Monday, January 28, 2019

Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914


by John Hendrix
40 pages / 2014

I was raised with stories of the Dutch Resistance and the Canadian liberators fighting against the brutal Nazis – war, it seemed, had clear villains and obvious heroes. Later, though, I learned that right and wrong in war can be far more confusing: for example, in recent years we’ve seen US-backed groups fighting other US-backed groups in Syria.

John Hendrix’s Shooting at the Stars: The Christmas Truce of 1914 presents parents with a tool to give our children a more nuanced understanding of war.

In a style that is halfway between realistic and cartoon, the author tells us the events of Dec. 24 and 25, 1914. On the day of Christmas Eve, 1914, all along the frontlines, the shooting slowed, and that night the Germans could be heard singing Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht– “Silent Night, Holy Night.” Then the next morning, on Christmas Day, in spots up and down the frontlines, German, British, and French troops spontaneously came out of their trenches and celebrated Christmas together.

Then the next day they resumed trying to kill one another.

Does that make this book sound anti-war? I’d say it is more an underscoring of just how horrible war is. Fighting is sometimes necessary, which is why we are grateful for the courage of the Dutch Resistance and the Allied forces in World War II, who understood that stopping the Nazis was worth risking, and even giving, their lives. We need to remember their sacrifice because it was noble, and selfless, and good.

But if war gives us examples to admire and imitate, there is also much that is foolish, and which we should learn to avoid. To give our children a more complete understanding of war, we need to show them that there are those who, under the guise of patriotism, rush to war, even though war should always be a last resort. There are leaders who do not treat their young men’s lives as precious, and World War One is an example of that right up to the last day when 11,000 soldiers died in fighting that occurred after the peace treaty was signed. Commanders who sent their men out on offensives on that last day – some from our side – should be remembered as murderers.

Shooting at the Stars is a gentle way of teaching the ethical complexities of war. It is gentle in that no blood or gore is seen (making this suitable for maybe Grade Three and up). The most war-like illustration occurs on a two-page spread where we see three corpses, as soldiers on both sides work together to bury their dead. What is striking is simply that there were men on both sides who could praise God together one day and fight to the death the next. That is a shocking bit of history. And it needs to be remembered.

Monday, January 21, 2019

Dance at Grandpa's

by Laura Ingalls Wilder

illustrated by Renée Graef
33 pages / 1994

I'd expect most everyone has heard of Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House on the Prairie series. Not only are the book loved by children and parents alike, they spawned a 1970-80s TV series that was wildly popular too.

If by chance you aren't already familiar, the series is based on the author's own experiences in the late 1800's as a small child living the pioneering life.

This picture book, Dance at Grandpa's, is an adaptation of Chapter 8 from the first novel, Little House in the Big Woods. While neighbors are far flung, they do come together for special events, and this time everyone is invited to Grandma and Grandpa's big cabin. Laura, her Pa, Ma, big sister Mary, and baby sister Carrie, get bundled up in gloves, boots and coats, then covered up with blankets on the sleigh, as they head on their way to Grandpa's. Everyone brings their children so as the big cabin fills, Laura finds that there are "every so many babies lying in rows on Grandma's feather bed." Her pa then takes out his fiddle and the dozens of couples begin to dance and swirl. Laura discovers there's also food of all sorts, including wonderfully sour pickles! When the dancing finally stops Laura heads to bed, and come morning her family heads back home on their sleigh.

As with any adaptation the obvious question is, why not just read the original? Our family has previously enjoyed the original novels as audiobooks – from youngest to oldest, everyone liked the novels, and probably more than these picture book versions. So, again, why read the picture book adaptations?

There are a couple of reasons. First, my youngest can't read yet, but after going through the picture book once together, she could then "read" through it on her own, which she quite enjoyed.

Second, our middle daughter is learning to read and needs books that are easy, but still have an interesting story. Many of the books at her level are so boring she finds they just aren't worth all the effort it takes to read them. But the books in this series are fun and familiar, and she has enjoyed working through a number of them.

There are 14 picture books in all in this "My first Little House books" series, all of them based on the first three novels in the original series. The first two novels, Little House in the Big Woods and Little House on the Prairie, are about Laura's childhood, and the third, Farmer Boy, is about her husband's childhood.

One little annoyance we found was that the books were not published in chronological order and aren't numbered, so it was hard to figure out which to read first. For the most part it doesn't really matter, with the exception of the three based on chapters from Little House on the Prairie where one does lead into the next. So you can read most of them in whatever order you'd like, but, if you do want to tackle them in the proper chronological order, this is what it would be:

Based on Little House in the Big Woods
  • Winter Days in the Big Woods
  • Christmas in the Big Woods
  • A Little House Birthday
  • Sugar Snow
  • Dance at Grandpa's
  • Going to Town
  • Summertime in the Big Woods
  • The Deer in the Wood
Based on Little House on the Prairie
  • Going West
  • Prairie Day
  • A Little Prairie House
Based on Farmer Boy
  • Winter on the Farm
  • A Farmer Boy Birthday
  • County Fair
CAUTIONS

The one caution I'll pass along concerns not Dance at Grandpa's, but another in the series. A Little House Birthday is based on Chapter 5 of Little House in the Big Woods and, just as in the original, the story here is all about how bored Laura is with Sunday. Her parents are very strict:
"On Sundays they could not run or shout or be noisy. They must sit quietly and listen while Ma read stories to them They might look at pictures, and they might hold their rag dolls nicely and talk to them. But there was nothing else they could do. One Sunday Laura could not bear it any longer and she began to play with Jack and run and shout. Pa told her to sit in her chair and be quiet, and Laura began to cry. So Pa took her on his knee and cuddled her and told her a story."
Eventually she falls asleep and, waking up the next morning, she realizes with relief, "It was Monday, and Sunday would not come again for a whole week."

So she's got quite the attitude about Sunday, and her parents really aren't helping things. Now, a story like this is no big deal when dad or mom are reading it – then we can explain that Sunday isn't a day of "don'ts" but a day of "get tos" – we get to have time off from our daily work and get to spend it together as God's people praising, and learning about, Him. Laura's parents made Sunday the worst day of the week and we can share with our kids that this is simply not the way the Lord's Day should be celebrated.

CONCLUSION

To this point we've read 11 of the 14 available and enjoyed them all (though we did have to have a talk about A Little House Birthday). I'd recommend them as fantastic books for Grades 1 and maybe 2. With girls as the primary characters, boys might not like most of them, but perhaps they'd be interested in the three based on Farmer Boy (I hope so, but I haven't tested these out on any boys). However, if your girls are anything like ours, they'll enjoy them all. 

Monday, January 14, 2019

Two Ways to Get Out There

Out of the Saltshaker and into the World:
Evangelism as a Way of Life
by Rebecca Manley Pippert - 188 pages / 1979

Between Heaven and Hell:
A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death
with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis and Aldous Huxley
by Peter Kreeft - 115 pages / 1982

If there is anything Reformed churches and Reformed believers (including myself) need to work on, it's evangelism. These two books are really good reads on ways to reach out to non-Christians.

Rebecca Pippert's Out of the Saltshaker shows us how to not just proclaim the truth, but to demonstrate the truth of the gospel in our relationships. As the One who Himself is the truth, Christ showed both the truth of God's love in His healing ministry and the truth of God's justice in His teaching. Both of these, Pippert shows, are necessary in our engagement with a rebellious, but also sorely troubled, world. She shows how we must start by first knowing Jesus as the Good News and also as Lord. Three chapters deal with how Christ's message was radically different from the preoccupations of the Pharisees, and how we need to understand both the darkness of our own hearts and the grace of God to really have good news to proclaim. She then shows how our relationship with Christ deepens our love for others, and gives us practical ways, in that love, to talk with others about our faith. Her conclusion stresses that the greatest witness to the reality of Christ is (though she does not use the term) the communion of saints.

Pippert spends only a short chapter on apologetics, but that is Peter Kreeft's focus in Between Heaven and Hell. He uses a fictional encounter just after death of C.S. Lewis with two men who (in real history) died on the same day - John F. Kennedy and Aldous Huxley. Kreeft uses Kennedy as the exemplar of "modernistic or humanistic Christianity" and Huxley as the representative of "Orientalized or mystic Christianity." Strictly speaking, neither is Christian at all, but both are our world's of responding to (and minimizing) orthodox Christianity. Kreeft has Lewis respond to Kennedy by defending the divinity and resurrection of Christ, and to Huxley by demonstrating the orthodox understanding of what it means that Christ is divine. Kreeft's book is a superbly dramatized summary of much of C.S. Lewis defense of both the truth and the meaning of the gospel account of Christ's divine mission.

These two books together give great guidance in both why and how to show Christ's divine love and truth to the non-Christians in our lives.

Cautions: The following issues will trouble Reformed readers:
  1. While Pippert urges that people get their friends into a church, her book does not focus on how churches can bring people into the pew to hear the faithful preaching of the word. Her references to the gospels sometimes paraphrase the account of Christ's work in ways that are too informal. She also speaks of Jesus not taking away our freedom, and while even the Canons of Dort say something similar (about believers), the phrasing is uncomfortably Arminian.
  2. Kreeft is a Catholic philosopher. His Catholicism does not enter much into the discussion, but the book ends with the possible "after-death" conversion of Kennedy and Huxley. I am sure that Kreeft is not suggesting that such a last chance actually exists, but he does imply that reason is the vehicle that (at least potentially) brings people to God. While reason can be used to demonstrate the irrationality of unbelief, Reformed apologetics and evangelism relies (as it should) on the power of God's word and the work of the Holy Spirit.
Still intrigued (despite the cautions above)? Use the following links if you think that Pippert can help you get out of the salt-shaker, or that Kreeft can help you present the choice between heaven and hell. Canadians can find Pippert's book here and Kreeft's book here.




Monday, January 7, 2019

Harvey Kurtzman's Marley's Ghost


by Charles Dickens
adapted by Harvey Kurtzman, Josh O'Neill, and Shanon Wheeler
illustrated by Gideon Kendall
129 pages / 2017

This is a fantastic and faithful graphic novel adaptation of Charle's Dickens' A Christmas Carol using much of the story's original dialogue, with only the lightest (and very helpful) bit of modernization.

The revisions are limited, with the biggest probably being a change of the Ghost of Christmas Past from an old, child-like, man, to now being a waif-like girl. Not sure why the change was made, but it doesn't impact the story. Then there is also the general abridgment, with the comic coming in at probably half the text of the original story.

The original has some problematic spiritual content – ghosts of various sorts, including those of Christmas Past, Present, and Future – and this adaptation shares the same. So if you disliked the original for that reason, you won't like this one either.

But I'd argue that is a mistake, as this story isn't meant to teach anything about ghosts or the afterlife. Dickens lesson is entirely about the here and now – he wants us to understand that money brings cold comfort – Scrooge treats gold as his god, and this deity only brings him misery. What's actually problematic is the alternative "god" Dickens proposes. While the God of the Bible is made mention of (less in the comic than in the original) He is not the source of happiness in this story. The god here – in both original and adaptation – is generosity. If you are generous, then you will be happy and your life will have meaning.

Oh, Dickens, so near and yet so far!

Still, with that shortcoming understood, this classic can be appreciated – Christmas is made much of, and if we remember what this day commemorates then we can see Scrooge's transformation as a small reflection of the generosity and humility Christ showed in coming down to earth.

Cautions

This book has a loose connection to Harvey Kurtzman, a cartoonist most famous for his work with Playboy and Mad magazines. However, the comic is not written or drawn by him but is only based in part on a treatment he produced, so this connection is really rather irrelevant. I only mention it to note that as good as this book is, his other work isn't.

Other cautions would be limited to the unnecessary additions of two words – "bugger" and "bloody" – to Dickens' original text. Would that this bit of "modernization" had been forgone!

Conclusion

If this loyal and inventive rendition was available in print, I would have already ordered a copy, but, alas, you can only get it in a digital edition. That said, if you have a large tablet, this will be a treat, and you can get it at Amazon.com here.