Three events came together this past week that led me down a rabbit hole of children’s literature that I sorta don’t want to emerge from.
First, I follow this amazing woman on You Tube, Robin Barrett, who left her job and became a nomad. She posts videos regularly, chronicling her 6 plus years of travel/living/working in a variety of vehicles including an RV, a camper, and a mini Streamline trailer. Her latest home is a custom built van that she loves because it can go everywhere, park anywhere, and requires less maintenance than her other rigs.
She named the new van “Trixie Belden,” after the spirited teenaged heroine of the children’s book series. Trixie is sort of a suburban/rural Nancy Drew, solving mysteries, saving people, and trying the patience of her parents. Turns out, Robin Barrett chose the perfect moniker for her new home. It’s sassy, independent, and adventurous, just like Trixie.
Into the wild
Second, I have been trying to watch the film version of “The Wild Robot,” but I wanted to read the book first. Turns out there are THREE books in the “Wild Robot” series and if they are all as good as the first one, I will complete the trilogy.
After a robot washes up on the shore of an island, it trains itself to survive in nature and the story is filled with wildlife, weather, and endurance. Author Peter Brown said he was inspired by the similarities between patterns found in nature and programs found in technology. I just loved it! Can’t wait to watch the film.
The third thing
Then, I was watching this year’s Olivier Awards (Great Britain’s theater awards) and I saw that a production of “Ballet Shoes” was nominated.
You might remember that moment in “You’ve Got Mail” where Kathleen Kelly (played by Meg Ryan) — who has just closed her children’s bookstore on the upper West Side of Manhattan for the last time — sits in the children’s books section of the gleaming new giant bookstore that put her out of business.
When a woman asks the clerk about the “Shoe books,” he looks completely lost. Kathleen spells the name of the author and then says, through her tears:
“I'd start with Ballet Shoes first. It's my favorite. Although Skating Shoes is completely wonderful. But it's out of print.”
When the movie first came out, I went to a similar book superstore and bought three of the “Shoe Books” because Kathleen Kelly recommended them. In the madness and confusion of my midlife (and probably peri menopause), the books disappeared.
Back in time
So, this past week became a discovery of classic children’s books I never read.
My mom loved Lois Lenski and she read us the entire “Little House” book series at bedtime when we were in elementary school. I loved “Encyclopedia Brown” and almost anything by Beverly Cleary, a former school librarian who died last year. Cleary said she wrote stories about Ramona, Beezus, and others because she wanted the kids who came into her library to see themselves in books.
But I never got into the aforementioned Nancy Drew, “Anne of Green Gables” or “Caddie Woodlawn” and the film version of “Pollyanna” made my teeth ache from sweetness.
This week I tried some “Trixie Belden” and found her to be a vivacious upstart with a solution for everything and extremely patient parents. I read the first book, “Secret of the Mansion,” and that was enough. I loved that Trixie was up for anything, but the plots all came together a little too neatly. Still fun, though.
Then I tried the first Betsy-Tacy book (also mentioned in “You’ve Got Mail”) and I thought it was darling. Best friends who spend most days in their own little world, creating fantasies and having picnics. Definitely white, upper middle class kids at the turn of the century, but a lovely examination of youth.
At the ballet
But the highlight of the week was “Ballet Shoes.” Oh my God, what a book. I am so late to this party because the BBC produced a TV series based on the book back in 1976 and it has been a classic in Britain since the 1930s.
The story feels very “Little Women” -ish as the male patriarch leaves home to collect fossils, leaving a house full of women to figure out how to survive in London during a global depression.
They are resourceful, talented and unique. Nana is a common-sense governess/nurse/maid who can fix anything and Sylvia is the niece who inherits the house and becomes a de-facto mother to a trio of adopted girls named Pauline, Petrova, and Posy. With the generosity and care of friends, boarders, and teachers, the girls find their way into “show business” by becoming child actors/dancers in 1930s London, which is a fascinating world of its own.
You can get a tiny taste of their relationship in this trailer for the West End production that closed in February.
Honestly, the trailer is a bit more “twee” than the book, which is why I loved reading the story so much. It is not sentimental or fantastical and it depicts a life I’ve never read about before: child performer labor laws, the theater scene in London in the 1930s, and the exhausting work of women during that time.
I truly can’t wait to move on to another of Noel Streatfeild’s books.
Women authors and writers
I just want to pay tribute here to the incredibly talented (mostly) female writers and illustrators (Lois Lenski drew all the pictures for the Betsy-Tacy books) mentioned here.
For the most part, they all captured a world of women and girls before they had to start shape-shifting into adulthood, sloughing off their adventurousness and unique verve. And Peter Brown tackles the issues of climate change and technology in a unique and entertaining way.
I will list them all here so you can hunt down their work. And let me know if I am missing any of your favorites. Put them in the chat so we can all enjoy.
Lois Lensky, author of “Strawberry Girl” and illustrator
Carolyn Keene, author of the “Nancy Drew” series
Beverly Cleary, author of the “Ramona” series, “Henry Huggins,” and more.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of the “Little House” series
Carol Ryrie Brink, author of the “Caddie Woodlawn” books
Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of the “Anne of Green Gables” series
Eleanor H. Porter, author of “Pollyanna”
Maud Hart-Lovelace, author of the “Betsy-Tacy” series of books.
Peter Brown, author of the “Wild Robot” series.
Garth Williams, illustrator of the “Little House” series and “Charlotte’s Web”
And, as always, purchase from bookshop.org or your local bookstore when you can.
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