What if a children’s game became reality?

The Bronte siblings have vivid imaginations.

Jennifer Minicus | Dec 8 2017 | comment

The Glass Town Gameby Catherynne M. Valente
written for ages 11-14 | highly recommended
published in 2017 | Margaret K. McElderry Books | 544 pages

Charlotte and Emily Bronte dread returning to boarding school after Christmas. When they last left school, their older sisters had fallen ill and died soon thereafter. If only they could convince their father to keep them home with Branwell and Anne, their younger brother and sister.

The four children escape their fears during the holidays by playing their invented game: The Glass Town Game. Wooden soldiers comprise the armies of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte, fighting deadly battles and then coming back to life the next day for a new round.

The “Beastliest Day” arrives when Charlotte and Emily must walk to town to catch the carriage to school. Branwell and Anne accompany them to see them off. To their great astonishment, their own wooden soldiers are alive at the train station and allow them to board a strange train made of gorse branches, heather and other moor plants. They ride through patchwork fields that look just like their quilts at home to Glass Town – a place nearly like their fantasy land, but with unexpected dangers.

Every character from their stories has come alive, though not totally in the form they imagined. When an evil spy working for Napoleon kidnaps Branwell and Anne, Charlotte and Emily realize that they no longer have control of their toys and must play by new rules to save their siblings.

Catherynne Valente’s monstrously clever story is one of the best published this year. Her intelligent use of language compels the reader to consider nuances and double meanings. The Bronte children meet historical figures whose personalities come to life in humorous manners that will thoroughly engage middle school who have a strong knowledge of literature. For those with less reading experience, Valente’s book is highly entertaining and may inspire them to explore more advanced novels.

Jennifer Minicus is a teacher living in Ridgewood, NJ

December 8, 2017

In New Zealand right now it's unusually hot and dry for this early part of the summer. But the temperatures will be much higher across the Tasman in Australia. We are the ones who, in our native setting, can only dream of a white Christmas while sweltering through a warm Midnight Mass. Northern Hemisphere Christians enjoy in a sensory way the religious symbolism of celebrating Christmas at the winter solstice -- the birth of Christ bringing light into a dark world. Can celebrating the Feast in summer Down Under mean anything? Zac Alstin has been thinking about this question and has come up with what seems to me an original and profound answer.

Early Christians, according to a new book, put out the lights by destroying the classical world. David Daintree reviews this work, very charitably, in my opinion, while exposing out its major faults. Among other articles today, Michael Cook issues a challenge to those who claim that Australia with same-sex marriage (the bill sailed thorugh parliament today) will see more commitment; and Jennifer Minicus reviews an excellent children's novel based on the juvenile writings of the Bronte siblings.

Happy reading!