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Lilly Library Redux
May. 25th, 2023 07:49 amBack from another trip to the Lilly Library! It was such a beautiful day in Bloomington that I was almost sorry to spend it in the library rather than wandering, but of course in the end I buckled down to my Newbery Honor books.
From the title, you might expect Katherine Shippen’s New Found World to encompass all the Americas, but in fact it focuses almost solely on Central and South America. The United States shows up in a brief blip to issue the Monroe Doctrine (which was originally meant to keep European powers from interfering in the western hemisphere but later, Shippen notes disapprovingly, was used by the United States as an excuse to meddle in Central and South American affairs), then again with regard to Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy and the earnest attempts of just about every other country in the hemisphere to convince Argentina that perhaps, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to be friendly with the Nazis. (Argentina was undeterred.)
At some point I may post at more length about the Newbery award as a reflection of history. For now I will just note that this is often more visible in general trends, rather than in any individual book - but this individual book is an exception to that rule: it feels like a literary embodiment of Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy, indeed a crystallization of the New Deal spirit. Great things happen when people work together, and, as Shippen writes in ringing conclusion, “We will work. We will create the needed precepts. Rich and poor, brown, black, and white, together we are building a glorious new world.”
Julia Davis Adams’ Mountains Are Free is a retelling of the William Tell story, told through the eyes of Bruno, a young boy who just happens to be present at all the major events in the William Tell cycle: the apple, the escape from Geller’s custody, the uprising, etc. In and around these happenings, Bruno and a jester named Kyo help a noble Austrian girl named Zelina escape from an arranged marriage, (and YES I kept envisioning Kyo from Fruits Basket, and that DID make this extra-funny), and then of course Switzerland is free and Bruno and Zelina fall in love. HAPPY END.
Finally, in under the wire (I finished five minutes before the Reading Room closed!), Alida Malkus’s The Dark Star of Itza, a lively retelling of the fall of Chichen Itza based, IIRC, on a brief account in one of the three remaining Mayan codices: the impulsive king of Chichen Itza kidnapped the bride of a neighboring king, who then razed Chichen Itza. Very Trojan War. Our heroine Nicté is a Cassandra figure, daughter of a priest and a seeress in her own right, whose warning of Chichen Itza’s impending doom goes unheeded.
Briefly it looked like the book was going to end Sutcliff-style with the heroine offering herself as a human sacrifice to relieve a drought, and I was deeply impressed: despite the Newbery Award’s later reputation for grimness, the early books pretty much universally have happy endings! And so it is with this one: after Nicté jumps into the sacrifice pool, her boyfriend fishes her out, and they escape Chichen Itza and head off to start a new life elsewhere. HAPPY END! Sort of. Is any end really happy if your whole city has been razed?
From the title, you might expect Katherine Shippen’s New Found World to encompass all the Americas, but in fact it focuses almost solely on Central and South America. The United States shows up in a brief blip to issue the Monroe Doctrine (which was originally meant to keep European powers from interfering in the western hemisphere but later, Shippen notes disapprovingly, was used by the United States as an excuse to meddle in Central and South American affairs), then again with regard to Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy and the earnest attempts of just about every other country in the hemisphere to convince Argentina that perhaps, just maybe, it’s not a good idea to be friendly with the Nazis. (Argentina was undeterred.)
At some point I may post at more length about the Newbery award as a reflection of history. For now I will just note that this is often more visible in general trends, rather than in any individual book - but this individual book is an exception to that rule: it feels like a literary embodiment of Roosevelt’s Good Neighbor policy, indeed a crystallization of the New Deal spirit. Great things happen when people work together, and, as Shippen writes in ringing conclusion, “We will work. We will create the needed precepts. Rich and poor, brown, black, and white, together we are building a glorious new world.”
Julia Davis Adams’ Mountains Are Free is a retelling of the William Tell story, told through the eyes of Bruno, a young boy who just happens to be present at all the major events in the William Tell cycle: the apple, the escape from Geller’s custody, the uprising, etc. In and around these happenings, Bruno and a jester named Kyo help a noble Austrian girl named Zelina escape from an arranged marriage, (and YES I kept envisioning Kyo from Fruits Basket, and that DID make this extra-funny), and then of course Switzerland is free and Bruno and Zelina fall in love. HAPPY END.
Finally, in under the wire (I finished five minutes before the Reading Room closed!), Alida Malkus’s The Dark Star of Itza, a lively retelling of the fall of Chichen Itza based, IIRC, on a brief account in one of the three remaining Mayan codices: the impulsive king of Chichen Itza kidnapped the bride of a neighboring king, who then razed Chichen Itza. Very Trojan War. Our heroine Nicté is a Cassandra figure, daughter of a priest and a seeress in her own right, whose warning of Chichen Itza’s impending doom goes unheeded.
Briefly it looked like the book was going to end Sutcliff-style with the heroine offering herself as a human sacrifice to relieve a drought, and I was deeply impressed: despite the Newbery Award’s later reputation for grimness, the early books pretty much universally have happy endings! And so it is with this one: after Nicté jumps into the sacrifice pool, her boyfriend fishes her out, and they escape Chichen Itza and head off to start a new life elsewhere. HAPPY END! Sort of. Is any end really happy if your whole city has been razed?
