Australian Natural History: Monarch of the Western Skies by C.K.Thompson (1946)

Monarch of the Western Skies was the first book written by C.K. Thompson that we owned. I came across it at a secondhand shop more than ten years ago and picked it up not knowing anything about the author but as it cost less than a dollar, I thought it was worth trying. It became my eight year old boy's favourite book for a long time and was also enjoyed by all the other children. Since then we've had the pleasure of reading some of his other books and I don't hesitate to snap up any books by this author when I come across them.

C.K. Thompson wrote most of his Natural History books for children around 1940's to 1950's and unfortunately they are now out of print. He wrote without sentimentality but with an intimate knowledge of the Australian landscape and its fauna. I've just finished reading aloud this wonderful story of a wedge-tailed eagle to Moozle as part of our Australian version of Ambleside Online Year 4 and I think that this book and Warrigal the Warrior (the story of a dingo I wrote about here) are the two best books by C.K. Thompson that we've read so far.

Monarch of the Western Skies follows the life of 'Wedge-tail' from the eyrie on the fringe of the western plains whilst under the care of his dutiful parents and continues to follow him over the course of his life as an adult bird of prey - the world's second largest eagle.
We not only learnt about the wedge-tailed eagle in this book but also about a number of other animals native to Australia and others, such as rabbits and sheep, which are not.  Rabbits were first brought here by Governor Phillip in the First Fleet, mostly to be kept as pets, but in 1859 a ship arrived from Europe with 24 wild rabbits for a Victorian land owner who let them loose on his property so he could chase them and shoot them for sport. 
Six years after the rabbits were let loose, the owner had killed over 20,000 but he thought that there were still about 10,000 more running around.
In our story, Wedge-tail was singled out as being responsible for killing a lamb and measures are taken to try to shoot him. But he has an ally who had witnessed the destruction inflicted by rabbits and understood the role the eagle played in keeping down their numbers.

None of them the sheep were over-burdened with brains, and as long as the Eagles made no attempt to interfere with them, the woolly animals were content not to initiate any moves. Not for a single moment would any of them have considered attacking these visitors f on the clouds. Being sheep, they were not built that way. But one or two of them did vaguely associate these Eagles with something unpleasant, though they did not know what caused the mistrust. Deep thinking is not a characteristic of one of nature's stupidest animals. 

Wedge-tail did not like crows. He regarded them as so many parasites that hung around an eagle after he had caught his dinner, hoping to collect the scraps, and so win a meal without having to work for it.

Another bird that annoyed him, for a different reason, was the magpie...
They were pests but he could understand their and appreciate their urge to protect their heir homes - not that he would ever gave despoiled one. He had no desire to attack a magpie. That bird was a gentleman compared with a crow.
Fierce bird that he was, arrogant and intolerant where his own rights were concerned, Wedge-tail did not in the least mind when a couple of tiny yellow-tailed thornbills attached their pretty little nests to the bottom of his eyrie. He knew that they did this to escape the attention of prowling butcher birds and other predatory slayers.

I highly recommend this living book. It makes a great read aloud and would interest a wide range of ages. I appreciate the author's knowledge, his literary style and the realistic but endearing portrayal of the animals he wrote about. I just wish someone would reprint them.

I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall (1955)

I initially picked up this book knowing it was an Australian Classic but with little knowledge of its content. It had been on our bookshelf, unread for years, until a few months ago when it caught my eye and I decided to use it for our read aloud. It is a fictionalised autobiography of the author and has sold over three million copies.

In the early 1900's, not long after Alan Marshall had just started school, a polio epidemic swept through Victoria. Very little was known about Infantile Paralysis (poliomyelitis) at the time and the word 'Paralysis' was associated with idiocy. When it became known that Alan had been struck down with the disease, the first question many people asked was, "Have you heard if his mind is affected?"

After he contracted polio, Alan's legs were left paralysed. Not long afterwards, the muscles in his legs began to contract and the sinews behind his knees tightened,  forcing his legs into a kneeling position. It was decided that he needed surgery and so he was admitted to the hospital twenty miles away. 

Reading about a young boy's hospital experience in the early 1900's makes you realise and appreciate how much things have changed over the years. 

Alan was the only child in a ward full of adult males. Visiting hours were strict; parents were not allowed to stay with their children and not much was communicated to either patients or families about anything. Admission to hospital was a frightening enough experience for an adult, let alone a six year old boy.

After he had recovered from his surgery, Alan returned home. His parents didn't have enough money to buy a wheelchair so his father made him a long, three-wheeled vehicle out of an old perambulator and each morning he was pushed to school in the pram by the children who lived down the road. Once at school, he left his pram near the door and walked into the school on his crutches.

Children make no distinction between the one who is lame and the one who has the full  use of his limbs. They will ask a boy in crutches to run here or there for them and complain when he is slow.

Alan's father was a horse trainer and Alan had always wanted to be a horseman. After his illness his father explained to him that he could never ride - not until he was a man and could walk again - his legs could not grip and as he had to hold onto the pommel to keep his balance upon the horse, he had no control of the reins. 

I listened to him in silence. I did not believe what he said was true. I wondered that he believed it himself. He was always right; now for the first time he was wrong.

I had made up my mind to ride...

This book is not just the moving story of a little boy who defies and overcomes a major disability but it is also a picture of a period that has passed. In the preface to his book Marshall writes:

The men and women here described are a product of that period and they too are passing. The influences that made them self-reliant, forthright and compassionate, have given way to influences that can develop characters just as fine, but the mould has changed and the product is different.

One of the most memorable and inspiring features of the story was Alan's attitude to his 'disability.' As far as he was concerned, he didn't have one. 

Having a normal mind my attitude to life was that of a normal child and my crippled limbs could not alter this attitude. 

"That's the saddest darn song I've ever heard, but it should never have been sung in front of that kid here." He pointed a dramatic finger at me, shaking it in emphasis. "It's not the right song to sing in front of him." He turned and came towards me. "Don't you take any notice of it, Alan."

I was astonished at his outburst. I had not connected the song with myself...

"What's wrong with it?" Prince protested to Arthur. "That song's all right. Alan knows he's crippled, don't he? So do we."

Arthur stood up and leant across the table so that he could speak confidentially to Prince.

"That's where you're wrong, Prince; he don't know he's crippled. He raised an emphatic finger to support each word with a gesture. "He'll never know it if he lives to be a hundred."

This was an inspiring book to read. Both poignant and humorous, there are some beautifully written nuggets contained within its pages. One of my favourite passages is here, when Alan is taken out into the sunshine after his prolonged stay in hospital. 

Although Marshall wrote the book as an adult looking back on his childhood, he never lost the ability to see with the eyes of a child. My ten and fifteen year olds enjoyed this description of Alan's science lesson:

Once a week we were given a lesson called "Science." I liked this lesson because then we were allowed to stand round he table and you could push and shove and have fun.

Mr. Tucker opened the cupboard contains some test tubes, a spirit lamp, a bottle of Mercury and a leather disc with a piece of string attached to the centre. He placed these things on the table and said, "Today we are concerned with the weight of air which is fourteen pounds to the square inch."

This didn't make sense to me but the fact that I was standing beside Maggie Mulligan made me wish to shine so I proffered the information that my father had told me the fuller you are with air the lighter you are and you couldn't sink in the river. I thought this had some bearing on the subject...

The teacher was not impressed...

He then wet the leather disc and pressed it in the desk and none of us could pull it off except Maggie Mulligan who ripped the guts out if it with one tank and proved air didn't weigh anything.

I Can Jump Puddles used to be required reading in Australian schools but it has largely been forgotten and most of Marshall's books are out of print. It's surprising that a book that deals with overcoming disability, written by someone who has been such an inspiration to children and adults in many different parts of the world has been neglected, especially when we now have a greater awareness of the needs and rights of the disabled.

Alan Marshall was awarded the O.B.E. for his services to the physically handicapped in 1972 and died in 1984.

This article was written for the 100th anniversary of Alan Marshall's birth and I quote from it below:

"...I think sooner or later, the Education Department will once again promote his work as an example of not giving in to adversity. And I think that's one of the reasons he was universally accepted. You could take his story and present it to any people in any country, and they could identify with his struggle against his pain and suffering. He really made good.''

I Can Jump Puddles by Alan Marshall is my entry for 'A Forgotten Classic' in the Back to theClassics Challenge.

Thunderbolt the Falcon by C.K.Thompson (1904-1980)

 

This is the story of two boys and an old man who capture and train a peregrine falcon. The story is set in Australia but by skilfully weaving history and the sport of falconry into his tale, the author has made his story interesting to readers outside of Australia also - especially so because the peregrine falcon is found in many places throughout the world.

The story begins with Joe, a young larrikin and an avid reader of adventure books. As a result of his being unable to find the latest Buffalo Bill novel on his last trip to town and his reluctance to complete the list of jobs left by his mother when she went out for the day, his attention was drawn to an old book lying on the floor. 'Flower of Knighthood'had been commissioned as a doorstop as well as other sundry uses in the past and for want of a better occupation Joe took the book outside, sat under a tree and began to read it.

Presently he found himself awash in English history and consequently when his friend David, who was born in England came along some time later, he quizzed him about the Black Prince, Edward the Third and the sport of falconry. In the course of their conversation Joe discovered that David's Grandfather, Mr. Mannering, had been a gamekeeper in England and knew a great deal about falcons and hawks.

The boys eventually convinced Grandfather Mannering to teach them the art of falconry and they subsequently set out to capture a juvenile falcon and begin its training as a hunting hawk. The author goes into some detail about the method used for training falcons and also describes numerous other creatures such as cicadas:

"The locusts make the row by rubbing their hind legs across the drums," remarked Joe knowingly.

"That's just where you are wrong, and in any case they are not locusts," said Grandfather. "They don't rub their legs across the drums at all. It is all done by vibration. Underneath the drums on each side of the cicada's body is a hole covered with skin and full of muscles. The insect, using these muscles, causes the skin to vibrate in and out and the drum acts as a sort of amplifier or loud-speaker. The faster the cicada vibrates his muscles, the louder and harsher is the row he kicks up."

C.K. Thompson wrote numerous books about Australian wildlife (eg. the dingo) which sadly are out of print, but if you can get hold of any they are wonderful sources of information on Australian Natural history intertwined in stories that contain both action and interest. Many of his children's books were written in the 1950's so they reflect that generation's outlook and use of language and the writing sometimes feels a little dated but his stories still have a strong appeal to children around the ages of about 8 years and up.

112pages. 

Peregrine Falcon

Australian Historical Fiction: The Switherby Pilgrims by Eleanor Spence

Eleanor Spence's book for children, The Switherby Pilgrims: A Tale of the Australian Bush, was originally published in 1967 and reprinted by Bethlehem Books in 2005. The author was born in 1928 in Sydney, New South Wales where she lived for most of her life, apart from a couple of years in England, until her death in 2008. Most of her books, including this one, are set in New South Wales.

Miss Arabella Braithwaite lived with her brother, the Reverend Hugh, in the vicarage of the small town of Switherby near the centre of England. For a number of years Miss Arabella had worked hard to give the poorer children of the town an education but she was hampered in her efforts by the fact that most of the children she taught ended up being sent to work in the local factories.

Ten years after the Battle of Waterloo, a typhus epidemic raged through the town leaving many of the children even more disadvantaged than they had been previously.
Reverend Hugh was planning to marry and both he and his future spouse expected Miss Arabella to remain living at the vicarage, but one day when he and his sister were talking together, he shrewdly guessed his sister was formulating a plan of her own to deal with the children who would otherwise be placed in workhouses.

"You are quite right, Hugh - I have other plans. You will no doubt call them outrageous, but my mind is made up. These children must gave a new start in life, and a chance to do something worthwhile with their lives. So I am going to take them away."

"You mean to another village? I understand conditions are bad almost everywhere just now - "

"Exactly. So I intend to take them to New South Wales."

Miss Arabella, or Missabella as she came to be called by her charges, applied for a land grant in New South Wales and with her group of ten dependents emigrated to Australia a few months after this discussion with her brother.

Upon their arrival in Sydney Cove in 1825, Cammy, a young Aboriginal boy, showed an interest in the group of pilgrims and befriended Robin, a young boy who with his two sisters had been abandoned by his father, Josiah Gracechurch. When Missabella and the children left for the Illawarra Region south of Sydney, Cammy secretly tracked them and became, in his own unique way, a part of the family.

Unbeknownst to Missabella, Josiah Gracechurch had been sentenced to transportation for ten years, and was incarcerated in the very same ship they had sailed upon. He had begun to make his escape plans when he spied his three children on board the ship with their guardian and before long he was able to put his plans into action.

...far from the town and the harbour, a ragged sandy-bearded man was working in the orchard of a farm near Campbelltown. Josiah Gracechurch had no fondness for hard labour, and he knew he was taking a risk in thus exposing himself only a week after his escape...

He had to have food, and some sort of shelter, for a night or two while he laid his plans.

Through some lucky coincidences, Gracechurch found the location of the pilgrims' farm and quickly established his dominion over the vulnerable group. But Cammy had been out hunting when the unwelcome man appeared and the pilgrims had to work out a way for him to get a message to someone who could help them.

Cammy could sense that something was wrong, certainly. His affection for Robin gave him an urge to rush out and defend the child, but a more primitive emotion soon succeeded it. The ways of the white man were still strange and bewildering to Cammy, no matter how much he enjoyed sharing the life of the orphans on the hill-top. Their ways were not yet completely his, nor could their notions of right and wrong ever become quite clear to him. He did not know this other white man, nor could he predict what the stranger's attitude towards himself would be, therefore, he, Cammy, would wait and watch until the whole situation clarified itself.

The Switherby Pilgrims is suitable for readers from about ages 10 to 12 years or as a read aloud for ages 8 years and up.

The time period of the book coincides with:

* Ambleside Online Year 5 Term 1 (1800 - 1840) 

* The Australian History Curriculum: Year 5 - The Australian Colonies.

The book contains this note:

The character of Missabella, in the Switherby Pilgrims, is an echo (although entirely fictional) of the fascinating pioneer, Mrs Caroline Chisholm, an outstanding woman of the nineteenth century who made provision for young immigrant women in Australia.

The Australian Dictionary of Biography has an article on Caroline Chisholm.

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