After thoroughly enjoying my week filled with Beverly Cleary books a few months ago, I decided to follow that up with a week of books by E.L. Konigsburg, the author who wrote one of my childhood favorites, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. I checked out every book of hers that my local library system had, which was almost all of them. To the left, you can see my little (well, rather large) pile for Konigsburg Weeks 2012. Because I've been very fickle and moody about what I feel like reading lately, I've been slowly making my way through them all but I have read seven so far and to prevent this from being the longest blog post in history, I'll just recap and review what I've read thus far and finish the rest in a few weeks when I complete the other half of the pile.
Konigsburg has won two Newbery Awards, one for Mixed-Up Files and then 29 years later for The View from Saturday, which are coincidentally (or not) the only two books of hers I'd read prior to beginning this quest, I set the expectations bar pretty high. The results were honestly all over the spectrum from ones I expect never to revisit to those I intend to purchase and/or recommend to other readers.
Konigsburg has won two Newbery Awards, one for Mixed-Up Files and then 29 years later for The View from Saturday, which are coincidentally (or not) the only two books of hers I'd read prior to beginning this quest, I set the expectations bar pretty high. The results were honestly all over the spectrum from ones I expect never to revisit to those I intend to purchase and/or recommend to other readers.
I started out with Silent to the Bone, which was published in 2000, over thirty years after her first book was published in 1967. Its companion piece, a book which I began reading over five years ago but only realized while reading Silent that I never finished, is The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place. Silent to the Bone has a rather bizarre storyline which seems to have been somewhat inspired by the 1997 Louise Woodward shaken baby case from Massachusetts. In the book, a boy stops speaking after dialing 911. His baby sister has been injured and is in a comatose state but no one knows exactly what happened. He is put into a juvenile delinquent center and refuses to speak to anyone. What follows is his best friend's attempt to figure out what happened on the day of the 911 call and to help his best friend overcome whatever it is that is preventing him from sharing his story.
The friendship shared by the two boys is lovely, and Konigsburg makes it a point to include details about little parts of their bond that reminded me of games I used to play with my childhood friends. Connor and Branwell (the friend and the 911 caller, respectively) play a game called "Summarize In A Sentence" or SIAS. They give each other points for doing a good job describing, using big words, avoiding (or sometimes including) cliches, and using fewer articles. Also, I was excited to learn what "Blue Peter" meant as well as what a havelock is. The former is a blue flag with a white square in the center which indicates in sailing that the boat is ready to depart and the best friends would use it to signal that they were ready to begin something. A havelock is, and I know this will probably blow your mind if you never knew it, that hat that has a large piece of cloth hanging down the back to cover your neck. If you already knew that, you're probably smarter than I am, or at least have a more extensive vocabulary.
Silent to the Bone also contained a heartfelt conversation between Connor and his adult half-sister about love. Here it is:
The friendship shared by the two boys is lovely, and Konigsburg makes it a point to include details about little parts of their bond that reminded me of games I used to play with my childhood friends. Connor and Branwell (the friend and the 911 caller, respectively) play a game called "Summarize In A Sentence" or SIAS. They give each other points for doing a good job describing, using big words, avoiding (or sometimes including) cliches, and using fewer articles. Also, I was excited to learn what "Blue Peter" meant as well as what a havelock is. The former is a blue flag with a white square in the center which indicates in sailing that the boat is ready to depart and the best friends would use it to signal that they were ready to begin something. A havelock is, and I know this will probably blow your mind if you never knew it, that hat that has a large piece of cloth hanging down the back to cover your neck. If you already knew that, you're probably smarter than I am, or at least have a more extensive vocabulary.
Silent to the Bone also contained a heartfelt conversation between Connor and his adult half-sister about love. Here it is:
| "Connor, suppose for this Christmas I give you something very beautiful--say, a beautiful ivory carving." "I wouldn't mind," I said. "This gift has been made with care and given to you to keep forever. It is intricately and deeply carved. There are no rough edges. All of it is polished, and all of it is pure ivory." "What would be wrong with that?" "Nothing would be wrong with it if it came with instructions and a warning." "What instructions?" "That it must be oiled now and then or it will get brittle and pieces will break off." "And what's the warning?" "That ivory comes from a living organism, so it is bound to change as it ages. Ivory darkens. A day comes when you have to put this beautiful thing away. So not knowing about maintenance and aging, you put it in a drawer and close the drawer. Time goes by, and the gift giver wants to see his gift. So you take it out of the drawer, and both of you are surprised that it isn't what it was. It doesn't look the same. Without maintenance, delicate pieces have broken off, and some of the places where the carving was very deep have darkened to the color of a tobacco stain. You haven't been careless; you have just never been warned about the changes that happen with time, and you haven't been taught proper maintenance. But you know one thing--you are never going to put this gift on display again." Margaret and I looked at each other. "You're talking about love, aren't you?" "I knew I didn't have a dummy for a brother." "Are you basing all this on the way you felt about Dad and the divorce?" "What else would I Have to base it on, Connor?" "But, Margaret, it wasn't Dad's fault if his gift changed with time. You said yourself when something comes from a living organism, it is bound to change as it ages. Well, love comes from two living organisms. You should expect twice as many changes." Margaret stared at her computer screen. "I wasn't warned." (124-126) |
I loved the comparison of a relationship to an ivory carving, and it absolutely reminded me that I have a lot of friendships slowly breaking apart in a drawer that I need to take care of. Some of the most moving aspects of books for me are the relationships that were and no longer are--deceased parents, former friends, lost loves, etc.
I definitely recommend this one for a solid read about boy/boy friendship, adolescence and puberty, and especially what it means to be ashamed. (4/5 stars)
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My next two reads were some of Konigsburg's children's books, which I knew I could knock out in only a few minutes. Amy Elizabeth Explores Bloomingdale's is about a young girl from Texas visiting her grandmother in New York City. Every day, her grandma tells her the plan for the day and the plan usually includes visiting Bloomies. Of course, every day their plan gets spoiled until it is time to leave and Amy realizes that she had a wonderful trip spending time with her grandmother regardless of whether she got to go to Bloomingdale's. I can't say that my life is better or worse having read this book, not that every children's book has to be shattering the earth to tiny pieces with its awesomeness. There is a message here and it is worth a childhood read. (3/5 stars)
I am very annoyed with myself that I did not take any pictures of the illustrations from these two books as Konigsburg illustrated much of her work. In unrelated news, the cover of Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions is so old-school awesome--the back is a mirror image of the front! (Why have I never seen something like this before?!) First published in 1948, which is pretty remarkable considering Konigsburg was 18 at the time and my mother had yet to be born (just for personal perspective), Samuel Todd is just a quick collection of drawings and descriptions of little inventions that catch one boy's interest. I can totally see how this book could spawn some great parent-child conversations about inventing and what the child thinks are amazing inventions. I know I am writing this too late in the evening when I am sitting here laughing at the idea of Konigsburg writing an updated 2012 version of the book where she attempts to draw and succinctly write about (SIAS!) newfangled inventions like satellite radio, toaster waffles, and Keurig coffee machines. (3-3.5/5 stars)
I am very annoyed with myself that I did not take any pictures of the illustrations from these two books as Konigsburg illustrated much of her work. In unrelated news, the cover of Samuel Todd's Book of Great Inventions is so old-school awesome--the back is a mirror image of the front! (Why have I never seen something like this before?!) First published in 1948, which is pretty remarkable considering Konigsburg was 18 at the time and my mother had yet to be born (just for personal perspective), Samuel Todd is just a quick collection of drawings and descriptions of little inventions that catch one boy's interest. I can totally see how this book could spawn some great parent-child conversations about inventing and what the child thinks are amazing inventions. I know I am writing this too late in the evening when I am sitting here laughing at the idea of Konigsburg writing an updated 2012 version of the book where she attempts to draw and succinctly write about (SIAS!) newfangled inventions like satellite radio, toaster waffles, and Keurig coffee machines. (3-3.5/5 stars)
Throwing Shadows, written in 1979, was without doubt my favorite book of the first batch. In it, Konigsburg tells five slice-of-life stories from different perspectives. The narrators of the short stories (On Shark's Tooth Beach by Ned, The Catchee by Avery, In the Village of the Weavers by Ampara, At the Home by Phillip, and With Bert & Ray by William) run the gamut of races and nationalities but I never felt like Konigsburg was overtly pushing the diversity angle because the stories are, for the most part, mundane. This book's title in conjunction with its jacket copy is probably in my top 10 favorites. The jacket copy reads,
| "Ned finds it on the beach near his home in Florida. Antonio discovers it in the back of a bus on the Pan American Highway. Avery learns it over a period of years, but needs his brother Orville to put it into words for him. Phillip gradually recognizes it among the people who live in the old folks' home in his town. William always had it, but finds that he must help his mother to regain it. What is it that Ned, Antonio, Avery, Phillip, and William all discover? A sense of Self. Each learns something new about his identity by means of an encounter with a person or persons different from himself. In each of these lives something happens that allows the hero to throw a shadow of his very own, one that is sharp and has a shape as specific as a fingerprint. And each must either accept that shadow or learn to accept it, or recognize that he himself can make the changes that will turn the shadow into one he would prefer. Once more E.L. Konigsburg has caught the essence of what life is, and what lies at the core of the people who live it best." |
A middle grade book about "A sense of Self"? Solid gold right there. While some of the overall ideas or parts of the stories feel trite, each story is self-contained and ends in a natural place, lesson learned and all that jazz. What made this selection of stories rather interesting was the fact that it wasn't about children making comical mistakes from which they learned something, but rather about realizing the importance of something--being honest, listening to the stories older people have to tell, recognizing likely outcomes to actions, looking for the intentions behind actions--in an organic way. (5/5 stars)
My least favorite book thus far was Altogether, One at a Time, which is another collection of shorts. However, they have far less substance than the stories in Throwing Shadows, both in terms of quality and quantity. There are four stories and each is illustrated by a different person, Gail E. Haley, Mercer Mayer, Gary Parker, and Laurel Schindelman. Goodreads tells me that each of these stories is supposed to be about the fact that there is rarely, if ever, something that is purely good or bad and that everything is some mixture of both. I suppose I got that out of it but I found myself kind of annoyed at a majority of the book. In one story, a boy is having a birthday party but doesn't want to invite a kid with dyslexia because he is basically like an alien being. Maybe this is an indicator of the time this book was written but I don't think we should be teaching kids that dyslexic kids are so far from the norm. In another, a young boy goes to see a meteor shower with his grandmother and is basically so obnoxious that she slaps him. However, there is no indication in the text that that is happening, instead it is implied through an illustration. I'm a little skeptical about the ability of kids to pick up on the subtext but maybe I'm not giving them enough credit. When it came down to it, I wasn't a fan of any of the stories, so I can't give this one more than 2/5 stars.
About the B'Nai Bagels is a unique MG book about a Jewish boy whose mother and brother become the coach and manager of his Little League baseball team for a season. In rather obvious fashion, some of the boys on the team mind more than others, and definitely some of the parents mind more than others. It would be almost comical how much some of the kids and parents cared if I didn't know how diehard people get about children's sports. Another thing about this book: Boy, did it ever make me hungry for stuffed cabbage. Random, yes, but factual. There isn't much action in the plot but it basically follows the team through the season and the main character through his development as a baseball player (mostly by playing with some of his teammates in their street game) and leading up to his bar mitzvah. There is also a bit of commentary on parenting styles, mostly about the privacy (or lack thereof) given to young boys when keeping secrets and exploring their sexuality. I like E.L. Konigsburg because she is sneaky. When I was a kid, I read a ton of books and very few parents can vet (or really should vet, in my opinion) all the books their kids are reading. Someone might buy this book thinking it is just about a season of baseball but in fact, there is a large portion about paying paltry amounts to see nude pictures in Playboy and about subscribing to the magazine and/or hiding it from your parents. It's harmless for the most part, but I think it is pretty hilarious when stuff that mothers (because it is almost always mothers up in arms, it seems) might object to their kids reading. Game, set, match to E.L. Konigsburg. This issue is even more apparent in the last book of the first group I read, Father's Arcane Daughter. (3/5 stars)
Weird. Just so weird. I went to trivia right after reading this and explained the entire plot to my friends and they just stared at me. The story itself sounds like a typical Lifetime movie: rich kid is spoiled, his sister is spoiled (and treated as mentally and physically handicapped, though it seems she actually is neither), his stepmother is selfish, his father is distant, and his father had a daughter who was kidnapped. Fast forward to right before the kidnapped girl's mother's estate is going to lapse and surprise! A woman shows up on their doorstep claiming to be the long-lost daughter. Is it her? Is she faking it? (note: evidently this story was made into a TV movie called Caroline (the name of the kidnapped daughter), though the details are changed quite a bit). I can't discuss what I found so awkward about this book without spoilers so if you want to read it yourself, just skip the entire next paragraph.
Firstly, I thought it was very weird that the entire family treated the spoiled, bratty sister as having slower mental processes, behavioral issues, and as physically differently-abled. It isn't entirely clear which of these things are actually happening, or to what extent. By the end of the book, Hillary/Heidi (the younger sister in question) is running a business and seems totally with it. She only excels after "Caroline" comes back and secretly starts taking Heidi to special education. The other part of the book I felt really awkward about was the ending. I already warned you about spoilers, but it turns out that Caroline isn't really Caroline. She is a woman with no family who took care of her "dad"'s mother in hospice care and learned all about the missing girl. She had the blessing of the grandmother for the most part, and the main character (Winston) finds out as an adult that his father knew Caroline wasn't really his daughter but was so deficient in the love area that Caroline and he thought it better to continue posing as father and daughter to give him an escape from his wife and to give Winston and Heidi the love and guidance they need from an older sister. Okay, that's kind of weird, especially because it is pretty explicitly stated that had Winston and Heidi not been in the picture that Caroline and Winston's father might've, you know, taken things to the next level. You know that thing when a woman shows up pretending to be your long lost sister and then helps your sister overcome her disabilities and is sexually attracted to your dad but lives the rest of her life pretending to be your sister to be a positive role model in your life? I just played SIAS for Father's Arcane Daughter. (3/5 stars)
The thing about this book, and really all of Konigsburg's work is that it is well-written and engaging. She writes compelling mysteries that are meant for young people but which still entertain adults. She inserts realities and negative events to keep it realistic and I love her work for it. The ratings for these first few books are mostly around a 3 or so but I'm so happy that I've finished a large portion of her work and I'm really looking forward to finishing them off.
Have you read any of her books? What did you think of them?
Firstly, I thought it was very weird that the entire family treated the spoiled, bratty sister as having slower mental processes, behavioral issues, and as physically differently-abled. It isn't entirely clear which of these things are actually happening, or to what extent. By the end of the book, Hillary/Heidi (the younger sister in question) is running a business and seems totally with it. She only excels after "Caroline" comes back and secretly starts taking Heidi to special education. The other part of the book I felt really awkward about was the ending. I already warned you about spoilers, but it turns out that Caroline isn't really Caroline. She is a woman with no family who took care of her "dad"'s mother in hospice care and learned all about the missing girl. She had the blessing of the grandmother for the most part, and the main character (Winston) finds out as an adult that his father knew Caroline wasn't really his daughter but was so deficient in the love area that Caroline and he thought it better to continue posing as father and daughter to give him an escape from his wife and to give Winston and Heidi the love and guidance they need from an older sister. Okay, that's kind of weird, especially because it is pretty explicitly stated that had Winston and Heidi not been in the picture that Caroline and Winston's father might've, you know, taken things to the next level. You know that thing when a woman shows up pretending to be your long lost sister and then helps your sister overcome her disabilities and is sexually attracted to your dad but lives the rest of her life pretending to be your sister to be a positive role model in your life? I just played SIAS for Father's Arcane Daughter. (3/5 stars)
The thing about this book, and really all of Konigsburg's work is that it is well-written and engaging. She writes compelling mysteries that are meant for young people but which still entertain adults. She inserts realities and negative events to keep it realistic and I love her work for it. The ratings for these first few books are mostly around a 3 or so but I'm so happy that I've finished a large portion of her work and I'm really looking forward to finishing them off.
Have you read any of her books? What did you think of them?
