The Nation's Pulse
Hitting the Books
There was a time when high school students were taught to love literature.
I was at the public library the other day and eavesdropped on a conversation at the front desk between a woman librarian and a junior high school-aged boy. I was privy to the transaction that was his renewal of the due dates of three books: Monsters, Hatchet, and Guitar for Dummies. I’m sorry to say that I’m ignorant of the authors of these tomes. Don’t get me wrong, I think that when kids read anything it’s better than not reading at all; so I don’t begrudge the young man his taste in what is likely horror fiction; and I certainly applaud his self-taught musical interests. But as the old cliché goes: times have changed.
When I attended Our Lady Queen of Peace grammar school in West Milford, New Jersey, some forty-odd years ago, the Franciscan nuns subscribed to a paperback book club called “Scholastic Book Services,” where students could buy paperback books for 50 or 75 cents. Every few months the new list came from the publishing company, and we put in our orders and turned over the few bucks of our hard earned newspaper route, lawn-mowing, or babysitting money that would get us multiple titles.
A couple of weeks later the janitors dropped off the shipped boxes at each classroom, cut them open, and the nuns covered their large desks with tall stacks of shiny, new paperbacks: Mark Twain, Washington Irving, the Brontës, Harper Lee, Jack London, Stephen Crane, Rudyard Kipling, Robert Louis Stevenson, James Fenimore Cooper and Daniel Defoe.
Sisters Bridget or Alberta or Gemma (there were a number of them doing this in different classrooms) removed the packing list and consulted their own record as to who ordered what, and drafted a couple of the brighter teacher’s-pet-type girls to assist them in distributing books. The rest of us got on a line that snaked to the back of the classroom. There was no fooling around on line; after all, this was Catholic school. As we passed the desk the list of our individual purchases was read, and we picked copies of the appropriate titles from the tall stacks.
There was definitely a literary divide between boys and girls books. The guys preferred adventure fiction such as The Call of the Wild and The Last of the Mohicans; the gals Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights or To Kill a Mockingbird, all those with sympathetic female characters. There were also big stacks of The Diary of Anne Frank: most of the girls had a copy; none of the boys did. The boys read and traded The Red Badge of Courage and Treasure Island, or anything else about war, Indians and pirates. And about the closest we got to erotic stimulation was the scene in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer where Tom kisses Becky Thatcher’s “ruby-red lips”.
A couple of years later when I went on to John S. Burke Catholic High School in Goshen, New York, we had a summer reading list. We had to read four out of six listed books (again, paperbacks that were ordered) and in September were tested on them for 25% of our first English grade.
That summer before freshman year I remember reading John Steinbeck’s The Red Pony, Kipling’s Captains Courageous, Hiroshima by John Hersey, and a swashbuckling historical novel about the French Revolution with the odd title The Scarlet Pimpernel, and by a woman with the aristocratic-sounding name: The Baroness Orczy. I didn’t know who the Baroness was, but I recall a couple of rainy days when I was certainly engrossed in her novel.
Also at Burke Catholic High School I had a tenth grade history teacher named Sister Margaret Phillips. This was 1970, and post-Vatican II. The nuns of the high school (unlike my grammar school nuns) had made the transition to the “new habits” that we are familiar with today. They were also permitted to wear high heels. Sister Margaret was tall and statuesque to begin with, and in those heels she was about 6’2” or 6’3”, as tall as an NBA point guard.
She enjoyed enthusiastically reading aloud to the class as we followed along in the text, an anthology of selections from antiquity. She boomed out the speeches of Cato or Cicero. The Commentaries of Julius Caesar were a favorite. “Listen to this, boys and girls!” she commanded, as she strode before the class, holding the open book in her left hand, gesturing wildly with her right, and those heels clicking the floor: “The men of the 7th legion were unnerved by these tactics, and it was just at the right moment that Caesar came to their rescue. At his approach the enemy halted and the soldiers recovered from their alarm…” I doubt that Sister Margaret Phillips would have thought much of Monsters, Hatchet, or Guitar for Dummies.
As I scan my shelves, I can spot a handful of dog-eared survivors of those years. The Call of the Wild and that thin copy of The Red Pony with a list price of 75 cents. Another of those ancient page-yellowed paperbacks is one more Jack London book, a collection with the kid-grabbing title of Stories of the North (50 cents). Maybe tonight before it finally falls apart I’ll reread for the twentieth or thirtieth time London’s best short story: “To Build a Fire.” I’m not much of an optimist, but I think that if I choose to have that pleasure, I will again. And again.
About the Author
Bill Croke, formerly of Cody, Wyoming, is a writer in Salmon, Idaho.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (55) | Leave a comment
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Rocco| 6.16.09 @ 7:06AM
Ah, I remember those books well....... Lots of great reading, and I continue that habit assiduously to this day.
Appleby| 6.16.09 @ 7:31AM
I have all the classic childrens books from my long-ago childhood, and since I do not read books with sexual content, I haunt the pitiful childrens section of our local library looking for something to read that I do not already own. Books written for todays kids seem to fall into two camps -- either they are about divorce (kids parents are getting or have gotten divorced, kid sent to spooky relative in *the country*, kid goes into alternate universe, discovers s/he is of Royal Blood, saves the universe and gets Mom and Dad back together) or sanitized, boring books about Little Nanook of Historic Alaska or some African girls quest for freedom, with no story and lots of Facts. There are very few of the classic stories such as Heidi, Pollyanna, and their counterparts from E. Nesbitt and Eleanor Estes and Elizabeth Enright. No Betsy, Tacy and Tib; no Ellen Tebbits; no Henry and Beezus; no Betsy and Billy ... no stories of normal suburban families with brothers and sisters doing ordinary kid stuff in a commonplace neighbourhood that would be in fact done by children in elementary school. My first introduction to adoption was a book called Penny and Peter, part of the Betsy and Billy universe. Then there were the Bobbsey Twins, Trixie Belden and other child detectives whose everyday life was encircled by mothers, fathers, and certainty.
If we could bring back the normal world and banish the worlds where children are early pressed into saving the universe (and getting their parents back together), through books, who knows where it would lead.
I believe the reason kids do not read is that there is nothing in the library fit for them TO read.
Melvin| 6.16.09 @ 7:47AM
Gosh, how that story brought back the memories. There wasn't enough books back then to sate my thirst.
Come to think about it those .75 cent books were printed on the roughest and coarsest paper known to man, but as a kid I didn't care.
Back then before the hippies took over the education system teachers actually taught their young charges everything about the world's civilizations, philosophers, authors, and scientists.
I would give anything to be back sitting in those desks again learning about the Greeks, Romans and US History.
By reading these books our vocabulary's grew as well as our command of the English language in writing and speaking.
Today teenagers communicate by grunts and squeaks and all but destroy the English language by texting in something that represents incoherent gibberish that only they understand.
Unfortunately they were never be able to enjoy a snowy Winter's night reading a classic under the warm glow of a lamp, crackling fire, and man's best friend curled up at ones feet. There's a certain peace when reading a book and glancing out the window watching the snow fall in silence.
Kitty| 6.16.09 @ 8:21AM
My third grade class was a combination second and third grade. I used to read to my classmates during nap time while the teacher corrected papers. I read from of our collection of Frank Baum's Oz books, books my mother had had as a child. The village where we lived had a small public library where I frequently stopped on my way home from school. I loved Nancy Drew, but I can't remember any other books.
My mother was a high school librarian in another town. Ironically, I rarely saw her read a book at home. She read women's magazines, but never books. We have books everywhere, and I still love murder mysteries and thrillers.
Between our two children, it was our son who read just about anything he could get his hands on. He read "Watership Down" in three days at the age of nine. Then he went on to read Tolkien's trilogy in nine days. Our son is now an electrician; our daughter is an ER nurse.
My son's two teen-aged daughters are great readers and still love B&N gift certificates. My daughter's son used to read quite a bit, but he's almost eight now and prefers to be outside playing soccer and basketball. He's like his mother; he needs to be active. At least he's not plopped in front of television.
Like Melvin, I love curling up with a book. I can't imagine curling up with a kindle.
...
Aaron| 6.16.09 @ 9:12AM
My wife and her Kindle are inseparable. We move every 3 to 4 years and libraries aren't what they used to be, I don't move books and she can have any book she wants in minutes. It is a beautiful piece of work, if you haven't seen one in person, I would encourage you to look at one just once.
As a child I was way too busy fighting little green army men wars, wrecking bicycles, having grandma tend to bee stings and scraps and going to the ER for no less than 8 trips for broken bones and stitches between the ages of 2 and 17. I'm glad my dad had insurance. Maybe I should have read more books.
Griff| 6.16.09 @ 9:46AM
As a junior high student, I also was impressed by "To Build a Fire", and have recounted the plot to co-workers and friends many times since. Now living in Minnesota, I can appreciate the danger of "fifty-below".
NavyBrat| 6.16.09 @ 9:46AM
I remember these books well. While I only graduated high school in '97, I was fortunate enough to have a career English teacher for a Mom & EXCELLENT English teachers all through my schooling (in all public schools, no less). I too, remember reading every Jack London, Kipling, Conrad, Steinbeck, Fenimore-Cooper, & Dafoe book I could lay my hands on.
When we used to get our Scholastic order at school, my teachers would wait til the end of the day to give me my books-because I'd read them during every other class that day. I also discovered Shakespeare & mythology in high school & took a lot away from both genres.
I thank my parents & my great teachers for my continued love of reading. This love of books was so ingrained in me from an early age that I read my first Tom Clancy book in 5th grade (Hunt for Red October). By the time I was in high school, I had read each of his books at LEAST twice. There is no other hobby on the face of the planet that is more healthy for one's mind than reading. It helps tremendously to get away sometimes & immerse yourself in a book.
I don't think kids these days like to read because they don't read what all the other posters & I have read. If they did, maybe more of them would like to read. Books like London's & Stephen Crane's "Red Badge of Courage," & Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" &" Tom Sawyer" would also help kids these days to understand the context of what made America & how it came to be when it was still a young nation. What a shame that they don't take these lessons away from the drivel they read today.
Appleby| 6.16.09 @ 10:39AM
When Disney came out with their hideous cartoon version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I refused to take my boys to see it, but provided them with the original novel instead -- pointing out that it had hunchbacks, gypsy women, murder, people burned at the stake, and a great chase through the catacombs. When they finished this book they both asked "Why didn't Walt Disney make a movie about THIS?"
JerseyJ| 6.16.09 @ 10:43AM
A fine article that has stirred up some fond memories, particularly of the Scholastic Book Club. Sadly though, many of the titles in your collection have become contraband under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Books published prior to 1985 in general have higher than permitted levels of lead in the ink used to print them and can no longer be sold or distributed unless tested and certified to be under the lead limit specified in the CPSIA.
In an example of the complete ineptitude of our legislators, they have mandated unreasonable restrictions on "childrens products" which has the incredibly broad definition of "any product designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger". Say goodbye to that vintage copy of Winnie the Pooh and any number of other books written for children.
No longer will some of the out-of-print beloved classics be available to today's youth (at least until they reach age 12) as it is illegal to sell or distribute them. No longer are libraries permitted to lend childrens books printed prior to 1985 unless they have been certified as conforming to the new lead standards. Despite the language of the law, the American Library Association has determined (on their own mind you) that the CPSIA was not intended to apply to books (although by definition, it does) so they are basically ignoring the law until they're told otherwise by the CPSC. A dangerous way to live and not a long term solution.
I apologize for politicizing what is a fine article, but I though those of us who hold literature as a vital part of lifelong education, especially early education, should know what our "representatives" have done to it ... and the law goes much, much farther than books.
I urge everyone to investigate the far-reaching implications of the CPSIA and join the fight to get this horrendous law repealed or rewritten.
IMKessel| 6.16.09 @ 10:54AM
While don’t judge a book by its cover does not truly hold up to scrutiny, judging a book by its title is even less helpful. Monster was written by a very talented man named Walter Dean Myers; it concerns the nature of truth and recall, justice and coming of age. Hatchet by Gary Paulson is a for a younger audience and is about a boy stranded by himself; while it does not compare to Defoe’s Robinson Carouse in sophistication, Paulson’s aim was not as high.
All books are new when they are published. Time, tastes and other factors take what is new and creates classics. Please remember, not everyone is blown away by the same canon fire.
Wicked Dickie--Virginia| 6.16.09 @ 11:30AM
At last, an article about which we can all agree. Thank God for the books mentioned above and for the Philadelphia Public Library when I was a kid. While that was many moons ago, my favorite adage remains: "A book a day, keeps the boredom away". (Okay, sometimes it's only 50 or 60 pages since the advent of the internet.)
Ned Scarlet| 6.16.09 @ 12:01PM
"Where the Red Fern Grows", was read to us in the seventh grade. I will never forget it.
Kitty| 6.16.09 @ 12:06PM
You can read "To Build A Fire" here:
http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html
"By Jack London
First published in The Century Magazine, v.76, August, 1908
NOTE: This is the famous, second version of a story first published in a more juvenile treatment for the Youth's Companion on May 29, 1902."
The first version is linked there.
...
marcia| 6.16.09 @ 12:48PM
I can remember waiting my turn in our small town in South Dakota to read the newest Laura Ingals Wilder book about pioneer life in the midwest. Michael Landon's TV version never was anything like the real thing.
Add to that list "The Last Days of Pompeii" and Ray Bradbury's "Dandylion Wine."
Let's also remember the "Classics Comics" read in a cool basement before air-conditioning that whetted our appitites for the real thing.
Josh| 6.16.09 @ 12:54PM
I don't know much about the book Monster, but Hatchet is often considered a modern classic of children's literature. I'm 27 and I remember reading it when I was in junior high. It was also made into a movie in 1990 called "A Cry In the Wild." While I do agree with 99% of your article, I must say that Hatchet is an excellent novel about a young boy learning to survive in the wilderness, and does not belong in the same camp as Guitar For Dummies.
Everly Waverly| 6.16.09 @ 1:11PM
My exposure to reading that actually had an effect, was "Endurance-Shackleton's Incredible Voyage" by Alfred Lansing. It made me think about history and want to especially read about it. Tell ya what, read the book and nothing you experience will be a hardship, and that reminds me, I'm going to have to read it again to immunize me against Obama's impending infliction of hardship....
Ned| 6.16.09 @ 1:26PM
I used to read "Reader's Digest" when it was still "Reader's Digest."
Al Adab| 6.16.09 @ 3:03PM
Once there existed a recognized canon of literature which educated people were assumed to have read. What a loss and what a shame that such does not exist today. If the common threads of our past are forgotten and common experience of learning gone who and what are we as a society? If there is no community of citizens through education we have no society in any meaningful sense. My grandson, 14, is deep into Steinbecks King Arthur a rewrite of Le Mort D'Arthur by Mallory. He loves it. Can we not expect more of the youth our future citizens, peers and leaders? What a rich heritage they miss and how we cheat them.
Marc Jeric| 6.16.09 @ 3:21PM
But then came the teacher union and education died; just like steel, automobile, textile, electronics, etc, industries. Today we have already the third generation of illiterate nincompoops full of self-esteem, voting for "hope" and "change" in the person of Abu Hussein from Kenya. And all "graduates" to go for free college education - but first in the remedial reading class!
M. T. Wallitt| 6.16.09 @ 3:22PM
Thanks for the memories! Back when I was in school, we read books such as "Johnny Tremain" (that colonial boy who burned his hand with molten silver), Dickens, and "The Yearling," too. We read books in which bad things happened to nice people (or fawns), but the language was never worse than "By G--" or "d--- ye!" complete with the dashes. People used vulgar and obscene language when those books were written, but they were able to create vivid characters and realistic-sounding language without resorting to gutter words.
These days, I review books for a newspaper, and I can't remember the last time a publisher sent me a novel that didn't have nasty language (and situations) in it. What a shame.
Thom| 6.16.09 @ 5:12PM
I remember when the primary purpose of reading was to comprehend the meaning and usages of words and thus be able to effectively communicate with fellow citizens…..Since our Public School children aren’t taught to read any more at a level that has any practical usefulness we see that the meaning of words no longer has any effective understanding in our society and hence the value of properly used words and constructs no longer has any meaning to the masses……
I remember the paperbacks of my day being on my “plate” and someone expecting me to comprehend what was written within because much of life’s lessons had already been learned by someone in times past and written down for future generations to learn from. Along with all the pleasures one gets from reading an engrossing novel or alike, the most important thing one gets from reading is wisdom into the past that most of us can not obtain by our selves in one or even two lives. An illiterate populace will over time lose insight into all the time tested trials and tribulations of humanity from the past and eventually become “lost” in anarchy and despair. We see the beginning crest of that wave moving our way even as we speak…..
Sheila | 6.16.09 @ 5:42PM
Terrific article. I, too, read all the classics and haunted all the local branch libraries. My kids have been raised the same way - we started reading when they were mere infants (you'd be amazed how few moms even know the classic nursery rhymes anymore) and they each have overflowing bookshelves in their rooms. Obviously I've made accommodations for my boys, but they, too, enjoyed the Little House series and The Witch of Blackbird Pond, as well as the more expected - Oliver Twist, Bronze Bow, Call of the Wild, My Side of the Mountain, etc. Just to mention - of all the teachers' homes I've been in, NOT ONE had a single bookshelf (and my 10 are overflowing).
Alan Brooks| 6.16.09 @ 9:08PM
morality today resembles the Call of the Wild in its tone.
campuses today are Wild-- something out of 'I Am Charlotte Simmons'
AWT| 6.16.09 @ 9:18PM
I teach eighth grade English in Las Vegas and I believe that one of the reasons that young people hate reading is because they can't read. They have never been taught phonics, so they just look at a few of the letters in the word and the context and take their best guess. Many of them have to do this with every word. I would hate reading too if I were 14 years old and it took me 10 minutes to read a page of literature!
Judith| 6.16.09 @ 9:18PM
I'm so glad that Josh commented about Hatchet. It's not at all a monster story - an unnecessarily hasty conclusion - but is very much in the genre of Jack London and teaches younger readers about survival, resourcefulness and respect for nature. What a great way to then introduce Jack London in the later grades.
Pingback| 6.17.09 @ 3:35AM
books » Blog Archive » The American Spectator : Hitting the Books links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Rick H.| 6.17.09 @ 6:35AM
Billy,
Thanks for the memories. I'm still an avid reader.
Ricky. Q.O.P. Class of '68
Pingback| 6.17.09 @ 6:37AM
7dollarbook.info » The American Spectator : Hitting the Books links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Kitty| 6.17.09 @ 6:50AM
Wow, "Johnny Tremain." There's a blast from the past. I'd forgotten that story -- vaguely recall it now. But I seem to remember that the whole class liked it.
...
Appleby| 6.17.09 @ 10:38AM
Boys read books like Johnny Tremain because they were about boys doing the sort of things that boys could actually do. Not saving the universe from multi-dimensional Orcs using magical powers, but using their own brains, education, skills and intelligence to solve problems they might some day actually meet. That is one reason McGyver was so popular; although a lot of things he did were impossible, it showed a man using what he found around him -- not Warestones or Elf Spells or magic wands -- to solve an immediate problem.
M. T. Wallitt| 6.17.09 @ 12:38PM
Good points, Appleby. You're absolutely right.If I recall, Johnny Tremain thought that he could never do much of anything worthwhile because the molten metal had deformed his hand. He learned that he could do what needed to be done. And he didn't sue everyone in sight because he had been dealt a bad hand (so to speak).
Catherine| 6.17.09 @ 1:37PM
Sure brought back memories, as I also attended Catholic school and bought Scholastic books as described.
I was in a bookstore recently, and a high school teacher was there, ordering books for her class. I was dismayed to hear her lament that she cannot get her pupils to read an entire book. She said that they will only read a few chapters, and that's all she can muster out of them.
Shameful.
Paul| 6.17.09 @ 10:51PM
Yes, thanks for the fond memories! What a thrill it was to see those books lifted out of the carton, the list checked, and the new adventures placed in my greedy little hands! We were also visited curb-side once a week by the local mobile library, a long since dispensed-with frivolity in today's age of the budget cutters.
John II| 6.17.09 @ 11:20PM
I checked--and I still have every one of those books in my own library. But my own frail paperback copy of "The Red Pony" has a list price of 35 cents printed on the cover. I guess that makes me about 10 or 15 years older than Mr. Croke.
Well, I married relatively late (age 30), and my kids are all in their early adulthood now. And they've all read all those books, and many others. Funny thing: all those titles are readily available, in quantity if not so cheaply, in any Barnes and Noble outlet, just a few aisles down from the collections of pop psychology, eastern philosophy, homoerotica, and techie manuals on computer science and real estate law.
The culture will survive, somehow.
Pingback| 6.18.09 @ 6:25AM
Pregnancy Dates Calculator links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
G.A. Kevis| 6.18.09 @ 12:32PM
What do youth read?
Back in the sixties as Senior in High School,
the nyt was offered at 10 cents a copy.
It is worth - as an neutral informative tool today -
10 cents a copy. The LMSM lackeys of the
BHO administration are worth - next to nothing!
The youth of today are indoctrinated.
In campi infestated by liberal pro-fessors.
Books? Reading? : Poor 'freshmen', throughout
their 4-year course of pleasantries in liberal
twisted mumbo-jumbo dialectics; in a country
where blood was voluminously shed in the
high-minded notion of conservative - not liberal -
adherence to freedom and Constitutional 'values';
the ever new bumper crop of ignorant sports and
party- minded collegiate nudnicks - nea numbnuts -
entertained by nbcs' Hard Boil program among
other slanted propagandist 'shows', prancing to
the pied piper tunes of newcomers to the political
stage as evinced by BHOs' mesmerization
showboat tours.
GA
Richard Baker| 6.18.09 @ 11:31PM
Used to be a math/science teacher. My kids weren't worth a Tinker's damn on those subjects but they knew, by heart, every ho's and bitches rap tune. How far we've fallen. For my black students, particularly, learning was "acting white". I was sad for them.
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Godin Rants and Intro to Reading « Consequential Value links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Bob Wire | 6.22.09 @ 5:07PM
While newspapers may be dropping like flies, Bill (although your pronouncements of their imminent extinction are off the mark), the book will never die.
My own two children, ages 10 and 12, are avid readers like my wife and I. The library is one of their favorite haunts, and they are both bemused by the almost frantic efforts by their teachers to encourage students to keep reading over the summer.
So any kid checking out any books—especially literature—from the library deserves a pat on the back. And as far as "Guitar For Dummies," it's an encouraging sign when a kid shows an interest in actually learning the instrument rather than wasting his time playing Guitar Hero.
Different books, different generations. The classics you mention obviously strike a chord in a lot of folks, and I'm sure one day I'll be waxing nostalgic about the first time I read "On the Road" or "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
I enjoyed this piece. See, there IS some common ground. ;-)
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vouchercodes | 1.6.11 @ 9:01AM
We need to read books.