Pigeon Post

The Native Americans of North and South America are the survivors of an astonishing set of journeys. Some fifteen thousand years ago the first humans unknowingly edged their way from northeastern Asia into northwestern North America opening up the pathway to two continents untouched by humans. It was indeed a New World, the Americas being the last continents to be settled by people. From those first few groups trudging across the Beringia landscape, temporarily exposed through lowered ocean surface levels, came the remarkable settlement of both continents in the space of just a couple of thousand years. From the tip of Alaska to Tierra del Fuego in 80 generations, with all the other distractions of huge continents, wide open and empty spaces along the way, that is quite a pace. Depending on the routes taken that translates to each generation's moving two or three hundred miles further out. It is almost inconceivable but that is what the evidence currently tells us happened.

There is still much we don't know about the exact routes taken, some of the sequencing of settlement, the dispersion of various language groups, the number of distinct migrations from Asia before the routes were flooded again, why and how there are so many distinct language groups in the Americas, etc. What we are left with is a puzzle box where we don't know if we have all the pieces, we can't quite make sense of the picture, and we may even have some odd pieces of other puzzles jumbled in there.

And after that mystifying spread and settlement of some thousands of years ago, we then have the equally dramatic, tragic and fascinating collision between the two branches of humanity that had taken different directions at a fork in the road from the first excursions out of Africa. One group headed eastwards, through Asia and then eventually up and over Beringia. The other group headed northeastwards into Central Asia and then veered westwards back towards the still frigid and ice covered Europe. Having settled on the barely habitable fringes of that continent 35,000 years ago, they then filled it up as the glaciers and ice sheets retreated and ultimately continued their westward migration over the oceans; two branches of humanity re-merging with each other after fifty thousand years of travels apart.

While we think of the collision of European exploration and settlement of the Americas with the already established populations there as being almost uniquely tragic, I am not so sure that is the case. By one of those odd chances of a disordered and haphazard reading regimen, I happen to be reading David Herlihy's The Black Death, shortly after having completed several archaeological articles on the original settlement of the Americas as well as Nicholas Wade's Before the Dawn. From these, it seems, the massive loss of life as two populations with markedly different histories of disease exposure was an unavoidable tragedy, with the earlier European experience of massive death from new pathogens (the bubonic plague) being recapitulated less than two centuries later in the Americas.

The parallels between Europe and the Americas are interesting. From the first emergence of the plague in Europe in 1348 from Asia, there was a loss of life in Europe on an unimaginable scale. In the space of less than a hundred years, the population of Europe fell 50-70%. Some regions, towns and villages were effectively completely depopulated and temporarily abandoned. Death came not just from disease but secondarily from the consequences of the social disruption attendant to the massive loss of life. The Black Death, as it was referred to, was not a singular event, but a rolling thunder cloud of death periodically resurrecting itself every generation or so, just as people began to recover from the previous disaster. The first exposure was, however, the worst and most consequential.

So just one hundred and fifty years after their own exposure to foreign pathogens had wreaked its havoc on their own populations, Europeans unknowingly and unwittingly brought the same cycle of death from disease to the Americas starting with Columbus's discoveries and initial settlements in the 1490's.

And what do we have from this long-running history of travels and collisions? Well we have the stories and some of the peoples still to tell them. All around us we also have the clues and evidence of what went before us here in this land. Even in our big cities, the evidence is before our eyes and ears in both sites and names. Here in Atlanta the most obvious visible history is related to the sign-posted Civil War battles and troop movements, but as you wade along any of the streams and creeks that wend their way through the hills and watersheds of the city, you can occasionally pick up shards of Creek or Cherokee Indian pottery from a thousand years ago.

There is a wonderful book that came out a number of years ago, (The Garden by Dyan Sheldon and illustrated by Gary Blythe), that tells the tale of a young child discovering an arrow head in her back garden, the arrow head then serving as the launch platform for her to imagine her way back to what the space she occupies might have looked like in the past and the other people that lived there. It reflects the opportunity to try and expose children to the exercise of their imaginations by getting them to recognize the traces of the past around them and then get them to project themselves back to other times, places, peoples and circumstances.

Whenever you start such a journey of imagination and start discovering one culture from the basis of another, there are things that are misunderstood, there are things that are misinterpreted, and there are things that seem incomprehensible. As an example, I have always been fascinated by archaeology and the discovery and interpretation of ancient cultures. For some reason though, as fascinated as I am by the history of the Aztec and especially the Mayan cultures, whenever I am in a museum trawling the displays, I am also perpetually taken aback by the violence and brutality that is so beautifully rendered in much of their artwork. That discordance, fascination and revulsion, is I think, a hallmark of beginning to understand something that is different: if it is immediately comprehensible, it probably isn't all that different.

The list of books below focuses on the traditional stories that survive from the first inhabitants of these New World continents. There are, of course, many hot potatoes in selecting stories such as these. Stories always have a way of becoming hostage to political or cultural agendas. Can a native story be properly told by someone not of that ethnic group? Are stories the "property" of one people over another? Who is the arbiter as to which stories are authentic? These are chosen, not on some putative measure of authenticity or the ethnicity of the author or some of the other criteria that have become popular. Rather they are chosen on the basis of whether the story is written (and illustrated) in a fashion likely to engage a child and to encourage him to start that journey of walking in another's moccasins.

Do you have favorites you would like to have added to the list? Please use the comments section to suggest them. I am especially interested in any suggestions members might have for stories south of the border. We have many wonderful renditions of Native American stories from the US and Canada but where are the stories from the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas and others?

Picture Books

Between Earth & Sky by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Thomas Locker

How Chipmunk Got His Stripes by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Jose Aruego

The First Strawberries by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Anna Vojtech

Brave Wolf and the Thunderbird by Medicine Crow and illustrated by Linda R. Martin & Joseph Medicine Crow

They Dance in the Sky by Jean Guard and illustrated by Edgar Stewart

Buffalo Woman by Paul Goble

Dream Wolf by Paul Goble

Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble

Song of Creation by Paul Goble

The Legend of the White Buffalo Woman by Paul Goble

The Tale of Rabbit and Coyote by Tony Johnson and illustrated by Tomie dePaola

Fire Race by Jonathan London & Lanny Pinola and illustrated by Sylvia Long

Arrow to the Son by Gerald McDermott

Coyote by Gerald McDermott

Jabuti the Tortoise by Gerald McDermott

Papagayo by Gerald McDermott

Raven: A Trickster Tale from the Pacific Northwest by Gerald McDermott

Legend of Michigan by Trinka Hakes Noble and illustrated by Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen

The Story of Jumping Mouse by John Steptoe

The Gift Of The Inuksuk by Michael Ulmer and illustrated by Melanie Rose

The Legend of Leelanau by Kathy-Jo Wargin and illustrated by Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen

The Legend of Mackinac Island by Kathy-Jo Wargin and illustrated by Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen

The Legend of the Lady's Slipper by Kathy-Jo Wargin and illustrated by Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen

The Legend of Sleeping Bear by Kathy-Jo Wargin and illustrated by Gijsbert Van Frankenhuyzen

How Raven Stole the Sun by Maria Williams and illustrated by Felix Vigil

Independent Reader

Native American Animal Stories by Joseph Bruchac & Michael J. Caduto and illustrated by John Kahionhes Fadden

Our Stories Remember by Joseph Bruchac

Return of the Sun by Joseph Bruchac and illustrated by Gary Carpenter

Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest by Ella E. Clark and illustrated by Robert B. Inverarity

What makes for a good old rip-roaring adventure story for boys and how does that differ from just plain old unputdownable stories or adventure stories preferred by girls?

I don't really know and I approach the issue with some trepidation. This is Larry Summers territory. But the hallmark of an honest mind is to deal with the evidence you have rather than the evidence you wish you had. Virtually all parents, teachers and librarians with whom I speak acknowledge that there are different patterns of reading behavior between the genders. It is taken for granted that there is certainly a large overlap between the two, but at the margins there are differences. In order to make the essay flow a little more smoothly, let me seek your indulgence before I go much further, and ask that from this point forwards, whenever you read an unequivocal gender-related statement, you simply insert the missing modifiers, "on average", "with some exceptions", "not necessarily true for all", etc. so that it is salt and peppered to your taste.

I suggest that there are probably several elements that constitute an engaging adventure story for boys. I omit the elements that are common to all good writing. The following is my exercise in recovered memory from my ten to fifteen year old self.

• Action - preferably unrelentingly sequential action. Chaotic action is also acceptable.
• Moral clarity - There have to be good guys and bad guys. It is fine for a good guy to mistakenly appear bad or even be not particularly engaging but at the end of the day, he (usually he but certainly can be she), has to be morally good. Flaws in character, especially where they lead to humor/farce, are fine as well, but don't waste my boy time humanizing the bad guy. Nuance might as well be a four letter word.
• Reportorial - Just the facts please. Tell me what happened in what order. When using dialogue, only report the necessary minimum. When discussing what caused something, stick to the provable and stay away from speculation. Might have, could have, wished, felt, perceived, motivation - all are danger signs of plot material that is going to slow down the action.
• Dialogue - Concrete, statement of the obvious and not more than fifty percent of the story please.
• Audience - The protagonist with whom the boy is identifying has to have some audience to either respect his actions (other boys or a group) and/or admire him (usually a reasonably uni-dimensional female).
• Exoticism - If you are thinking about setting the story in some quotidian environment, think again. The setting doesn't have to be fantastic, but it does need to be out of the ordinary. Even if the story is in the here-and-now and the familiar, there has to be something exceptional that propels it away from ordinary.
• Humor - A nice occasional counterpoint. Use all its varieties - Basic, Slapstick, Puns, and Farce. More exotic forms such as wit can be indulged in moderation.
• Suffering - Nice to have, particularly when it is brought upon the protagonist through no fault of their own and allows them to be noble. Don't forget to make it worthwhile in the end, though. Suffering to no avail is a mug's game.
• Emotions - Less is more. Emotions are not the meat of the story, the action is. Emotional content can spice up the story a bit, but needs to be kept in moderation. I care about what happened, what the characters did; not so much about what they felt.
• Violence - Well, yes, but with some boundaries. Blowing things up - just fine. Injuring or killing people - acceptable within the context of the plot if that is what is required. Graphic is generally good except where it is clearly gratuitous. Cruelty is generally frowned upon except where it is the precursor for the perpetrator of that cruelty to then be hoisted on his own petard.
• And finally, Consequences - Clean outcomes not suppurating outcomes. Moral clarity, not ambiguity. Bad things, even really bad things, can happen to the protagonist: they can be injured, die, etc., but don't leave them hanging. Just say "No!" to ambiguity. Fine to have Flash Gordon endings where it appears to end one way, but you leave a backdoor for them to pop up again in a sequel. We like to be tricked now and again. But the hero needs to be a hero, the villain a villain and each needs to reap their just desserts.

The aspersions I hear cast upon quintessential boys' adventures stories are that they are too violent, too shallow, and too prone to stereotyping. I think that they are probably gloriously guilty of each of these charges, but not in the way expected.

Let's tackle the issues one by one.

Assertion: Boys adventures are needlessly and pointlessly violent. I am inclined to accept that charge with a couple of modifications. Fast moving vehicles, explosions, and even physical conflict are, I think, certainly are mainstays of most boys' adventure books that you might pick out at random, but within certain prescribed bounds of acceptability. I would argue that the issue is not violence per se, but explicitness and cruelty. Here, the argument gets more refined.

There is an old English adage which encapsulates one of the core differences in male and female reading (or maybe parent/child reading).

Meek Michael thought it wrong to fight.
Bully Bill, who killed him, thought it right.

When push comes to shove (and how revealing is that phrase?) I think boys are substantially willing to accept and act on the inherent conflict framed in that adage. They may try and talk their way out of a situation, but they accept that there are instances where you are confronted by an implacable opponent not willing to engage in discussion. In those instances you have to act and that predisposition to act (and act violently if that is what is called for) shows up in the stories they like to read. Meanwhile, as parents, we are constantly trying to modify and constrain violent behavior rather than encourage it.

Therefore, we are faced with a choice, a potentially unpleasant one, but a choice none-the-less. If our boys aren't interested in the stories we want them to like but are interested in stories we don't like, then are we willing to let them read that of which we disapprove in order for them to enjoy reading or do we accept their not reading at all because they choose not to read that which we wish them to read?

I come down in the camp of letting them read what they will as long as they read and as long as you know what they are reading in order to shape their understanding of issues. Bemoaning that boys aren't reading is just a symptom of bemoaning a reality we don't want to confront. It is not that boys don't read, the issue is that they don't always read what we want them to read.

If we accept that stories that appeal to boys often (but not always) have a higher violence index, there are still a couple of other issues buried in that violence. One is its explicitness. It is a fine line between explicit and gratuitous and I think adults draw that line at a different point than do children. I am not sure that the explicitness is necessarily a gender issue, though it might be. My youngest boy hews pretty closely to a classic active boy: he likes guns, things that explode, toy soldiers, sports, hiking around the great outdoors, physical rough-and-tumble, etc. His reading, to his mother's distress, tends to mirror these proclivities. One example from among many in the past year stands out. In one story, The Book of the Lion, (set in the middle-ages) within the first twenty pages, the blacksmith to whom the protagonist is apprenticed, has been seized for counterfeiting gold coins, and in punishment, had his left hand lopped off. But this is not an event alluded to off-stage. It is front and center and graphic and alluded to repeatedly. My son was totally gripped.

To Sally's distress, he has also wanted to discuss that scene with her, and not just once but several times. She finds the scene stomach-churning. But his questions are not prurient, they are almost of an engineering quality. Do you use a sword or an axe to cut off the hand? Why the left hand and not the right? Why don't you bleed to death? How does cauterizing the stump work? Why does the hand wiggle after being chopped off? OK - I'll stop; but you get the picture. As distressing as she found these discussions, at the same time there were a couple of very positive outcomes. He now has some additional factual knowledge about how the body accommodates trauma, knowledge which might be useful some day. And more than that, his questions led to a discussion of why we don't go around lopping off hands today (and which cultures still do and why), why that was done in the middle-ages, how life was back then, etc. This is more than a silver lining in a cloud. These were good conversations. So, is violence that is explicit bad? Not necessarily.

As an aside, it is fun to see how families generate their own internal language. The Book of the Lion, has become in our family, the verbal short-hand (couldn't resist) for how one story can affect two readers so differently.

The second issue is cruelty. Here, I think there is an interesting twist in boys' adventures that sometimes in our rush to condemn, we overlook. In most of the classical boys' adventure stories that have some element of violence to them, it is usually not gratuitous (i.e. it is there for a reason in the context of moving the story along), and it follows some predictable pattern. The protagonist does not usually resort to violence lightly. When violence is engaged in, it usually of an almost Old Testament context - Alright boys, time to go out and smite the wicked. When there is cruelty mixed in with the violence, it is almost always explicitly condemned and is often the justification for whatever come-uppance is visited upon the perpetrator.

I would argue that yes, boys' adventures stories probably have a higher violence index than most genres, that this violence fits into a child's world view (or a boy's world view) better than it does to a parent's, and that within the classical boys' adventures stories it is usually presented in fairly constructive ways (condemning cruelty, making it clear that violent action is a last not a first resort, etc.).

Now what about the other two charges - Too Shallow and Stereotyping.

Assertion: Classic boys' adventure stories are too shallow and lack nuance, emotional context and depth. Well yes, and not a bad thing either. The flip side of these coins is that boys adventure stories might alternatively be characterized as having moral clarity, straightforward narrative structure (how do I communicate the most with the least), and encourage analytic thinking (if X then Y).

Assertion: Classic boys' adventure stories indulge in stereotyping to an unacceptable degree. What is stereotyping but a short-hand for communicating something? I would argue that there is unintentional stereotyping in boys' adventures stories but that that is simply a by-product of a spare story-telling style and structure. And when you return to some of the more often condemned stories, you often find that it takes an almost willful misreading to sustain the charge of negative stereotyping. A classic example might be Rudyard Kipling, arch-imperialist, purveyor of stereotypes extraordinaire. But look at what he is actually saying in his poem Fuzzy-Wuzzy (Soudan Expeditionary Force). Yes his terminology is irredeemably imperial, yes his vernacular has an implicit derogatory sound to it but what is he actually saying? I respect you as the greatest warriors we ever fought and we only won because we had advantages you didn't.

So, below are a series of boys adventures stories which tend to appeal much more to boys than to girls and which usually have many of the above mentioned traits. I omit, and it is a terrifically long list, those adventure stories which appeal to both sexes (The Chronicles of Narnia, Hatchet, etc.)

P.S. - Sally was just asking me, apropos something she is doing with her Cubs Scouts, whether I ever did secret codes as a boy. Oh my goodness yes. Which reminds me of one other attribute that should probably be added to a solid boys' adventure story - It should include some new skill: codes, signaling, how to light a fire with sticks, how to make a bow, etc. In the movie Napoleon Dynamite there is a great exchange between Napoleon Dynamite and his buddy Pedro, that captures a boy's fascination with skills.

Napoleon Dynamite: Well, nobody's going to go out with me! Pedro: Have you asked anybody yet? Napoleon Dynamite: No, but who would? I don't even have any good skills. Pedro: What do you mean? Napoleon Dynamite: You know, like nunchuku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills... Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills.

Independent Reader

Crispin: the Cross of Lead by Avi

High Citadel by Desmond Bagley

The Vivero Letter by Desmond Bagley

Adrift by Steve Callahan

King Solomon's Mines by H. Rider Haggard

Seven Years in Tibet by Heinrich Harrer

The Dark Frigate by Charles Boardman Hawes

Captains Courageous by Rudyard Kipling

Endurance by Alfred Lansing

The Call of the Wild by Jack London

Young Adult

The Great Escape by Paul Brickhill

Sharpe's Tiger by Bernard Cornwell

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine de Saint Exupery

The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Lord of the Flies by William Golding

Kon-Tiki by Thor Heyerdahl

As I sat down to write this essay, I realized to my surprise, that what I intended to write about was reasonably moot and that this topic, Strong Girls, is really more pertinent to a different subject altogether.

Let me explain. We set these essays many months in advance, taking into account topical issues, themes from the calendar, and other factors. So this particular essay was a counterpoint to last week's Adventure Stories for Boys. When we set it out some months ago, I was sort of thinking in terms of the women's movement, equal rights, etc.

Strong Girls - it almost seems a quaint concept these days. I was raised partly in Sweden, a very progressive country where women as fully equal members of society has been a long established norm. Returning to the US in the late seventies, I found something of a post-1960's stage of the women's movement - a strong and active NOW, a focus on the ERA, Title XI, etc. Starting my professional career in the early eighties the initial institutional barriers had effectively been broken down and we seemed to all be trying to figure out the operational impacts of how to make a promise a reality. We seemed to have come so far.

But the mighty river of equal rights rather lost itself in a delta of branches and divergent streams where the issue is not equal rights but much more nebulous issues of perceived fairness and independence and individuality and personal choices. We seem to have arrived at a point where there are so many choices open to girls and women that the issue is not really any longer so much about barriers as it is about making those choices and taking responsibility for them. Stay-at-home mom, soccer-mom, bread-winner, single parent, single professional, super-mom with full-time career and family; when I look around my peers, I see examples of all those models. And everybody occasionally looking over the fence and wondering if they made the right choice.

As I contemplate the world ahead for my daughter, I find that my concern about institutional barriers, corporate discrimination, societal prejudice, damaging stereotypes, etc. is surprisingly low. We have come a long ways.

So what am I most concerned about for her? Well, to be frank - other girls. What is it with all this mean-girl business? YIKES! I stand prepared to be told that this is nothing new, that mean-girl behavior has been an issue all along. That's quite possible. I cannot claim that my sensitivity to the social dynamics among girls was particularly acute at 12-18. I know there are some that might argue nothing has changed either.

But it seems to be everywhere I look now. Well, that is a bit of an over-dramatization. It is fortunately not everywhere and my daughter fortunately has a wonderful group of friends. But I do hear of some pretty dreadful, malicious behavior among particular girls. I guess it is the premeditated, deeply hurtful intent of the behavior that I find so startling. That and that there seems to a whole genre of girls books that in a way celebrate this behavior. There are, for example, series such as The Clique and The Baby-Sitters Club which basically mull through various scenarios of mean-girl behavior without advancing any sort of condemnation of it.

Humph! There are books for every occasion and some people for every book. Sally explains the popularity of these books among some girls as a function of the story reflecting the reality they live. Perhaps. Still, I feel there is more than enough dysfunction, maliciousness and emotional brutishness in the world without adding to it by passively condoning unacceptable behavior. Especially when there are so many wonderfully positive stories and role models to share with our daughters and sons.

Wherever we are in the experiment of "all men are created equal", we often forget just how egalitarian American history has been. Whether it is the influence of the Scandinavian and German traditions, the independence and autonomy inculcated by frontier living, or some other source, we have in our history, and correspondingly in our children's books a tremendously pervasive tradition of strong girls and women. These role models were evident long before our radical sixties.

Take, as an example, Little Lulu, recently republished by Dark Horse Comics. This comic strip first appeared in 1935, authored by Marjorie Henderson Buell, and ran through 1969, ultimately being syndicated across the US and the globe. Now if there is ever a strong girl, it is Lulu. The setting for the strip is the adventures of Lulu and her friends in their traditional neighborhood. Everyone is in-and-out each other's homes, the boys have a gang (of the old neighborhood variety, not the armed thug version), parents are present but peripheral to the kids day-to-day lives. Lulu is constantly butting heads with one or more of the fellows in the neighborhood and almost always, through cleverness and sometimes brawn, overcomes whatever the issue is.

Think of Lucy Van Pelt and Peppermint Patty in the Peanuts comic strip (running from 1950 to 2000). Charlie Brown would never have thought of them as anything but strong girls. Especially Lucy.

And in the literature itself, at least as early as Lousia May Alcott and the Little Women series, we have always had characterful strong girls. Just think of the roster: Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Jo March in Little Women, Heidi, Pippi Longstocking, Pollyanna, Sara Crewe in A Little Princess, and Mary Lennox in The Secret Garden, Dorothy Gale in The Wizard of Oz, Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables, Laura Ingalls Wilder in the Little House on the Prairie series, Julie in Julie of the Wolves, Sarah in Sarah, Plain and Tall, Meg Murry in A Wrinkle in Time, Scout Finch from To Kill a Mockingbird, The neat thing is that you would love to spend a meal, or a day, or a summer with any one of these characters and you know that you would have a wonderful time. These are characters you would want by your side when dealing with adversity.

And then there are the series such as American Girl, >Trixie Belden, >Nancy Drew, >Cam Jansen, Malory Towers and St. Clare's, Betsy-Tacy.

And we are replete with great biographies of great women; Amelia Earheart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Helen Keller's Teacher and Joan of Arc just to start with.

So there is a lot to choose from to give our daughters wonderful stories which they will treasure and remember about strong girls and women who make a difference for the better. Why waste time dwelling on the negative when there are these great books to read instead?

Below is a sampler of titles where the female protagonist displays self-reliance, confidence, strength and good humor to overcome circumstances or to achieve something which they value. Critically, these books are 1) great stories that just happen to have a female protagonist and 2) don't preach. While they might have some particular resonance with girls and serve as role-models as they address day-to-day issues, I think you will find that virtually all of these books are thoroughly enjoyed by boys as well, though they might not readily admit it.

There are way too many potential titles for here, be sure to check in booklist in a couple of days where a more extensive list will be included.

Are there others which you might recommend? Please use the comments section to nominate additional titles.

Picture Books

Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman and illustrated by Caroline Binch Suggested

Brave Margaret by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Sally Wern Comport Suggested

Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes by Du Bose Heyward and illustrated by Marjorie Flack Highly Recommended

Heroines: Great Women Through the Ages by Rebecca Hazell and illustrated by Rebecca Hazell Suggested

Joan of Arc by Josephine Poole and illustrated by Angela Barrett Suggested

Kate Shelley Bound for Legend by Robert D. San Souci and illustrated by Max Ginsburg Recommended

The Little Ships; The Heroic Rescue at Dunkirk in World War II by Lousie Borden and illustrated by Michael Foreman Highly Recommended

Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney Recommended

Queen Esther Saves Her People by Rita Gelman (Out of Print)

Sacagawea by Flora Warren Seymour Suggested

Susanna of the Alamo by John Julius Jakes and illustrated by Paul Bacon Recommended

The Ballad of the Pirate Queens by Jane Yolen and illustrated by David Shannon Highly Recommended

The Bus Ride by William Miller and illustrated by John Ward Recommended

The Gardener by Sarah Stewart and illustrated by David Small Recommended

The Library by Sarah Stewart and illustrated by David Small Highly Recommended

Independent Reader

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle Highly Recommended

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll and illustrated by John Tenniel Highly Recommended

American Girl series by various authors Recommended

Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery and illustrated by Jody Lee Recommended

Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild and illustrated by Diane Goode Recommended

Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich Recommended

Boston Jane by Jennifer L. Holm Suggested

Caddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie Brink and illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman Recommended

Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman Suggested

Daddy Long-Legs by Jean Webster Suggested

Helen Keller by Katharine E. Wilkie and illustrated by Robert Doremus Suggested

Ida Early Comes Over the Mountain by Robert Burch Recommended

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell Recommended

Joan of Arc by Angela Bull Suggested

Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder and illustrated by Garth Williams Highly Recommended

Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and illustrated by Louis Jambour Highly Recommended

Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers and illustrated by Mary Shepard Highly Recommended

Not One Damsel in Distress by Jane Yolen and illustrated by Susan Guevara Highly Recommended

Pippi Longstocking by Astrid Lindgren and illustrated by Michael Chesworth Highly Recommended

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett and illustrated by Tasha Tudor Highly Recommended

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Highly Recommended

Young Adult

A Bone from a Dry Sea by Peter Dickinson Suggested

Founding Mothers by Cokie Roberts Recommended

Mama's Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes Highly Recommended

The Warrior Queens by Antonia Fraser Suggested

To the Heart of the Nile by Pat Shipman Highly Recommended

I love each of the seasons, each for their own reason, but there is a special place in my heart for winter. Having lived in Sweden for a number of years in my childhood, I measure winter by those norms, i.e. very cold and with lots of snow.

In children's stories, winter is often the metaphor for dying and death, for evil: the ice princess, the snow queen. I have a different take on it. Winter inescapably calls up the images of the dying of the year, of darkness, etc. But when you think about it, it is also the triumph of the human will. Winter is not an act of God, an accident that happens to you out of the blue. It is an event for which you prepare and your survival of that winter is a testament to your will, a test of your capacity to overcome a difficult environment.

It is a little like field sports. I never used to like the nauseating anticipation of a race, the knowledge of the aching muscles and desperate breath that would come. But all of that was more than made up for by the feeling of pinched exhilaration at the end of the race, whether having won or not, of knowing and feeling you have pushed your body to new limits. Winter is something like that.

Of course you can have too much of a good test. Years ago, I had been living in Atlanta for three or four years. While we occasionally get a snow or two, it is not anything like a real winter. Not like a Swedish winter. So I was missing the test of a real winter - real cold, real snow. I moaned to Sally a couple of times about my missing winter but she, having grown up in the tropics of South Carolina, doesn't have the time of day for anything below 80 degrees and views winter with abomination. Whenever she hears me speak of winter or look longingly at photos of a beautiful snowscape, she just rolls her eyes.

In early December, I got a call from our Winnipeg office: Could you come up and spend a week with us? We have to write a proposal for a client and we need your experience with this particular industry.

Winnipeg - now that is good ways north. They surely have good cold, snowy winters up there. Of course my answer was "Yes! I'll come up and help out." So I bustled around the house digging up all my old winter outfits, scarves, gloves, heavy coat - all the things that had been in the way and never been used in Atlanta.

And off I flew Sunday afternoon to Winnipeg. Flying over the Canadian prairie I could see that there were no deep drifts of snow, but there was some snow; certainly more than I was likely to have in Atlanta.

It was only when I walked off the plane that I began to realize that I might have gotten more than I had bargained for. It was cold; really cold. I decided it was just because I was out of shape and hadn't worn all the warm clothes. I got to the hotel, checked-in, and went up to my room, unpacked and got out all the accoutrements of cold weather clothing. It was late, but I really wanted to feel the bite of cold.

I changed and walked down to the foyer. As I started out the front door, the concierge caught my attention and pointed out that Winnipeg has an underground system of walkways and I could get anywhere I wanted using them. "No, thanks. I just want a breath of fresh air. I'll be back in a bit." If I had paid close attention, I would probably have seen another set of rolling eyes.

So out I went into the bracing Canadian prairie winter. Oooouuuuch! Nothing in Sweden prepared me for this. Minus 40 degrees! Made sharply worse by a stiff breeze. Of course, there was nothing for it but to put on a brave face and walk at least a short ways. A few blocks would give me enough time not to look too foolish. Well, I made it to the end of the block. It felt like frost bite was already taking the rims of my ears and my lips. I could barely open my eyes without weeping. I had to breathe slowly through my nose in order not to completely freeze out my nasal passages. Despite simply walking, I felt breathless as from a run. I finally found an entrance to the underground passage ways and made my escape. So now, while still usually missing hard winters, I am much more careful about what I do about it.

I suspect every reader, consciously or unconsciously, has some real or imaginary place or places where they love to read and some way of going about it. Just yesterday, as I was walking through the living room, my youngest came bouncing past me, a book clutched under one arm and a bowl of boiled peanuts in the other hand. He had the biggest grin on his face and said in passing - "Boiled peanuts and a great book. Mmm-um!"

Places - It might be on the grass in the garden that catches the warmth of the sun at just the right time of the year. Or perhaps it is a special leather sofa in a room somewhere in the house, or maybe a window seat looking out over the street. Someplace. For me, it is an ugly looking old overstuffed chair in the house we lived in in Sweden. It wasn't our chair. It came with the house. It had a funny, dusty kind of smell and its covering was some sort of artificial felt, but it was just the right shape. I could curl up so comfortably in that thing. There was a nice big floor lamp right beside it that not only gave me good light, but was warming as well. And when I think of the favorite places I have read, that is close to the top. Curled up there, in mid-winter, with a good book, a warm light and large open window out onto the snow covered backyard. It is cold and dark out there and I am warm and content in here. That is a treasured moment.

Here is a collection of winter stories. Explicitly excluded are Christmas stories which are a list of their own. These are stories taking place in winter or have to do with winter activities. Are there others you would suggest?

Picture Books

The Mitten by Jan Brett Recommended

Katy and the Big Snow by Virginia Lee Burton Highly Recommended

An Indian Winter by Russell Freedman and illustrated by Karl Bodmer Suggested

Dear Rebecca, Winter Is Here by Jean Craighead George and illustrated by Loretta Krupinski Suggested

The Big Snow by Berta Hader & Elmer Hader Recommended

Snowie Rolie by William Joyce Suggested

The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats Highly Recommended

The Tomten and the Fox by Astrid Lindgren and illustrated by Harald Wiberg & Karl-Erik Forsslund Recommended

Froggy Gets Dressed by Jonathan London and illustrated by Frank Remkiewicz Suggested

The Race of the Birkebeiners by Lise Lunge-Larsen and illustrated by Mary Azarian Recommended

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and illustrated by Mary Azarian Recommended

Snow by Roy McKie and illustrated by P. D. Eastman Suggested

There Come a Soldier by Peggy Mercer and illustrated by Ron Mazellan Highly Recommended

Don't Wake Up the Bear by Marjorie Dennis Murray and illustrated by Patricia Wittmann Suggested

Henry and Mudge in the Sparkle Days by Cynthia Rylant and illustrated by Sucie Stevenson Suggested

Here Comes Darrell by Leda Schubert and illustrated by Mary Azarian Suggested

Brave Irene by William Steig Recommended

When Winter Comes by Nancy Van Laan and illustrated by Susan Gaber Suggested

Owl Moon by Jane Yolen and illustrated by John Schoenherr Highly Recommended

Independent Reader

Cam Jansen and the Snowy Day Mystery by David A. Adler and illustrated by Susanna Natti Suggested

Corduroy's Snow Day by Don Freeman and illustrated by Lisa McCue Suggested

Where Fish Go in Winter and Other Great Mysteries by Amy Goldman Koss and illustrated by Laura J. Bryant Recommended

Changes for Felicity by Valerie Tripp and illustrated by Dan Andreasen Suggested

The Long Winter by Laura Ingalls Wilder and illustrated by Garth Williams Recommended

Young Adult

Endurance by Alfred Lansing Highly Recommended

The Snow Walker by Farley Mowat Suggested

Blizzard by Jim Murphy Suggested