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. 

Turtle in Paradise and Full of Beans by Jennifer L. Holm

Rather cluelessly, I read Full of Beans before I read Turtle in Paradise. Which is interesting. Because Full of Beans takes place just BEFORE Turtle in Paradise, but was written AFTER. 

So I feel like I read it backwards even though technically I read it chronologically. 

First of all, both are great historical fiction books set in Key West during the Great Depression. This was just before Key West became a tourist destination, so there is certainly some gritty reality in them. 

(Also, avocados are called alligator pears. I enjoyed this detail for no real reason.)

Turtle in Paradise deals with a girl named Turtle who is sent off to live with relatives in Key West because her mother took a job as a live in housekeeper to someone who won't have kids around. In Key West, Turtle gets to know her family and finds adventure. 

Full of Beans gives us a backstory for Turtle's cousin Beans. I know Turtle in Paradise won a Newbery Honor, but I definitely liked Full of Beans more. Beans is an opportunistic realist, which makes him a fascinating character. He is an entrepreneur where there are no jobs and hardly any money. But somehow, Beans figures out a way to make a few bucks. Not surprisingly, Beans has a few moments of moral quandary or two as he makes money doing odd jobs that are not always strictly legal. If no one is hurt, does it matter? A question for the ages.

I liked Turtle, but Beans captured my heart. 

Eliza: The Story of Elizabeth Schuyler Hamilton by Margaret McNamara & Illus by Esmé Shapiro

It is always interesting to me when society has a renewed interest in someone long dead. Alexander Hamilton hasn't done anything interesting in over 200 years and somehow, he is a person of very current interest and passion.

The power of a musical. 

This book is an interesting look at Alexander Hamilton's wife, an interesting and important player in the Revolutionary/Early Years Era of American history.

 You can see the sway of the musical in the fact that the actress that plays Eliza in the play has graced the book with an afterward; giving her blessing.  

The book itself is written like a letter from an older Elizabeth to her soon to be born great-grandchild. 

While no such letter exists, it is an interesting format to convey a personal touch and a wealth of information. 

Eliza goes all the way back to her birth, sharing details of her parent's life and home north of Albany. 

Eliza like all good heroines was a bit unconventional, loving the outdoors and not being afraid of anything. Unlike her visiting friends who were a little hesitant about the wildness of newly settled area. 

Eliza is true to the era, depicting her family's slaves and a destroying fire that moved through during her childhood. 

Do you remember the discussion a year or two ago about how slaves were depicted in children's books? Sophie Blackall's illustrations in A Fine Dessert and Vanessa Brantley-Newton's illustrations in A Birthday Cake for George Washington were widely criticized because they depicted the slaves as smiling or enjoying their enslavement. Clearly Shapiro learned from that conversation. 

The courtship of the young, passionate, and orphaned Alexander and the well-connected Elizabeth

Their home filled with light, love, and children

The day of Alexander's death

After Alexander's death, Elizabeth devoted herself to making the world more gentle and kind to those destitute and needy. 

Along with several others, Eliza was involved in establishing the Orphan Asylum Society which is still operating under the name of Graham Windham. 

This is a children's book, so it doesn't include all the details about the Alexander's life, including Alexander's affair with Maria Reynolds becoming public, their first son being killed in a duel only two years before Alexander was killed in his own duel, and her oldest daughter who had a mental breakdown after her brother's death and was there after described as being in "an eternal childhood" for the rest of her life. 

But overall, this book has a wealth of knowledge about an interesting woman involved in the founding of America.