Penny's Reviews and Chat

Marvelous Middle Grade Monday

Borrowed Children by George Ella Lyon

“Borrowed Children,” by George Ella Lyon, was another bargain basement find that I’m very glad I found and read. It’s the story of twelve year old Mandy who is suddenly thrust into adult responsibilities when her mother nearly dies after giving birth to her youngest child, baby brother Willie The story is set in the Depression era, so you know the family is struggling. Baby Willie makes the sixth mouth to feed.

Mandy, who’s been looking after her two younger sisters all their lives, is no stranger to hard work and responsibility. What changes with Willie’s birth is that her strong and hard working mother can no longer manage the household. The family needs Mandy to leave school to step in and care for her younger siblings and her mother for six weeks until her mother is strong enough to resume her home management duties. Until then, Mandy will be cooking, cleaning, washing, and care-taking for the family. Her two older brothers are busy working off a debt they incurred, so no help there. And their father works away from home a week at a time. It’s a tough life for all of them, but especially for Mandy, who loves school.

This story is about family bonds, self-sacrifice, hard work, and hard choices that must be made in hard times. Mandy manages everything pretty well for a twelve year old. She’s able to keep the family together and get most everything done. She develops a strong “motherly” bond with baby Willie. When her mother is well and strong enough to take over again, there’s a pang when Mandy hands Willie over to their mother. Bittersweet. She’ll get to go back to school, and even has a nicer compensation—a trip to the big city of Memphis to visit her grandparents and her Aunt Laura.

Mandy takes a train ride by herself, and is treated as a welcomed guest at her grandparents’ home. She has new clothes for the first time. She eats out in a restaurant. It seems a glamorous life on the surface. Looking deeper Mandy finds that all isn’t as wonderful as it seems. Her Aunt Laura has some heavy problems. The death of an uncle at an early age strongly affected everyone in the family. Mandy learns more about her mother’s family than she knew and not all of it good. She returns home a much wiser twelve year old with a greater understanding of the hard choices folks have made and which she may have to make one day, too.  

This story is recommended for middle school readers, especially those with less than perfect families and family life—which is most of us. I saw some things that reminded me of my family, our lives, and the choices we’ve made over the years. The sooner 'tweens and teens learn that life isn’t easy, that it takes grit and hard work to make it, and that things aren’t always what they seem like on the surface, the better off they’ll be.

More on author Geogre Ella Lyon at http://www.georgeellalyon.com

I’m so very glad I picked up this book because I found that George Ella Lyon is an amazing author, poet, writer, and playwright. Her poem, “Where I’m From,” has been used by teachers and families all over the world to learn more about each other. I’m glad I found where it came from. 

Where I'm From (by George Ella Lyon)

I am from clothespins,
from Clorox and carbon-tetrachloride.
I am from the dirt under the back porch.
(Black, glistening,
it tasted like beets.)
I am from the forsythia bush
the Dutch elm
whose long-gone limbs I remember
as if they were my own.
I'm from fudge and eyeglasses,
          from Imogene and Alafair.
I'm from the know-it-alls
          and the pass-it-ons,
from Perk up! and Pipe down!
I'm from He restoreth my soul
          with a cottonball lamb
          and ten verses I can say myself.
I'm from Artemus and Billie's Branch,
fried corn and strong coffee.
From the finger my grandfather lost
          to the auger,
the eye my father shut to keep his sight.
Under my bed was a dress box
spilling old pictures,
a sift of lost faces
to drift beneath my dreams.
I am from those moments--
snapped before I budded --
leaf-fall from the family tree.

Tags:

George Ella Lyon, Borrowed Children, Tweens, the Depression, hard work, hard choices, family ties, family bonds, families, siblings, parents, grandparents, Mandy, Aunt Laura, Willie, Where I'm From