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osprey_archer) wrote2022-12-20 03:43 pm
osprey_archer) wrote2022-12-20 03:43 pm
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Mary Stolz
Today I returned to the Purdue Library to continue my quest for Newbery Honor books, including Mary Stolz's The Noonday Friends. Now you may recall Stolz as the author of the delightful Belling the Tiger, in which two brave mice named Bob and Ozzie set out to bell a cat and through a series of misadventures cross an ocean and bell a tiger instead.
Purdue had the original 1960s edition, with pen and ink illustrations by Beni Montresor, so of course I took it out for a look.
In short order I discovered:
1. In the original edition, the mice were named Asa and Rambo. (Also, the cat July was originally named Siri.)
2. There is apparently a Belling the Tiger extended universe, as I discovered upon removing the book Maximilian's World from the shelf. (Maximilian is a chihuahua puppy. "The fact is, I keep forgetting you are a dog," [Siri] said in a complimentary fashion. "I look upon you as my son."
Maximilian, who looked upon Siri as his father but still thought of himself as a dog, was so confused that he didn't know what to think. He decided to work it out later. After he'd eaten perhaps.)
3. The Belling the Tiger extended universe contains two more books, The Great Rebellion and Siri the Conquistador! These two stories plus Maximilian's World (though oddly not Belling the Tiger, the first book in the sequence) have been published as Tales at the Mousehole... which one of the schools connected to my library owns... but does not lend out.
4. Mary Stolz also wrote Casebook of a Private (Cat's) Eye, which is about a lady private investigator in Victorian world populated by cats! This book was serialized in Cricket, or perhaps only one chapter was excerpted in Cricket?, anyway I read it in my youth and loved it and it is where I learned that "receipt" is a ye olde timey word for "recipe," a fact which so delighted me that I deployed it years later in The Threefold Tie.
5. ANYWAY. Obviously I will be reading the rest of the Belling the Tiger books, and of course The Noonday Friends for Newbery reasons. I would like to explore Stolz's oeuvre further, but she wrote MANY books, so I thought I would throw it open to see if anyone has recommendations for a favorite Mary Stolz book they have read?
Purdue had the original 1960s edition, with pen and ink illustrations by Beni Montresor, so of course I took it out for a look.
In short order I discovered:
1. In the original edition, the mice were named Asa and Rambo. (Also, the cat July was originally named Siri.)
2. There is apparently a Belling the Tiger extended universe, as I discovered upon removing the book Maximilian's World from the shelf. (Maximilian is a chihuahua puppy. "The fact is, I keep forgetting you are a dog," [Siri] said in a complimentary fashion. "I look upon you as my son."
Maximilian, who looked upon Siri as his father but still thought of himself as a dog, was so confused that he didn't know what to think. He decided to work it out later. After he'd eaten perhaps.)
3. The Belling the Tiger extended universe contains two more books, The Great Rebellion and Siri the Conquistador! These two stories plus Maximilian's World (though oddly not Belling the Tiger, the first book in the sequence) have been published as Tales at the Mousehole... which one of the schools connected to my library owns... but does not lend out.
4. Mary Stolz also wrote Casebook of a Private (Cat's) Eye, which is about a lady private investigator in Victorian world populated by cats! This book was serialized in Cricket, or perhaps only one chapter was excerpted in Cricket?, anyway I read it in my youth and loved it and it is where I learned that "receipt" is a ye olde timey word for "recipe," a fact which so delighted me that I deployed it years later in The Threefold Tie.
5. ANYWAY. Obviously I will be reading the rest of the Belling the Tiger books, and of course The Noonday Friends for Newbery reasons. I would like to explore Stolz's oeuvre further, but she wrote MANY books, so I thought I would throw it open to see if anyone has recommendations for a favorite Mary Stolz book they have read?
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I'll have to go look for samples of the Beni Montresor illustrations--we had a book illustrated by him when I was little, and I like his style.
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Cat in the Mirror. A contemporary-as-of-time-of-writing girl named Erin and an ancient Egyptian girl named Irun start experiencing each other's lives in visions. Their lives are families have strange similarities, all the way down to the name of their cat. I really love this book, which was one of my favorites as a kid.
Ferris Wheel. A beautifully written, emotionally acute book about friendship and family in Vermont in the 70s.
Bartholomew Fair. A really fun historical about an assortment of characters going to a fair in Elizabethan times. My favorite character was the scatterbrained young maid.
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Middle grade: I loved A Dog on Barkham Street and The Bully of Barkham Street as a kid, because they cover the same events from two different characters' points of view. Not sure how they would read now, especially with so much attention to, and a shift in attitudes about, bullying.
Also middle grade: Lands End is a Florida book, with the main character going from bright but self-absorbed to more thoughtful as he makes friends with a newly arrived and eccentric family. I love the protagonist and his encyclopedia-reading ways, and love his "regular people" parents who aren't fascinating eccentrics but are reliable.
Young adult: Go and Catch a Flying Fish and What Time of Night Is It are also Florida books, chronicling a family in the midst of divorce. The kids, Taylor and Jem, take different sides and deal with it in different ways; there's quite a bit of 1970s feminism, and through it all the beauty of Florida and perpetual threat of it being lost to greed and capitalism.
Also young adult: By the Highway Home is a grief book, about a family moving on after the oldest son is killed in the Vietnam War. They move to another state to help an aging relative run an inn.
And one more! Who Wants Music On Monday is probably my favorite of the YA romance/dating books; it's about two sisters, one tomboyish and one vain and into romance. Their college-age older brother also figures but doesn't get a love interest, I don't think. It was dated even when I read it in the 1980s, but in a way that fascinated me. I think it switches point of view (limited 3rd person) among the siblings.
Best wishes for happy reading! I adore the part of Noonday Friends about staying up all night. :)
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Omigod.
Ofc I also immediately think of Tooth and Claw, Jo Walton's sentimental novel about dragons.
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