Our last Read-Aloud of the school year was
Madeline Takes Command by Ethel C. Brill. This historical fiction book is based on a true story and takes place in Quebec at the time of its early settlement. Madeline is left in charge of the fort for about a week while her father is off scouting with soldiers and her mother is obtaining provisions upriver. As the daughter of the Fort 's leader, with the help of her two younger brothers, she literally commands the very few trustworthy helpers left to help her fight off an Indian attack. The small group spends many sleepless nights guarding the fort, as they try to make it seem like there are a lot of soldiers inside. She is very brave and conscientious of her duty at all times. She earns the respect of all those she commands because she works as hard as all the others. This is an exciting and inspiring tale!
I continued on with my reading of Willa Cather's novels, this time
The Professor's House. Once again, Cather is phenomenal in her description of geographical features and in establishing a sense of "place". In this story, a college professor meets an exceptional young man, Tom, who becomes a friend of the professor's family. Most of the story involves Tom's youth and his amazing discovery of the ruins of an ancient civilization. He and a buddy found the ruins when going after a lost steer that required them to swim a small river. No one had seen them before. His buddy sold the artifacts to a museum for top dollar and put half the money in an account for Tom, who is devastated when he hears the news. The story also focuses on the Professor and how he becomes tired of his own family life which feels shallow to him as he ages. He doesn't want to move from the small house with its writer's garret in the attic, to the big fancy house his wife insists they need. It is interesting how this author can tie these two ideas together and make the reader so interested in the day to day happenings of these characters' lives.
Willa Cather's novel
One of Ours, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1923. In it, the young man Claude, grows up on a farm but leaves home to go to college. He meets new people there and learns a lot about how other people live their lives.Unfortunately, he winds up marrying the wrong girl, and though unhappy in that area, he accepts his life as it is. When World War II breaks out, he enlists, and the story takes us through battles and furloughs in France. He makes some great friends among his Army buddies and becomes a war hero.
I wasn't sure what was better about this story than others she has written to make this a Pulitzer Prize winner as I enjoyed it just as much as her other books. If you haven't read much written by Willa Cather, I highly recommend her. Each novel is totally different from any others, except that you really feel like you are in that place that she is writing about. The library has a wonderful collection of her books published in what is called a "Trade Paperback" style, which is larger and has nicer print, making them a pleasure to read.
