Carry On, Mr. Bowditch (1956)

Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is about Nathaniel Bowditch of Salem, Massachusetts.  Nat was super-bright, especially at mathematics, but when he was 10 he had to leave school to help his father's business, and at 12 he was made an indentured servant, as his father was just not able to care for the family since the passing of his wife several years before.

Nat dreads being an indentured servant, but his masters are kind and give him every opportunity to read and study on his own, even providing him with books.  He continues his study of math, but also becomes interested in physics and astronomy.  He is given Principia by Sir Isaac Newton, but finds that he needs to know Latin to read it.  So he obtained a Latin dictionary and a Latin Bible and proceeded to teach himself.  He also learned French and Spanish in this way.

With his indenture fulfilled, Nat took a job surveying, and then at work on a trading vessel.  He made several voyages for business.  On each of them he continued to improve his navigating skills, as well as teaching the crew about navigation.  He gained many solid friends of those deck hands through his teaching.

On one voyage he discovered a new way of finding longitude through lunar and stellar observation, with some complex mathematics of course.  This leads him to write "American Practical Navigator."  Here is what one website has to say about it. "The American Practical Navigator, first published in 1802, was billed as the"epitome of navigation" by its original author, Nathaniel Bowditch. The text has evolved with the advances in navigation practices since that first issue and continues to serve as a valuable reference for marine navigation in the modern day." (http://msi.nga.mil/NGAPortal/MSI.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=msi_portal_page_62&pubCode=0002)

I really enjoyed this book.  It has adventure, hard work, friendship, more adventure, love of learning, and just a touch of romance.  A great story for kids with the message that you don't need wealth to be smart and make something of yourself.  Hard work and life-long learning are the key.

Although called a biography in several reviews, Carry On, Mr. Bowditch is shelved as fiction. I think this is because it contains a great deal of supposition about what particulars of different voyages and facets of Nat's life were like.  All of the main timeline and facts seem to check out historically, but it is mighty embellished.

Latham, Jean Lee.  Carry On, Mr. Bowditch.  HoughtonMifflin, 1955.

In response to Valerie's comment, here is the quote on ash breeze.  "When a ship is becalmed--the wind died down--she can't move--sometimes the silors break out their oars.  They'll row a boat ahead of the ship and tow her.  Or they'll carry out anchors and heave them over, and the crew will lean on the capstan bars and drag the ship up to where the anchors are heaved over.  Oars are made of ash--white ash.  So--when you get ahead by your own get-up-and-get--that's when you sail by ash breeze." (p. 48)

The Wheel on the School (1955)

The quiet in the little school in Shora was broken when Lina asked if she could read her essay.  It was about storks.  She wondered why there were no storks on the roofs of Shora, for she knows they bring good luck and make you happy.  There are storks on the roofs of the houses in surrounding villages, but not in Shora, a small, Dutch fishing village just behind the dike at the edge of the sea..

This essay and the question it poses starts the class on an adventure to get storks back in Shora.  The teacher sees an opportunity for the class to do some thinking and runs with the idea, getting them all excited about the project.  They realized that they need a wagon wheel to place on the roof so that the storks will have a place to build their nest.  The children begin combing the village and surrounding farms to find a wheel to place on the roof of the school. 

Their adventures soon lead them to interact with the people in the village.  One of my favorites was Janus.  The children all think he is the meanest man in town.  His legs, so the children tell each other, were bitten off by a shark.  When twins Pier and Dirk try to sneak into his yard to look for a wheel, they make a surprising discovery.

That is what happens in this book.  The characters make discoveries about the people around them and about themselves.  They find out good and surprising things which strengthen and lift each one and brings unity to the village.  There is enough going on that children would enjoy the book, and it also has a message that will inspire them.  I give it two thumbs up.

Some favorite quotes.  There were more, but would take up too much space setting the scene and are better read in full context.:

The teacher says, "But there's where things have to start--with a dream.  Of course, if you just go on dreaming, then it stays a dream and becomes stale and dead.  But first to dream the then to do--isn't that the way to make a dream come true?" (p. 32)

A farmer to one of the children. "I'll take a chance on you.  Fat, slow kids are usually pretty honest.  They have to be; they can't run away." (p. 81)

DeJong, Meindert.  The Wheel on the School.  HarperCollins, 1954.

...and now Miguel (1954)

...and now Miguel tells the story of, you guessed it, Miguel.  At 12 years old, Miguel thinks he is ready to go to the mountains with the men to tend the sheep during the summer.  His family have been raising sheep in New Mexico for generations and the journey to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains with the sheep symbolizes to Miguel the transition to manhood.  He wishes and prays for a miracle to make it possible for him to go, but he also works hard and does his best to pull his weight so that his father and the other men will see him as capable of the task.

The rest of the family do not understand Miguel.  Sometimes he thinks things and kind of assumes his listeners are following his thoughts before he speaks, and then they all become confused.  Kind of funny except that Miguel is so earnest. 

Small spoiler--A miracle does happen for him to go.  You will have to read the book to find out how it all works out.  :)

Some favorite quotes:

"I don't know if it is true but I have been told that if you are good all the time and if sometimes you pray, then you will go to heaven.  Maybe this is so and maybe not." (p. 10) 

Miguel had taken on the role painting the numbers on the ewes and newborn lambs so that the moms and babies could be matched up if they got separated.  In talking with his grandfather about this he learns: 

" 'That is the real work of a pastor,' my grandfather told me, 'of a shepherd..  To see that in all the flock there is no one that is alone by himself.  Everyone together.  Only so can all live.'

'How is it they go off, the way they do, by themselves?' I asked. 'Why are sheep not so smart?'

'Sheep!  There are many men who don't understand this simple thing.  Not only sheep.' " (p. 52)

"The boy should know this...Whenever something grows and you keep it from growing anymore, that's a sin.  And if it's a life, living, and you let it to die, that's a sin." (p. 57)

"Ordinarily I'm a pretty good prayer.  I can do an 'Our Father who Art In Heaven' as fast as anybody else.  Without skipping words, I can beat even my big sisters.  But this wish wasn't like doing an 'Our Father.' I had to make up the words for this one myself. And not only words.  To say a wish like this one I think maybe you have to say it with something more than just plain words." (p. 113-114)

"One thing is, next year on san Ysidro Day I'm going to say a new kind of prayer...I'm going to pray like this. 'San Ysidro. Dear Sir.  This is Miguel Chavez who took up so much of your time last year...Thank you for last year.  But  this year, I haven't got any wish.  No wish at all.  All I wish, San Ysidro, is for things to be the way you wish.  Amen.' " (p. 216)

Although I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I rather doubt that the target audience children would find it appealing.  It is kind of slow-moving and makes you stop and think.  I don't think kids these days like doing that, however much we would like them to.

Krumgold, Joseph. ...and now Miguel. Crowell, 1953.