Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I’ve Just Finished Reading

At long last, another Newbery Honor book! I guessed that Anne Dempster Kyle’s Apprentice of Florence would be about an apprentice artist during the Renaissance, and I was mostly wrong. There is a secondary character who becomes an apprentice to Ghirlandiao! But our hero Neno is an apprentice to a silk merchant, who gets sent to manage the merchant’s affairs in Constantinople just in time to be on the scene when the city falls! Fortunately for Neno, Neno’s father once saved the Grand Vizier’s son from drowning (which is why the Grand Vizier freed Neno’s father from slavery, thus enabling him to return to Italy and father Neno), and now the Grand Vizier returns the favor by saving Neno.

When we first meet Neno, his father has been missing for years, and near the end of the book we discover it’s because he went on a voyage, got marooned by mutineers, and accidentally discovered America. After returning to Europe (crossing a portion of the Atlantic in a dugout canoe, which ruined his health), he dies in Neno’s arms, but not before telling Neno his story and presenting him with a disk bearing a feathered serpent as proof of its veracity. Neno tells Cosimo de Medici of this fantastic potential new trade route. Cosimo de Medici politely scoffs.

Also Mary Stolz’s A Wonderful, Terrible Time, a secondhand acquisition from my beloved Von’s. Best friends Mady and Sue Ellen are enjoying a quiet but happy summer in their relatively poor Black urban neighborhood, having tea parties with their dolls, stringing beads, visiting the local dime store and deciding what they’d buy if they had money. But then, by a wonderful chance, they have the opportunity to spend two weeks at a summer camp.

The book description puzzlingly does not mention the summer camp aspect, which seems like one of the main selling points of the book to me! Delightful summer camp descriptions. There is a three-legged raccoon who became the camp pet after being rescued from a trap who is an absolute delight. I also enjoyed the contrast between the two girls, who in some ways are more like sisters than best friends: constantly thrown together because they grew up in adjoining apartments, they love each other and enjoy playing together, but they are also radically different people. Dreamy, animal-loving Mady adores summer camp, while Sue Ellen can’t wait to get back home.

I enjoyed this book, but I don’t feel a need to keep it. Would another Mary Stolz fan like a crack at it? I’d be happy to pop it in the mail.

What I’m Reading Now

Not a lot of forward motion in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes this week. Otherwise, I think I’m actually only working on a few books right now? Two buddy reads, plus Charlotte Bronte’s The Professor, which I’ve almost finished. Oh, and I started Phyllis Ann Karr’s Frostflower and Thorn... will this become Book that Travels through the Dreamwidth Circle, a la At Amberleaf Fair?

What I Plan to Read Next

My hold on Ellis Peters’ Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Heart just came in at the library!

Comments

[asakiyume]

I wonder, and kind of bet, that all sorts of random people did travel to the Americas, and from all directions, prior to Columbus. (I realize this is an established thing to have opinions on, but usually it's in terms of groups. "The Vikings were there first" or "The Polynesians were there first" (all of these with a silent exception for the people who settled it to start out with) But I'm meaning random individuals. Like your guy's father in the story.

I can imagine a politely scoffing Cosimo de Medici drawn by Kate Beaton.

[osprey_archer]

Yeah, the part that I struggled with was not the fact that he made it to America but that he made it back to Europe, after going a large part of the way in a dugout canoe. I mean... I guess! Maybe! He does get picked up by a fishing boat eventually, so it's not like he's paddling all the way across the Atlantic. But also really?

The idea of politely scoffing Cosimo de Medici drawn by Kate Beaton delights me.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, that seems ... unlikely. One direction--I forget which way--you have the trade winds helping you. But the other way you have them against you!