What really sucks you into this book are the illustrations of Marven on skis. Kevin Hawkes' illustrations subtly allude to Paul Bunyan stories, with the larger-than-life character Jean Louis. What gives the book staying power is that it is a true story, a history, and so you have to constantly remind yourself, "This really happened."
The story is about how one family in Minnesota's lives were turned upside-down by panic over the influenza epidemic of 1918. They send their son away to work at a logging camp with a friend. I like how the child reader is forced to understand how the labor of a young boy would be useful in the camp doing bookkeeping. Frequently, when child labor is addressed in children's lit, it is typically done by showing the working conditions of the archetypal child factory worker or coal miner covered in soot and malnourished. This true story shows how a boy was able to use his skills to support himself during hard times in a manner that was mutually beneficial to himself and the logging company. The story doesn't feel like it has to twist the history to serve as any kind of politically correct propaganda. It is simply told from the point-of-view of Marven's recollections of an episode from his childhood. Certainly, it was hard on the child to be away from his family so long, but he developed a sense of self-esteem from his job because he was performing a valuable service. In many ways, it's a positive story about a young boy forced by circumstances into a coming-of-age journey. And again, unlike the classics of the genre like Tom Sawyer and Peter Pan, it's a true story. The closest parallel I can come up with is the boy version of Laura Ingalls in the early 20th century.... or maybe like an underground railroad story except Marven isn't Black or a runaway slave. As a children's history, it certainly is unique and worthy of a place in children's libraries for decades to come.
The one cultural difficulty that was easy for me to address teaching this book was Marven's Jewishness... how he develops a system for keeping kosher and how the fact that he was Jewish contributed to him having the education to be able to actually get that job, given that many of the lumberjacks were illiterate. The cultural difficulty that was not so easy for me to deal with is that I have never skied in my life and the most snow we ever get here is a few inches that melt as soon as they hit the ground. My 8 year old daughter really had a hard time with my explanations about why Marven had to leave the camp before the spring thaw or else he would be "trapped." Kids today in the age of the interstate highway system and scarcely a square mile in the Lower 48 not criss-crossed with grids of asphalt roads, they don't "get" what a spring thaw and mud really means. These little details of American life in 1918 that Lasky carefully weaves into her narrative give teachers and parents a fertile ground for social studies discussion topics.

Not for little girls. A flu epidemic has just arrived, a great-aunt has died, and the family is afraid for their son. They "want him to live to be a man," so they send him to a remote camp for several months. There is no similar concern for their two daughters, who stay at home, and no explanation for the disparity. Fortunately, in the end the son returns home to find that, "Nobody's dead."

I was excited when I first heard about this book at a teacher training because it takes place in 3 Minnesota towns--where I grew up, where my parents grew up and where I went to college.

Everyone--kids and grown ups alike need to feel the thrill of a connection to a book--a book about places they know. Minnesota current and former residents need this book!

I was excited when I first heard about this book at a teacher training because it takes place in 3 Minnesota towns--where I grew up, where my parents grew up and where I went to college.

Everyone--kids and grown ups alike need to feel the thrill of a connection to a book--a book about places they know. Minnesota current and former residents need this book!

The Best Children's Books of the Year, 1998; Bank Street College of Education; United States
Best of the Bunch, 1997; Association of Jewish Librarians; United States
Children's Books of Distinction, 1998; Riverbank Review; United States
The Children's Literature Choice List, 1998; Children's Literature; United States
Notable Books for Children, 1998; American Library Association
Smithsonian Magazine's Notable Books for Children, 1997; Smithsonian; United States

This book is a true story about how two unlikely people become friends. Marven a ten year old boy from Duluth, Minnesota in 1918, is sent to live at a logging camp far awar from home in the Great North Woods to escape the influenza that is sweeping the country. Marven is scared to go becasue he does not know what to expect, and is also afraid that the influenza might take the life of some of his family members. At the logging camp Marven meets a French speaking lumberjack named Jean Louis. The two have nothing in common, but become freinds anyway. When Marven comes back home he is relieved to find out that the influenza is over, and that all of his family memebers are alive.

I liked this book because it was adventurous and exciting that a ten year old boy could travel alone far away from his parents to some place he had never been before. I thought the illustrations did a great job of showing the beauty and vastness of the wilderness as well as the difference in size between Marven, his lumberjack friends, and the Great North Woods.

I picked up this book because it is a Texas Bluebonnet Award nominee. I found it to be delightful and charming. I was even more delighted to find that it is a true story about the author's father. That sort of information always makes a story even more alive. I greatly enjoyed this book. For the curious, this isn't the only book the author has written about her family.

This is a charming, interesting book. Kids will be intrigued by Marven's adventure - not only by the notion of being sent away from his family, but also the dramatic reasons for it and the incredibly different and appealing life he gets to lead with the lumberjacks. Adults will like all that, too, and will also be won over by the warmth and, ultimately, gentless of this very unusual story. A lovely, rare find.

Marven Lasky was my mother's husband. He passed away last week at the age of 91. I only read this book in detail to find out more about him. For more about his family, see "The Night Journey", also by this author.