Lessons from a badger
It’s Russell Hoban’s birthday this month, and this post is a birthday tribute. His writing is much more extensive than I realized till I stumbled upon this site. I know him as the author of the Frances stories, which were a staple of my own childhood and now of my children’s as well. In fact, they listen to this audiobook of several of the stories, read by Glynis Johns. (I like my way of singing Frances’s songs better, though! ) This collection includes Bread and Jam for Frances, Bedtime for Frances, A Birthday for Frances, and A Baby Sister for Frances, all good ones. They deal with some typical family situations and conflicts in the context of a very loving and civilized family of badgers.
When I was little, though, my favorite, far and away, was A Bargain for Frances. I had a slightly mean friend much like Frances’s friend Gloria, and I liked the way Frances gets revenge when Gloria cheats her out of a tea set she’s been saving up for. As an adult I still like the story, but now it’s because it opens up opportunities to talk with my daughters, ages 6 and 4, about saving up your money, what to do when people are mean to you, and whether Frances’s response is fair or not. (Okay, true confession: I still always chuckle when Frances calls Gloria and tricks her into thinking she’s left a small fortune in the sugar bowl!) Frances and Gloria end up deciding that “being friends is better than being careful” – a fact I as an adult often need to be reminded of. In the long run, it is better not to take refuge from people in hyper-carefulness. Thanks, badger child, for keeping me straight on that point.
Another I liked was Harvey’s Hideout. Harvey and his sister Mildred are muskrats who have very cool secret burrows and fake each other out about how many friends they have coming to cookouts and parties there. It turns out that the burrows are back to back, a fact Harvey discovers by eavesdropping through the wall, and in the end they work out their sibling squabbles and mutual deceptions and are able to enjoy each other’s company. I loved it as a kid. The dugouts were neat, and they got to actually COOK even though they were kids. As an adult, I wonder what the Hobans were thinking; the name-calling between brother and sister is hard to read aloud, and sometimes the parental interventions are real head scratchers. For instance, when Harvey calls Mildred, “loud-mouthed, bossy, mean and rotten,” their father insists that she’s loud-mouthed and bossy, but not mean and rotten. ??? Can’t really imagine mediating a sibling spat that way with my kids. So they’re missing out on this one.
It’s interesting to remember that it never phased me as a kid, though. I accepted Harvey and Mildred Muskrat, meanness included, because I knew kids could be that way. The strength of all these stories is their gentle treatment of some of the real difficulties of being young: mean friends, sharing things, sharing parents, getting along with siblings, allowances, bedtimes, finicky tastes and other matters. There was enough reality to Frances to keep me coming back for more. As an adult, there’s enough reality to her parents – and enough wisdom – to bring me back again.
The Celebrate the Author Challenge for February is here.
