One Day in Ancient Rome by G.. Kirtland - A Book Review

This book was published in the 1960s by Harcourt, Brace & World.  Written at a middle elementary level with simple plot, this would be a nice read-aloud when studying Ancient Rome.

“What was it like to live in Rome at the time of Titus Caesar? What did people do all day? What did they eat and wear and talk about? What did children play, study, get scolded for, dream of doing? All these questions—and many more—are answered in this original, sparkling story of two children who lived in ancient Rome. From earliest morning when their pet monkey wakes them, through a busy day—studying with the tutor after breakfast, marketing with Nurse, wheedling honey cakes from the cook, giving a play-pretend banquet of magnificent sumptuousness—until late afternoon and the long-promised event the children have been waiting for, the reader experiences vividly and directly the lives of a sister and brother in a patrician household. 

I thought this book was part of the One Day series because the author did write some books for that series, but every list of that series I can find does not include this title. 

“Based on meticulous research, this charming story re-creates a way of life long since gone but which children today will read about with immense pleasure and a sense of actual participation. The Latin words and expressions throughout, for which meaning and pronunciation are given in a glossary, lend spice to the whole, and Jerome Snyder’s remarkable—and authentic—drawings are full of sly humor, fascinating detail, and great beauty.” (from the dust jacket)

The author, who wrote under the pseudonym G.B. Kirtland, was a writer of various genres. Al Hine was born in 1915 and died in 1974. In 1950 he married children’s author Sesyle Joslin, and they collaborated on several writing projects.  Together they authored Is There a Mouse in the House?, One Day in Aztec Mexico, One Day in Ancient Rome, and One Day in Elizabethan England.

Hine wrote some novels for adult with adult content so don’t pick up all of his books thinking they are wonderful for children. He authored some books based on movies like Bewitched.

The illustrator of One Day in Ancient Rome was Jerome Snyder. He was born in 1916 and died in 1976 of a heart attack following a touch football game in Central Park, New York City. As an illustrator and graphic designer, he gained great success as the first art director of Sports Illustrated and later Scientific American. He also taught art at such prestigious schools as Yale and the Pratt Institute. He illustrated several children’s books including the book One Day in Ancient Rome. His drawing in this book is simple black line and whimsical. “In the absence of color, his delicate, meticulous drawings demonstrate control of line, secure draftsmanship, thoughtful interpretation and a surprising agility for caricature.”

 http://adcglobal.org/hall-of-fame/jermoe-snyder/) 

Some additional books relevant to this title and the study of Ancient Rome include:

City – David Macaulay

Growing Up in Ancient Rome – Mike Corbishley

Who Were the Romans – Phil Roxbee Cox

Stories from Roman History – Jean DeFrasne

Ancient Rome – Sophia Fenton

Story of the Romans – H.A. Guerber

Lives of Famous Romans – Olivia Coolidge

Gods & Goddesses in the Daily Life of the Ancient Romans – Peter Hicks

Beyond Amazing: Six Spectacular Science Pop-Ups – Jay Young (includes an abacus)

The Magic of Paper – Walter Buehr (includes information about papyrus)

Here Come the Elephants – Alice Goudey

Elephant Families – Arthur Dorros (Let’s Read and Find Out early science series)

A First Look at Monkeys and Apes – Millicent Selsam

The First Book of Time – Jeanne Bendick (sundials)

Tiber: The Roman River – Nora Nowlan (Rivers of the World series)

(All rights reserved. Please ask permission before copying this review or publishing it elsewhere. Thank you. Sandy Hall, February 2019)

Cutlass in the Snow by Elizabeth Shub

Cutlass in the Snow - Elizabeth Shub

A book review by Sandy Hall

“There are events so strange or unlikely that in time people stop believing that they really happened. Over the years they are told by parents to children, by neighbors to friends, until the truth is slowly forgotten. They become stories, local legends…..” This is that kind of story.

When a young boy Sam and his grandpa sailed across Great South Bay to Fire Island which is south of Long Island, NY, one day in the winter of 1797, they were just searching for holly to use to decorate their home for Christmas. Instead, what they found was something far more unbelievable and amazing, so much so, that in time people stopped believing.

Today Fire Island is a beach-lover’s wonder land. Beautiful sand beaches stretch across the south shore of this narrow island. A historic lighthouse is worth the walk to see, and lovely homes have also been built here in places. Some of my favorite memories of my husband are when we would pick up a sandwich at a local shop and drive 10 minutes to Fire Island. We sat along the beach and enjoyed the sound of the waves, ate our meal, and then walked and talked along the water’s edge. Even in winter, some days were warm enough for this little get-away!

But in the late 18^th century, Fire Island was a wild, empty place where Long Island locals would go to hunt raccoons. Some said that pirates came here, but grandpa had never seen them. In November of 1797, the weather turned warm so grandpa decided to take his grandson to Fire Island to collect holly for their Christmas décor. They took provisions for lunch and sailed then in their small boat across the Great South Bay, a trip of about 2 hours. Once there, they began to explore the island, climbing the dunes. Grandpa wanted to show Sam the great Atlantic Ocean on the other side. After collecting the holly branches, it started to snow. They decided to spend the night on their boat and had prepared for this possibility.

During the night, Sam awoke and saw lights on the island. Lights that were moving. What were they? WHO was there? In the morning, they discovered something amazing!

I’ll leave you there. This well-told story is a well-known legend of the Long Island area. “Grandpa’s story, and how the long-lost truth came to light, is still told in the Campbell family. Descendants of Grandpa still live in the old farmhouse” and a special item is passed down from generation to generation to the eldest Campbell boy on his tenth birthday.

This book is only 46 pages long and is written on a middle elementary reading level; however, it is a delightful story to read aloud to the entire family.

“Editor and translator Elizabeth “Libby” Shub was born in Vilno, Poland, the daughter of Samuel and Bessie Charney. In 1919, her family moved to the United States, where they settled in New York and her father, writing as Shmuel Niger, worked as a literary critic for the Yiddish newspaper The Day. Because her parents ran a literary salon in their home, Shub was exposed to Yiddish literature and writers from an early age. She met author Isaac Bashevi Singer when her father invited him to dinner at their house soon after Singer’s arrival in the United States in 1935, and they developed a lasting friendship. In 1965….Elizabeth began working as a reader in the children’s department at Harper & Row Publishers and soon became an associate editor there. She later worked at Charles Scribner’s Sons (1966-1968) and Macmillan Publishing Company (1968-75), also as an associate editor of children’s books. She became senior editor at Greenwillow Books in 1975 and retired from that position in 1996.

“It was Shub who suggested to Singer that he write a children’s book. He agreed to write one if she would translate it from Yiddish to English: the result to Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories (1966), which won a Newbery Honor Book award, as did another collaboration, When Shlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories (1968)….In addition to works by Singer, Shub translated other folk tales and children’s stories. Her translations of Theodor Fontane’s Sir Ribbeck of Ribbeck of Havelland and About Wise Men and Simpletons: Twelve Tales from Grimm won American Library Association Notable Book awards in 1969 and 1971. Shub also wrote several original books for children, including The White Stallion (1982), She died in New York City on June 18, 2004, at the age of 89.” (Source: https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00353/hrc-00353.html)

The illustrator Rachel Isadora was once a professional ballerina and later in life began to devote time to full-time writing, illustrating and painting. She wrote and illustrated the Caldecott Honor book Ben’s Trumpet. She also illustrated Shub’s books The White Stallion and Seeing is Believing.  The Shub-Isadora author/illustrator team worked well together!

For more information about Isadora and a lengthy list of the books she authored and illustrated: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rachel_Isadora

Books to further advance your studies:

The Real Book about Treasure Hunting – Hal Burton

The Pirate Book – Mickie Davidson

Pirates: Robbers of the High Seas – Gail Gibbons

The Golden Book of Buccaneers – John Gilbert

Pirates and Privateers – Edith McCall, Frontiers of America series

Pirate Chase – Earl Schenck Miers

Famous Pirates of the New World – A.B.C. Whipple, Landmark

Picture Book of New York – Bernadine Bailey

The Real Book about Gold – Harold Coy

The Story Book of Gold – Maud and Miska Petersham

Plants of Christmas – Hal Borland

Craft of Sail: A Primer of Sailing – Jan Adkins

Sailing with the Wind – Thomas Locker

Along the Seashore – Margaret Waring Buck

The Seashore Book – E. Smith Boyd

Moving Hills of Sand – Julian May

Shifting Sands: The Story of Sand Dunes – Ramona Mahur

Seashells of North America – R. Tucker Abbott

The First Book of Seashells – Betty Cavanna

The Junior Science Book of Seashells – Sam & Beryl Epstein

A First Look at Animals with Horns – Millicent Selsam

Long Spikes – Jim Arnosky

Here Come the Deer – Alice Goudey

Here Come the Cottontails – Alice Goudey

Rabbits, Rabbits and More Rabbits – Gail Gibbons

Cottontail Rabbit – Elizabeth & Charles Schwartz

Ringtail – Alice Crew Gall

Rascally Ringtails – J.M. Roever

Here Come the Raccoons – Alice Goudey

Atlantic Shore: Human and Natural History from Long Island to Labrador – John Hay

(All rights reserved. Please request permission before copying or publishing. 2019. Sandy Hall)

The Benefit of Biographies

The Benefit of Biographies 

             

Ride along on Hudson Taylor’s first voyage to China…trek through the virgin forests of Western Pennsylvania with George Washington, the young surveyor…painstakingly sew a flag with Betsy Ross…suffer the grief of a mother dying with young Abraham Lincoln…brave the dangers of going to a remote region of Africa with David Livingstone.

All of these adventures and more will be yours and your children’s as you read biographies aloud. But this isn’t the only benefit to reading biographies to your children. The true story of a great man or woman will set before your sons and daughters a wonderful example for them to follow. The heroes of today’s society are not fit to be copied, in my humble opinion. Noble men and women of the past and present as well as the great statesmen and patriots of our country’s heritage are worthy of presenting to our children.  Yes, they all had faults since none of us are perfect, but reading biographies helps us understand the backgrounds of these people’s lives that lead to the great feats they did and their amazing accomplishments.  We see how they overcame great difficulties and how early events in their lives affected their future deeds. Let’s raise our children’s dreams to those things that are noble and good, that are unselfish and of pure motive, that are full of worthy character to be emulated. All of this can be done by reading aloud biographies to them.

Reading the tales of great people also indirectly teaches history to your children. This is so much more effective than a straight historical account in a textbook. The people of history “come alive.” After all, what is history? The stories of people involved in the circumstances of life.

Many series of biographies are available today. Not everything you find though will be good for your family. Choose carefully. Remember that more biographies published currently will be different in perspective from those published in the first half of the 1900s.

Your children may take while to learn to really appreciate a good biography because this type of literature is rarely assigned or read today. Sadly! And when was the last time you read a biography?

Here are some series and authors I can highly recommend, many that are available in my library.

Early/middle elementary:

Childhood of Famous Americans biographies

Discovery biographies (also the World Explorers, Americans All, and Native Americans series by this same publisher)

Step-Up biographies

Genevieve Foster’s biographies

Middle/upper elementary:

Signature biographies

Some of the Landmark titles are biographies

Piper biographies

Opal Wheeler’s biographies

Clara Ingram Judson’s biographies

Sower series biographies – about great Christians

The Young….biographies

Men and Women of Faith series

Jean Lee Latham’s biographies

North Star biographies

Ronald Syme’s biographies

Upper elementary and up:

Messner biographies

Albert Marrin’s books – some of them are biographical

Immortals of History series

Makers of History series by Jacob Abbot and John S.C. Abbott

Makers of American History series by Jacob Abbott and John S.C. Abbott

Any others you would like to suggest?

(All rights reserved. 2019. Sandy Hall. Please ask permission before posting or publishing this blog elsewhere.)