Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

And full of birthday cake, actually–it was delayed but delicious! We’re also back from Idaho, where we went for 4 days or so; we wanted to see the regular Idaho family, true, but my nephew and niece and their toddler were visiting from Florida at my sister’s, and I absolutely wanted to see them. It was an all-around good time with family…and now we’re home.

Anyway. Last night I finished listening to The Gammage Cup, a Newbery Honor winner from 1960. The County Library’s Goodreads summer reading challenge this year is for fantasy (and mythology, folklore, etc.), and so I scoured my list of remaining Newberys for books that would fit the bill. The Gammage Cup is not only fantasy, but it’s available in audio. (Score!) As I listened, I found myself getting a quietly hobbit-like vibe; the Minnipins are a peaceful people who value their village and their traditions–and their comforts. Carol Kendall was likely inspired by Tolkien, of coure–what post-1930s fantasy writers weren’t?–but she used that inspiration to create a story that did NOT just feel like a Hobbit retelling, and bless her for that. Instead, this is a story about learning to value individuality, personal integrity, and traditions based on the facts of history. Slipper-on-the-Water learns to value its village oddballs, and its most self-important citizens learn wisdom, and who doesn’t love that sort of story? The turn-around of those self-important citizens–as well as the unabashed otherness of the enemy–make it a very neatly wrapped up children’s story, to be sure, but that’s exactly what it is meant to be. It was still an enjoyable read for me, and I rarely read fantasy; it’s also approachably but not simply written. (It’s possible that “approachably” isn’t an official word, but it’s working for me.) If you’ve got an 8-12-year-old who’s into tales of other lands–or who doesn’t quite fit the common mold–this is a completely worthwhile read.*

*My apologies if this isn’t as polished of a review as I might have preferred–the 5-year-old had a bad dream at 5 am, and I never really got back to sleep. Here’s hoping to a better night (and later morning) to come!