Pierre: A Cautionary Tale In Five Chapters And A Prologue and Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Pierre: A Cautionary Tale In Five Chapters And A Prologue by Maurice Sendak
Originally published in 1962
Source: we own it

"Pierre" is the story of young Pierre who refuses to do anything his parents tell  tell him to do and never says anything more than "I don't care."  It's just that attitude that gets him into trouble when he meets a lion.  As he always does, Sendak blends dark (Pierre is eaten by the lion) with light and his poetry with his delightful artwork, all combined to teach the reader a moral.

Where The Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
First Published in 1963
Source: a gift for my son when he was born

One night Max puts on his wolf suit a creates mischief of one kind and another, earning a trip to his room without supper.  While there Max forest grows in Max's room and a private boat comes by and takes Max away to where the wild things are.  Max soon tames the wild things and becomes their king but after a time he is forced to send them off to bed without their supper and decides he wants to be "where someone loved him best of all."

My favorite part of our copy of this book is the inscription our friend wrote in it when they gave it to my son:

"Always remember..., even when you are a "Wild Thing" you can always go back to be where someone loves you best of all."

It's a simply story with a wonderful lesson and I'm so happy that our friend made it a personal message, one all children need to know.

I re-read both of these books for the "You've Got Mail" Challenge.

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt

Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
368 pages
Published 1996
Source: I own it

Malachy McCourt had barely arrived in America before he met Angela Sheehan.  Soon she was pregnant and the two were "convinced" that they should marry by Angela's cousins.  Cousins who ever after told her what a terrible man her husband was.  They were right; Malachy McCourt was an alcoholic who was never able to keep a job for more than three weeks and frequently drank his entire pay for a week before he went home.  This was the life that Frank was born into.  Within a couple of years he was joined by brothers Malachy, Oliver, and Eugene and sister Margaret, the apple of her father's eye.  For Margaret, their father stopped drinking and had she lived who knows how the McCourt family's life might have changed.  But she didn't; Malachy started drinking more than ever and Angela sank into a deep depression.  Eventually her cousins convinced the family to return to Ireland, where things went from very bad to much, much worse.

"When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I survived at all.  It was, of course, a miserable childhood: the happy childhood is hardly worth your while.  Worse than the ordinary miserable childhood is the miserable Irish childhood, and worse yet is the miserable Irish Catholic childhood."

A miserable childhood it was.  There were more children born and more children died.  McCourt's father continued his drinking ways, forcing the family to rely for years almost exclusively on the assistance of various agencies (in his defense, it played hugely against him that he was from the North living in Limerick). There was rarely much more to eat than bread and often not enough coal to boil water for tea.  Frank suffered from typhoid fever and the worst case of conjunctivitis that I've ever heard of.  During his three month confinement with the typhoid, he spent most of his time alone in a ward of the hospital where there were no other patients and his mother was not even allowed to visit.  His life at home was so bad, that when he was finally able to return home he found himself longing for the quiet, the warmth and the cleanliness of the hospital.

"I think my father is like the Holy Trinity with three people in him, the one in the morning with the paper, the one at night with the stories and the prayers, and then the one who does the bad thing and comes home with the smell of whiskey and wants us to die for Ireland."

With the second World War going on, many of the Irish father's went to London and began sending home money to the other families on the lane,  When Malachy goes to London, the McCourts finally think their luck has changed.  But not one dime ever arrives from England.  Not only that, but with Malachy gone, the family was no longer eligible for the assistance they had relied on for years.  Now the family become more and more reliant on a family that didn't want to help and a church that kept turning its back on them.

"This is my mother, begging.  This is worse than the dole, the St. Vincent de Paul Society, the Dispensary.  It's the worst kind of shame, almost as bad as begging on the streets where the tinkers hold up their scabby children, Give us a penny for the poor child, mister, the poor child is hungry, missus."

I cannot imagine how any of the McCourt children survived this life.  Yet survive Frank and three of his brothers did.  Frank decided at fourteen to quit school, despite a passion for learning, to become a telegram boy, a job that not only helped his family survive but also allowed him to begin saving money for his eventual escape back to  America. 

Oh Frank McCourt, how I love this book!  I read it the year it won the Pulitzer and it earned a hard to earn spot on my permanent bookshelf.  Which means that, theoretically, I will someday re-read a book.  But I have a hard time ever making myself do that.  How could a book that's sitting on that shelf ever live up to my memory of it?  This one did.

This time I was struck by the fact that McCourt frequently repeated things.  Where I might have thought on the first read that this was done to effectively emphasize his points, this time I did find it excessive.  Still that was the only fault I found with the book.  McCourt spares no one in this book, finding fault with both of his parents, his larger family, the government, and the Catholic church.  But while the book can frequently feel angry, it is more often filled with humor and compassion.  McCourt brings his story to life: the malodor of the outhouse that's shared by the block but right next to the McCourt's house, the sting of the fleas, the misery of living in a house where for six months of the year, the family was forced to live on the second floor due to the flooding on the first floor.  McCourt is a master of the English language and writing in dialect.  I actually responded to my husband one night while reading this with an Irish accent.  Back on the shelf this book will go.  Someday I know I will read it again.

The "Madeline" Books by Ludwig Bemelmans

Madeline, Madeline's Rescue, Madeline and the Bad Hat, Madeline and the Gypsies, and Madeline in America and Other Holiday Tales by Ludwig Bemelmans

The original "Madeline" was first published in 1939
Source: All five books purchased for my daughter

"In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines."

So begins the book Madeline, the first in a series of books written first by Ludwig Bemelmans and more recently by his grandson John Bemelmans Mariano. The books are charming for their poetry, lovely drawings but most of all for the plucy little Madeline, "the smallest of all."  The girls are shepherded by Miss Clavel and enjoy great adventures throughout Paris but the biggest excitement of the book was Madeline's appendicitis attack.

Madeline's Rescue is the story of what happens when Madeline is rescued from the Seine River by a dog and won the Caldecott Medal in 1954.  In Madeline and the Bad Hat readers are introduced to Pepito, the son of the Spanish Ambassador who moves into the house next door to the girls.  Madeline and Pepito head off for great adventures in Madeline and the Gypsies.  "Madeline in America" is a collection of stories that include stories started by Bemelmans but finished by Marciano.  It also includes a lovely story about Christmas with Bemelmans written by his daughter.

I read the books as part of the "You've Got Mail" Challenge.  In that movie, Meg Ryan played a character that owned a children's book store.  All of the books/authors for the challenge were shown or mentioned in the movie.  It was a pleasure to revisit "Madeline;" I just may have to rewatch the movie, starring Frances McDormand as well!

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.

Who Moved My Cheese? by Spencer Johnson, M.D.
94 pages
Published 1998
Source: it was loaned to my husband by a coworker

Apparently it's my month for reading parables.  First The Pearl and now the tale of Sniff and Scurr, Hem and Haw.  This time it's a parable to teach the reader how to deal with having your cheese moved (that is to say change in your life).  Sniff and Scurry are mice who react purely on instinct.  Hem and Haw are littlepeople who use their brains, "filled with beliefs and emotion."  These four creatures live in the "Maze" where they spend their days looking for cheese (the things we want in life). The mice and the littlepeople eventually find their cheese and settle in to enjoy it.  Sniff and Scurry always stay ready, keeping their running shoes tied together and hanging from their necks.  Hem and Haw, however, settle in, convinced that they've got it made. 

Given the title of the book, you know things are going to change for the mice and littlepeople.  Sure enough, one day Sniff and Scurry arrive at their cheese station to discover that there is no longer any cheese there.  Having noticed that they were getting less and less cheese every day, they were ready and quickly took off in search of new cheese.  Hem and Haw had been oblivious and were certain that there would be more cheese if they just stayed at their cheese station.  You know as well as I did that there will be no more cheese.  Sooner or later, Hem and Haw will need to make a move.  But will they have the courage?

The book is broken up into three sections: the first is essentially a set up to tell the story; then the story itself; and, finally, a discussion of the lessons to be learned and how the people in the discussion might apply them.  Certainly this is a short enough book that I could hardly complain about it being too long, but that's exactly what I'm about to do.  Because I really thought the entire first section was pointless.  I did, however, find myself relating to the characters in the story.

At the company where I work, things have been in a state of upheaval for a couple of years.  A lot of people, early on, reacted in much the same way that Sniff and Scurry did and got out early, avoiding the stress those of us that have stayed have suffered.  Many others have reacted in the same way that Haw did, eventually deciding that there had to be something better.  Like Hem, I have to admit that the thought of making a change scared me more than staying put; I kept thinking that things would change.  Fortunately for me, things are turning around.  And I did make a change in positions in the company that will enable me to learn skills that will come in handy down the road.  So, I suppose I have at least put my running shoes back on.