The Gift by Kristine L. Franklin & Illus Barbara Lavallee

Barbara Lavallee is an Alaskan artist that my mother fell in love with when I was a kid. We had prints of hers on our wall, trivets with her art, the mugs with her art were set in a separate place so my brothers and father wouldn't fill them with coffee and take them to some far flung part of the farm and leave them on fenceposts, under a tractor seat, or in the milkhouse. 

As a hangover from my childhood, anything Barbara Lavallee has illustrated has instantly become a bit special. I found this book on a library shelf in Anchorage last summer and had to check it out. With a 50 book limit* on our library card, we had to make some hard decisions about what we were and were not taking home with us, but this made the cut. 

(This may seem like a gigantic limit, but it had to supply four kids, as well as myself, so it actually was a little hard. Books had to be put back on the shelf and left behind, always a sad, sad thing.)

I was already in favor of the illustrator, but the story itself was well worth it as well--traditional native fishing villiage, elder wisdom, and amazement at nature. 

Jimmy Joe loved to fish, just like all the rest of his family. 

So Jimmy Joe heads over to "help" the fish woman catch some fish. They get everything ready to head out to fish. 

My cousin worked in a gift shop in Anchorage one summer and hated Barbara Lavallee due to the dividing line down the middle of the faces. Having been raised on these prints and illustrations, I never thought about it before. But there it is. In every face. 

Fish Woman has promised Jimmy Joe a salmon fishing expedition. Salmon in their richness and bounty hold a special place in the lives and imaginations of the native peoples of the Pacific Northwest/Alaska. Jimmy Joe is determined to catch the best, the biggest, and the most. 

Catching the fish and putting it on ice.

When he catches a fish and sees all its sparkling majesty snuffed out, Jimmy Joe is torn. He knows his mother wanted fish to eat, but how can he take this beautiful thing from the sea? 

Then!--the magic! The wolves of the sea appear. 

Deigning to show themselves is a gift from the sea. The wise Fish Woman and Jimmy Joe both recognize the honor. 

And suddenly, Jimmy Joe knows what to do with the magnificent fish he caught--return it as a gift to the orcas. 

This is a little confusing since he was hesitant to catch the fish and use it to feed his own family, but I guess being the meal of an orca is a bit more fascinating to a little boy than being the meal of a mere human. 

And he heads home--salmonless, but with an amazement and wonder of the sea. 

I like the practicality of this book--Jimmy Joe, while lamenting the necessity of killing such an amazing creature, also understands enough of nature to know the salmon can't escape being someone's meal. 

I love the Fish Woman helping him come to that realization. I like Jimmy Joe being allowed to spend time with (and wanting to spend time with) this elderly person who has so much wisdom and understanding to share with him. 

Sensible Kate by Doris Gates and Illustrated by Marjorie Torrey

I acquired this book the last time our school library discarded a huge quantity of books. They set them outside the library, free for the taking. Since most of them were vintage-y and marvelous, I staggered away under several armloads of books. 

I did that several times--every time they would put out a new batch, I swooped in. I felt guilty about taking all this loveliness, but the one time I didn't go to the school to check, the librarian finally told my sister to tell me a new batch was out. Apparently no one else was as delighted by old worn kids books as much as I was. 

Anyway, to get back to the book. I read this out loud to the kids and.... oh happiness. It was so sweet, so crystal clear, and achingly beautiful. Maybe it was just the mood I was in, but I don't think I have ever had such an immediate emotional response to a book before or after. I was Kate. I could feel the Northern California coast's wintry sunlight, the ocean breeze stirring my red braids. 

Kate is a little girl in the California foster care system of the 1940's. Living without much constancy or affection in her life, Kate has learned to hide her emotion deep and in turn, has become amazingly sensible for a 10 year old girl. 

The story opens with Kate waking up in yet another new bed. This time she has been placed with an elderly childless couple, the Tuttles. The Tuttles are very kind, but Mrs. Tuttle is brusque and Mr. Tuttle is very shy. 

Bright Island by Mabel L Robinson illustrations by Lynd Ward

I forget how I found the description for this book, but I really wanted it. Private island off the coast of Maine, strong willed girl, and boarding school? Yes, please! Then one evening, looking through my parents book filled basement, I saw this old copy. I am not sure if there is any better feeling than suddenly finding that you already have something that you really wanted. Maybe normal people don't know this feeling, since normal people know what books they have. But it is a good feeling. 

(Note the posessive there, as though the book were mine. I pretty much consider my parents books to be my books, just in a different bookcase. In a different house.)

The basic storyline is the coming of age of Thankful Curtis; a girl who has grown up on her family's island off the coast of Maine, totally content in her marvelous world, never wanting to live anywhere else. However, her parents and siblings betray her completely by insisting she go to the mainland for her last year of schooling. She had been her grandfather's favorite, so she is certain they would never do this if Gramps were still alive. But he isn't and she has to go. She ends up at a private boarding school where she is forced into unfamiliar clothes and a shallower seeming world of society and kids her own age, most wealthier than she. She longs for her sailboat, her parents, her island, and even her lazy pet seagull.

It is a somewhat familiar story line, but it is deftly written in an understated tone that earned it the Newbery Medal in 1938.  Thankful is a girl you will admire. She has such absolute certainty about the things she does. She makes mistakes and has a lot of learning to do, but she doesn't sacrifice her self worth to fit in with those who looked down on her. She makes a firm friend, has a few tentative relationships, a marriage proposal, and is left a better person for her year off the island. 

Lynd Ward's woodcut illustrations are marvelous. They are striking and full of movement. 

Except for this becalmed one. 

There are a lot of nautical terms, which I adore. 

A snowstorm. I love this picture!

When I was a teenager, I always thought an island of the coast of Maine was the epitome of everything wonderful. This may have had something to do with having a crush on a Mainer. But I loved Maine books and the whole idea of living on the coast or an island seemed marvelous. The part of me that is still 15 was thrilled with this book. 

And it is a good enough book that the part of me that is grown up was thrilled with it too.