Special Books

In the past I read a lot of really heavy stuff: Plato, Aurelius, Schaeffer, Tillich, Locke, Eusebius, St. Agustine, Kant, etc. Mostly, it was hard work and not very much fun. Sometimes one is asked, "If you were to be stranded on a deserted island, what one book would you take with you?" I can honestly say, not the kind of book I read in former days. But in the past few years, only since getting married and having young children living with me, I have encountered some books that can best be described as good, and I've read them aloud, or else they have been read aloud to me. I would take any of them to that deserted island. I'd like to recommend a few of them to you.

I've mentioned The Wind in the Willows before. I am mentioning it again, now. Please, read this book to someone, share it with him, and every time either of you sees sunlight on a stream or comes in out of the rain or drinks a glass of beer you'll smile at each other, knowing that each of you is remembering the adventurous and comfortable friedship of Mole, Rat, Toad, and Badger.

I think most Americans are familiar with the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Some of those books are certainly better than others of the series. But one, from my point of view, stands head and shoulders abouve the rest. Farmer Boy, about the boyhood of Laura's husband is pure joy to read. The descriptions a nine year old boy's life on a farm, the enormous exhuberence he has for the gargantuan portions of food he eats, his love of horses, the care he shows his young team of oxen, and his growing business-sense will charm you, and will wet your eyes.

Similar to Farmer Boy is The Ox Cart Man. It isn't a novel. Rather it is a poem, much expanded since it first appeard in the New Yorker, and wedded to beautiful illustrations (the illustrations earned the Caldecott Medal for this book) of farm and town life in 18th Century New England. The book explains the nature of work, family, economics, and the march of seasons in less than 30 pages. Accessible to children as young as 2 years old, this book should be required reading for all who study political science or economics.

Besides those few are others: The Secret Garden (a gift from my sister), The Chronicles of Narnia, The Water Babies, Stephen's Feast (A gift from Athanasia's Godmother), Peter Pan and The Complete Tales of Winnie the Poo (both which are very much unlike what Disney portrayed) are all wonderful books. They feed the good wolf. And there have been many many more.

"If you have no intention of loving or being loved, then the whole journey is pointless." That is the mesage of the most recent addition to our shelf of "special books". The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane is a book about sin (the most horrible kinds: pride & vanity), loss, death, sanctification and redemption told though the experiences of a ceramic rabbit. The book has nominated for a Quill award, won the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction, and was given the Parents Choice Gold Medal. The highest honor it has received is a Christoper Award for its amazingly beautiful and honest portrayal of the better part of humanity, something that is hard to find in many books.

Bagram Ibatoulline's illustrations for The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane are astounding quazi-photo-realism paintings that, like th words they accompany, are real works of art. They accomplish what so many illustrations in so many books fail to do; portray the deep meaning of the book. There is one picture, at the beginning of Chapter Seventeen, that shows poverty and riches, and hope and hoplessness, place and journey, death and life, strength and the failure of strength simply by presenting the reader with nothing more than an exterior view of a one-room house. It is breathtaking.

I am beginning to wonder if it isn't the case that the best writers write for children.