Secret of the Andes (1953)

I am going to begin this entry with a personal note.  You might have noticed that in reviewing this book, I skipped ahead about 10 years.  For our 20th wedding anniversary, my husband and I went to Peru for a week.  Loved it!!  We spent a couple of days in Cusco and a couple of days around Machu Picchu.  Some of the places mentioned in the book we were able to visit.

Set in the early 1900s, Secret of the Andes tells the story of Cusi, a young boy who lives with the mysterious Chuto.  Cusi was left with Chuto when he was a young child, too young to have memories of his previous life.  They live a very solitary existence high in the Andes Mountains caring for the flock of llamas.  When a family moves into the valley far below them, Cusi begins to question why he doesn't have a family.  When a minstrel (very unlike Roger the minstrel) joins them for a few days, an opportunity arises for Chuto to take Cusi to the bigger world.  He says to the minstrel, "It is time we saw the valley beyond us.  Today Cusi saw people in the valley below us.  In a week's time he will have seen many.  Curiosity can leap the highest wall; an open gate is better." (p. 5)  This idea is repeated in other places in the book, that sometimes too little freedom will cause rebellion.  So they visit the Salt Pits (which we also saw in our travels), and soon after a traveler comes to stay.  He trains Cusi in the history and ways of the Inca.  Cusi sometimes wonders why he  is being trained.

The book also focuses on the Incan people and the pride they take in being apart from their conquerors, the Spanish.  There is a lot of "us" and "them."  Also, feelings of resentment against the Spanish.  But mostly it is about Cusi deciding what he will do.  After receiving a sign, he goes off to Cusco, alone but for several llamas, to find a family that he might join.  The love Cusi has for Chuto is demonstrated in this passage.  "An old man on the mountaintop let his tears drop to heal the heartache of a lonely boy.  Cusi knew it.  He had been so close to Chuto, so near him, so much a part of his world, that he knew when the Old One cried.  He could sense the Old One's tears.  He knew that they were dropping to cool the burning of his heart, to soothe his aching disappointment, to wash all his bitterness away." (p. 77)

In Cusco, Cusi realizes his dream of being in a family was already his.  After spending time with a typical family he felt they were not his family.  He couldn't share what was most important with them, and he kept thinking of Chuto.  "There was the answer! What he had been looking for had been his.  He had not known it.  He had almost lost it.  He had almost gone away, leaving all that mattered behind him.  'But I guess deep in my heart I knew,'" (p. 109)

If the book ended with Cusi's realization that Chuto was his family, I would have really liked it.  However...  SPOILER ALERT...it is then revealed that Chuto is part of a long line of Inca who have kept the secret of gold in the mountains, gold that was to ransom the Inca king being held by the Spaniards 400 years before.  The gold is now in a hidden cave and the only ones to be able to access it are an old man and the young one he trains.  Just a bit far-fetched for me.

Quotes I liked:
"Cusi was glad to begin his new task, although usually he did not like to do it.  But today it seemed easier than thinking.  Some thoughts are hard to think about." (p. 18)

"They walked along in silence, a comfortable silence.  They were companions.  Companions have no need for constant talking." (p.44)

Clark, Ann Nolan. Secret of the Andes. The Viking Press, 1953.

Adam of the Road (1943)

This was a fun little book.  Actually on the longer side for Newbery awards at 317 pages, but a quick read.  Set in 13th century England, Adam of the Road chronicles a year in the life of Adam, the 11-year-old son of Roger the minstrel.  Adam is set on becoming a minstrel as well.  He sings beautifully and plays the harp as well. A small harp that he carries over his shoulder.  (see photo above) 

Adam's adventure really began when Jankin, a mean-spirited minstrel, stole his dog, Nick.  Adam loved Nick above all but Roger.  Roger and Adam started after him, but eventually got separated.  Many people gave Nick help along the way.  Great characters.  One of the adventures I liked best was when Adam was travelling with a merchant and an errant knight robbed and kidnapped the merchant.  Adam escaped and went for the bailiff for help.  They made a great rescue. 

The author painted a vivid picture of medieval life, although as in Thimble Summer,  I think the children were very lucky in the people they met who helped them.  That seems to be a theme in many of these Newbery books, that there are good people out there who are ready and willing to help children in trouble. 

Some ideas the author brought out, and returned to throughout the book.  "A road's a kind of holy thing.  That's why it's a good work to keep a road in repair, like giving alms to the poor or tending the sick.  It's open to the sun and wind and rain.  It brings all kinds of people and all parts of England together.  And it's home to a minstrel, even though he may happen to be sleeping in a castle." (p. 52)

"All the adventures don't happen in minstrels' tales.  Let the boy keep his eyes open, he may see great things happen, though he won't know it at the time." (p. 117)

There were several great proverbs about living honestly, not being proud, etc.  Here is one I really liked about treating the elderly with respect. 

"If you sit upon the bench

And see before you standing

A trembling old man,

Get up from your seat

And bid him sit down.

Then will he say

A good man taught you first.

Then sit afterward

Beside him, and learn wisdom." (p. 115)

Gray, Elizabeth Janet. Adam of the Road. The Viking Press, 1942.

However, if you are looking on the shelf, it will likely be under VIN.  Apparently, Ms. Gray became Mrs. Vining.  Random fact about her I just learned on Wikipedia.  "During the Allied occupation of Japan after the war, Vining was selected by Emperor Hirohito himself (and not the U.S. government, as is erroneously believed by some) to become a private tutor to Crown Prince Akihito, the heir apparent of the Imperial House of Japan. As part of her teaching program, she arranged for closely-supervised occasions when four Western teen-aged boys in Tokyo would get together to help the crown prince practice English conversation."  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Gray_Vining)

Call It Courage (1941)

When Mafatu was 3 years old, a storm swept him and his mother out to sea.  She was able to rescue him, but then she perished.  After that, the ocean terrified Mafatu, which was kind of ironic since his name means "Stout Heart" in their Polynesian language.  His father was ashamed of him, boys on the island mocked him.  His only friends were his dog, Uri, and an albatross, Kivi. 

One night, he decided he couldn't stand another taunt.  He climbed into an outrigger canoe and summoning all of his courage, pushed out to open ocean.  So begins his grand adventure.  It is boy against nature.   Nearly starved and dehydrated, he found an island, and began making it home.  He built a shelter, made a new canoe, killed the wild boar, retrieved a spear head from the place that was taboo.  He built traps for lobsters, made a knife from whale bone, killed an octopus. 

"Never again need he hang his head before his people.  He had fought the sea for life and won.  He had sustained himself by his own wits and skill.  He had faced loneliness and danger and death, if not without flinching, at least with courage.  He had been, sometimes, deeply afraid, but he had faced fear and faced it down.  Surely that could be called courage." (p. 95) 

I think children would enjoy this book.  I did, as I thought about how I would survive on a deserted island (without the benefit of Gilligan,Skipper, the Professor, etc.).

Sperry, Armstrong. Call It Courage. Macmillan Publishing Co., 1940.

Thimble Summer (1939)

The day Garnet found a silver thimble in the sand by the river, she knew her summer would be magical.  Nine-year-old Garnet lives on a farm in Wisconsin and drought threatens to ruin the crops, but that changes with the finding of the thimble as a storm moved through that very night.

Many good things happen that summer that Garnet attributes to the luck of the thimble.  Eric, a runaway orphan, joins their family.  She and her friend, Citronella (What a name!!) get locked in the library for half the night.  Her father gets a government loan to build a new barn.  She has an argument with her brother, Jay, and runs away, hitch-hiking, but luckily she gets help from friendly strangers.  She enters her pig into a contest at the fair and ... I won't tell.

I'm not sure exactly when the book takes place.  Maybe it is contemporary with the publication (1938), but I think it is set a little earlier.  The book really reminds us of the innocence of farm life in the early twentieth century with children hitch-hiking, orphans taking care of themselves and great-grandmothers who tell wonderful stories from their childhoods.

Enright, Elizabeth. Thimble Summer. Bantam Doubleday Dell, 1938

The next book, Daniel Boone by James Daugherty, is not in our local library or any of the school libraries I have access to, so I'm not sure when I will blog about it.  So up next is the 1941 winner, Call it Courage.