This is a beautiful and finely-crafted book, lent to me by my friend John, who is on GR but who is also a neighbour. He met the author when she paid aThis is a beautiful and finely-crafted book, lent to me by my friend John, who is on GR but who is also a neighbour. He met the author when she paid a visit here. I started it late last night, and had to stay in bed this morning until I finished it! I’m writing this review before attending to the long list of household chores that await, because I’d like to try to capture my impressions immediately.
It’s written for young people in their early teens, and I will be looking a copy, for one of my grandchildren whom it will suit perfectly, but as an aged adult I found myself entranced by it. It probably helps if you’re a dog-lover, but it’s not necessary; you’ll be caught up in this story of fragility and endurance, of vulnerability and strength, in the wilds of Alaska.
The author explains in some length the origin of the title, which is perfect for the book, as we realise as the story unravels.
“Most of the story is told in diamond-shaped poems, with a hidden message printed in darker ink in the centre of each one . . . Diamond willow grows in northern climates. It has rough gray bark, often crusted with gray-green lichen. Removing the bark and sanding and polishing the stick reveals reddish-brown diamonds, each with a small dark centre . . . The diamonds form on several different kinds of shrub willow when a branch is injured and falls away. The dark centre of each diamond is the scar of the missing branch.”
The main character, a girl from an Athabascan community, is called, “Diamond Willow”, and when it is her voice we hear, the story is in the shape of a diamond, with, as the author says, a hidden message in bold (though I didn't see the text as poems, as she calls them). What she doesn’t prepare us for is the nature of the hidden messages, which reveal a deeper layer of thinking or meaning. It is not always Willow’s voice we hear, and therein lies another dimension in the book, delicately explored and interwoven with the story.
I really don’t want to give too much away here, but in a simple tale Helen Frost manages to capture the harshness of daily life in such a clime with the warmth and love of human emotions, the value accorded to ancient beliefs and tradition, the terrible beauty of life and death, with the vibrant energy of the young girl and her journey through teenage emotions as she begins to find her place in her world, and her full identity.
The dogs reminded me of the Jack London tales (thank you, Elena, for your recent review of “The Call of the Wild, White Fang and Other Stories" on https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... The dogs are essential to the survival of human beings in this tale, but they are also honoured and beloved members of the family. Jola, after the thread on Elena's review I want to tell you that you can read it – I promise that there is no cruelty to dogs! On the contrary, it is a celebration of their loyal, intelligent and loving natures.
I had read another book by this author that left me with questions and issues about her intended audience, and suchlike – I didn’t review that book, as I didn’t feel I gave it the attention it deserved – but this one is spell-binding. Highly recommended for young people (and their oldies)....more
My youngest granddaughter, aged six, chose this book herself from the shelf while staying with us last week. I’d never read it, so was happy to try itMy youngest granddaughter, aged six, chose this book herself from the shelf while staying with us last week. I’d never read it, so was happy to try it out with her chapter by chapter at bedtime. It’s a fairly solid tale, continuing the “Little House on The Prairie” series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. The author of this book and a few others in the later series, was the adopted grandson of Laura’s daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, and also her heir. In explaining this he metaphorically swears fidelity to Rose in writing her story just as she told it to him before she died. In the book Rose is seven and a half years old when her parents move from the dusty plains of South Dakota to Missouri (in the days of the wagon trains). Everything happens from her perspective, and is well imagined, or transcribed from Rose’s own account! Her mother, Laura, had kept a diary of the journey, which must have helped Roger Lea MacBride, though her perspective does not intrude upon the way he has presented Rose’s. The tale of the departure and the journey take up quite a lot of the story before they actually get to the little house on Rocky Ridge, and, for me, had more interest, especially the account of how they crossed “The Big Muddy”, the Missouri River, with their wagon and horses – not a crossing for the faint-hearted, even with a ferry and a rope! My granddaughter seemed to be enjoying the book (and made up tunes for the songs that keep them going on the journey) but she had to take it home at the end of the week, as we’d only got about half-way through. So I don’t know whether she enjoyed a chapter that was to come that contained a visit from a tarantula! There was also a tale, in the early part of the book of a mummified Native American baby – but it’s recounted quite carefully, without graphic detail. The only other thing that might upset young children is when one of their neighbour’s boys is severely disciplined by his father. All in all it’s well-crafted and gives a faithful grounding of what life was like in former times. If children don’t learn history, how can they learn anything else? This book is a foundation for the building of knowledge and interest in a child but is not overly didactic. My favourite chapter was the one where they come upon a community of Russian immigrants! There’s some thought-provoking material here for children, and not too heavily moral a tone when Rose’s family discovers that the ‘strangers’ of whom Laura is suspicious turn out to be friendly and generous. Four stars just because it’s a bit staid, but otherwise to be recommended for children. After reading this I’ll probably buy my granddaughter the early books by Laura Ingalls Wilder for Christmas. She did ask if there was a film of it, but I haven’t found one....more
This story is set at the time of the Civil Wars that raged across Britain in the seventeenth century. These wars are often referred to as "The EnglishThis story is set at the time of the Civil Wars that raged across Britain in the seventeenth century. These wars are often referred to as "The English Civil War", as the conflict centred on the Westminster Parliament, later led by Oliver Cromwell, and the kings, Charles I and II. This book was written two centuries later, but Captain Marryat's elegant language is very dated, for today's children. As with many "Children's Classics" from former centuries, it can still be read and enjoyed by those of maturer age. I had just watched the excellent film "Cromwell" starring Richard Harris and Sir Alec Guinness, and had then come across, on Radio 4's series,"In Our Time", a programme about the Covenanters, a faction in Scotland who briefly sided with Charles II, but only for their own reasons. I felt that the traditionalist, Royalist, side of the Civil War deserved a hearing, and went back to this childhood favourite of mine. Re-reading this book in order to even up the perspectives on the Civil War fitted in well with a project of mine this year to go through my old children's books to see which are suitable for my grandchildren. Sadly, I can't see them being drawn into Captain Marryat’s old-fashioned prose, and I have to admit that there are many aspects of the book that now belong to a bygone era. The four children of a Royalist cavalier killed at Naseby narrowly escape death in their home, Arnwood, at the hands of Cromwell's troops, and take refuge in the forest, where they are taught by an old forester how to survive. Captain Marryat seems to have known a great deal about forest craft, and I loved the lessons in deerstalking, as well as the descriptions of trapping wild cattle and ponies. As the children adapt to life in the forest they are faced with increasing danger due to the worsening effects of the Civil War, and this is all lively adventure for young people, with a good measure of balance in the summing up of the historical context. In the aftermath of Charles I’s beheading, the oldest of the children, the courageous and hot-headed Edward, thinks over what has been told him by the newly appointed Parliamentary Intendant of the New Forest:
“He said that the king wished to be absolute and wrest the liberties from his subjects, and that they were justified in opposing him; I never heard that when at Arnwood. ‘If so, was it lawful to do so? ‘I think it was, but not to murder him; that I can never admit, nor does the Intendant: on the contrary, he holds his murderers in as great detestation as I do. Why, then, we do not think far apart from one another. At the commencement, the two parties were – those who supported him, not admitting that he was right, but too loyal to refuse to fight for their king – and those who opposed, hoping to force him to do right; the king for his supposed prerogatives, the people for their liberties. The king was obstinate, the people resolute, until virulent warfare inflamed both parties, and neither would listen to reason; and the people gained the upper hand, they wreaked their vengeance, instead of looking to the dictates of humanity and justice. How easy it had been to have deposed him, and sent him beyond the seas! Instead of which they detained him a prisoner and then murdered him. The punishment was greater than the offence, and dictated by malice and revenge; it was a diabolical act, and will soil the page of our nation’s history.”
The children are all very virtuous, and very pious, and I’m afraid that with my childhood march to Church every Sunday I’m a sucker for some of the more tender passages. When the old forester dies, the children bury him under the old oak behind the cottage; they fence it round, and plant it with wild flowers:
“The Sunday following the burial, the weather being fine and warm, Edward proposed that they should read the usual service, which had been selected by old Jacob, at the grave, and not in the cottage, as formerly; and this they continued afterwards to do, whenever the weather would permit; thus did old Jacob’s resting-place become their church, and overpower them with those feelings of love and devotion which give efficacy to prayer.”
It is as if Captain Marryat himself derives the greatest pleasure from writing about the children’s years of growing up in the forest; the last few pages, when they have become grown-up, feel rushed. The book's closing section is mostly concerned with a rather sketchy summary of the events leading to the Restoration. Edward by this time is a soldier in Charles II’s personal army abroad, and the last pages skim quickly over his return to England and his meeting again with his family and friends. It all ends happily – it is a children’s book! The characters are two-dimensional, and the only one that might hold interest for an adult is the Intendant. But if you happen to have a copy lying unread on your shelves, there’s plenty of historical and 'survival' material there to interest....more
This year I plan to go through the children’s books still on my shelves from years ago and keep any that my grandchildren might like. I’d highly recomThis year I plan to go through the children’s books still on my shelves from years ago and keep any that my grandchildren might like. I’d highly recommend “Children of Winter”, probably for children of ten years old and up. Published in 1985, it won the Carnegie Medal, and deservedly so. It’s sensitively written and has all the elements of an excellent children’s tale. Three children from the English town of Sheffield become children of the past, in the seventeenth century when plague was rampant in England. This is not a history book, but an imaginative survival story told through the experiences of the three children, who have been sent away by their parents in an attempt to protect them from infection. They spend the winter in a barn at some distance from their village. The desperation of the children’s situation is well conveyed, and their pluck and perseverance wins through. A more adult note is struck once during the narrative, when a woman who has buried her husband and all her six children threatens the hideaways; but this potentially frightening incident is kept well within the bounds of children’s understanding. The story may obliquely refer to the actual story of the village of Eyam in Derbyshire, where the plague was allegedly brought from London in a merchant’s cloth, and the villagers quarantined themselves; but the inspiration for it appears to have been an actual “cruck barn”, which the author was taken to by the children of a school in Sheffield. I looked up a “cruck barn” and found the following link interesting. https://www.woodlands.co.uk/blog/prac... The only criticism I could make of this book would be the author’s use of “thee” in the plural, when as far as I know it was only used in the singular, as in the familiar forms of ‘you’ in many languages today. Perhaps this was a dialectal use. Anyway, it certainly wouldn’t prevent my giving the book five stars!...more
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