Blue Willow: A Book That Lillie and Kate Read

After reading What I Saw and How I Lied, I contacted the author, Judy Blundell through Facebook. I was impressed with Judy's knowledge of the books that Evie Spooner, her post WWII character, read. Including this literature brought historical accuracy and greater depth to Evie's character. Judy told me how she located her resources. She inspired me to find a few books that Lillie Harris and Kate Dinsmore, my two protagonists, would have read. 

As some of my faithful blog readers know, my story includes Lillie and Kate discovering a cup with the same china pattern that has been passed down for generations in both their families. Over the process of writing Half-Truths, I've played with different china patterns. My friend and writing mentor, Joyce Hostetter, suggested the popular Blue Willow pattern. When I posted this picture on Facebook, several friends commented about their grandmothers' collections. 

Becky Levine and Joyce chimed in that I really needed to read the book, Blue Willow, which they remembered from their own childhoods. After reading it I realized I'd found a book which both girls would have enjoyed and a story that could provide rich subtext for Half-Truths.

Winner of the Newbery Honor in 1941, Blue Willow recounts the story of a family shaped by the Great Depression. Ten-year-old Janey Larkin longs for a permanent home for herself and for her most beloved possession, a blue willow china plate that belonged to her great-great grandmother. Her father is an itinerant farm worker who struggles to support Janey and her step-mother.  When the family moves from one farm to another, the plate goes with them but stays packed away. "…never, Mrs. Larkin had declared long ago, would it be put out as a household ornament until they had a decent home in which to display it. In the meantime it was kept sadly tucked away, a reminder of happier days before its owners had become wanderers in search of a livelihood." (p. 23)

Because the plate had belonged to Janey's mother, it had become a part of her memories that were mixed up with "Mother Goose rhymes and gay laughter and a home of their own.  And because the willow plate had once been a part of all this, it had seemed actually to become these things to Janey. It was the hub of her universe, a sold rock in the midst of shifting sands." (p.23)

Fast forward twenty years, and like Janey, Lillie is enthralled with the story depicted in the blue willow pattern. Here will be my readers first introduction to the china in Chapter 1:

I tackle the breakfast dishes, washing and stacking them so they dry nice. I take special care with Big Momma’s china cup. There’s a chip along the rim and I don’t know how many times my grandmother has glued the handle back on. Daddy teases her that he’s going to get her a new cup for her birthday, but she says her coffee won’t taste right coming out of any other cup. She never lets anybody else drink out of that cup neither. The way she prizes it, you’d think a boyfriend gave it to her.

I rinse and wipe the cup dry, tracing my finger around the blue doves flying over the pagoda. When I was little, Big Momma told me the legend of the young Chinese lovers who were turned into doves when they eloped against the girl’s Daddy’s wishes.  This was one of Big Momma’s favorite stories. Mine too. A girl loving a boy when her Daddy didn’t think he was good enough for his daughter?  You can’t get more romantic than that!

Later in Half-Truths, Kate's little sister Maggie discovers a blue willow tea set in their grandmother's attic. 

     Maggie pulls out crumpled sheets of yellowed newspaper and throws them on the floor. I start to gather up the paper but then stop. Maggie holds up a blue-patterned tea pot for us to admire. I gasp and put my hand over my mouth. But it’s too late. The girls look at me questioningly.  

“What’s the matter, Lillian?” Maggie ask.  “You look like you seen a ghost!”

“It’s Blue Willow,” I blurt out.  “Big Momma’s got a cup just like it at. The pictures on it tell an old Chinese love story.”

“Ain’t that something!” Maggie pulls out a creamer, sugar bowl, and two cups. Who would have figured that Grandmother and Big Momma would have the same tea cup?”

Miss Anna Kate looks from me to the china and back to me again. “It’s just like the china in the book.” Her voice is slow and thoughtful.

“You mean Blue Willow?” I ask.

“It was my favorite book in fifth grade,” Miss Anna Kate gets a faraway look in her eyes as if she’s recollecting the story. “You read it?”

I nod. “I love the part when Janey pays the rent with the plate so they can stay in their shack…”

Miss Anna Kate interrupts me, “…but then in the end, finds it on the mantle in their new home.”

“What are y’all talking about?” Maggie’s crosses her arms across her chest and looks perturbed.

I shrug. “Just a book.”

Miss Anna Kate corrects me. “Just the best book ever."

We smile at each other. I’m surprised we’ve got something in common. But I gotta admit, it feels good.

********

Blue Willow china: generations old. 

Facebook friends: generations new.

Multi-Racial Read #2

Flygirl is a fictional account of a young light-skinned African American woman in Louisiana in 1941 who decides to pass in order to be accepted into the WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots). Her motivation is two-fold and powerful. She has a deep passion to fly, fueled by memories of flying with her deceased father who taught her how to fly his crop duster; and she desires to help bring her older brother home who enlisted as a medic.The core of this book, which is appropriate for 5th-9th grade readers, is the price that Ida Mae will have to pay to accomplish her dream.

I read this book looking for background information on Lillie Harris, my light-skinned African American character. I was not disappointed. Sherri Smith, the author of Flygirl, deftly depicts the conflicts which Ida Mae experiences because of her skin color. From the beginning when her best friend observes that she is “Little Miss Pretty Hair [with] Creamy White Skin” (p. 9) through the last pages when she is confronted by romantic attention from her white flight instructor—the book is full of the difficult decisions Ida Mae makes in pursuit of her goal.

As an author investigating the social and cultural context of the South before integration, the book’s key passages are those which show Ida Mae’s background and the tensions which she faces. Early in the book the reader discovers that Ida Mae’s maternal grandmother is a French-speaking Creole. Smith writes,

“My father’s people were town people, city folks who followed opportunity the way a compass follows north. Sometime back, one of them found herself with child by a white man. They steered that half-colored girl down a path that made each generation lighter than light, having children by white men and marrying those children to other mixed coloreds, lighter and whiter until my father was born.

“Daddy was destined to marry a white woman, to be a passé blanc and give his family a better lot in life. By daddy wasn’t an opportunist. He was a romantic, and his heart chose Mama. Grandmѐre Boudreaux never forgave daddy for his choice of a brown-skinned bride…” (p. 53)

Constantly fighting her fear that she will be discovered, Ida Mae passes into a world that is denied other African Americans. Although she is accepted into the WASP program and fulfills her dream to fly, there are heavy consequences. In a poignant scene her mother visits her at the training camp. Meeting her at the gate, Ida Mae pretends that her mother is her maid in order to have a simple conversation:

“Aware of the guard at our backs, we fall into the pattern of mistress and maid. Watching my mother play the role of servant, I feel a sour taste in my throat. I never meant for my own role-playing to bring her such humiliation.

“I don’t know this guard. He gives us a suspicious once-over, the look of someone trying to keep his status. “It’s all right,” I tell him. “She’s our housekeeper.” The word burns my throat…” p. 160-161.

Although more appealing to girls than boys, this account of one women’s struggle against both gender and racial prejudices would supplement classroom studies of African Americans and World War II. I learned a lot by reading it; Flygirl will provide thought-provoking lessons to students across many cultures. (G.P.Putnam’s Sons, 2008)
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1941, Flygirl, Sherri Smith, light-skinned African Americans, WASP, WWII, historical fiction,
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