New Arrival: Juv Nonfiction: Nettie and Nellie Crook: Orphan Train Sisters, by E. F. Abbot & Clint Hansen

Nettie and Nellie Crook, Orphan Train Sisters
E. F. Abbot (pseudonym for Susan Hill), illustrated by Clint Hansen
ISBN: 9781250068354
A "based on a true story" junior novelization of the experiences of a set of twins on the orphan trains.

This was a very sad and sobering story, and even more so when I read the coda at the end and realized how very true to actual events the narrative was.  Even more sobering is that this is a relatively happy story: the girls were allowed to stay together, and they were eventually matched up into a happy family in town, as opposed to being used as slave labor out in the wilds, or used for prostitution, or simply abused by their "adoptive" families.  I feel for the kids involved, but also for the charities involved - trying to figure out a better option than orphanages and workhouses (which were even more horrible) or them dying on the streets or getting picked up by organized crime and abused or prostituted in the cities.  Their solution was novel, and I'm sure for at least some of the kids and western families, worked out beautifully.  Unfortunately, for many others, it was simply a move to a very different kind of horrible life.

Sad read, but an important chapter in American history.

Anna Maria's Gift, Janice Shefelman, illustrated by Robert Papp

Anna Maria's Gift
Janice Shefelman, illustrated by Robert Papp
ISBN: 9780375858819
Read June 13, 2014

Juv-fiction: the musically talented orphan daughter of a famous violin maker moves into the Pieta of Venice to live and study under Don Vivaldi, but a jealous rival steals the violin which was her father's last gift.

Black and white illustrations throughout, and a historical note at the end regarding the orphanages and music schools of Venice.

Super short, super-quick resolution, and I like that all of the characters we meet are essentially good people (even the jealous rival, who is redeemed in the end) and that while the characters are Christians, the story is not overly religious in it's moralizing.

Good choice for serial bedtime reading for little ones.

Listening for Lions, Gloria Whelan

Another middle grade orphan story, but this one's set a bit later than Victorian times, and is half set in Africa, and half in London.  This is one of those books that feels like it should be a classic written a long time ago, but no - it's actually fairly new, written in 2005.

Listening for Lions
Gloria Whelan
ISBN: 9780060581763
Read May 13, 2014

Rachel Sheridan is the daughter of missionary doctors sent to colonial Africa, and grows up among the Masai and the Kikuyu, learning Swahili and helping out in the rural hospital and the makeshift chapel.  The influenza epidemic is growing closer, and (as these sorts of orphan stories often go, and sadly - as doctors in early times often did) her parents succumb to the dread disease while trying to save others.

The interesting twist is that Rachel shares a single trait with a neighbor - a wealthy plantation girl.  Valerie Pritchard is a cipher, she's introduced and then dies almost instantly.  The twist comes in the bright red hair that both girls share.  With Rachel's parents newly dead, and the Pritchard's daughter likewise deceased, the nasty couple instantly ensnare the innocent missionary girl and make her part of their plot to wheedle and beguile a distant, England-dwelling Grandfather into passing on his inheritance to the Pritchards.

I have to say, these two are the most pathetic villains I have ever seen.  They are worse even than the De Villes in the book version of 101 Dalmations.  NOTHING they want to accomplish actually works, and they are so evil in such a pathetic venal grasping miserly sort of villany, that one almost feels sorry for them.

Obviously, good prevails, and unlike Peppermints, there are adults with functioning brains.  Rachel and Grandfather triumph, and Rachel begins a new chapter in her life, enriched by good friends and good English estate money.

I like that despite the fact that Rachel is a missionary girl, and that faith and religious practice is important to her personally, it doesn't play a huge part in the narrative - it's simply part of the background, like the lush vibrant descriptions of Africa, or the winding streets of London.  I greatly appreciated that the morals were allowed to stand on their own without being belabored.

Thematic Battle: Understood Betsy vs Eight Cousins

Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, illus Kimberly Bulken Root.
ISBN: 0805060731
Read October 9, 2013

Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott, illus Ruth Ives.

ISBN: Nelson-Doubleday Hardcover 1958 (MCMLVIII).

Re-read October 9, 2013

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually like Fisher's book better than Alcott's. Weird.

To be clear, Eight Cousins is a long-time favorite, and I've read it at least 5 times, maybe as many as 10 times over.  (I don't like Rose in Bloom, the sequel, as well as I do Eight Cousins, but that's another post.)

In contrast, this is the first time I have read Understood Betsy.  

I really like it.  I don't know if it's the deft touch with the moralizing, or the very carefully developed tongue-firmly-in-cheek descriptions of the "delicate" little child creating more trauma to satisfy the delicate aunt's fearmongering, or the only somewhat obviously shoehorned-in Montessori principles, but it really is a very clever, very well-written, very straightforward read.  

Sadly, the more I read Alcott, the more it starts to feel Elsie Dinsmore-ish, or (horrors) Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories-ish.  She's just so moralistic, and the preaching tone is starting to grate on me as I get older (and to be perfectly honest, less interested in having God show up in everything just as a matter of course or culture).

So in a total shock to myself as much as anyone else, I found Understood Betsy to be more readable and more modern, where Eight Cousins is more melodramatic and ostentatious.  On the other hand, they both are better than a lot of what's out there.  I would be interested to read them both in sequence (it works well because Betsy is around 8 to 10, and then Rose is a pre-teen) and see how it goes.  I do have to admit that the action is more present and prevalent in Eight Cousins, where Understood Betsy is fairly straightforward and only has a few discrete adventures.

I think for an upcoming post I'll compare and contrast Rose in Bloom (which I read immediately following Eight Cousins, and it grated me something fierce) and Jo's Boys.  Both are roughly the same book, but for some reason, Jo's Boys always struck me as being much more progressive and modern (read less sexist and less preachy) than Rose in Bloom.  I find that interesting.