The High King (1969)

The High King is the fifth and last book in the Chronicles of Prydain.  As such I felt that I was a little behind the curve even though the author writes in his author's note, "Like the previous tales, this adventure can be read independently of the others.  Nevertheless, certain long-standing questions are resolved here." (p. 7)  At first it was difficult getting into the story because I felt that I was missing a lot not having read the others first. (I have actually read all of them, but it has been about 14 years and I really only remembered the very basics of the storyline.) Once I got past that, it was very enjoyable reading.

The story centers on Taran, assistant pig-keeper to Hen Wen, a pig who foretells the future.  In the previous books he met and travelled with many characters, many of whom appear in this book.  Eilonwy, princess and love interest.  Gurgi, some sort of creature, not brave, but super loyal.  Dallben, Taran's teacher, enchanter, owner of Hen Wen.  Fflewdddur Flam, harp wielding minor king of a nearby land.  And many more.

And of course, there is Arawn, the Death Lord with his Cauldron born army of undead soldiers.  The battle against whom does not go well while there is infighting amongst the lesser kings. 

I will leave it to you to find out how the battles were fought and lost and won.  What happens when Taran has to make the most crucial of decisions.  How Eilonwy gives up her one treasure for something of far greater worth.

Quotes I liked.  Many have to do with leadership.

Taran went to gather troops.  One group responded, "Our pride is not in fighting but in farming; in the work of our hands, not our blades.  Never have we sought war.  We come now to the banner of the White Pig because it is the banner of our friend, Taran Wanderer." (p. 122)

"It is harsh enough for each man to bear his own wound.  But he who leads bears the wounds of all who follow him." (p. 129)

"There are those who must first learn loss, despair, and grief.  Of all paths to wisdom, this is the cruelest and longest...Those who reach the end do more than gain wisdom.  As rough wool becomes cloth, and crude clay a vessel, so do they change and fashion wisdom for others, and what they give back is greater than what they won." (p. 142)

"Is there worse evil than that which goes in the mask of good?" (p. 148)

"A grower of turnips or a shaper of clay, a Commot farmer or a king--every man is a hero if he strives more for others than for himself alone.  Once you told me that the seeking counts more than the finding.  So, too, must the striving count more than the gain." (p. 292)

"Do you believe evil itself to be so quickly overcome?  Not so long as men still hate and slay each other, when greed and anger goad them.  Against these even a flaming sword cannot prevail, but only that portion of good in all men's hearts whose flame can never be quenched." (p. 300)

Alexander, Lloyd.  The High King.  Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1968.

From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (1968)

Claudia feels unappreciated at home.  She has to do more chores than her brothers, look after kids and finally decides she has had enough.  But she doesn't do the typical run-away-from-home.  She plans and saves and bides her time.  She invites her brother, Jamie, to run away with her (mostly because he has more money than she does) to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Everything goes as planned and they hide out in the museum.  They learn the routines of the guards, know when to wait in a bathroom stall until it is all clear, get to sleep in big antique beds.  They discover bathing in the fountain and gather money people have thrown in to use for food. 

They try to blend in with other school groups on tours in the museum.  "They learned a lot.  They didn't even mind. They were surprised that they could actually learn something when they weren't in class." (p. 54)

Their plan gets a kink thrown in when the children see a statue that the museum had recently acquired from Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.  Claudia falls in love with it and feels that it is her special mission to discover who actually sculpted it.  The siblings visit a library and study up on Renaissance sculptors. They do everything they can to figure it out.  Finally, Claudia decides they have to go visit Mrs. Frankweiler, positive that she holds the answer. The book is actually "written" by Mrs. Frankweiler, as she retells the tale the children have recounted to her.  I will leave it to you to find out who the sculptor was.

I remember reading and liking this book a lot as a child. It was full of adventure and mystery.  As an adult and parent I would only hope that it wouldn't give my children any grand ideas about running away, even if it is planned so well.

Some favorite quotes.

Mrs. F, to Claudia.  "Everything gets over, and nothing is ever enough.  Except the part you carry with you.  It's the same as going on a vacation.  Some people spend all their time on a vacation taking pictures so that when they get home they can show their friends evidence that they had a good time.  They don't pause to let the vacation enter inside of them and take that home." (p. 139-140)

"Happiness is excitement that has found a settling down place, but there is always a little corner that keeps flapping around." (p. 151)

"Some days you must learn a great deal.  But you should also have days when you allow what is already in you to swell up inside of you until it touches everything.  And you can feel it inside you.  If you never take time out to let that happen, then you just accumulate facts, and they begin to rattle around inside of you.  You can make noise with them, but never really feel anything with them.  It's hollow." (p. 153)

Konigsburg, E.L. From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1967.

Up a Road Slowly (1967)

It's an odd thing to get really involved in a book and stay up too late reading, but most of the time thinking to myself, "I don't especially like this book."  Up a Road Slowly begins with 7-year-old Julie mourning the death of her mother and being whisked off to live with her elderly, spinster Aunt Cordelia in the country.  It ends at Julie's graduation from high school. 

Some things I did like about Julie: 

• Honesty.  She tells the truth and doesn't beat around the bush, but says what she means.
• Spunk.  She enjoys adventures and being more "tom boy-ish" than other girls at school.
• Thinking.  She likes school and learning and relating Shakespeare and other poetry to her life.
• Introspection.  She analyzes her feelings and faults and tries to correct them.

Some things I didn't like about the book:

• It often seems disjointed.  Another book with many stories, without a well-defined conflict.  Maybe it has to do with the whole "coming of age" book.
• Covers too much time. 
• Some of the later chapters a bit mature for elementary readers.  (One character, Carlotta, has to go live with an aunt in Idaho for several months after dating the wrong guy.)
• Felt like a soap opera at times with her mom dying, father dating and remarrying, aunt's former love returning to the neighborhood, demanding boyfriend, break-up, misery, finding love...

Some quotes I enjoyed:
Random train conductor trying to console her.  "It happens the world over--we love ourselves more than we do the one we say we love.  We all want to be Number One; we've got to be Number One or nothing! We can't see that we could make ourselves loved and needed in the Number Two, or Three, or Four spot...we'll rip and tear at the loved one till we've ruined every smidgin of love that was ever there." (p. 39)

Uncle Haskell on the death of a school-mate that nobody liked.  "Hadn't you rather thank Heaven that she has escaped what life had to offer her? ...Come, Julie, death may be the great equalizer; let's not give in to the hypocrisy that it is the great glorifier." (p. 59)

Aunt Cordelia's former love, Jonathan, to Julie before graduation. "Firelight does for an old room like this what wisdom does for an old face, Julie.  It softens the grimmer aspects and compensates for the drained color."
"Doesn't goodness do the same thing, Jonathan?" I asked.
"That's the kind of wisdom I am talking about.  Learning isn't always enough, you know.  I've seen some very unlovely old faces that belonged with very well-stocked brains." (p.178)

Hunt, Irene.  Up a Road Slowly.  Pearson Education, 1966.

I, Juan De Pareja (1966)

(It has been four months since I last posted.  I have 6 books to write about and have told myself I won't finish another book until I've written about these. Of course, it has been a couple of months since I read some of them, but I'll muddle through.)

I, Juan de Pareja is the story of a slave owned by the famous Spanish artist Diego Velazquez in the first half of the 17th century. Velazquez painted for kings and popes and was intense in his work.  Juan describes his work with the great master painter and how he, too, began to paint. 

At that time it was against the law in Spain for a slave to "practice any of the arts." (p. 125) Juan began painting in secret but always felt that in doing so he in some way betrayed Velazquez.  In the end, he confesses his secret to Velazquez and Velazquez writes him papers of manumission (a document declaring the freedom of a slave).

Although little is actually known historically and factually about the two men, the author did a good job imagining the lives of these two men and how they interacted with each other and the society in which they worked.  Interesting to note the context of the Newbery award as this book was chosen during the height of the civil rights movement. Children might find the book a bit slow, but I really enjoyed it. 

Favorite quotes:

Juan asked Velazquez about why he spent so much time looking before he painted.  He answered, "When I sit and look at something I am feeling its shape, so that I shall have it in my fingers when I start to draw the outline.  I am analyzing the colors, too.  For example, do you see that piece of brocade on the chair? What color is it?'

"Blue," I answered promptly.

"No, Juanico.  There is a faint underlay of blue, but there is violet in that blue, the faintest touch of rose and the highlights are red and bright green.  Look again."

It was magical, for suddenly I could see them...

"The eye is complicated.  It mixes the colors for you...The painter must unmix them and lay them on again shade by shade, and then the eye of the beholder takes over and mixes them again." (p. 45-46)

Velazquez teaching one of his appretices:

 "I thought Art should be Beauty," he [the apprentice] muttered.

"No, Cristobal.  Art should be Truth; and Truth unadorned, unsentimentalized, is Beauty." (p. 67)

They took a trip to Italy and the voyage by ship was long and unpleasant. 

"Still, when we arrived in Genoa, we went first, even before we looked for an inn, to a church to give thanks." (p. 85)

Also on p. 85, "We two, after all, knew each other's company, and could be silent together for many hours without feeling any pangs of solitude."

This is probably my favorite.

"I knelt a long time, for I had much to offer up to God, and I placed before Him countless thoughts, so that He might winnow them like a thresher, leaving me the wheat and blowing away the chaff with the breath of His mercy." (p. 138)

de Trevino, Elizabeth Borton. I, Juan de Pareja. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1965.