To Do With a Book: Island of the Blue Dolphins

Island of the Blue Dolphins is Scott O'Dell's classic tale of Karana, a girl who lives alone for many years.  It's based on a true story about a girl who had lived off the coast of California.  Island of the Blue Dolphins won O'Dell the Newberry Medal in 1961.  When the girls book group read Island of the Blue Dolphins, it inspired lots of interesting discussions. Most of the girls really enjoyed it, and a few loved it and have read it multiple times.  (A few girls later confided they did not like it.  It is that kind of book!)

In just looking around a little, I found this wonderful story from fellow acclaimed author Lois Lowry about first meeting him.  You might have to scroll down a bit to get to the story, but it is quite worthwhile.

The most interesting discussion was wondering whether or not we would like (both girls and moms) to be on an island alone for any length of time, and what would be hardest.  Some girls would want to be there for a short while, others just during the day.

Most girls wanted to be able to see or to make a cormorant skirt, or an otter cape, as Karana makes for herself during her many years.  I was struck by how Karana still makes things of beauty .  We had to content ourselves with beading some pretty (for Karana, "win-tai") bracelets from dark-colored beads and shells.

One of the moms brought and expertly prepared seared scallops for the girls, so they could taste what Karana's mostly-fish diet was like.  Most had not had them before, and some even pronounced them "sweet."

Of course, American Girl dolls just ask to be dressed up as characters, and so here is Karana (with a vaccum attachment representing her hunting knife), Rantu & Rantu-Aru, and Tu-ok.  There could be lots more to do with Island of the Blue Dolphins.   Any other ideas?

A Quote for Monday: The Last Catholic in America

I recently discovered Loyola Press Catholic Classics series.  These were reprints started in 2005 of several dozen classic novels from the 20th century, from great authors like Rumer Godden (In This House of Brede), Edwin O'Connor (The Edge of Sadness) and A.J. Cronin (The Keys of the Kingdom).  There are also books I don't like as much, such as Mr. Blue by Myles Connolly, but lots of people I love and respect like that one, so there is something for everyone in the series.  A new discovery for me was John R. Powers' The Last Catholic in America.  This is a very bittersweet novel, a young man, a "fallen-away Catholic," as the novel reveals slowly, travels back to the south side of Chicago to revisit his parish neighborhood, and reminisces about growing up in pre-Vatican II Catholic America.  At one point, the narrator recounts his first confession and one soon after as a 2nd grader when he thinks he has committed a mortal sin, and a later confession:

What a fantastic feeling!  To come back from the spiritually dead.  To be free from sin! free from sin! free from sin!  As I walked through the neighborhood, brown igloos of raked leaves smoldered lazily, scening the air with their familiar fall fragrance.  The world fit so comfortably around me that everything I saw and heard seemed as if it had just been given, as I had, a brand-new shot at life.....

And I remember the last one.  Kneeling in a confessional in some city's cathedral.  When the priest asked me if I was sorry for my sins, in a moment of indifference, I gave him an honest answer.  He shouted.  I left.  By then, there was more than a darkened window separating us.

Down the steps of the cathedral knowing, no, hoping in my mind that I was right, yet realizing I was never again to feel that resurgence of faith in my own and the world's immortality.  Never again to experience the exhilaration of rising from the spiritually dead.  Never again to be free from sin, free from sin, free from sin.

Favorite Things Friday: New Puppies

Here is ours, Tacy.  She's named after Tacy in the Besty-Tacy books.

Favorite Things Friday: Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church

I have so many ideas for favorite things, and all of them were part of our Labor Day weekend.   And since last week was too busy for me to post a favorite thing, I can now get several weeks ahead if I work at it.

This week's favorite thing is Annunciation Byzantine Catholic Church in Homer Glen, IL.  Our family tries to attend liturgy there a few times a year or more, whenever business or leisure brings us to the Chicagoland area.  On Labor Day weekend, it was both.    My photos aren't that great, just being snapped by my phone, but I hope the beauty of the church shines through.  Icons are everywhere, and even the mailbox is decorated.  Father Thomas Loya, the dynamic pastor, has "written" or painted, all of the icons throughout the church, and even outside the church (as on the mailbox).  It's beautiful, and so is the liturgy.   Well worth a drive for those who live anywhere nearby.

Because my 8-year-old was wearing an orange fleeece, he had to demonstrate St. John's wings shown in this icon.

Yes, even the mailbox is decorated.

Father Loya.

Father Loya's dog.  I think it is a Hungarian dog, and I cannot remember the name at the moment.  I'm pretty sure it's something Greek.  I will update when I remember.

A Quote for Monday: Blessed John Paul II (and St. Catherine of Siena)

If you are what you should be, you will set the whole world ablaze!


--Blessed John Paul II

This quote is actually from St. Catherine of Siena, but I first saw it in Colleen Swaim excellent new book: Ablaze: Stories of Daring Teen Saints.  I reviewed the book in my July Catholic Post column, and interviewed Colleen about the book here.

Here's the original quote from St. Catherine of Siena:  

"Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire." 

— St. Catherine of Siena

To Do With a Book: Betsy-Tacy

Oh how I love the Betsy-Tacy books!  There are so many fun things to do with this wonderful series of books written in the 1940s and 50s by Maud Hart Lovelace about her early 20th century childhood in Mankato, Minnesota (Deep Valley in the books).

Five or six years ago, when I first started thinking about starting a girls book group for my then two young daughters, I hosted a half-dozen gatherings one summer with a small group of girls and my oldest daughter.  And of course one of the books was Betsy-Tacy, first in the series.  We talked about friendship and fun, and we made fudge, just like Betsy and her classmates do in later books.  I have a photo somewhere of the group of little girls with the fudge, but can't locate it easily.   Later, in 2009, when our very established girls book group read Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill, we made fudge again, and the girls were old enough to do most of the boiling sugar work (a little dangerous for younger kids) themselves:

Also that girls book group meeting, in honor of Betsy, Tacy & Tib making it over the Big Hill to Little Syria, one of the moms brought a host of Lebanese treats, including fig preserves that were very interesting on fresh pita bread from a local Lebanese bakery. Here's the snack spread:

The fudge was delicious; I used my mom's recipe, which she always called "Mamie Eisenhower fudge."  I call it "Norma's Famous Fudge" after my mom.  Clearly it dates after the 1908 time period of the first Betsy-Tacy book (Betsy-Tacy), but it's extra delicious and from mid-20th century, when Maud Hart Lovelace was writing the books.

Betsy-Tacy Fudge (Norma’s Famous Fudge)

3/4 cup (1.5 sticks) butter
3/4 cup evaporated milk
3 cups sugar

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2 cups semisweet chocolate chips (equal to a 12oz. package)
7 oz. jar marshmallow creme
1 tsp. vanilla

Put chocolate chips, marshmallow creme, and vanilla in a large bowl, and set aside.

Meanwhile, combine milk, butter and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil.  Boil for 6 minutes.

Pour hot mixture (careful!) over chocolate, etc., and stir until smooth.  Put into a 9X 13 pan (or large pie pan--this makes for thicker pieces) and cut when cool.

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For a good summary of the series, I want to share what I wrote to the girls (and parents) in 2009 for the girls book group:

The Betsy-Tacy books are nicely divided into the four "younger" books.  These are the ones I would most highly recommend for all ages of the book group:
Betsy-Tacy
Betsy, Tacy and Tib
Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill (our book group read this month)
Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown  


If you haven't read all the of the Betsy-Tacy earliest books, you should!  The first book is available on unabridged audio CD; we had it several years ago from the library and it was an excellent production.
The Betsy high school books, perhaps more appropriate for the older girls, are:

Heaven to Betsy
Betsy in Spite of Herself
Betsy was a Junior
Betsy and Joe
There are two books about Betsy (almost) grown up:
Betsy and the Great World
Betsy's Wedding

Another book from those days is Emily of Deep Valley, probably my favorite, and Carney's House Party.


I have several comments about the "older Betsy" books.  In Heaven to Betsy there is a Ouija board used several times.  When I first read the book, I was really concerned for it, and I still don't like that part of it.  What I found is that it allowed me to have a great discussion with my oldest about the reason it's bad and discuss how culturally it was a different time circa 1900 and there was not as much understanding about it; it was a "parlor game."  We referred back to the section of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on offenses against the first commandment, specifically CCC 2115-2117.  The Vatican website has the CCC online here..

Melissa Wiley has a terrific introduction and list of the Betsy-Tacy books and similar Maud Hart Lovelace titles; she writes favorably here about Emily of Deep Valley.  I am only sad that I missed Betsy-Tacy convert week when the "older Betsy" books were re-issued in September.
She also wrote about Heaven to Betsy here, and Betsy and Tacy Go over the Big Hill here.
Here is a link to the Betsy-Tacy Society website.  Makes me want to head to Mankato, Minnesota to see the Betsy, Tacy and Tib houses!  Field trip, girls?

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I'm sure no one else is asking, "Hey, Nancy, what else can I do with the Betsy-Tacy books?" but just in case you might be looking for one more thing, perhaps you might be getting a puppy, perhaps even an English Shepherd puppy.  Your family is trying out different names for the new addition, and your husband finds in an older dog book that two-syllable names ending in a vowel sound are the best bet for dogs.  Your family might be trying out a lot of different names, including Greek letters like Zeta and Theta, and then the breeder comments that the puppy is very shy and reserved.  So maybe, after meeting the puppy a few days before you pick her up (and indeed, she is sable-haired and shy, but oh, so sweet), you mention that Tacy might be a good name.  And when you pick her up one holiday Monday, that is her name, and the name really fits.

Do you enjoy the Betsy-Tacy books?  What are some of your favorites?

A Quote for Monday: Lucy Maud Montgomery

"There's plenty of time for you to be grown up, Rilla. Don't wish your youth away. It goes too quickly. You'll begin to taste life soon enough."


"Taste life! I want to eat it," cried Rilla, laughing. "I want everything­, everything a girl can have. I'll be fifteen in another month, and then nobody can say I'm a child any longer. I heard someone say once that the years from fifteen to nineteen are the best years in a girl's life. I'm going to make them perfectly splendid--­just fill them with fun."


This is the high-spirited title heroine of Lucy Maud Montgomery's wonderful Rilla of Ingleside.  I dearly love Rilla, even more than her mother, Ann of Green Gables.  The book is not just a great story, but great historical fiction, written soon after the events, of World War I's devastating impact on North American families who sent young men to the war.


Of course, she's wrong that 15-19 is the best time in a girl's life.  It just keeps getting better!  I just can't help but share another quote from Rilla of Ingleside:


"Everything, it seems to me, has to be purchased by self-sacrifice. Our race has marked every step of its painful ascent with blood. And now torrents of it must flow again. No, Mrs. Crawford, I don't think the war has been sent as a punishment for sin. I think it is the price humanity must pay for some blessing - some advance great enough to be worth the price - which we may not live to see but which our children's children will inherit." 

Favorite Things Friday: Surprise Lilies

Surprise lilies are those wonderful lilies that come out in late summer .  Darn it if every year they don't come back and surprise us!  

I promise you, at our house, each and every year, we all comment how we won't see surprise lilies this year.  We seem to miss their green phase, and then one of will comment, oh, the surprise lilies must have gotten mowed over.  I didn't see them come up, even in their green phase.  Neither did I.That just looks completely dead, I think they must have a certain life span and ours have just lived out their number of perennial years.  Blah, blah, blah.  And then one day last week, we started out on a bike ride:

This is the start of the surprise lilies.  Of course we all cheered and were thrilled, and I had to take a photo.  Then of course we saw them all over our small town in various places.

In a day or so they bloom even more fantastically:  

I see on Wikipedia that surprise lilies are also called "resurrection lilies" and that they come from Japan.  

Are you always surprised by surprise lilies?