book review – Lion's Whiskers

Courage Book Review: Beautiful Souls

admin — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve just finished reading Beautiful Souls: Saying No, Breaking Ranks, and Heeding the Voice of Conscience in Dark Times, by Eyal Press (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012). This book shares the stories of several people in different times and different walks of life who demonstrated moral courage at great risk: a Swiss border officer who defied the law to help Jews flee from Nazi oppression; a Serb soldier who “identified” Croat prisoners as Serbian to save them from genocide; an Israeli soldier refusing to serve in the Occupied Territories; a financial adviser blowing the whistle on a Ponzi scheme that was bilking thousands of investors of their life savings; a U.S. military prosecutor questioning the treatment of Muslim POWs at Guantanamo Bay. Press interviewed all of these people, trying to dig to the bottom of what causes “ordinary” people to make decisions that turn them into rebels, renegades or outliers. It’s fascinating reading, although somewhat disconcerting. Although Hollywood would have us believe that the moral hero rides into the sunset to the sounds of a grand and inspiring soundtrack, none of these actual moral heroes obeyed their conscience without paying a heavy price.

Press points out that at the very least, refusing to conform stirs anger and resentment among those who are conforming. If you and I are both members of Group A, and I announce that the activities of Group A are morally questionable or even evil, then by implication you accept their validity if you don’t walk out with me. What is striking about the people in these profiles is that they were almost all people who fervently upheld the values and principles of their group originally; it was that very conviction that led them to break ranks when those values became distorted or poisoned. As the military prosecutor poignantly stated, his sworn duty to protect the U.S. Constitution made it impossible for him to accept what he saw without speaking out. Yet the consequences for all these conscientious resistors were significant: social exclusion, financial ruin, loss of security, loss of faith in previously esteemed institutions.

It is difficult to read these stories without feeling some misgivings about moral courage and the price it exacts. Does raising a child to be a good citizen of the world, who has conviction, integrity, and an audible conscience place that child at risk? In my opinion it does, and yet I also hear my own conscience telling me it’s the right thing for me to do.

Courage Book Review: Three Little Three Little Pigs

admin — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Know how you can tell this classic is about physical courage? All the huffing and puffing! Just as The Three Billy Goats Gruff had plenty of act-out-able bits, so does every version of The Three Little Pigs. Straw, wood, bricks – these are all parts of our physical experience (as opposed to tricks or puzzles, which are part of our intellectual experience). A big bad wolf who wants to eat you up is a physical risk. Physical courage may be the most easily recognized of the six types of courage, and so it is one that features in so many tales for the very young.

The Three Little Pigs have also been a mainstay of children’s book illustrator/retellers for many years, and today I offer a few words on a few notables from the Three Little Pigs’ Pen that should be readily available in libraries or stores.

Paul Galdone’s version from 1970 is a basic, friendly start. The trim size is small, making it comfortable for little hands. The story is straightforward and the illustrations are bright and dynamic. It’s perfectly satisfactory and we move briskly from one pig’s fate to the next. From 1989 we have the beloved James Marshall offering his trio of roly poly piggies, each dressed in a distinctive costume. I particularly like the pig who builds with sticks – he wears colorful, striped shorts, and his house is decorated with flags, balloons and wind chimes. The brick-building pig in this version looks like a London banker, with waistcoat and bowler hat. In this version, as in Galdone’s, the unfortunate straw-builder and stick-builder are both gobbled up. Both books end gleefully with the provident third pig gobbling up the wolf in turn.

Steven Kellogg’s 1997 version adds a subplot of a mobile waffle business that supports the pigs financially, and and enterprising mother pig who comes to the rescue at the end. Although the art and the subplot are both full of fun and interesting details, I would only share this with kids who are already well-versed in the story, for two reasons. For one thing, the subplot slows down the cadence of the main action. As you may recall from my post on The Rule of Threes, classic stories make use of triads to carry the emotional punch. It’s useful to keep that triad clear of clutter, however, so the pattern can emerge. The echoes of “Not by the hair of my chinny chin chin,” and “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in,” should ideally still be in the air by the time the next round comes. The second reason I feel less than enthusiastic about this version is related to the internal v. external locus of control, which Lisa has explained so well in earlier posts. Mommy pig comes to save the day – emphasizing that forces outside of the little pigs are in control. It’s so much more satisfying to have the final pig (even if he is poignantly the last pig standing) be the one to thwart the big bad wolf and deliver revenge, as in the more traditional versions. That shows the internal locus of control that we want our kids to develop for themselves.

Finally (and yes, I realize that this makes four) we have David Wiesner’s 2001 The Three Pigs, the Caldecott Medal winner for that year. It’s a brilliant tour de force of illustration and revision, but again, I would share this with older kids who are already perfectly familiar with the traditional story. You can’t even understand this book without knowing the model it subverts. This is a book to be enjoyed by a more sophisticated audience than the one that will squeal with delight and huff and puff as ferocious wolves. This is one that demonstrates qualities of intellectual courage – flexibility, creativity, and inventiveness – rather than physical courage. Enjoy the Galdone or Marshall versions of the story with your small kids, and then once they’ve gone to bed, appreciate the Wiesner book with your wordly-wise middle schooler.

Courage Book Review – Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Imagine putting Cinderella in a blender with Hansel and Gretel, and then adding some voodoo. You will end up with something approaching Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave, a retelling by Marianna Mayer of one of Russia’s most beloved folktales. There have been many retellings of this tale over the years, most often called Vasilisa the Beautiful; sadly, not many are in print at the moment. Fortunately, this one is beautifully done, with magnificent artwork by K. Y. Craft.

First, a word about Baba Yaga, who appears in many many Russian tales. Much has been written over the years about witches and wicked stepmothers and fairy godmothers in folklore. Metaphorically splitting the “great mother” into a good/benevolent character and an evil/malevolent character simplifies things in tales and may help kids manage their conflicting feelings. Ambiguity and ambivalence tend to muddy the waters. That’s why Baba Yaga is a fascinating figure. She is almost always represented as a horrible, cannibalistic witch living in a house of human bones – but she still does good deeds from time to time, or takes righteous vengeance on behalf of the protagonist. In this book you will find all the duality of the “great mother” inhabiting Baba Yaga – a powerful, dangerous figure who commands powerful natural forces and sends Vasilisa home to her wicked stepmother and stepsisters with a reward. For this reason, this story (fairly lengthy and complex, and hard to summarize) is best suited to independent reading by older children who can manage the ambiguity. My 12-year-old daughter was fascinated by it.

What may be most memorable about Vasilisa is her little doll, given to her by her dying mother. The (secret) doll goes everywhere with Vasilisa, hidden in her apron. When given food and drink, it comes to life to give comfort, advice and aid to the sad and lonesome girl. This source of spiritual courage is easily recognized as Vasilisa’s dead mother, referred to obliquely as “my mother’s blessing” or “my mother’s love,” the source of her fortitude. Vasilisa does much more than Cinderella ever had to do to earn her triumph at the end, and keeping her composure around Baba Yaga, as well as performing the difficult chores set to test her, are part of that.

For kids looking for a good creepy scare this Halloween season, the artwork in this book will not disappoint. Full of Russian costumes, folkmotifs and intricate detail, the pictures offer much to examine – even if some inspire a hasty page-turn!

Courage Book Review – Why Courage Matters, by John McCain

admin — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0000

In Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life we have a small, accessible book for adult readers (or teen readers, of course) by Senator John McCain with Mark Salter. McCain has been rightly honored for the courage he demonstrated as a POW, and regardless of your political opinions of his public service in the U.S. Congress, his is a voice of experience on this issue. He brings to this exploration of courage a not suprising inclination to praise military heroism, but there’s much more than that. One thing that I like about this book is that he does discuss courage as something for parents to heed, and to strive to develop in their children. He offers many examples from history of tremendous courage, from soldiers on the front lines to civil rights activists using nonviolent disobedience to further their cause. I have three takeaways from the book:

1. Courage must be voluntary. We must make a choice to overcome the challenge before us, and move through and beyond the fear that faces us. Even when we are faced with a challenge we can’t escape, such as an illness, the choice of how we face it is ours to make.

2. Courage is contagious. When we have the example of a courageous person before us, it inspires us to greater courage ourselves. (His description of how POWs encouraged and inspired each other to continue resistance is very moving.) Offer your kids models of courage from traditional tales and true stories. They can strive to deserve the courage of those heroes who went before them.

3. The people whom McCain portrays as examples of courage have only one thing in common: fear. As we have said all along, courage is not the absence of fear, it is going forward despite fear.

In summing up, McCain corroborates what we have said on Lion’s Whiskers many times. When you give your kids opportunities to practice courage, whether with courage challenges, courage workouts, or by setting an example that your kids can see every day, you help them build their courage for the challenges on the path ahead.

“If you do the things you think you cannot do, you’ll feel your resistance, your hope, your dignity and your courage grow stronger every time you prove it. You will some day face harder choices that very well might require more courage. You’re getting ready for them. You’re getting ready to have courage.”

Courage Book Review – treasures from Geraldine McCaughrean

admin — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:00 +0000

We rank Geraldine McCaughrean among today’s most resourceful and exciting retellers of myths and legends from around the world. Her vivid writing style makes her treasuries of stories gripping, funny, provocative, fascinating and beautiful. In these books – The Golden Hoard: Myths and Legends of the World, The Silver Treasure: Myths and Legends of the World, The Bronze Cauldron Myths And Legends Of The World, and The CRYSTAL POOL: MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE WORLD –we have a dazzling variety of traditional tales, all gloriously illustrated by Bee Willey. There are creation stories and trickster tales and stories of how stories came to be. Above all, there are hero stories. These stories of quests and courage show us how people from around the world told their tales highlighting all six types of courage. Many of them may well be familiar favorites already, or at least ring some bells: St. George and the Dragon, Robin Hood and the Golden Arrow, Midas and the Golden Touch, the Golem, the Tower of Babel, William Tell, the Pied Piper and many others that readers may already recognize. But there are also tales from cultures whose stories were once considered “quaint” or “curious” by Western readers. Legends and folktales from New Zealand, Melanesia, Bolivia, Finland, Togo and many many other places show us what is the same, and what is different, about how cultures portray courage. I particularly liked the Hittite myth of the goddess Inaras conquering a family of dragons by feeding them until they were too fat to get back into their underground lairs. As the old saying goes, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and more than one way to conquer dragons. These collections show us that in dazzling, delightful detail. Great for reading aloud or handing to an independent reader.

Courage Book Review – The Daring Book for Girls

admin — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I talked about The Dangerous Book for Boys. This week it’s the girls’ turn, with The Daring Book for Girls, a sister volume. Using the same old-fashioned design sensibility and tone, this book offers girls their own hodgepodge handbook with essential tools for a toolbox, how to paddle a canoe, math tricks, silly pranks to play on friends, slumber party games, cat’s cradle, how to pop a wheelie on your bike, how to write a thank-you letter, flower pressing – wait, this is my own childhood!

As I suggested in my review of the boys’ book, having a wide and eclectic set of skills and knowledge may contribute to having a strong internal locus of control – the profound assurance that one is up to the challenges that life presents. Studies on fear show that a lack of control is one of the things that contributes to stress and anxiety. The more things you know how to control, the less you are a prey to fear. You can’t control the tides, but knowing how to read a tide chart and why the tides change at all can make a difference in a day at the beach; you can’t be injury-proof, but knowing first-aid may take the edge off of panic what an accident happens. What looks like courage is often basic competence. Maybe you don’t know how to tie a sari yourself, or how to make a peach pit ring. But give this book to your daughter and she’ll learn how.

Just as there was little in the Dangerous Book that seemed very dangerous, there’s little here that seems very daring, unless you think changing a tire or opening a lemonade stand takes daring. Do your daughter a favor. Dare her to read this book.

Courage Book Review – The Dangerous Book for Boys

admin — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0000

When The Dangerous Book for Boys came out a few years ago, it caused quite a stir, buddying up to Harry Potter on the bestseller lists. With a deliberately old-fashioned typeface, style and layout the book evokes a time (real or imagined) when boys typically learned how to tie knots, and carried pocketknives, and spent many independent hours doing boy stuff outdoors. It’s something like the Boy Scout handbook, but with a better designer and a sense of humor. The response from the public has been phenomenal.

What makes this book interesting from a Lion’s Whiskers perspective is that it’s about knowing how to do things – make marbled paper or catch and identify a fish or build a tree house or play poker. What an eclectic suite of skills and knowledge can give to a boy (or a girl) is a stronger internal locus of control. The more things you know how to do, the more self-reliant you become and the fewer situations provoke fear or anxiety. The more you feel competent to control what happens to you or around you (internal locus of control) the better. Sometimes courage is simply knowing what to do. Sometimes social courage means being able to toss out the names of a few of the 7 Wonders of the Ancient World to make an impression. Sometimes physical courage involves knowing which common insects bite and which ones are harmless. Sometimes moral courage gets a boost from having read the Gettysburg Address a few times.

Of the 70+ brief chapters, only a very few (how to make a bow and arrow, for example) touch on anything remotely dangerous, unless looked at by an anxious helicopter parent. But if you are the sort of parent who thinks learning how to make a water bomb or a go-cart or how to build a battery is dangerous, then you probably aren’t reading this blog.

What I suggest is that taken as a whole, this collection of skills, techniques, stories and bits of information might make the world look and feel less dangerous to a boy. Building a strong interior locus of control – that’s what this is a handbook for. Also available: The Pocket Dangerous Book for Boys: Things to Do for boys who like to keep it handy while they’re up in a treehouse.

Courage Book Review – Saints and Animals

admin — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I shared the legend of St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio. Today, Lion’s Whiskers offers two books on the same theme. On Lion’s Whiskers, we define spiritual courage as that which fortifies us as we ask questions about purpose and meaning. Today we review books about people who answered those questions for themselves, and had the courage to act accordingly.

Saints Among the Animals, written by Cynthia Zarin and illustrated by Leonid Gore, is a beautifully simple book for independent readers, giving very short stories of some of the saints whose legends involve animals. St. Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio is here, of course, but so are much lesser known saints. There is Saint Werbuge, who patiently reasoned with a flock of geese that were destroying farm crops; we have Saint Canice, who used the antlers of a living stag as a book stand, Saint Colman, for whom a fly acted as a reliable living bookmark. Ten saints make up the collection, offering a glimpse of a simpler time when people were still sorting out what it might mean to be Christian (perhaps a quest still ongoing?) and what embracing all living things might look like. These are mostly gentle courage stories, about people with the courage to live as their consciences commanded, without heed for raised eyebrows among their fellow human beings. That makes these stories of moral courage and social courage, as well as spiritual courage. Read these stories on your own to retell to younger children on a nature walk, perhaps, or leave for your older reader to nibble on. The writing is excellent, not didactic, and not in any way evangelizing. It’s very fine.

“Sing praises to Sister Moon and the stars… sing praises to Brother Wind and to the air and the clouds…Sing praises to Sister Water…” Part of a Mohawk blessing song in a Joseph Bruchac book maybe? No, this is from the Canticle of Brother Sun, written by Saint Francis. Saint Francis Sings to Brother Sun: A Celebration of His Kinship with Nature, by Karen Pandell with illustrations by Bijou Le Tord, is a truly exquisite book for young and old. In large format with deceptively rustic pictures (they seem childishly simple, until you look closely) the book outlines the life of Francis of Assisi in brief vignettes, interspersed with verses of the canticle (which would make an awesome dinner blessing for a special occasion.) What would that really be like, to give away everything as Saint Francis did? To save no food for tomorrow but to give it to the birds and rely on providence for tomorrow? In today’s possession-heavy world, it’s a challenge to imagine the wealthy and privileged young Francis taking a vow of poverty, and walking so carefully that he not harm a worm, or an ant, or even tread carelessly on spilled water. In this we see echoes of the Buddha’s journey and practice. Such complete reverence for all of life actually takes extraordinary courage. You might be inspired to create a courage challenge for yourself and your family: spend a day doing no harm to any living thing. What does it take? What will it cost you? Do you need the courage of a saint?

Courage Book Review – Who is the Other Mother? (and how do I get away from her!!?)

admin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

I was struck by Lisa’s post yesterday about playing the Lion Game; what struck me was her young son’s conviction that she really had “gone away” and had become something else. In this case, she had become a lion to him, and he was as frightened as if it had really happened. You could say that for him, it really had happened. This is a confusion that children grow out of; when they’re older they can recognize their parents under masks or in costumes, and not be bewildered.

Yet the fear… do children outgrow it? Today’s review is of a spectacularly creepy book which enthralls middle grade children and unnerves parents. Coraline , by the masterful storyteller of the macabre, Neil Gaiman.

Here we have a child left to her own devices in an old house. Her parents are busy and distracted. She finds a mysterious passageway into a mirror house, and to her surprise and initial delight, she finds another set of parents.

“Coraline?” the woman said. “Is that you?”

And then she turned around. Her eyes were big black buttons.

“Lunchtime, Coraline,” said the woman.

“Who are you?” asked Coraline.

“I’m your other mother,” said the woman. “Go and tell your other father that lunch is ready.” She opened the door of the oven. Suddenly Coraline realized how hungry she was. It smelled wonderful. “Well, go on.”…

“I didn’t know I had another mother,” said Coraline, cautiously.

“Of course you do. Everyone does,” said the other mother, her black button eyes gleaming.

What makes this so eerie is how reasonable it all seems at first. Coraline is understandably cautious at the start, but the food is good and she has awesome toys in this other house, and her Other Mother and Other Father have lots of time for her. They want to be with her always. There’s just one catch…

Scaring ourselves with spooky stories is a way to experiment with our limits of fear and courage. Coraline finds herself thinking, “I will be brave… No, I am brave.” Your child can be brave too, with Coraline. For independent readers 10 or older.

Courage Book Review – Taking a Walk with the Buddha

admin — Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:00 +0000

Today’s courage book review offers two illustrated books for children of Jataka tales, tales the Buddha told, but to begin with, here’s a beautiful picture book biography to put the Jataka tales into context: Becoming Buddha: The Story of Siddhartha, written by Whitney Stewart, with really really beautiful art by Sally Rippin, and with a foreword by His Holiness, the Dalai Lama. In simple prose, the story describes the journey of Siddhartha from wealth and privilege to enlightenment. The Jataka tales were the stories the Buddha told to his followers to help them on their own journeys. Siddhartha’s journey was obviously one of spiritual courage, which we define as the courage which fortifies us as we ask questions about meaning and purpose. His purpose was nothing less than to find the cause of human suffering.

Buddha Stories is a quietly beautiful book written and illustrated by Demi. The illustrations are gold on deep indigo, giving the stories the dazzle of illumination. The stories themselves are full of illumination, being short and accessible and with clear purpose. Compassion, faithfulness, self-control, modesty, honesty and humility are virtues activated by emotional courage, moral courage and social courage in these traditional stories. They are all animal stories, and the pictures show monkeys and bulls and lions and parrots gleaming like constellations on the deep blue pages. The first story, “The Lion King,” will be familiar to some readers as “Chicken Little.” It is worth pointing this out to children, encouraging them to engage their intellectual courage to make bold observations about the connections between tales (for example, the Judgment of Solomon and the very similar Birbal story from India about a disputed mango tree which I offered last month). This sort of comparative literature study can inspire conversation with kids on the deep lessons about courage that dwell within all these stories.

Next we have I Once Was a Monkey: Stories Buddha Told written and illustrated by Jeanne M. Lee. A monkey, a tortoise, a jackal, a lion and a dove take refuge from a storm inside a ruined temple. Also inside the temple is a statue of the seated Buddha, which speaks to them to calm their fears, telling stories of his past lives. Six Jataka tales are framed by this device, each one flowing seamlessly into the next. Again, these stories illustrate the virtues of compassion, wisdom, cooperation and loyalty that the six types of courage can activate in us all. Great teachers, such as the Buddha, know that animals make great metaphors and stand-ins for communicating concepts to students, especially to children. Aesop knew it too, of course. All of these Jataka tales are easy to learn and retell in your own words. Take the Buddha on a walk with you and your child some day soon, and let the Jataka tales guide you on your path.