Richie's Picks: Great Books for Children and Young Adults

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"Then Frita closed her eyes and lifted the spoon to her mouth. I knew she had a big chunk of brussels sprout on there because I could see it through the ice cream. Poor Frita, I thought. I sure was glad I hadn't written down brussels sprouts. Frita stuck the spoon in her mouth and chewed. I waited for her to spit that mess out, but it didn't happen. Frita opened one eye. She swallowed without choking once.
" 'It's not so bad,' she said. 'Put some more chocolate sauce on there.'
" I poured it on so thick it was like chocolate soup, and Frita ate three more bites.
" 'Hey,' she said at last. 'I think I like this stuff.' "

I wonder if Presidents ever serve brussels sprouts at State dinners. And I'm curious whether they ever send out for pizza when some king comes to pay a visit.

I did not discover the answers to those particular questions when I spent a recent Sunday morning immersed in the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library on the outskirts of Boston. But I learned a lot of other things.

It was my first visit to a Presidential library. And it would seem an appropriate one to begin with, since JFK was President when I first came to learn what a President was. I can remember when his wife gave a televised tour of the house that they--like all Presidential families--were then living in. I can also recall how the Peace Corps was my young idea of what was great about America. Indeed, the JFK library was a thoroughly moving experience. I cried by time I reached the final exhibits. Like so many others of my generation, his death, and that of his brother Bobby, were pivotal moments in my childhood.

" 'Frita,' I said, 'I've changed my mind. I don't need to cross centipedes off my list because I already crossed off spiders and earwigs and I shoulda just written down bugs because that's what I meant. So really, I'm done with-'
" 'Hush up,' Frita said. She was crouching down, positioning her hands around the centipede. I looked away. Next time I peeked, she had her hands cupped real tight.
" 'Don't be scared,' she told me. 'Centipedes are soft and friendly. Let's name him so you'll feel like he's a pet. Or wait! Maybe I'll keep him. That way you'll have Jimmy and I'll have...' Frita thought it over, 'Gilligan.' Frita watched Gilligan's Island on TV every week. 'That's the perfect name!'
"She was getting excited, but I stared hard at her cupped hands. My eyes were huge as saucers."

"Jimmy" is Gabe's "pet" spider, named after then-candidate Jimmy Carter, the first President who I was old enough to vote for. Yes, it is a cruel reminder of the passage of time for me that 1976-my final year of undergraduate study at UConn and my first occasion to vote in a Presidential election-can nowadays serve as the background for a piece of children's HISTORIC fiction written by some award-winning author who wasn't even alive during that year to witness the nation's Bicentennial celebration.

Jimmy Carter turned out not to be the earnest Andy Griffith-"Ah, shucks!"-Southern moderate who he was successfully portrayed as being during his 1976 Presidential campaign. I sure had no expectations that his first major act would be to welcome home the nation's prodigal sons--those young men whose belief in the commandment "Thou shalt not kill" had motivated them to seek refuge from The Draft in Canada.

The lowering of the White House thermostat, the donning of a Presidential cardigan sweater, and the provision of significant federal tax incentives to promote the installation of solar panels across America were actions which were greeted with derision by the oilmen who now control this country but were, for me, thrilling examples of farsighted Presidential leadership that had me forgetting all about how I'd originally hoped for a Democratic Presidential candidate more publicly tied to the antiwar movement of my high school years.

The legacy of Jimmy Carter is of a man who put the full weight of the US Presidency behind building bridges for peace--rather than waging war--in the Middle East, and who has spent his post-Presidential years with a hammer rather than a golf club in his hand. That, when he is not away on the trips to troubled lands which have caused his name to become synonymous with the striving of peoples for free and fair elections.

All that being said, it is another very telling but briefly recalled incident involving the younger Jimmy Carter, the peanut farmer, which comes to play a significant role in K.L. Going's outstanding story about Gabriel King, the shortest kid in his class, and of Gabriel's best friend Frita Wilson, as they share the summer in their little Georgia community between fourth and fifth grade.

It is Frita's plan for herself and Gabe to list and methodically overcome each of their fears after their end-of-fourth grade Moving Up Day ceremony is ruined for them when Gabe is bullied by some of their classmates. And while Gabe is more than willing to acknowledge his many fears, it is Frita--whose preacher daddy has chosen to have her integrate Gabe's white school-who may have the biggest obstacles to overcome.

Ms. Going seamlessly weaves together the issues of name calling, racial prejudice, and heroism in this story for all ages. It is a superb book for this week; it being National No Name Calling Week.

" 'Pop?' I said.
" 'Mmm?'
" 'How come Mr. Evans called Frita that name?'
"I was used to kids at school calling Frita names when she wasn't around to punch their lights out, but they called me names too--like Shrimp and Shorty. I'd always figured that was just about the same thing. Only there sure weren't any adults calling me Shrimp. "Pop thought things over.
" 'Well,' he said at last,' some folks don't care for black people.'
" 'How come?'
"Pop frowned. 'Don't know for certain. I suspect they see the world as having only so much of the good things in life and they're afraid of sharing because then there would be less for them. That other person might get something they want.'
" 'Is that true?' I asked.
" 'No,' said Pop. 'That's not how I see it. I suspect there's enough good to go around.' "

The usual reaction to oppression and the threat of physical violence is either to flee or to fight. It is intriguing and delightful to observe the thoughts and reactions of the two young characters to what befalls them in their quest to become fearless. But it is a series of intergenerational links which Ms. Going weaves into this tale--some positive, others horrifying--along with the compelling tale about a future President, that transform THE LIBERATION OF GABRIEL KING into a story that profiles the meanings of courage.

Richie Partington
http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com