of living in a fantasy world!  Michael Scott is somewhat of an expert on Celtic folklore and I would love to read more of his large body of work.  Counts for Reading from my own Shelves Challenge hosted by Bibliophile by the Sea.  I plan on placing this book gently back on my son’s bookshelf-which are fairly empty compared to mine. 

(4/5 peaceful stars) 
Purchase it here:  Shop Indie Bookstores
Peaceful Reading…