Lyon, G. E. (1988). Borrowed children. New York:
Watts.
My blog this week will explore how Borrowed Children
by George Ella Lyon exemplifies historical young adult fiction by meeting the evaluative criteria posited on page
168 of the text: First, It has an engaging story with rounded and complex
characters that age wise at least go from little Helen (then baby Willie)
through Anna, Amanda (Mandy) the protagonist and Ben up to David the oldest. Second, the book –
centered around Mandy age 12 hence a young adult read – presents verifiable historical
facts in an objective fashion about the Depression in rural and urban Tennessee
while honoring the dialects of both its country and city folks. And third, in creating
the jazz element in Memphis at that time presents persons of color (though not
foregrounded) as talented and interesting (Lynch-Brown & Tomlinson, Short, 2011,
p. 168).
The narrator and protagonist Mandy Perritt is a
perceptive young person who is given a great deal of responsibility when her
mother becomes ill after the birth of little brother William. While at first
reluctantly rising then resignedly to the occasion, Mandy both observes and makes very
insightful comments about everything and everyone around her.
The first instance is the charming bedtime story about the
foundling with which all three girls identify: Each asks herself “Was I that
baby, is that how I came to be a Perritt.” (Marking time bookmark Comprehension
Strategy, pp. 15-19). Here Mandy is older
sister cum mother. Lyon continues to establish her specialness by talking about
her love of learning. When required to temporarily quit school to help her mother,
Amanda’s teacher Mr. Aden, sends her a book titled The
Romantic Poets. Up early one morning falsely alarmed by her concern for
Willie she enters her mother’s room and finds both infant and mother soundly
and blissfully asleep. The quote
Now while the birds sing a joyous
song,
And while the young lambs bound,
As to tabor’s sound,
To me alone there came a thought of
grief… (Marking time…p. 45-6)
from William Wordsworths’ “Ode, Intimations of Immortality from
Recollections of Early Childhood" (Wordsworth, 1875) perfectly captures young
Amanda’s burgeoning inner life. Always the thinker and budding scholar, Mandy carefully casts her eye upon the
world around her and its troubles.
This book also contributes historical rectification of the fact that
though things were hard, Jim Perritt is a successful sawyer. This is taken
further when Amanda is sent to visit her Grandmother Omie and Grandfather Opie.
The grandparents are prosperous as best one can be at that. But this is not a book
about failure. Rather it is about the awakening of a young woman to her possibilities and
dreams. Mandy's mother chose to move to mountains with the man she loved and was
willing to set aside her love of music for her family. The beauty of the
book lies in the parents understanding that Mandy might have other dreams which enables them to send her to Memphis to begin her quest. As a consequence Mandy realizes the mountains are her home and willingly goes back knowing that she in future will have the right - a terrific message for young adult readers - to leave.
Like Amanda I was precocious and ravenous about books. I
like her was also a “questioner.” I really like the fact that though adults
around are taken aback by her persistent and insightful questions they as best
they can answer them. I also like the way in which Lyon reveals that this
family has chosen live in the country not because the father Jim Perritt hates the town but
because that is where feels happiest and where he feels he belongs.
Questions: Why do people assume all mountain and country
people are hillbillies? What positive and negative role models does Lyon
provide? And how does Lyon show a real human being actually being a bit or a lot of both?
References
Lynch-Brown, C. L., Tomlinson, C.M., & Short, K.G.
(2011). Essentials of children’s literature,
7th ed. Boston: Pearson.
Wordsworth, W. (1875). Bartelby.com/Ode on intimations of
immortality from recollections of
early childhood. Retrieved April
23, 2012 from http://www.bartleby.com/106/287.html.
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