Princess Academy
Shannon Hale, 2005
Bloomsbury USA Children's Books
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781599900735
Summary
Newbery Honor Book
High on the side of rocky Mount Eskel, far from the valleys where gardens are green and lush, where lowlanders make laws, Miri’s family has lived forever, pounding a living from the stone of the mountain itself. For as long as she can remember, Miri has dreamed of working alongside the other villagers in the quarries of her beloved mountainside. But Miri has never been allowed to work there, perhaps, she thinks, because she is so small.
Then word comes from the valley that the king's priests have divined Mount Eskel to be the home of the prince’s bride-to-be—the next princess. The prince himself will travel to the village to choose her, but first all eligible girls must attend a makeshift mountain academy to prepare themselves for royal lowlander life.
At the school, Miri soon finds herself confronted by bitter competition among the girls and her own conflicting desires to be chosen by the prince. Yet when danger comes to the academy and threatens all their lives, it is Miri, named for a tiny mountain flower, who must find a way to save her classmates—and the one chance to leave the mountain each of them is determined to secure as her own.
From acclaimed author Shannon Hale comes the Newbery Honor-winning novel about would-be princesses and one small but determined girl's destiny. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—January 26, 1974
• Where—Salt Lake City, Utah, USA
• Education—B.A., University of Utah; M.F.A., University of
Montana
• Awards—Newbery Honor Award; CYBILS Award
• Currently—lives near Salt Lake City, Utah
Shannon's mother says she was a storyteller from birth, jabbering endlessly in nonsensical baby-talk. Once she could speak, she made up stories and bribed younger siblings to perform them in mini-plays until, thankfully, an elementary school teacher introduced her to the wonder of written fiction. At age 10, she began to write books, mostly fantasy stories where she was the heroine.
She continued to write secretly for years while pursuing acting in television, stage, and improv comedy. After detours studying in Mexico, the UK, and a year and a half as an unpaid missionary in Paraguay, Shannon earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Utah. She was finally forced out of the writers closet when she received her Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Montana.
The goose girl, her critically acclaimed first book, is an ALA Teens' Top Ten and Josette Frank Award winner. Enna Burning and River Secrets are companion books to Goose, continuing the "Bayern" books series. Princess Academy is a Newbery Honor Book and a New York Times best seller. Book of a Thousand Days, her newest fairy tale retelling, received a CYBILS award. Austenland, a romantic comedy, and The Actor and the Housewife are her first two adult books. She and her Dean husband are working on a series of graphic novels, the first of which, Rapunzel's Revenge was selected by Today's Al Roker for Al's Book Club for Kids.
Shannon makes her home near Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, with her super-human husband, their indomitable toddler, stunning baby girl, and their pet, a small plastic pig. (From the author's website.)
Book Reviews
Readers enchanted by Hale's Goose Girl are in for an experience that's a bit more earthbound in this latest fantasy-cum-tribute to girl-power. Cheerful and witty 14-year-old Miri loves her life on Mount Eskel, home to the quarries filled with the most precious linder stone in the land, though she longs to be big and strong enough to do quarry work like her sister and father. But Miri experiences big changes when the king announces that the prince will choose a potential wife from among the village's eligible girls-and that said girls must attend a new Princess Academy in preparation. Princess training is not all it's cracked up to be for spunky Miri in the isolated school overseen by cruel Tutor Olana. But through education—and the realization that she has the common mountain power to communicate wordlessly via magical "quarry-speech"—Miri and the girls eventually gain confidence and knowledge that helps transform their village. Unfortunately, Hale's lighthearted premise and underlying romantic plot bog down in overlong passages about commerce and class, a surprise hostage situation and the specifics of "quarry-speech." The prince's final princess selection hastily and patly wraps things up. Ages 9-up.
Publishers Weekly
Shannon Hale's career began with a fascinating retelling of The Goose Girl. One of the invented characters from that book became the heroine of Enna Burning. Now she writes a completely new tale and once again shows us that she knows the language, structure, and images of the world of fairy tales. The story begins in the mountainous region of Mount Eskel, a place where miners remove linder, a sought-after stone. Sometimes they do this without speech, for they have learned to communicate in a whole different way. All but Miri, a child who is not strong and who grieves this separation, as much as she grieves that her mother died at her birth. Everything changes when all the young women in the village must train in a hastily constructed Princess Academy so that one can be chosen to marry the prince. The governess Olana is a harsh task mistress, even cruel, as she crams her unschooled students full of information about poise, reading, and history. For once in her life, Miri is part of a community and she fights for fairness for her fellow students, even as she herself fights to learn. She also faces inner battles, trying to forget her growing love for her childhood friend, Peder, should she have to marry the prince. Coming of age in a princess academy, and understanding her past and her future path, are made stronger by the fairy tale voice Hale creates. This voice allows readers to lose themselves in her stories.
Susie Wilde - Children's Literature
Princess Academy is a delightful read with everything you need in a good fantasy book: action, adventure, romance-and a good kidnapping. Although many people who read this book will not have any connection to Miri's way of life (people usually don't tend goats high on a mountainside their whole lives), Hale's writing places you in the book, so you feel you can relate. The plot seems predictable, like any other book of its genre, but it has a twist that sets it apart and makes it all the more enjoyable. (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; Broad general YA appeal.) —Rebecca Moreland (Teen Reviewer)
VOYA
(Gr 5-9.) The thought of being a princess never occurred to the girls living on Mount Eskel. Most plan to work in the quarry like the generations before them. When it is announced that the prince will choose a bride from their village, 14-year-old Miri, who thinks she is being kept from working in the quarry because of her small stature, believes that this is her opportunity to prove her worth to her father. All eligible females are sent off to attend a special academy where they face many challenges and hardships as they are forced to adapt to the cultured life of a lowlander. First, strict Tutor Olana denies a visit home. Then, they are cut off from their village by heavy winter snowstorms. As their isolation increases, competition builds among them. The story is much like the mountains, with plenty of suspenseful moments that peak and fall, building into the next intense event. Miri discovers much about herself, including a special talent called quarry speak, a silent way to communicate. She uses this ability in many ways, most importantly to save herself and the other girls from harm. Each girl's story is brought to a satisfying conclusion, but this is not a fluffy, predictable fairy tale, even though it has wonderful moments of humor. Instead, Hale weaves an intricate, multilayered story about families, relationships, education, and the place we call home. — Linda L. Plevak, Saint Mary's Hall, San Antonio, TX
School Library Review
There are many pleasures to this satisfying tale: a precise lyricism to the language ("The world was as dark as eyes closed" or "Miri's laugh is a tune you love to whistle") and a rhythm to the story that takes its tropes from many places, but its heart from ours. Miri is very small; her father has never let her work in the linder stone quarries where her village makes its living and she fears that it's because she lacks something. However, she's rounded up, with the other handful of girls ages 12 to 17, to be taught and trained when it's foreseen that the prince's bride will come from their own Mount Eskel. Olana, their teacher, is pinched and cruel, but Miri and the others take to their studies, for it opens the world beyond the linder quarries to them. Miri seeks other learning as well, including the mindspeech that ties her to her people, and seems to work through the linder stone itself. There's a lot about girls in groups, both kind and cutting; a sweet boy; the warmth of friends, fathers and sisters; and the possibility of being chosen by a prince one barely knows. The climax involving evil brigands is a bit forced, but everything else is an unalloyed joy. (9-14).
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Miri’s father tells her that her mother named her“after the flower that conquered rock and climbed to face the sun” (page 14). Do you know why your parents chose your name? Does your name have a special meaning to you and your family?
2. Does Princess Academy remind you of any other novels you have read? If so, which ones and why? If not, what makes it unique?
3. The people of Mount Eskel use a kind of telepathy to communicate with one another in the quarry. Miri learns that the “quarry-speech” works by sharing memories through the rock of the mountain itself an can be used to communicate many things besides warnings or instructions in the quarry. Have you ever imagined a secret way to communicate with your friends and family? How might it work?
4. Miri makes a dramatic difference in the life of her village by sharing what she has learned at the academy about commerce. Have you ever had an idea that you thought might make a difference? Describe one change you would like to make in your community that could have a positive influence on people’s lives.
5. At a critical moment in the mountain girls’ training at the academy, they must all pass an oral test in order to attend the ball with the prince. At one moment, Miri notices Gerti struggling to answer a question. Convinced it would be unfair for the girls to be banned from the dance if they can’t pass the test, Miri finds a way to help Gerti get the answer through quarry-speech. Do you think Miri did the right thing or not? Why?
6. Miri treasures the carved linder hawk that Peder gave her when they were small. In a fateful twist, it helps her escape from the bandit Dan, though she loses it as it falls down the mountain. What do you think the hawk means to Miri, and to Peder? What do you think is the symbolic significance of the hawk?
7. Many of the characters in Princess Academy learn to look past the masks that people wear. Which of the characters wear a mask that hides their true feelings, and what is their motivation for doing so?
8. Shannon Hale spends a great deal of time describing the natural world that surrounds Miri, and she vividly expresses how Miri feels about the mountains, flowers, snow, and rock that make up her world. Take a moment to think about your favorite place. How does it look and smell? How do you feel when you are in this place?
9. At the end of the novel we learn that Tutor Olana was intentionally cruel and even lied to the girls in order to motivate them to learn. Do you think this was a wise choice on her part? What might have been different in the story had she been friendly and encouraging?
10. Were you surprised when you learned about Britta’s secret? How did you feel about Prince Steffan’s final choice?
(Questions from author's website.)
The Wednesday Wars
Gary D. Schmidt, 2007
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780547237602
Summary
Winner, 2008 Newbery Honor
Holling Hoodhood is really in for it.
He’s just started seventh grade with Mrs. Baker, a teacher he knows is out to get him. Why else would she make him read Shakespeare...outside of class?
The year is 1967, and everyone has bigger things than homework to worry about. There’s Vietnam for one thing, and then there’s the family business. As far as Holling’s father is concerned, nothing is more important than the family business. In fact, all of the Hoodhoods must be on their best behavior at all times.
The success of Hoodhood and Associates depends on it. But how can Holling stay out of trouble when he has Mrs. Baker to contend with? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—1957
• Education—N/A
• Awards—two Newbery Honors
• Currently—lives in Alto, Michigan
Gary D. Schmidt is an American children's writer of nonfiction books and young adult novels, including two Newbery Honor books.
He lives on a farm in Alto, Michigan, with his wife and six children. He is a Professor of English at Calvin College. The American Library Association awarded Mr. Schmidt a Newbery Honor in 2005 for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy and again in 2008 for The Wednesday Wars. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
There are many strands in this story: the Vietnam War, air raid drills, missing soldiers, a classmate who is a Vietnamese refugee, a rescue, extreme humiliation, chalk-covered cream puffs, yellow tights with feathers in all the wrong places and a bully. In fact, so much happens I wondered whether all the seeds Schmidt planted could flower by the end. To his great credit, they do. Still, while The Wednesday Wars was one of my favorite books of the year, it wasn't written for me. Sometimes books that speak to adults miss the mark for their intended audience. To see if the novel would resonate as deeply with a child, I gave it to an avid but discriminating 10-year-old reader. His laughter, followed by repeated outbursts of "Listen to this!," answered my question.
Tanya Lee Stone - New York Times
Seventh grader, Holling Hoodhood is convinced that his teacher, Mrs. Baker, hates him. After all, her folded arms and eyes that roll with unspoken sarcasm offer ample proof, right? When Holling, the lone Presbyterian, is left in the empty classroom on Wednesday afternoons as the other Jews and Catholics are bussed to religious instruction, real vengeance begins. Mrs. Baker requires Holling to read Shakespeare, not only in class, but aloud with her, and at home for discussion the following week. This bittersweet novel set during the days of the Vietnam conflict, peace marches, racial protests, and flower children rivals the immortal Bard for tragedy and comedy. Holling narrates, as readers assimilate the 60s, developing a fresh appreciation for a country at war from the voice of a memorable hero who is battling to discover himself. Schmidt, an award-winning author in his own right, combines the student-teacher relationships reminiscent of Andrew Clements' Frindle with the angst of the middle school individualist depicted in Sue Stauffacher's Donuthead, with original flare, unfolding the past at the pace of the present. This story interweaves the issues of the period with grace and power, resulting in historical fiction both entertaining and endearing.
Children's Literature
Seventh grader Holling Hoodhood lives in the Long Island suburbs in the Perfect House with his less-than-perfect, architect father, his subservient mother, and his flower-child sister. On Wednesday afternoon, half of his class leaves for Hebrew School at Temple Beth-El while the other half goes to catechism. Holling is the lone Presbyterian so he stays behind with his teacher, Ms. Baker, whom Holling knows hates him. She introduces him to the plays of William Shakespeare, an assignment that Holling assumes is punishment but which actually enhances his life. There is a lot going on in this novel not all related to the politics of the turbulent 1960s. The assassinations of Martin Luther King, Bobby Kennedy, and the unpopular Vietnam War play a part in Holling's seventh grade year but so do two rats, Sycorax and Calliban, with their clacking yellow teeth; a part as Ariel in yellow tights; a track team; bullying and racism; a camping trip; and disappointment in a first love. Ms. Baker gently guides him through everything even as she brokenheartedly deals with the news that her husband is MIA. This novel is funny, warm, sad, and touching all at the same time. Holling Hoodhood will live with the reader for a very long time after he finishes seventh grade and learns "to thine self be true."
VOYA
The year is 1967, and on Wednesday afternoons in Holling's Long Island, NY 7th-grade class, all the Catholic students go to Catechism, while all the Jewish students go to Hebrew school—leaving Holling, the only Presbyterian, alone with his teacher each week. He's convinced Mrs. Baker hates him: she has him reading Shakespeare, after all. Which leads to his role as Ariel in a community production of The Tempest and to possibly the most embarrassing newspaper photo of all time, of Holling in yellow tights with feathers on the rear, which of course is posted all over the school. Other amusing incidents involve rats gone AWOL, an encounter with Mickey Mantle, and joining the track team. But as wise Mrs. Baker notes, "Comedies are much more than funny," and this wonderful novel about the miseries and miracles of Holling's 12th year offers more than just belly laughs. The Vietnam War is a backdrop to life at Camillo Junior High: a Vietnamese orphan is in their class, while Mrs. Baker's soldier husband is missing in action. Holling's 16-year-old sister dreams of being a flower child and runs away, and Holling must come to her rescue. Acclaimed author Schmidt's warmth and understanding shine through on every page, along with his humor (one boy can "cuss the yellow off a school bus") and his gift for creating memorable characters: he may remind readers of Jerry Spinelli or Richard Peck. Not to be missed—this is a marvelous read, both achingly funny and deeply affecting.
KLIATT
It's 1967, and on Wednesdays, every Jewish kid in Holling Hoodhood's class goes to Hebrew School, and every Catholic kid goes to Catechism. Holling is Presbyterian, which means that he and Mrs. Baker are alone together every Wednesday—and she hates it just as much as he does. What unfolds is a year of Wednesday Shakespeare study, which, says Mrs. Baker, "is never boring to the true soul." Holling is dubious, but trapped. Schmidt plaits world events into the drama being played out at Camillo Junior High School, as well as plenty of comedy, as Holling and Mrs. Baker work their way from open hostility to a sweetly realized friendship. Holling navigates the multitudinous snares set for seventh-graders—parental expectations, sisters, bullies, girls—with wry wit and the knowledge that the world will always be a step or two ahead of him. Schmidt has a way of getting to the emotional heart of every scene without overstatement, allowing the reader and Holling to understand the great truths swirling around them on their own terms. It's another virtuoso turn by the author of Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy.
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for The Wednesday Wars:
1. Why is Holling convinced Ms. Baker hates him? How does their relationship change during their year of studying together?
2. Ms. Baker says that Shakespeare "is never boring to the true soul." What does she mean by that remark...what is a "true soul"?
3. What is it about Shakespeare that Holling comes to appreciate? But what about Romeo and Juliet?
4. How do the Shakespearean plays Holling reads reflect the events in his life?
5. Gary Schmidt sets his story in the Vietnam War era, along with the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. In what way do these historical events highlight the book's plot?
6. What do you think about Holling's parents? What kind of parents are they? What is uppermost in Mr. Hoodhood's life—business or family life?
7. Does the author do a good job of describing the problems faced by seventh graders—friendship, bullying, parents, siblings, teacher expectations?
8. What episodes did you find especially funny? The rats episode, the yellow tights, the cream puffs?
9. Talk about the line, "when the gods die, they die hard." What symbolic "gods" die for Holling?
10. In what way does Holling grow by the end of the book? What does he learn...how does he change?
11. Mrs. Baker advises Holling to "Learn everything you can—everything. And then use all that you have learned to be a wise and good man." Does, or will, Holling live up to that advice?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
top of page
Rules
Cynthia Lord, 2006
Scholastic, Inc.
208 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780439443838
Summary
Winner, 2007 Newbery Honor Book
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from "a peach is not a funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"—in order to head off David's embarrassing behaviors.
But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal? (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
Cynthia Lord is the mother of two children, one of whom has autism. A former teacher, behavioural specialist, and bookseller, she lives with her husband and children in Maine. Visit her at www.cynthialord.com. (From the publisher.)
Book Reviews
[Catherine] begins to realize "normal" means different things to different people. And maybe normal is not so important after all.
Washington Post
The appealing, credible narrator at the heart of Lord's debut novel will draw in readers, as she struggles to find order and balance in her life. Her parents place 12-year-old Catherine in charge of her younger autistic brother more often than she would like. Taking solace in art, the girl fills the back of her sketchbook with rules she has established for David, "so if my someday-he'll-wake-up-a-regular-brother wish doesn't ever come true, at least he'll know how the world works, and I won't have to keep explaining things." Sorely missing her best friend, who is away for the summer, and realizing that the girl who has just moved in next door is not a kindred spirit, Catherine devises some of her own self-protective rules ("When you want to get out of answering something, distract the questioner with another question"). In the able hands of the author, mother of an autistic child, Catherine's emotions come across as entirely convincing, especially her alternating devotion to and resentment of David, and her guilt at her impatience with him. Through her artwork, the heroine gradually opens up to Jason, a wheelchair-bound peer who can communicate only by pointing to words on cards. As she creates new cards that expand Jason's ability to express his feelings, their growing friendship enables Catherine to do the same. A rewarding story that may well inspire readers to think about others' points of view. (Ages 9-12.)
Publishers Weekly
(Gr 4-7) Twelve-year-old Catherine has conflicting feelings about her younger brother, David, who is autistic. While she loves him, she is also embarrassed by his behavior and feels neglected by their parents. In an effort to keep life on an even keel, Catherine creates rules for him ("It's okay to hug Mom but not the clerk at the video store"). Each chapter title is also a rule, and lots more are interspersed throughout the book. When Kristi moves in next door, Catherine hopes that the girl will become a friend, but is anxious about her reaction to David. Then Catherine meets and befriends Jason, a nonverbal paraplegic who uses a book of pictures to communicate, she begins to understand that normal is difficult, and perhaps unnecessary, to define. Rules of behavior are less important than acceptance of others. Catherine is an endearing narrator who tells her story with both humor and heartbreak. Her love for her brother is as real as are her frustrations with him. Lord has candidly captured the delicate dynamics in a family that revolves around a child's disability. Set in coastal Maine, this sensitive story is about being different, feeling different, and finding acceptance. A lovely, warm read, and a great discussion starter. —Connie Tyrrell Burns, Mahoney Middle School, South Portland, ME
School Library Journal
Growing up with an autistic younger brother is not easy and it seems far harder when the pre-teen years hit. Catherine feels as though David's needs far overshadow her own in the family but the embarrassment his behavior causes her is the worst of it. Nevertheless, Catherine understands what David's world is like and when she snaps at him, she is beset by guilt. It is this sensitivity that allows her to befriend a boy her age with severe communication problems who is wheelchair-bound. Gaining a stronger sense of herself and demanding what she needs as a member of the family allows her to move beyond embarrassment into acceptance. This is a story that depicts the impact of a needy child on an entire family very realistically. One of the treats in this book is that David echoes words rather than generating his own and he frequently speaks in lines he remembers from Arnold Lobel's Frog & Toad.
Joan Kindig, Ph.D. - Children's Literature
When 12-year-old Catherine is embarrassed by her autistic younger brother's behavior, her mother reassures her that "real friends understand." But Catherine is not convinced, and she is desperate to make a friend of the new girl next door. She doesn't like it when others laugh at David or ignore him; she writes down the rules so he will know what to do. Catherine is also uncomfortable about her growing friendship with 14-year-old Jason, a paraplegic. Jason uses a book of word cards to communicate, and Catherine enjoys making him new cards with more expressive words. Still, when he suggests that they go to a community-center dance, she refuses at first. Only when Jason sees through her excuse does she realize that her embarrassment is for herself. Catherine is an appealing and believable character, acutely self-conscious and torn between her love for her brother and her resentment of his special needs. Middle-grade readers will recognize her longing for acceptance and be intrigued by this exploration of dealing with differences. (Fiction. 9-12)
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources; they can help with discussions for any book:
• How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips)
• Generic Discussion Questions—Fiction and Nonfiction
• Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)
Also consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Rules:
1. Cynthia Lord has said that when she writes, she instinctively takes on the personae of a 10-12-year-old girl. Do you find her voice convincing?
2. Talk about the book's humor. What did you find funny? And is Lord's use of humor helpful or appropriate in dealing with a serious disability like autism?
3. Has the book given you deeper insight into someone with autism? Lord's hope in writing Rules was that readers would gain a greater understanding of someone with the disability.
4. Catherine feels ignored by her parents, who must devote extra time and attention to her brother. As Lord says: "fair can't always be equal." What does Lord mean by that? What does Catherine eventually learn about her father, in particular —and what does he come to learn about Catherine?
5. All writers, poets especially, have talked about the inadequacy of words—imagine how Jason feels having to depend on someone else's words to express his feelings. Talk about Jason's role vis-a-vis Catherine. How does their friendship change her?
6. Overall, in what way is Catherine changed by the end of the book? What does she come to learn about herself and others?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use, online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)
top of page
The Secret Garden
Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1910-11
~250-300 pp. (varies by publisher)
Summary
Mary Lennox has no one left in the world when she arrives at Misselthwaite Manor, her mysterious uncle's enormous, drafty mansion looming on the edge of the moors. A cholera epidemic has ravaged the Indian village in which she was born, killing both her parents and the "Ayah," or Indian servant, who cared for her.
Not that being alone is new to her. Her socialite mother had no time between parties for Mary, and her father was both too ill and too occupied by his work to raise his daughter. Not long after coming to live with her uncle, Mr. Craven, Mary discovers a walled garden, neglected and in ruins.
Soon she meets her servant Martha's brother Dickon, a robust country boy nourished both by his mother's love and by the natural surroundings of the countryside; and her tyrannical cousin Colin, whose mother died giving birth to him. So traumatized was Mr. Craven by the sudden death of his beloved wife that he effectively abandoned the infant Colin and buried the keys to the garden that she adored. His son has grown into a self-loathing hypochondriacal child whose tantrums strike fear into the hearts of servants.
The lush garden is now overgrown and all are forbidden to enter it. No one can even remember where the door is, until a robin leads Mary to its hidden key. It is in the "secret garden," and with the help of Dickon, that Mary and Colin find the path to physical and spiritual health. Along the way the three children discover that in their imaginations—called "magic" by Colin—is the power to transform lives. (From the Penguin edition—image, top-right.)
Author Bio
• Birth—November 24, 1849
• Where—Manchester, England, UK
• Death—October 29, 1924
• Where—Plandome, New York, USA
Frances Hodgson Burnett was an Anglo-American playwright and author. She is best known for her children's stories, in particular The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, and Little Lord Fauntleroy.
She was born in Cheetham Hill, Manchester, England. Her father died in 1854, leaving her mother to support five children. They had to endure poverty and squalor in the Victorian slums of Manchester.
In 1865, at age 16, Frances emigrated to Knoxville, Tennessee in the United States. The move, which the family made at the request of an uncle, did not alleviate their poverty, but they were now living in a better environment. She lived in a house in New Market, northeast of Knoxville (off of 11E; in front of the house there is a sign which contains details).
Following the death of her mother in 1867, the 18-year-old Frances became the head of a family of two younger siblings. She turned to writing to support them all, with a first story published in Godey's Lady's Book in 1868. Soon after she was being published regularly in Godey's, Scribner's Monthly, Peterson's Ladies' Magazine and Harper's Bazaar. Her main writing talent was combining realistic detail of working-class life with a romantic plot.
She married Dr. Swan Burnett of Washington, D.C. in 1873. Her first novel, That Lass o' Lowrie's, was published in 1877 and was a story of Lancashire life.
After moving with her husband to Washington, D.C., Burnett wrote the novels Haworth's (1879), Louisiana (1880), A Fair Barbarian (1881), and Through One Administration (1883), as well as a play, Esmeralda (1881), written with William Gillette.
In 1886 she published Little Lord Fauntleroy. Altough originally intended as a children's book, it had a great appeal to mothers. It created a fashion of long curls (based on her son Vivian's) and velvet suits with lace collars (based on Oscar Wilde's attire), which became a stereotypical image for children of the wealthy. The book sold more than half a million copies. In 1888 she won a lawsuit in England over the dramatic rights to Little Lord Fauntleroy, establishing a precedent that was incorporated into British copyright law in 1911.
In 1898 she divorced Dr. Burnett. Two years later married Stephen Townsend, her business manager. This second marriage would last less than two years, ending in 1902.
Her later works include Sara Crewe (1888), later rewritten as A Little Princess (1905); The Lady of Quality (1896), considered one of the best of her plays; and The Secret Garden (1911), the children's novel for which she is probably best known today. The Lost Prince was published in 1915, and The Head of the House of Coombe in 1922. The Making of a Marchioness was published in 1911 and was one of Nancy Mitford's favorite books, mentioned in Love in a Cold Climate.
In 1893 Hodgson published a memoir of her youth, The One I Knew Best of All. From the mid-1890s she lived mainly in England, and in particular at Great Maytham Hall (from 1897 to 1907) where she really did discover a secret garden, but in 1909 she moved back to the United States, after having become a U.S. citizen in 1905.
After her first son Lionel's death of consumption in 1890, Burnett delved into Spiritualism and apparently found this a great comfort in dealing with her grief (she had previously dabbled in Theosophy, and some of its concepts are worked into The Secret Garden, in which a boy who has been an invalid for a long time helps to heal himself through positive thinking and affirmations). During World War I, Burnett put her beliefs about what happens after death into writing with her novella The White People.
Frances Hodgson Burnett lived for the last 17 years of her life in Plandome, New York. She is buried in Roslyn Cemetery nearby, next to her son Vivian. (From Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
(Older works have few, if any, mainstream press reviews online. See Amazon and Barnes & Noble for helpful customer reviews.)
Discussion Questions
1. Mary and Colin are often described as being unpleasant and rude. Martha, in fact, says Mary is "as tyrannical as a pig" and that Colin is the "worst young newt as ever was." Why are both of these children so ill-tempered? Whom does Burnett hold responsible for their behavior—themselves or their parents? How does this fit into one of the larger themes of the novel, that of the "fallen world of adults"?
2. Why does Mary respond so well to Martha? What characteristics of Martha's personality are responsible for awakening the gentleness hidden in Mary? Compare Martha's treatment of Mary to Mary's treatment of Colin. Does it have the same effect on Colin as it does on Mary?
3. Upon Mary's first encounter with Dickon, Burnett describes the boy in this way: "His speech was so quick and easy. It sounded as if he liked her and was not the least afraid she would not like him, though he was a common moor boy, in patched clothes and with a funny face and a rough, rusty-red head. As she came closer to him she noticed that there was a clean fresh scent of heather and grass and leaves about him, almost as if he were made of them." What is significant about this passage? Are there any particular motifs that seem to be connected specifically to Dickon?
4. Compare Dickon's upbringing with Mary's and Colin's. How is it different? Is it important, or just incidental, that Dickon is a "common moor boy" rather than a member of the "privileged class"?
5. Could Mary and Colin have found the path to spiritual and physical healing without Dickon?
6. Is Colin's deceased mother's spirit present in the book? Where and when do you sense it the most? Who does she employ as her "agents" of goodwill in the book?
7. Misselthwaite Manor is a house of masculine rule, whether it be Mr. Craven's or Colin's rule. The garden, however, is a place of fertility and regrowth. This type of symbolism structures the novel. Where else is this structure manifested in the novel?
8. In its theme of the mind's potential for regeneration, The Secret Garden has often been considered a tribute to the "New Thought" movement, which included ideas of Christian Science and Theosophy. How do you feel about this? Do you think that the "magic" employed by Colin was as crucial to his healing as was communion with nature and other living things?
9. Discuss the regionalist aspects of the novel, such as the Yorkshire dialects. How do they contribute to the overarching themes of The Secret Garden?
10. In your opinion, does Mr. Craven, after subjecting his son to years of neglect, deserve redemption?
11. Which narrative features were employed by the author to make The Secret Garden speak to children? Why do you think this novel appeals to an adult audience as well? What makes it a classic?
(Questions from the Penguin edition—image, top-right)
top of page (summary)
The Illumination
Kevin Brockmeier, 2011
Knopf Doubleday
272 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780375425318
Summary
What if our pain was the most beautiful thing about us? At 8:17 on a Friday night, the Illumination commences. Every wound begins to shine, every bruise to glow and shimmer.
And in the aftermath of a fatal car accident, a private journal of love notes, written by a husband to his wife, passes into the keeping of a hospital patient and from there through the hands of five other suffering people, touching each of them uniquely. The six recipients a data analyst, a photojournalist, a schoolchild, a missionary, a writer, and a street vendor inhabit an acutely observed, familiar-yet-strange universe, as only Kevin Brockmeier could imagine it: a world in which human pain is expressed as illumination, so that one s wounds blaze with light.
As we follow the path of the journal from stranger to stranger, we come to understand how they are all connected in the human pain and experience. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—December 6, 1972
• Where—Little Rock, Arkansas, USA
• Education—B.A., Southwest Missouri State University; M.F.A,
Iowa Writers' Workshop
• Awards—3 O'Henry Awards, Nelson Algren Award, Italo
Calvino Short Fiction Award, James Michener-Paul Engle
Fellowship; National Endowment for the Arts grant
• Currently—lives in Little Rock, Arkansas
Kevin Brockmeier is the author of Things That Fall from the Sky (2002), The Truth About Celia (2003), The Brief History of the Dead (2006), and The Illumination (2011) He has also written two children's novels, City of Names and Grooves: A Kind of Mystery. His stories have appeared in many publications, including The New Yorker, McSweeney's, Georgia Review, The Best American Short Stories, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, and multiple editions of the O. Henry Prize Stories anthology.
He is the recipient of a Nelson Algren Award, an Italo Calvino Short Fiction Award, a James Michener–Paul Engle Fellowship, three O. Henry Awards—one of which was a first prize—and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship. He has taught at the Iowa Writers' Workshop and lives in Little Rock, Arkansas. (From the publisher and Wikipedia.)
Book Reviews
[E]legantly written...Brockmeier devotes his considerable gifts of description to the illuminated wounds of his characters, using lush, quiet prose to detail their cancer, abuse, self-mutilation and just plain old age.... Brockmeier relies on his usual poise to make the Illumination real. The reader never doubts that, on a certain day at a certain time, light begins to pour from our wounds. The strange transformation is wonderfully human, down to the social awkwardness it engenders.
Scott Hutchins - New York Times Book Review
Brockmeier is a dazzling stylist with a flair for creating alternate versions of familiar existence...[an] elegiac tone pervades the book, and indeed, it is the mood of much of Brockmeier's work. He is a poet of grief and longing whose precision is reminiscent of Steven Millhauser's fiction. Brockmeier resists the easy resolution of allegory, and that makes the premise of this novel successful. The Illumination is a sad and beautiful novel, well worth the heartache evoked in its pages.
Keith Donohue - Washington Post
In Brockmeier's spectacular latest, pain manifests itself as visible light after a mysterious event called "the Illumination," revealing humanity to be mortally wounded, and yet Brockmeier finds in these overlapping, storylike narratives, beauty amid the suffering. Jason Williford, a photojournalist, loses his wife in a traffic accident and fixates on a troubled teenage girl who teaches him to cultivate pain "in a dreamlike vesper." Chuck Carter, a battered and bullied neighbor boy, steals a journal of love notes from Jason's house, and later gives the journal to door-knocking evangelist Ryan Shifrin, who found his faith after watching his younger sister die from cancer. Telescoping into his decades of service to the church, Ryan wonders at the civil strife and disasters that "produce a holocaust of light." Through accounts of quotidian suffering depict humanity's quiet desperation—the agony of a severed thumb, the torture of chronic mouth ulcers—Brockmeier's careful reading of his characters' hearts and minds gives readers an inspiring take on suffering and the often fleeting nature of connection.
Publishers Weekly
In a familiar but parallel universe, the wounds, diseases, sores, and tumors of the inhabitants begin emitting light, evidently in varying colors and shades. It seems they still hurt but are now visible to others. This work covers the stories of several individuals, from a woman who stabs herself accidently to a photographer who has a car accident; a writer suffering from sores in her mouth to a young boy who is a victim of brutal abuse. Linking the tales is a book, originally compiled by the photographer, of love notes to his now deceased wife, which is passed from one character to the next and conveys a message to each according to their painful circumstances. The novel ends with a homeless man getting thoroughly beaten up by local hoods. Verdict: A capable writer, Brockmeier (The Brief History of the Dead) succeeds in describing the depressing circumstances of the characters, along with passing observations of a fragmentary and disorienting nature. Some readers may find this uplifting and inspiring, but others will feel pained by the suffering the novel seeks to illuminate. —Jim Coan, SUNY Coll. at Oneonta
Library Journal
A soft-hearted spiritual parable that aims for beguiling but succumbs to cloying. The author's first novel since The Brief History of the Dead (2006) is another vaguely futuristic fable with meditations on mortality, which explore the beauty and redemption in suffering.... More illumination than revelation.
Kirkus Reviews
Discussion Questions
1. Does your understanding of the Illumination change throughout the novel? Why or why not? What do you think it is, and what causes it?
2. Discuss the structure of The Illumination. What is the effect of dividing the book into sections? With which characters did you most identify? Why?
3. How do the epigraphs that begin each section of The Illumination evolve throughout the book? Does the change in tone of the epigraphs reflect how the characters reactions to the Illumination change? And, your own? Why or why not?
4. The Carol Ann Page section begins with an epigraph that says, in part, The light is worth the pain. How does this relate to Carol Ann Page, and to the rest of the characters in The Illumination? Do you think that the Illumination makes the pain that each person experiences more endurable? Please explain.
5. According to the narrator, The world had changed in the wake of the Illumination. No one could disguise his pain anymore [p. 33]. How does this influence Carol Ann Page s interactions with others, particularly Dr. Alstadt? What other characters interactions are affected by the presence of the Illumination?
6. How does the journal help shape your understanding of Patricia and Jason Williford as a couple? Compare and contrast their relationship with the relationship that Carol Ann Page has with her ex-husband. Why do you think that Carol Ann decides to take the journal home from the hospital with her?
7. Jason comes to regret the last note that he left for Patricia before her death, which said, I love the spaghetti patterns you leave on the wall [p. 50]. Why is he regretful? How does the meaning of this note change following her death?
8. In the aftermath of Jason s accident, his agony was nearly indistinguishable from bliss, and while he originally does not court pain, he did not shrink away from it, either [p. 48]. How and why does he begin to court pain? Does it help him deal with his grief over Patricia s death? How or how not?
9. Who are the cutters? How does Jason meet them? Why do you think that Jason feels a certain kinship with them? What does he gain from his relationship with them, particularly Melissa? Why does he let her live with him? What do you think about his decision to do so?
10. Chuck believes that his duty is to be the Superman of lifeless objects They were simple, childlike, and they could not protect themselves [p. 93]. What in particular about the journal makes Chuck think that it needs rescuing? Why does he ultimately give the journal away?
11. Why does Chuck call his father his Pretend Dad ? Discuss their relationship. How does Chuck s relationship with his father affect other aspects of his life?
12. The narrator says that Judy Shifrin was a Christian by constitution, whereas Ryan was merely a Christian by inertia [p. 133]. What does this statement mean? Does this affect Ryan s missionary work? Or, do you think, as Ryan does that evangelism was a job like so many others, where it did not matter what you believed, only what you did [p. 144]? Please elaborate.
13. After Judy dies, the narrator says And so the first part was over, and [Ryan] could begin teaching himself not to remember [p. 133]. How does Ryan deal with his grief over Judy s death? Compare and contrast Ryan s reaction to grief to that of Jason Williford. Does the Illumination help both men to cope with their losses? How?
14. Although Ryan encounters much suffering and sickness through his missionary work, he remains healthy throughout. How does this affect his faith? When Ryan fears God s love is merely decorative [p. 164], what does he mean? How does the Illumination help illustrate this fear?
15. Nina Poggione finds her pain shameful appalling. She hated to exhibit it, hated the attention it brought her [p. 183]. Yet, when John Catau asks to see her ulcer, she obliges him. Why do you think she chooses to do so? What affect does the action have on their relationship? Do you, as the reader, learn anything more about her because of this action? What?
16. Describe Nina s story A Fable for the Living. What is the effect of interspersing the story throughout the section about Nina? How does the emotional pain depicted in A Fable for the Living contrast with Nina s physical pain?
17. At a reading, Nina tells an audience member that with her first book she had seen the world as a narrative, seen human lives as narratives. Now, instead, she saw them as stories. She wasn t sure what had happened [p. 205]. What does she mean by this statement? Based on the structure of The Illumination, how do you think that Kevin Brockmeier sees the world? How do you? Why?
18. One of Nina s readers tells her you write these stories about characters who have great sectors of what one would ordinarily regard as the common human experience entirely unavailable to them they don t seem to realize it, but they do [p. 212]. Do you think the same could be said of Kevin Brockmeier s characters? Who in particular and why?
19. Who is Lee Hartz? Why do you think that the author waits until midway through Morse s section to reveal his name? Why does Lee continue to visit Morse? How does his relationship with Morse evolve? Does your impression of him change as a result? In what ways? 20. In a description of Morse, the narrator says, It was people they were the problem [p 225]. In what way are people problematic for Morse? Is his relationship with Lee Hartz different? If so, how?
21. Why is Morse unable to part with the journal? What does he learn about himself in the process?
(Questions issued by publisher.)
top of page (summary)