Saturdays and Teacakes

Chris Soentpiet (Illustrator). Peachtree 2004, Hardcover, 32 pages, $8.49

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This story, told in the voice of a nine- or ten-year-old boy, tells of his weekly trip to his grandmother’s home, where she waits for him on her front porch with a cup of coffee.  They enjoy a simple breakfast, he cuts her grass, and together they bake teacakes for him to eat.  The rituals of time spent together, chores performed lovingly, and shared food sustain their relationship in a sweet and beautiful way.

The story is rich in tactile sensations and concrete details, grounding the narrator in his world through physical experience: the bump of his bicycle tire over the hose at the Phillips 66 crossing reminds him to look both ways lest someone tell his mother.  The sight of flour and sugar sifting through Mammaw’s fingers and the smell of teacakes on the hot cookie sheet are almost tangible to the reader.  Combine the excellent writing with Soentpiet’s splendid watercolors depicting an impeccable 1950’s home, and you have a visual and verbal feast.

The book ends with a personal tribute from the author, letting us know the story is autobiographical.  Included in the back cover is a web link to a recipe for the teacakes.  While the mood is somewhat idyllic, the story portrays a timeless relational scene where two family members care for one another in a stable, loving relationship.  I especially appreciate the way the boy models cheerful manual work in service of someone else.  A wonderful read.

Sugaring

Jos. A. Smith (Illustrator). Greenwillow Books 1996, Hardcover, 24 pages, $10.00

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Nora and her grandfather, with the help of two horses, tap the maple trees on their Vermont farm and boil the sap into syrup.  At one point Gramp leaves Nora alone, and she adds a drop of cream when the syrup boils up, preventing it from boiling out of the pan.  She also takes initiative to share sap and syrup with the horses.

The family members are dressed in modern clothes, but their practice is an old one, as is their equipment.  Haas’ writing is excellent, and Smith’s evocative watercolor paintings vividly render the crisp outdoor cold, which contrasts with the steamy indoor warmth in the boiling shed.  Nora’s generosity toward the horses is reminiscent of biblical admonitions for people to care for their animals that serve them (Deuteronomy 25:4; Proverbs 12:10).  The relational bond between grandparents and grandchild is nearly tangible, and Nora’s participation in this exciting grown-up work is an excellent example of the privileges that come with responsibility.  This is an excellent story for helping children understand how maple syrup is made.

The Mitten

Jan Brett. Putnam Juvenile 1989, Hardcover, 32 pages, $4.54

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

In this Ukranian folktale Nicki, a young boy, asks his grandmother Baba for snow-white mittens.  She protests that he will lose them in the snow, but because he wants them so badly she complies and knits some for him.  When he goes out to play, he does lose one, and it is found by a chilly mole who cosies up inside to get warm.  When a rabbit happens by, he crowds into the mitten, followed by a hedgehog, an owl, a badger, a fox, and a bear.  Finally a tiny mouse comes along and, perching on top of the great bear’s nose, causes him to sneeze, and all the animals tumble back out.  The mitten is thrown into the air and Nicki, on his way home, finds it.

The story is told with well-paced, pleasant repetition and a funny, dramatic climax with a visual joke at the end, as Baba inspects the mysteriously enlarged mitten.  Nicki is a likable and energetic child with a nurturing, sensible adult caretaker, and the animals are rendered in their animal characters, with only a shade of human personality.  But it is the gorgeous illustrations that really make this story: each scene is rendered beautifully, enclosed in elaborate borders that include the traditional folk art of the region, with “peek-ahead” sights of Nicki’s activities as well as the next animal that will be introduced.  This story will surprise and delight children from a wide range of ages, from toddlers (there is a simplified board book version just for them) to readers.

Christmas Moccasins

Ray Buckley. Abingdon Press 2003, Hardcover, 1 pages, $10.78

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

This is a compelling story about courage and forgiveness told from a Native American perspective.  On Christmas Eve a young child and his grandmother are robbed of both their coats and Grandmother’s moccasins by three drunken youths, and walking home barefoot in the snow Grandmother loses two toes to frostbite.  She spends the final quarter of the following year preparing extraordinarily beautiful beaded moccasins to give to her assailants at Christmas.

Ray Buckley is Lakota, Tlingit, and Scots, and is affiliated with the United Methodist Church.  His stories express Christian teachings within a tribal way of thinking.  His theological basis can be a bit fuzzy, and at times he is more mystically intuitive than biblically centered, so each of his stories ought to be be examined carefully.

One potentially concerning element of this story is that in the scene on the front cover where Grandmother is beading the moccasins for her assailants, she is pictured against a background of what looks like an abstractly stylized dreamcatcher composed of wintry trees, with two figures below them.  Traditionally a dreamcatcher is modeled after a spider’s web and is believed to catch bad dreams or thoughts.  Picturing the  dreamcatcher seems to be the author’s way of showing how Grandmother’s courage and faith help her defeat her fear.  This may be an attempt to appropriate a culturally recognized symbol for a redemptive interpretation, and I’m not settled on whether this is a good use of the symbol.

Another potentially difficult element of the story is that Grandmother performs a water-cleansing ceremony before making the moccasins, and again before delivering them:

Carefully she dipped her hands into the basin again and again, patting the length of her hair, her shoulders, her torso, and her legs.  In October, with no stream unfrozen, it was her way of cleansing her spirit — the way of beginning something sacred.  In the twilight of the kitchen, my grandmother was praying.

I am not familiar with this kind of spiritual cleansing ceremony, but it reminds me enough of smudging (wafting fragrant herbal smoke as part of prayer) to suggest that this may be another cultural practice rooted in tribal religious tradition.  However, one might simply interpret this as the author does, as a way of ritually cleansing oneself from the effects of another’s violence, when a full bath is impossible.

Although these cultural elements are somewhat troubling because of their association with non-Christian religious practices, Grandmother’s forgiveness has a ringing beauty that is well worthy of setting before children’s eyes, and this forgiveness is presented through a lens of faith and grace.  As she sets out to deliver her gifts, the reader sees an owl (traditionally considered a harbinger of terror and death) staring out from the page as Grandmother  says to the child, “We’re here to do the Creator’s work.”  When she hands the gifts to her assailants, she says simply “I wanted to wish you a Merry Christmas.  God bless you,” and they are rendered speechless.

The story ends with the narrator’s statement that “In the small house were captives of God’s love.  But we were truly free, liberated by the same love.”  In returning good for evil Grandmother expresses the extravagant love of God toward ill-deserving people, fulfilling the command that Christians “not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”  (Romans 12:21).  The young men, embodiments of her fear, are rendered powerless by her forgiveness.

Because this story illustrates so beautifully the power of faith-filled forgiveness, I recommend it despite its inclusion of symbols which have traditionally been associated with traditional tribal religion.  It speaks directly to the fear, anger and despair of Native American people who remember in their bones the robbery and slaughter of their recent ancestors — the Cherokee Trail of Tears and the Navajo Long Walk are only two examples of just this kind of evil worked against entire nations of Native people.  This story of hope and restoration, rooted in faith in God, is very timely.