Bas-relief on the ocean floor. The sculpted medallion lay eighty feet below sea level and was more than six feet in diameter. Mathematically precise ridges and grooves formed a sandy floral masterpiece in concentric circles, an underwater dahlia festooned with shells. When deep-sea diver and photographer Yoji Ookata first spied this work of art on the ocean floor in the 2012, he was awe-struck. Some suspected aliens. How else could it have been made? And then of course, with ocean currents and swells, the glory was eventually unmade – vanishing like a Buddhist sand mandala and apparently without purpose.
 
Wow. “I wonder…” Who? What? How? To what end?
 
Seventy-year-old Yoji Ookata, a Japanese photographer who has spent the last fifty years scuba diving and documenting his discoveries in the East China Sea, wasn’t prepared to cede the ground to extra-terrestrials. He rallied colleagues and a camera crew to better understand what he dubbed “the mystery circle.” His diligence and discovery only increase our awe and wonder at the world in which we live, the glorious complexity of nature, and our appreciation for the wonders we have yet to understand. Scientists say only 5% of the ocean floor has been mapped – yet this marvel has been unearthed. What will we find next, if we are sufficiently open to wonder?

Watch this YouTube video, featuring a BBC Planet Earth clip. Prepare to marvel at a five-inch critter, who is one of nature’s greatest artists and most dedicated suitors.

Dear Friends of Core Virtues,
 
As a reminder, we are continuing to highlight book recommendations, heroes, and blog stories from years past while I am on maternity leave. Read on to see some reflections by Mary Beth Klee about the difficulty and nobility of heroic acts of forgiveness. 
 
Sincerely,
Gabrielle Lewis
Core Virtues Director
 
4/1/19: “Forgiveness,” by Mary Beth Klee
 
Forgiveness is a beautiful idea – until you have something to forgive.”
C. S. Lewis

April fifteenth would be Corrie ten Boom's (1892-1983) one-hundred-thirty-third birthday.  She had something to forgive. During World War II, the middle-aged Dutch watchmaker was imprisoned at Ravensbruck concentration camp. Corrie was not Jewish, but for nearly two years, she and her family had hidden Jewish refugees from Nazi occupiers. When the ten Booms were betrayed by a Dutch informant, the S.S. carted the family off to prison, where, shortly thereafter, her father died. Corrie and her sister Betsie were sent to the horrific Ravensbruck camp for women, where sadistic guards, starvation, disease, and slave labor, were a part of daily life.  Betsie, abused and mocked by guards, died in the camp. In December 1944, Corrie was released as the result of a clerical error. Buoyed by her faith, Corrie ten Boom spent the rest of her life reflecting on and writing about the meaning of her experiences, and speaking about the importance of forgiveness.
​
Corrie ten Boom’s particular push-come-to-shove moment came in 1947, when after addressing a Munich audience on forgiveness, she was approached by a former Ravensbruck prison guard.  With horror, she recognized the guard who’d taunted and mocked her naked sister, as she was forced into the showers.  He had "found Jesus," and was, she wrote, “beaming and bowing. ‘How grateful I am for your message, Fraulein,’ he said…his hand was thrust out to shake mine. And I, who had preached so often to the people … the need to forgive, kept my hand at my side. Even as the angry, vengeful thoughts boiled through me...I tried to smile, I struggled to raise my hand. I could not…I breathed a silent prayer. Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give Your forgiveness.  As I took his hand, the most incredible thing happened. From my shoulder along my arm and through my hand, a current seemed to pass from me to him, while into my heart sprang a love for this stranger that almost overwhelmed me.”  Corrie spent the remaining thirty-five years of her life putting that love into practice, establishing in the former Darmstadt concentration camp a flower-filled, cheerfully painted place of renewal and rehabilitation for ex-prisoners and victims of war. Her 1971 book The Hiding Place and the 1975 film by the same name made her story known to a generation of readers and viewers.

Forgiveness on that level (like mercy) seems super-human and is often inspired by faith. Yet, it has been preached and practiced by pragmatic, not particularly religious people, like South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. He also had something to forgive.  Actively resisting his country’s unjust apartheid regime, he organized armed struggle against the government and was jailed. Mandela spent twenty-seven years as a prisoner, often in solitary confinement, and endured torture and abuse. Yet he also had time to reflect and come to know his enemy.  When he was released, four years later becoming South Africa’s first black president, his principles were generosity of spirit and reconciliation; his politics were those of forgiveness. “I do not forget,” he said, “but I forgive... Forgiveness liberates the soul. It removes fear. That is why it is such a powerful weapon.” 

"We must strive to be moved by a generosity of spirit that will enable us to outgrow the hatred and conflicts of the past," the new president emphasized. The 2009 movie “Invictus” memorialized Mandela's first year as president, when in 1995 he threw his vigorous support behind South Africa’s mainly white Afrikaner rugby team, formerly a symbol of the hated apartheid regime. He urged them on to victory in the World Cup—an event that ended up uniting 43 million of his countrymen, fostering reconciliation and forgiveness.

Many contemporary psychologists emphasize forgiveness as a means of healing from a grave transgression – a coworker who has undermined you, a spouse who has betrayed you, a colleague who ensured your ouster, a “friend” who let his candid assessment of you poison a new relationship. Psychologists distinguish between forgiveness (desirable) and reconciliation (not always possible or desirable). The latter involves a restored relationship with the transgressor: the spouses, for example, are reconciled. Forgiveness, however, involves a psychological and emotional pivot that allows the person wronged to view the wrongdoer with compassion, kindness, and even to wish them well.  Forgiveness, in other words, is a shift and a gift. 

Psychologists Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman define forgiveness as “an unconditional gift given to transgressors based on the belief in the innate value of all persons.” The person who practices forgiveness does not excuse the transgression, does not say “what you did is OK.”  But he or she is able to let go of hurt, move beyond a desire for retribution, and toward an attitude first of forbearance and then of love.  

That is very hard.  Divine even.  One thinks, of course, of the font of Corrie ten Boom’s deep faith:  Jesus on the cross, forgiving his crucifiers: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  Those words, which millions of believers will remember in a special way this month, have inspired and challenged generations of Christians. 

Nor are Christians alone in preaching forgiveness.  Judaism teaches that God forgives people their sins, and commands them to forgive their transgressors.  Islam refers to God as “Al-Ghafoor,” the Forgiving One, and encourages forgiveness in order to receive forgiveness from Allah.  Buddhism and Hinduism enshrine the concepts of compassion and forbearance to encourage relinquishing one’s resentment towards the transgressor.

What difference does it make?  All the difference in the world.  We all know people who have endured the same horrible experience, but have reacted in very different ways:  one with bitterness and contempt, another with kindness and determination; one with resentment, another with forbearance; one with toxic rage, another with forgiving love.  Which serves us better?  Which is more attractive?  Which is more liberating - for ourselves, our children, and our future?

Corrie ten Boom made her choice.  "Forgiveness is setting the prisoner free, only to find out the prisoner was me," she wrote. The greatest gift of forgiveness is for the giver. Corrie ten Boom was born and also died on April 15.  It’s a good month to think about forgiveness.

Mary Beth Klee

Dear Friends of Core Virtues,
 
As a reminder, we are continuing to highlight book recommendations, heroes, and blog stories from years past while I am on maternity leave. Read on to see some reflections by Mary Beth Klee about the difficulties of cultivating true compassion and mercy. 
 
Sincerely,
Gabrielle Lewis
Core Virtues Director
 
3/1/2019: “The Quality of Mercy” by Mary Beth Klee
 
“The quality of mercy is not strained.
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven…”
- William Shakespeare, The Merchant of Venice
 
That’s true:  the quality of mercy is not strained, and droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven.  It always feels that way to the recipient of mercy, anyway.  We perceive mercy as an unmerited gift from above, and we tend to see the heroically merciful (Buddha, Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa) as superhuman:  mild, meek, beyond anger, and detached from the things of this world.  Maybe that’s the reason “mercy” is so hard to cultivate.  We know we should be merciful, but who actually wants to be meek and mild, passionless and detached?   
 
Yet the heroes and heroines who are featured here during this month of March—those who showed compassion to the wrongdoer or the weak—are anything but mild, aloof and remote individuals.  They are technicolor human beings with passions, energetically engaged in the world, and specifically engaged in service to those in need.
 
Consider Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, whose trailblazing service in the Civil War earned her the nickname “Angel of the Battlefield.” In the carnage of that conflict, she saw her countrymen needlessly dying on the battlefield, and she fought to bring mercy.  She battled back many bureaucratic obstacles to minister as a nurse on the scene. She then went on to found the American Red Cross, the agency that serves victims of natural disasters and humanitarian crises. 
 
Or think about Barton’s contemporary, Henry Bergh, whose patrician upbringing freed him from the need to earn a living through his work.  In his fifties, Bergh was so moved by the plight of cruelly treated animals (and most animals were cruelly treated in the mid-nineteenth century; read the eye-opening book and see how) that he urged new laws to prevent such abuse, filed more than twelve-thousand unpopular court cases, and founded the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to carry on his life’s work of “humane” treatment for animals.  Bergh was an infamous showman (he might spring from a perch on a roof into a ring of fighting cocks or dogs to make his point), but he made mercy his lodestar and moved the needle.
 
Or look at another late nineteenth great:  Jane Addams, who put her full energies and intellect into the formation of Hull House, a community center to assist and educate Chicago’s impoverished immigrant community.  The classes she offered there (in domestic arts, the trades, and English) allowed many newly arrived immigrants to find solid footing in their new home, and provided a model nationwide.
 
Mercy differs from compassion and is harder.  It is compassion extended to an enemy, a wrong-doer, those to whom we have no “obligation,” and those in our power. Our Core Virtues mercy poster features voracious cheetahs letting a trapped baby wildebeest live.  It looks like the lady cheetahs are saying: “Where’s your mother, honey?”  Mercy, in other words, is completely counter-intuitive.   
 
Modern day heroes of mercy?  Consider St. Louis-based Charles Clark and Morris Shenker.  In 1959 Jesuit priest, Father Charles “Dismas” Clark sought a way to help ex-cons start a productive life that would prevent them from returning to jail.  He knew that housing was a major difficulty for many newly released offenders:  those who had no place to stay often returned to crime on the streets. With the assistance of Jewish criminal lawyer and financier, Morrie Shenker, he founded Dismas House in St. Louis, the first half-way house for ex-offenders.  It offered not just shelter, but meals, vocational training and counseling for residents.  It became the inspiration for the 1961 film The Hoodlum Priest, and today there are hundreds of Dismas Houses throughout the United States. (Dismas was the Good Thief in the story of the Crucifixion.)
 
Do we want children to show mercy?  Of course.  Children are often fruitfully charged with the task of feeding or cleaning up after the family/classroom pet or caring for a baby sister or brother. Such responsibilities promote concern for those less capable than themselves, and may prompt them to show mercy in their own way, for example, donating some of their hard-earned savings to a good cause.  But in schools, we should not give children the impression that mercy might mean compassionately tolerating someone who abuses or hurts them. That’s not mercy.  That’s criminal negligence.
 
How do we mere mortal grown-ups show mercy on a daily basis?  Who’s in our power?  Consider not just our spouses, co-workers, children and pets, but the telemarketer who phones at the dinner hour.  Or the store clerk, who really had no part in the faulty item we purchased at an inflated price. Or the clueless driver ahead of me, still paused at the traffic light that turned green thirty seconds ago.  How we react—is a measure of our mercy. 
 
And it’s not easy. Mercy may fall upon the recipient as a “gentle rain from Heaven,” but the one who extends it must cultivate hard-won traits of self-control, openness to others, and even courage.  It’s not about “always being nice” and “always giving” to those in need.  It’s about actually meeting needs, and helping supposed enemies, wrongdoers, and “those in our power” to ultimately flourish.

Hello, friends of Core Virtues! 
 
What precious virtues we get to focus on this month! Honesty & justice, loyalty, and love of country all have an invaluable place in our nation’s heritage and our modern society. Thank you for committing yourselves to the work of instilling a love of these virtues in your students, not only in February but throughout the entire school year. 
 
As a reminder, we will highlight “the best of” from books, heroes, and blog stories from years past while I am on maternity leave (which could begin any day!). Abraham Lincoln is one of the most prominent figures in American history, and for good reason. I hope you and your students can pull rich conversations about him and honesty from the recommended books and the blog we are reintroducing from 2020. 
 
Sincerely,
Gabrielle Lewis
Core Virtues Director
​
 
Let’s Hear it for Honest Abe” by John T. E. Cribb
 
People who know I’m a big Abraham Lincoln fan often ask me, “Was he really an honest guy?” The answer, I’m happy to say, is absolutely yes. That’s one reason I admire him so much. We certainly can’t say Lincoln never told a lie, but we should do as past generations of American parents and teachers have done: Point to him as a hero of integrity for students.

Some of these examples may be familiar, but look at them in aggregate. When he was a youngster growing up on the Indiana frontier, he borrowed a biography about George Washington from Josiah Crawford, a neighboring farmer. The book was ruined when rainwater came in through the roof of the Lincolns’ cabin. Abe went straight to Crawford, owned up to what had happened, and spent three days pulling fodder in his neighbor’s corn field to pay for the book.

When he was a young man living in the village of New Salem, Illinois, he worked as a clerk in a log cabin general store. One day he accidentally overcharged a customer by six cents. He walked several miles to her house to make sure she got her money back.

Later he and a partner had their own store, which went bankrupt. Lincoln ended up owing creditors a few thousand dollars, an enormous sum in those days for a young man of little means. He could have done what many on the frontier did—simply skip town in the middle of the night to start over further west.
 
He resolved to stay and pay what he owed. Lincoln joked that he had his own “National Debt.” It took him several years, but he paid it all back, every penny. “His straightforward conduct in this and other dealings earned him the nickname ‘Honest Abe,’” wrote Lincoln historian Benjamin Thomas.

As a lawyer in Springfield, Illinois, he always tried to treat people fairly. Once a client sent him $25 for drawing up some papers. “You must think I am a high-priced man,” Lincoln wrote him. “You are too liberal with your money. Fifteen dollars is enough for the job.” He sent $10 back.

Another time, he discovered that one of his law partners had charged $250 for a case representing a young woman who was mentally disabled. “Lamon, that is all wrong,” he said. “The service was not worth that sum.” He made his partner to give half the money back. “That money comes out of the pocket of a poor, demented girl, and I would rather starve than swindle her in this manner,” he insisted.

Integrity mattered. “The Lincoln of reality seems to match the Lincoln of myth in this regard: that he tried to be scrupulously honest and honorable in his personal dealings, and cared a great deal about his reputation for being so,” wrote Lincoln scholar William Lee Miller.

Lincoln, of course, was a politician, and he could be crafty. No doubt about that. But as a legislator and as president, he tried hard to stick to his word. “I think it cannot be shown that when I have once taken a position, I have ever retreated from it,” he told the abolitionist Frederick Douglass.

Douglass met with Lincoln in the White House during the Civil War to discuss policies regarding, among other matters, black soldiers. After his visit, Douglass told an audience: “Now, you will want to know how I was impressed by him…. He impressed me as being just what every one of you have been in the habit of calling him—an honest man.”

Some people thought Lincoln would never go through with his pledge to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a politically risky act. “I trust to prove true to a principle which I feel to be right,” he said, and sign it he did. “I never, in my life, felt more certain that I was doing right, than I do in signing this paper,” he said before he wrote his name.

When the war went badly, his critics called him a confused, incompetent rube. But his allies, including millions of Americans, sensed that he was a good, decent man. And that helped them know that the cause they were fighting for was good and decent.

Lincoln’s log-cabin-to-White-House story is still one of the most compelling in all of American history. So let’s hear it for Honest Abe this February 12, his birthday, and all this month. He’s a great example for young people. Let’s make sure they know Honest Abe really was just that.

A new year is upon us, and with it, a renewed sense of hope, determination, and optimism. What better time is there to focus on building good habits that will lay the foundation for not only our health and well-being but also our character?  

In college, I learned the etymology and history of the word character for the first time, and it impressed upon my heart and mind in a powerful way. The word “character” has a few different origins, but the one that affected me was the Greek origin, kharaktēr, which originally referred to a mark, stamp, or seal pressed onto a letter. It also referred to the tool used to make the mark. This seal made it obvious to the recipient from whom the letter came. In a similar way, our character is our mark, stamp, or seal on our lives—the distinguishing features, qualities, or traits that make us unique and through which we make our “mark” on the world around us. If we are of poor character, then the mark we will make will likely be negative (or not as positive as we hope). If, though, we have worked hard to build our character toward that which is good and beautiful and true, then the impact we have will be one of good fruit and joy for those in our sphere of influence. Our character defines us and people will know us by the fruit it produces. 

Also, during college, I learned about the power that habit plays in shaping our character (thanks, Hillsdale College!). The great, ancient philosopher Aristotle emphasized the importance of habituating ourselves toward excellence in order to cultivate virtue. To put it another way, we must repeatedly practice choosing what is right and good every time we face a moral quandary in order for our character to become good. He posited that the more we choose to do the right thing, the easier it becomes to do and be good.  

It may come as no surprise to you, but being courageous is hard. We are wired to protect ourselves at all costs, and often, the result is choosing to be a coward in the face of fear or to be brash and foolhardy. Courage, though, is one of the four cardinal virtues (alongside justice, temperance, and prudence), and for good reason. Without finding the “mean” between cowardice and foolhardiness, which is courage, we cannot build moral excellence. It takes courage to try new things, to learn and grow, to build relationships with others, and to face difficult, scary, or uncomfortable situations. Life is hard, and without courage, we can easily crumble in the face of all it throws at us. Thus, with Aristotle as our guide, we must practice choosing courage each time something new, hard, or frightening is thrown our way. And what better time to practice this than as a child, while adults who care for her are there to provide wisdom, guidance, and protection? Our students’ characters and habituation toward courage can be formed under our tutelage, and what a privilege this is!   

So, how can we encourage the cultivation of courage in our students and begin this formation of character through building good habits? There are numerous and seemingly unending ways! See the list below for a few ideas:   

• Encourage your students to try new things – play a new game at recess, play challenging math games during math time, recite poetry in front of the class, talk to a new friend at lunch, etc. 

• Provide your students options, and allow them to choose which they’d prefer, followed by allowing them to live out the natural consequences of their choice. Follow this up with a loving conversation on why their choices produced a particular outcome. 

• Praise them (privately and publicly) when they overcome hard things 

• Tell stories of courageous historical figures (like George Washington) and characters (like Johnny Tremain) that present attractive pictures of overcoming fear to choose a nobler end  

• Discuss acts of courage and compare them to how they would look if one chose cowardice and/or foolhardiness instead 

• Partner with parents to have discussions about courage at home, during dinner time, or in the car 

• Model courage yourself – tell your students (age and professionally appropriate) stories of past and present acts of courage in your own life and be honest about the struggles you overcame to choose courage 
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The more we can present inspiring and attractive pictures of courage through the books we read and the stories we tell (whether of ourselves or of figures and characters), the more our students will desire to be courageous. And the more practice they get in choosing courage, the more courageous they will be. What an honor to have a small, yet significant impact on the character of our students as they practice the virtue of courage while in our care! We have the power to help them create a positive “stamp” on the world, so let’s begin this new year afresh with vigor to support our students in this important endeavor that will shape their lives.

Now onto a different matter of business: I am pregnant and due with our third child in mid-February. Because of this and the subsequent maternity leave, you will not see all new content over the next few months. Instead, you will likely see past blog posts and books that we will pull to guide you in your story reading and class discussions on the virtues of these upcoming months. There is so much rich content to pull from Mary Beth, and it is never a bad thing to repeat goodness for our students! Thank you for your understanding and patience until I return.  

Sincerely, 
Gabrielle Lewis 
Core Virtues Director 

Here we are!  October is the first official month of my “Directorship” of Core Virtues and the beginning of a beautiful partnership with this foundation and all those who currently use the Core Virtues program. It is an honor and a joy to carry on this work in pursuit of a mission I’ve held dear to my heart as an educator in the classical world for the last decade.  ​

I discovered Core Virtues as a Grammar School Dean of Academics at a classical charter school north of Tampa, FL. We held a daily assembly there for our first through fifth-grade students, and our aim was always to cultivate a love of the good through story. Hungrily, I scoured the internet in preparation for these assemblies, searching for books that would fit into 15 to 20 minutes to inspire my students to desire virtue. I don’t remember how I came across Core Virtues initially, but when I did, I quickly devoured the content within the published book and began purchasing many of the book recommendations. Over the next five years, those books became valued traditions to our students and familiar friends to my teachers and me.  

When Dr. Kathleen O’Toole, my fearless leader and the Assistant Provost for K-12 Education at Hillsdale College, asked our team what we knew and thought of a program called Core Virtues, I immediately perked up and shared what I had found to be the value of the program. Little did I know then that the Hillsdale K-12 Education Office was considering an acquisition of and partnership with Mary Beth and the Core Virtues Foundation. When the opportunity came to apply for the “Core Virtues Director” position, I jumped at the chance, and I’m honored to have been granted this role.  

As a member of the Teacher Support Team for the Hillsdale K-12 Education Office for the last two years and as an alumna of the College, I know the mission of the College and, by extension, our office well. We are a teaching institution; thus, teaching is infused into everything we do. Through establishing classical charter and private schools and teaching their boards, leaders, and teachers about the best practices of running an excellent school, we aim to educate students for a life of liberty and civic virtue, which involves both knowledge of the human good and the strength necessary to attain it. This means that we must provide an education in both knowledge and virtue, and based upon tried and true principles of moral instruction, we know that one of the most effective means of inclining the heart towards the love of virtue is by presenting moral goodness through beautifully told stories. 

Under Mary Beth’s leadership and vision, the purpose of Core Virtues has always been much the same. She endeavored to teach educators about the value of good books in children's lives and for their character formation—books that inspire through beautiful writing and illustrations and, most importantly, through powerful and winsome lessons in virtue. As the Core Virtues mission statement explains, “Drawing on the American Founders’ insight that knowledge and virtue are essential to a properly functioning republic, the Core Virtues program seeks to promote...intellectual, moral, and civic virtue...” via good books. The missions of the Hillsdale College K-12 Education Office and Core Virtues align almost seamlessly, which is why this partnership makes good sense, and the College is grateful to take the reins and honor the work that has already been accomplished in many schools and in many individuals’ lives.  
Over the next school year, users of this program can expect to see a few changes to the website as Core Virtues becomes more closely integrated with the rest of the K-12 Office’s operations; however, rest assured that our main focus will always be to continue Mary Beth’s work with the same spirit of building character through story. You may notice that we frequently tend to highlight books and stories that are considered “old classics.” This is because these are the stories that have withstood the test of time, that show us eloquently what it means to be human, that can shape our affections and habituate our passions, and that develop cultural literacy through reading the best our tradition has to offer. We have a passion for bringing these stories to American students because they are their heritage, and what a rich heritage it is!

Now, a few remarks about the virtues for the month of October: diligence, self-control/patience, and perseverance—What an apt month for us as our first to curate and update! It will take much diligence to continue Mary Beth’s work faithfully, but we are dedicated to doing so. Because we love to teach, we are eager to educate about these and the many classic virtues we will champion in the months ahead. Diligence, self-control/patience, and perseverance may not always seem like the most heroic virtues, given that they are about "holding fast" and are a way of resisting change—they are typically "quiet" virtues that don't tend to cause a stir.  But precisely because perseverance, self-control/patience, and diligence are about staying the course and not giving in to the exhaustion that comes from prolonged exertion and repeated challenges, they can reveal a purity of virtue that is not so evident in other circumstances. Passions and emotions are quick to arise and quick to flag, but an upright will does not tire in its adherence to noble goods. In this way, perseverance, self-control/patience, and diligence reveal the true strength of one's will, and thus prove the truth of one's virtue. It is fitting to contemplate these virtues now as we approach the midpoint of the first semester when opportunities for leisure and rest appear distant. It is also fitting to contemplate these virtues early on in the school year—without them, we will not make much progress in any of the virtues since all habits are only acquired through a sustained effort that far exceeds the impulses of good intentions and desires. The virtues of October are worthy of study and contemplation, and we hope that the books, hero, and poem chosen for this month will inspire students to practice them earnestly.  
Sincerely,  
Gabrielle Lewis

- ​​Mary Beth Klee

American aphorist Mason Cooley put it well: “Reading gives us someplace to go, when we have to stay where we are.” Huzzah for magical transport. Read me away. Books open windows to worlds we know nothing about, but could visit and learn from.

Have you been to Nebraska in the late nineteenth century and met its German, Czech and Yankee settlers? Willa Cather’s My Antonia paints the exquisite beauty and loneliness of the landscape, the power of its changing seasons, and the captivating resilience of Great Plains settlers who forged a life there. Have you wondered if you’d be tough enough to leave your warring homeland and begin somewhere else? Read Isabel Allende’s triumph A Long Petal of the Sea, which chronicles a family fleeing Spain’s Civil War (1939) and making new lives in Chile. Are you curious about the Belgian Congo in the 1950s? (Aren’t we all?) Read Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible, and when you finish, you may weep that this fine book had to end. Are you seeking a first-hand account of justice gone wrong and forgiveness extended? Read Anthony Hinton’s spellbinding The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row -- an eye-popping account of an innocent black man sentenced to death in Alabama, who endured thirty years in prison before lady-justice removed her blindfold.

If you just want some place new to go, and a fresh, funny take on it, try any of Bill Bryson’s travel books: I’m a Stranger Here Myself (Hanover NH), In a Sunburned Country (Australia) or A Walk in the Woods (Appalachian Trail). And, last of all, if you long for Christmas in July, don’t miss Gretchen Anthony’s hysterically funny and touching Evergreen Tidings from the Baumgartners, in which Violet Baumgartner, type-A matriarch from a distinguished family, channels her family’s (mis)adventures through the annual holiday letter. You’ll end up loving her.

This summer, when so much of the news is dark and heavy and worrisome, take time to recharge and restore. Get above it. Read novels. Read poetry and more. And let Langston Hughes be your guide:

So since I’m still here livin’
I guess I will live on.
I could’ve died for love --
But for livin’ I was born.

Though you may hear me holler,
And you may see me cry –
I’ll be dogged, sweet baby,
If you gonna see me die.

Life is fine!    Fine as wine!    Life is fine!

P.S. If you’re looking for great reading for your kids, just peruse any of our month-related tabs and/or our chapter book section. And for our adult readers, we have a great new candidate for summer reading in 2024: Telling Our Stories, a "coffee break book" that is a print compilation of our best blog posts through the years. Get your copy here!

See you in September….

Mary Beth Klee

​​To read more from Telling Our Stories, visit our Blog Archives page.