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~ MARVELOUS MIDDLE-GRADE
MONDAY HISTORICAL
FICTION FEATURE ~
-- 'YONIE WONDERNOSE' --
AUTHOR/ILLUSTRATOR MARGUERITE DE ANGELI
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ABOUT THE BOOK {from Goodreads}:
Seven-year-old Yonie is a wondernose because he can't keep his nose out
of anything and is always getting into trouble. When his parents go away
overnight, he's left as the man of the house and promised a special reward if
he can keep himself and the farm out of trouble. But that night a bad storm
brings trouble--the kind that not even a full-grown man could handle easily. A
Caldecott Honor Book. Illustrations. 48 pp. Ages 7-11. Original Publication: 1944.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR {from Bookology Magazine website @ https://www.bookologymagazine.com/}:
Marguerite (Lofft) de Angeli was born on March 14, 1889 in Lapeer,
Michigan. Her father was a photographer and her grandfather was the town’s
blacksmith. At the age of 13, her family moved to Philadelphia, where
Marguerite’s artistic inclinations were encouraged. She was interested in
singing, writing, and drawing, seemingly heading toward a career as a
professional singer. When she met John de Angeli, he encouraged her to think of
motherhood as her career, to which she agreed. The couple had five children.
When her first three were a bit older, Marguerite began to study with
her next-door neighbor, an illustrator, eventually publishing in Country
Gentleman magazine and illustrating books for other authors.
In 1935, she first published books she had both written and
illustrated. Her first books were Ted and Nina Go to the Grocery Store and Ted
and Nina Have a Happy Rainy Day. Her immensely popular books often dealt with
the ordinary lives of immigrant children.
She was awarded the Newbery Medal in 1950 for The Door in the Wall,
the story of a young disabled boy who saves a besieged castle in the thirteenth
century. De Angeli received a Newbery honor in 1956 for The Black Fox of
Lome. Yonie Wondernose won a Caldecott honor in 1945. That book and Henner’s
Lydia were two notable stories about Amish children. In 1946, de Angeli
broke literary ground by publishing Bright April, a story of a black girl
and racial prejudice.
She died in 1987.
— Vicki Palmquist
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MY REVIEW:
I came upon this book in our local library system's online catalog quite by accident recently. I read a lot of Amish fiction and non-fiction from the Adult Collection. I finished a search of those genres for adults and decided to browse for something new in the Children's Collection. I narrowed the search to the Children's Collection without changing the subject (Amish). When this book came up I knew I wanted to read it because of my interest in Amish fiction and non-fiction and because historical fiction is my favorite genre of children's and adult books.
I noticed on the Amazon listing for this book that the age range is 5-6. The Goodreads age range is 7-11. I would place the age range at 7-10.
The story begins with background information about seven-year-old, 'Yonie', a Pennsylvania Dutch boy whose full name is Jonathan. His father nicknamed him 'Yonie Wondernose' because the boy is so curious. Yonie just had to know about every little thing and what was happening around him.
Yonie's family lives on a farm in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His grandmother, Granny, lives with the family. Yonie has three sisters. One afternoon Pop and Mom and two of Yonie's sisters leave to go on an overnight visit. Granny, Yonie, and little sister, Nancy, are left to take care of the farm.
The story continues with a narrative about all of the chores Yonie and his Granny and even little Nancy perform to take care of the animals and the farm while the rest of the family is away. Feeding and watering the horses, bull, pigs, cows, mama cat and her kittens, and the chickens takes a lot of time and energy. By the time he is finished with the chores, Yonie is hot and tired. He takes a dip in the creek on the property.
Young readers will enjoy what happens when Yonie locks the door of the chicken coop without looking inside first! Later in the evening a thunderstorm helps to break the heat outside, but it soon creates chaos at the farm when lightning strikes the barn.
Yonie flies out of bed, gets dressed, and heads toward the barn. His father is counting on him to take care of the animals. The barn is on fire and quickly fills with heavy smoke. A flock of pigeons who lived in the cupola of the barn fly out, and the mama cat with her kittens escape easily.
Granny helps Yonie release the horses and cows from the barn. While she tends to the animals, she sends him to let the chickens out of their coop. Once he is finished with that task, he is told to release the bull.
Before Yonie can release the bull, he is distracted by the bright red fire engine that is coming down the road and the wagons filled with their neighbors who have come to help fight the fire. Momentarily, Yonie forgets that Little Nancy is still asleep in the house and the bull is still in the barn.
Yonie eventually 'hears' his father's voice yell, 'Wondernose'! He headed for the bull's pen and led him to safety. The bull's back was burned by a smoldering timber, so Yonie ran to the house to get some apple butter to soothe the angry bull.
As he approaches the house, Yonie finds that a neighbor picked up Yonie's father and drove him home. When Pop learned how Yonie saved the animals, he gave him one of the newborn piglets and a calf to call his own. He also told Yonie that since he was a man now, he would be able to guide their two work horses when they were plowing the fields during planting season. This was a reward and an opportunity that Yonie had been waiting to receive for a long time.
I really enjoyed this old-fashioned story. The artwork is delightful; some of the illustrations are pencil/charcoal and some are colorful and look like the front cover. Highly-recommended!
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Find
the links to read more great Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday posts from
middle-grade authors and bloggers at Greg Pattridge's 'Always in the Middle' Blog.
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I had never heard of this book so thanks for featuring on MMGM. It sounds like one I would enjoy and will look for it on my next library visit.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't heard of this book either. I found the author's bio interesting, especially since she was born in Michigan. Me too, and I still live here.
ReplyDeleteI will read anything Amish. Love to escape into the plain life. It must be a great book, if it's still in print. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDeleteI've never seen this book, but I've actually read a novel by Marguerite de Angeli, The Door in the Wall (which, as it says above, won the Newbery in 1950)—it is absolutely worth a read! I didn't realize she was also an illustrator, and it sounds like this book showcases her writing and art equally well. Thanks so much for the great review!
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this author and her prolific works. This sounds like a fascinating book. I'll bet kids would really like to imagine themselves in such a situation. Thanks for telling me about it.
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