They Were Strong and Good

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, winsome, touching
Review: A wonderful sketch of the past. Both the drawings and the words bring a glimpse of his forebears. A lovely book.

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Tribute to the author's ancestors
Review: I think this book is simply beautiful. The drawings are simple and clean. It's inspiring to me and I am considering writing and drawing a similar book about my own ancestors for my children and grandchildren. I know we're not supposed to comment on other reviews but here goes. I can see where those who are caught up in the here and now atmosphere of political correctness might call it racist but personally I don't see it. Maybe it's because I've spent years digging into my own family history and learning about the beliefs and attitudes and my ancestors. If I were to write a similar book about my ancestors am I supposed to skip or gloss over the fact that some of them owned slaves? They did, and they probably did not treat them like honored guests. Was Lawson supposed to draw the little black boy in the same good quality clothing as the little white boy. That would be nice, but that's not the way it was and it can't be altered or ignored. We should not forget those attitudes because that's what prevents them from prevailing today. A true historian tells it like it was - and that's what Lawson did. Alex Haley and Dee Brown brilliantly wrote about history from the slave and Indian points of view, Lawson tells it from the white settler point of view. You need all points of view to see the whole picture. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Tribute to the author's ancestors
Review: I think this book is simply beautiful. The drawings are simple and clean. It's inspiring to me and I am considering writing and drawing a similar book about my own ancestors for my children and grandchildren. I know we're not supposed to comment on other reviews but here goes. I can see where those who are caught up in the here and now atmosphere of political correctness might call it racist but personally I don't see it. Maybe it's because I've spent years digging into my own family history and learning about the beliefs and attitudes and my ancestors. If I were to write a similar book about my ancestors am I supposed to skip or gloss over the fact that some of them owned slaves? They did, and they probably did not treat them like honored guests. Was Lawson supposed to draw the little black boy in the same good quality clothing as the little white boy. That would be nice, but that's not the way it was and it can't be altered or ignored. We should not forget those attitudes because that's what prevents them from prevailing today. A true historian tells it like it was - and that's what Lawson did. Alex Haley and Dee Brown brilliantly wrote about history from the slave and Indian points of view, Lawson tells it from the white settler point of view. You need all points of view to see the whole picture. Great book!

Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, winsome, touching
Review: I was born in '44 and my mother read this book to me time and again while showing me the drawings. I later endeavoured to read it myself. The book is not racist! It is an accurate depiction of the way things were and it tells, and tells well. the stories of the lives of the people in the book. It tells of the warmth of the love they had for each other, but without saying so. It tells of the fineness of character and the nobility of honor that they possessed, but, again, without saying so. It is a book that at age fifty seven I cannot read without weeping nor without feeling intense pride and admiration for all those in the stories. The stories awakened in me a curiosity and reverence for the stories of the lives of my own ancestors.....and I hope it does the same for each of you. What they went through! What suffering and privation! And how well they lived their lives. It is a book to give each of us pause to think and consider and reflect on the entire business of living our lives and on what standards of life and morals and principles we should chose to live by. But, simply put, it is a book of stories about ancestors and stories of what they did and stories of how they lived their lives and who they knew and how those they knew lived too. And from those simple stories may be learned the most important lessons in life. Thank you and I hope you come to love They Were Strong and Good as I do. It may be sold as a "children's" book but it should be in the library, and in the heart, of every adult.

Rating:
Summary: Well, they were strong anyway
Review: To what extent do you hold a book accountable for the crimes of its times? Caldecott Award winner "They Were Strong and Good" has some remarkable qualities as well as some lamentable ones. Created by the clever man who brought the world's attention to sweet "Ferdinand" the bull, Robert Lawson chooses here to tell the stories of his parents and grandparents. As he himself points out in the beginning, none of them were great or famous but, "They all helped to make the United States the great nation that it now is". Each grandparent hailed from a different country and each settled in the United States. Some lived in the North and some fought for the South during the Civil War. In the end, however, they were not remarkable people. But they were strong and good.

So be it. I like this idea. And I like the author's illustrations (for the most part). Lawson's mastery of the pen and ink method is superb in this story. An exceptional example is his illustration of the City of Paterson. Using a "then" and "now" motif, he displays Paterson first in all its grimy Industrial Revolution glory and then in its previous pastoral perfection. Lawson is also adept at the visual gag. Once the author's Scottish sea captain of a grandfather and his Dutch grandmother wed, the next picture (rather than a frolicsome wedding shot) shows a woman heaved over the side of the boat. Says the text, "My mother's mother liked the monkeys and the sugar cane and the parrots, but she did not like sailing on the sea". Understatement at its finest.

Which brings me to the parts of the book I don't like. I really wish I could've loved this book wholly and without reservation. Remember - this book was published in 1940. I was willing to forgive the shot of a happy black boy in the Caribbean. There may have been some. I was willing to forgive the Native Americans that the author's mother did not like. The book doesn't caricature them too badly and the worst they do is ask for food. And anyway, she hated white lumberjacks too. But then you start getting into the portrayals of African-Americans and the book looses me. If the book had just contained that picture of a mammy-like servant threatening the Native Americans, I still wouldn't have objected too heartily. She's actually not a bad caricature. Though wearing the standard head scarf she isn't smiling with the big lips so horrid in some books. It's the moment when the narrative switches from the Northerners lives to the Southerners. The author's father owned a slave and two dogs. Then war broke out and we suddenly have a shot of the whole family, slaves and all, weeping as father goes off to war. A different mammy-like woman sobs on a porch. The black slave boy sobs as well. Just out of curiosity, folks, why exactly are the slaves upset? Finally, to add insult to injury, we see another black slave riding into town to warn the citizens that the Yankees are coming. To be honest, this is a bit puzzling. Shouldn't the slave be riding TOWARDS the Yankees? Or is that just revisionist history?

In any case, these little touches all combine to make me less than absolutely in love with this story. Though the premise is an excellent one, the racial tone makes it a difficult read today. Not a poor read, necessarily. But a read that will require a lot of explanation to those four year-olds that can't understand why the Indians went around demanding food all the time.

Rating:
Summary: Well, they were strong anyway
Review: To what extent do you hold a book accountable for the crimes of its times? Caldecott Award winner "They Were Strong and Good" has some remarkable qualities as well as some lamentable ones. Created by the clever man who brought the world's attention to sweet "Ferdinand" the bull, Robert Lawson chooses here to tell the stories of his parents and grandparents. As he himself points out in the beginning, none of them were great or famous but, "They all helped to make the United States the great nation that it now is". Each grandparent hailed from a different country and each settled in the United States. Some lived in the North and some fought for the South during the Civil War. In the end, however, they were not remarkable people. But they were strong and good.

So be it. I like this idea. And I like the author's illustrations (for the most part). Lawson's mastery of the pen and ink method is superb in this story. An exceptional example is his illustration of the City of Paterson. Using a "then" and "now" motif, he displays Paterson first in all its grimy Industrial Revolution glory and then in its previous pastoral perfection. Lawson is also adept at the visual gag. Once the author's Scottish sea captain of a grandfather and his Dutch grandmother wed, the next picture (rather than a frolicsome wedding shot) shows a woman heaved over the side of the boat. Says the text, "My mother's mother liked the monkeys and the sugar cane and the parrots, but she did not like sailing on the sea". Understatement at its finest.

Which brings me to the parts of the book I don't like. I really wish I could've loved this book wholly and without reservation. Remember - this book was published in 1940. I was willing to forgive the shot of a happy black boy in the Caribbean. There may have been some. I was willing to forgive the Native Americans that the author's mother did not like. The book doesn't caricature them too badly and the worst they do is ask for food. And anyway, she hated white lumberjacks too. But then you start getting into the portrayals of African-Americans and the book looses me. If the book had just contained that picture of a mammy-like servant threatening the Native Americans, I still wouldn't have objected too heartily. She's actually not a bad caricature. Though wearing the standard head scarf she isn't smiling with the big lips so horrid in some books. It's the moment when the narrative switches from the Northerners lives to the Southerners. The author's father owned a slave and two dogs. Then war broke out and we suddenly have a shot of the whole family, slaves and all, weeping as father goes off to war. A different mammy-like woman sobs on a porch. The black slave boy sobs as well. Just out of curiosity, folks, why exactly are the slaves upset? Finally, to add insult to injury, we see another black slave riding into town to warn the citizens that the Yankees are coming. To be honest, this is a bit puzzling. Shouldn't the slave be riding TOWARDS the Yankees? Or is that just revisionist history?

In any case, these little touches all combine to make me less than absolutely in love with this story. Though the premise is an excellent one, the racial tone makes it a difficult read today. Not a poor read, necessarily. But a read that will require a lot of explanation to those four year-olds that can't understand why the Indians went around demanding food all the time.

Rating:
Summary: A piece of Americana
Review: We all have special people in our pasts, and it's delightful to see Robert Lawson share about his. Lawson's family is depicted with clever prose and his beautiful black-and-white illustrations. His reminiscence made me eager to look into my family tree for my own version of "Strong and Good."

In an age of p.c. history, it's refreshing to listen to Lawson share HIS story, whether we are pleased with all the characterizations, or not. Whitewashing history to pacify is not history, it's a tragic rinsing of what the world was like in the past. When I saw the review of this book claiming it was a racist stomach-churner, I decided to read it myself. Don't let someone else censor your child's understanding of history. (By the way, some of my ancestors were loggers and circuit-riding preachers. Lawson desribes them as a noisy bunch of obnoxious fellows. Am I offended? Not really.) Let's celebrate our histories, whatever they may be.