This is the first volume of Rumer Godden’s autobiography. She was born in England but moved to India when she was a baby, where she lived half her life. This book covers the years 1907-1946 and tells the story of Godden’s enchanting childhood in India as a TCK, her marriage to a charming but unreliable stockbroker, her life after his abandonment having to raise two children poor and alone, and finally the publication and success of her early novels. A Time to Laugh, No Time to Weep shows Rumer Godden’s understanding of loss, suffering and withstanding long endurance.
This semi-autobiographical novel tells the story of the family of Bull Meecham, a Marine fighter pilot who runs his family with the strictness of a drill instructor shaping up a bunch of recruits. This book focuses mostly on the relationship between Bull and his eldest children. Ben, the first-born, is an athlete who can’t seem to please his father. Mary Ann, the second child, fights back against her father and the world with her biting sarcasm and charade of invincibility. This family illustrates many of the wrong ways to raise children, yet the love of the parents for their children is also evident. Many TCKs will identify with the four children’s varied responses to moving almost every year and having to repeatedly make friends in new schools.
Note: There are a lot of coarse jokes and sexual references in this book in the context of Marines or adolescent boys joking about these subjects.
From the book’s dustjacket: “Born in Pakistan to Baptist missionaries…Jonathan S. Addleton crossed the borders of race, culture, class, and religion from an early age. [This book] combines family history, social observation, current events, and deeply personal commentary to tell an unusual coming-of-age story that has much to do with the intersection of cultures as it does with one man’s life.”
The author writes with humor and deep affection of his childhood in Pakistan, his education at Muree Christian School, and his relationships with family and friends.
If you are looking for a light, uplifting book, this is not the one to choose. While beautifully-written, it is a sad, even tragic, story about Sarina, a 12-year old American girl living in Liberia. Sarina’s father, busy with his business responsibilities in other parts of the country, leaves her alone to care for her mother, a woman whose severe diabetes leaves her both physically frail and emotionally unstable. Fearful of losing her daughter, Sarina’s mother ties Sarina to the mango tree in their yard. When the lonely Sarina meets Boima, a young Liberian boy, she keeps their friendship a secret for fear her mother will prevent her from seeing him. Through their friendship she learns about the Liberian life beyond her own yard – both its joys and its tragic sorrows. Although the book is labeled as being for age 10 and up, its content seems more appropriate for slightly older readers.
Reading level: age 11-14 years
This story, often used in classrooms in the U.S., is actually about a TCK from the 1700s. Kit leads an idyllic life on her grandfather’s plantation in Barbados. His death, however, forces her to set out for the colonies to find her mother’s sister, always described as beautiful and carefree. She arrives unannounced in the bleak New England settlement, and struggles to fit into the household run by her stern, Puritan uncle and meek, though gentle, aunt. Accustomed to having slaves to care for her, Kit has difficulty learning the tasks required to keep a home running, and she often feels lonely and misunderstood.
By chance she discovers an old woman, shunned by the community for her Quaker faith, and in this new friend Kit finds a soulmate. Although the book is written in third person, its tone evolves as Kit adjusts to her new life. Extremely harsh in its presentation of Puritan life in the early parts of the book, it softens later on as Kit is able to understand and even enjoy aspects of her life in the colonies. Though ultimately she finds herself drawn to a broader life than she finds in the tiny settlement, she is able to appreciate its good points as well, giving her the ability be comfortable in either world.
Reading level: age 11-14 years
In this last book of the Anika Scott series, Anika’s term at boarding school begins badly, when her classmate Sabrina announces to everyone that Anika has “an illegitimate brother who drinks.” Despite Anika’s fears, the other girls do not hold this against her, but this only makes Sabrina’s grudge against her grow. Anika feels convicted about her own anger with Sabrina, but she does not know how to stop the feud. Only after seeking Sabrina out to apologize one night does Anika discover how lonely and unloved her classmate feels. This book shows rather clearly the difference between two boarding school students – one who feels confident of her parents unfailing love, and the other who is convinced that her parents have sent her away because she interferes in their work.
Reading level: age 10-14 years
