Play's the Thing: Under the Lilacs by Louisa May Alcott

This is close to the way I imagine the bower of lilacs near the Victorian mansion in Alcott's book.

Louisa May Alcott is rightly renowned for Little Women, but as a child and later as an adult reading out loud to my young daughter, I found Alcott's Under the Lilacs to be the most charming "chapter book" for children--rivaled only by Anne of Green Gables. The story concerns two little girls, Bab and Betty, who live with their widowed mother in a small house next to an empty mansion, and what happens one spring when a runaway circus boy, Ben, and his trick dog, Sancho, are found in the carriage house and a lovely young woman, Miss Celia, and her sick younger brother, Thorny, come to spend the summer in the mansion. What happens is tons of fun for all!

Miss Celia's mission is to bring her convalescing brother back to life. She espies in Ben, Bab, and Betty just the right sort of people to help her do it, and Under the Lilacs offers a glimpse of how children created their own fun in the time before summer day camps and organized sports for children, not to mention television, video games, phones, movies, and all the other hyper-stimulative gadgets and toys that youngsters have at their disposal today.

Bab tugged away at the bow Miss Celia gave her.

She hands over one of the rooms of the mansion to the kids and gives them her rag bag and needles and thread, after which they designing and sewing flags to festoon the house's big porch. "A spell of ship building and rigging followed the flag fit," as Thorny let the children use his array of large toy ships and boats. "These gifts led to out-of-door waterworks, for the brook had to be dammed up that a shallow ocean might be made....

Thorny, from his chair, was chief engineer, and directed his gang of one how to dig the basin, throw up the embankment, and finally let in the water till the mimic ocean was full; then regulate the little water gate, lest it should overflow and wreck the pretty squadron of ships, boats, canoes, and rafts, which soon rode at anchor there. Digging and paddling in mud and water proved such a delightful pastime that the boys kept it up, til a series of a waterwheels, little mills and cataracts made the once quiet brook look as if a manufacturing town was about to spring up where hitherto minnows had played in peace and the retiring frog had chanted his serenade unmolested.

Miss Celia also organized jaunts to unknown spots in the countryside: "It really was quite exciting to start off on a bright morning with a roll of wraps and cushions, lunch, books, and drawing materials packed into the phaeton, and drive at random about the shady roads and lanes, pausing when and where they liked. Wonderful discoveries were made, pretty places were named, plans were drawn, and all sorts of merry adventures befell the pilgrims."

In the midst of all these adventures, each child enjoyed growth and development as part of the process of encountering obstacles, losses, or new challenges.



Louisa May Alcott--child delighter.

There is evidence from Harriet Reisen's Louisa May Alcott: The Woman Behind Little Women that Alcott modeled Miss Celia on herself. It was the recollection of one of Louisa's schoolmates that "Louisa was the foremost of her sisters and the ringleader of the group," Reisen reports. The schoolmate also recounted a performance Louisa put together for one of her sister's birthdays. "She concocted a satisfying bill of fare out of dubious romantic legends--vaguely Gaelic, Germanic, and Native American.... Louisa stole the show as Alfarata, an Indian girl who like Louisa 'was swift as an antelope through the forest going.'"

Another playmate of Louisa's recalls that in the summer that he was 14 years old, he and the Alcott sisters played outside all day, blissfully unsupervised. "We christened a favorite nook, a beautiful rocky glen carpeted with moss and adorned with ferns opening upon the water's edge, 'Spiderland.' I was the King of the realm, Anna [Alcott] was the Queen, and Louisa the Princess Royal." He also noted that Louisa's mother Abby Alcott also participated in their play, "No matter how weary she might be with the washing and ironing, the baking and cleaning, it was all hidden from the group of girls with whom she was always ready to enter into fun and frolic, as if she never had a care."

Louisa May Alcott's childhood, we know and as Reisen relates, was not blissful but rife with poverty that served up brown bread, oatmeal, and apples for most meals. But Louisa May Alcott surely remembered the best of her playtimes and re-created them in her novels, albeit properly embellished. She, as did other authors of beloved children's books such as L. M. Montgomery, wrote her dreams so that we could dream them too... and hopefully give our children a taste of such marvels.

It takes so little to make a child happy, it is a pity grown people do not oftener remember it and scatter little bits of pleasure before the small people, as they throw crumbs to the hungry sparrows.
Under the Lilacs, by Louisa May Alcott

Dancing in the Rain

In Praise of Marguerite de Angeli 1

Girls on their way home from school, from Up the Hill by Marguerite de Angeli

I would like to encourage all mothers of elementary school age children to find the books by Marguerite de Angeli. You can readily find used editions of these books at abebooks.com.
Marguerite de Angeli grew up in Michigan (scene for her famous Copper-Toed Boots) but moved to Philadelphia when she married. She had five children of her own but went to art school to learn how to paint and draw with the goal of producing books for children. The story is that when she tried to paint and draw in the playroom with her children, they would never leave her alone long enough for her to accomplish anything. She came up with an ingenious idea: she plunked herself in the playpen with her pencils, pastels, and paints, and let the children play around her, which they were perfectly content to do now that she seemed captured.

I recommend Mrs. de Angeli's books for the beauty of their illustrations, as shown here, for her bringing to life young people from different times, places, and cultures, and most of all for her portrayal of children within a loving family united in love of God.

Up the Hill is perhaps one of the best examples of all of these. I never read this book as a child, but when I set out to find all the de Angeli books to read to my daughter, I discovered it. The story takes place in 1930s Pittsburgh and is about a Catholic girl, Aniela, who is the daughter of Polish immigrants. The book is a song of praise to unselfishness. The father is an organist and a violinist who does not make much money. Therefore, the mother works. The little girl, age 10, therefore keeps the house and tends to the father's needs during the day when her mother is at work, since her mother cannot stay at home. We see all the the many chores Aniela must perform to keep the home. All of the family is scrimping to keep the oldest brother in medical school in Philadelphia. The middle brother is a budding artist, and Aniela gives up the money she has saved from selling eggs to buy a new bonnet to contribute to his going to art school in Philadelphia. The culminates in the celebration of Easter. Today's super-individualists would be horrified by this book, because its message is that a family revolves around loving sacrifice for the others in it, and this is the love we are called upon by God to have and to share. This is perhaps why today's super-individualists view the family as the major obstacle to imposing their vision of the world.

Here is an illustration from Henner's Lydia, the story of an Amish girl who is desperately trying to finish her hook rug so she can take it to market and the obstacles she overcomes on the way. This is one of Mrs. de Angeli's earlier books, and the illustrations seem to be all done in colored pencils. I loved this book as a child, perhaps because my earliest years were spent in central Pennsylvania and I was very familiar with the sight of Amish and Mennonite people. This book is very good for children because it introduces them to a very beautiful but different culture and also because Lydia is constantly but gently corrected by her father.

Thee Hannah! is probably the most famous of Mrs. de Angeli's books and tells the story of a Quaker girl who lived on Pine Street in Philadelphia during the Civil War. She chafes at having to be "plain" and envies the beautiful bonnets of her friends. Finally, just as she is walking down the street basket in hand, as in the cover picture above, she discovers what it really means to be a Quaker.

Girls walking to school in the rain in Thee Hannah! I loved this book not only for the story but also for its beautiful illustrations, like the one above. The story also gives a very good sense of what it was like to live in a well-managed frugal but elegant Quaker home, with loving attention to the details of linen, apothecary jars, shopping in the market, and the breakfast table.

Petite Suzanne and her brother and sister wave good-bye in this cover illustration. This is a story about a little girl who lives in a fish family in rural Quebec and how she discovers her love of painting and drawing, how her family prepares for Christmas, and how they live as Catholics.

This illustration of Petite Suzanne's classroom was etched in my memory as the most beautiful classroom I had ever seen. It seemed to radiate love of beauty (the flowers), love of God (the Cross and statue of Mary), and love of order and learning, enclosed in gentleness.

This is a scene from Copper-Toed Boots, which tells of the antics of a boy growing up in Michigan in the late 19th century. The antics of the boys are very funny, and I believe the book was inspired by stories of Mrs. de Angeli's father. The boy is a bit of a trial for his mother and vice versa. Nevertheless, at the end of the day, he receives his copper-toed boots, a milestone in growing up.

This is an illustration from Bright April, which was written in 1946 at the end of the war. This story tells about an African American girl, April, who lives in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. The story takes place during World War II, and the oldest brother is away at war and writes home to the family. April's father is a postman. April is a Brownie Scout and this is where she first encounters racist scorn against her. However, on a retreat that the troop takes, there is a terrible storm and the girl who has scorned her crawls into bed with April in her fright. From then on they are friends. The book ends with April describing this to her mother:

"You see, Mama," April explained, "she didn't know the truth about me at all. She didn't know at first that my skin is just like hers, only a different color, and she didn't know what good care you take to keep my clothes nice and clean, and she didn't know I like to read just as she does! I guess if she had known the truth about me, she would have liked me at first!" April laughed in sheer joy at remembering her new friend.

"Yes," agreed Mamma soberly. "Yes, that is just it, exactly. She didn't know the truth. We must know the truth, always, even when it hurts. The Bible say, 'Ye shall the know the TRUTH, and the truth shall make you free!'"

The illustration above of the breakfast table set for April's birthday is another illustration that was etched in my brain. I thought of this as the most inviting, warmest dining room in the world. Looking at this picture yesterday I found to my astonishment that many years later I have acquired the same dishware and replicated the windows with shades, ruffled voile curtains, and geraniums in my own home!

In Praise of Marguerite de Angeli 2

This is an illustration from Marguerite de Angeli's Elin's Amerika, which tells of a young girl Elin, who had come to America with her family from Sweden toward the end of the 17th century. The Swedes, not the Quakers, were the first to settle in the Philadelphia area, establishing settlements along Darby Creek. In the woods near my grandmother's home in Drexel Hill it is possible to visit a replica of a Swedish cabin as the first European settlement in the region. This is an adventurous tale, because the Swedish colonies were quite precarious and faced many dangers, including from Indians. The illustration shows a family scene typical of colonial life--the family sitting before the fire after the evening meal, each member working on their own particular project. The TV seems to have replaced the fireplace in this function today. Throughout the story, de Angeli tells of Swedish customs, the rigors of this early life, the chores that were daily necessities for survival, and the customs of Swedish religious life.

The other books below also show the breadth of cultures that Mrs. de Angeli's books explored. However, whereas today the emphasis is on diversity and how we must respect differences, Mrs. de Angeli's work, without ever saying so, emphasized the universality of human life, despite the differences in culture that she brought to the fore and celebrated. As a child you never came away from one of her books thinking, "That child is a lot different than me," but rather, "That little girl is just like me!"


The Black Fox of Lorne is illustrated but not a picture book as the others, and is a book for children of perhaps 10 or 11 to read to themselves. It is an adventure story about Viking boys.


The Door in the Wall is one of Mrs. de Angeli's best-loved books and one that has remained in print. This is the story of a boy in the Middle Ages during the years of the Black Death. It is a remarkable story of courage and Christian life during that time.

Skippack School is the story of a little boy and his encounters with the headmaster of Skippack School in the area of colonial Philadelphia. I believe the story was inspired by real stories of a famous headmaster during that time. The title page of the book shown above is an example of the lovely colonial-style embellishments that Mrs. de Angeli does in many of her books. This story is filled with adventure and is beautifully illustrated.

I hope that there is a revival of Mrs. de Angeli's books among Christian children, those educated at home or at school. This is a topic I have wanted to write about for many years, and I am very happy to be finally doing so!