Children’s Books | 100bookseverychildshouldreadbeforegrowingup

The House of Sixty Fathers

by Meindert DeJong

Illustrated by Maurice Sendak

1957

In 1941, a group of American pilots volunteered for a clandestine operation to assist the Chinese Air Force defend against the Japanese invasion. Under the command of the legendary Claire Lee Chennault, the Flying Tigers became populist heroes for their piloting daring-do, renegade spirit, and success despite unequal odds. When the U.S. officially entered WWII after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Chennault’s mercenary group became the nucleus for the U.S. Air Force presence in China – the nickname and the hallmark shark mouth design that decorated the noses of the bomber planes were retained. Meindert DeJong (pronounced DeYoung), a Dutch-American writer who was just beginning his career as a children’s author, joined Chennault’s forces in China as a military pilot and historian. His outfit adopted a Chinese war orphan and DeJong tried unsuccessfully to bring the boy to the U.S.

This true story was the genesis for The House of Sixty Fathers. Tien Pao, a young village boy, is separated from his parents and baby sister when his sampan is swept down the river into Japanese territory. Accompanied only by his pig, Glory-of-the-Republic, he hides in tiny caves by day and travels through the mountains by night, reduced to eating leaves to stave off his hunger. He saves the life of a downed American pilot and the two are befriended by Chinese guerrilla fighters who assist their escape from Japanese soldiers. Tien Pao makes his way to the town where he last saw his family, only to find it under attack, its inhabitants fleeing in confusion. He eventually finds refuge in the house of sixty fathers, the dormitory of the American bomber pilots, until his moving reunion with his parents.

Meindert DeJong’s genius was his ability to convey the world through the eyes of his protagonist, whether that be a Dutch girl or a stray dog. In this book, he views the complexity of wartime from the vantage of a Chinese peasant boy – the thrill of witnessing the routing of an advancing Japanese column by a solitary strafing plane alongside the horror of watching terror-stricken horses drowning, his disgust at a starving child eating mud along with the visceral joy of his first taste of chocolate, the selfish desperation of refugees throwing themselves upon a packed train along with the emotionless empathy of a soldier who plucks him from the crowd to safety. With unflinching honesty, DeJong presents the fear, loneliness, and chaos of war along with the comfort of human companionship, the anchoring influence of family, and the reassurance of a pet, however porcine. Both frightening and reassuring, this is one of the most powerful stories of wartime ever written for children.

Punch in New York by Alice Provensen

Illustrated by Alice Provensen

1991

Of all the picture books for children, this is one of the most exhilarating to read aloud. Just look at the cover. The main character, looking “pleased as Punch”, tiptoes across a trapeze line suspended slackly over the New York skyline while a group of cops stare impotently up at him from a rooftop below. He looks at us out of the corner of an eye, his smile gleeful, his pointy toe poised for the next step. He is on top of the world, ready for his next audacious act, secure that he will triumph over the forces of law and order.

Let’s look at the plot. The Professore Tucci-Piccini, (pronounced, as he explains, “Too-chee Peach-eeny”), has just arrived at JFK, Punch and Judy cast in hand, when the suitcase holding his star puppet is snatched by a thief. Disgusted that their heist turns out to be a doll, the gang of robbers tosses Punch out the window. He survives the 40 story fall, taking out a window washer and a wedding cake on the way down. Upon landing, he is off and running in the streets of Manhattan, where he has a series of antic encounters with a seat stealer, a hot dog vender, a policeman, and a crocodile. Manipulating a trio of muggers into waylaying a chauffeur, Punch slides into the driver’s seat of the Rolls Royce of Mr. Helmstrump, the world’s richest man. He drives over a police car and a bus before getting snagged by a crane and flung over the rooftops until he lands with a bump in front of the Russian Tea Room, taking the awning down with him. “’No tea today, thank you, James,’ says Mr. Helmstrump.” With cushy job in hand, Punch finds the Professore and his cast performing in Central Park, and they join him for the fat life.

Alice Provensen dishes up a witty take on the classic anti-hero. In the typical Punch and Judy show, as performed by Giovanni Piccini, a famous “professor” (as the puppeteers were known) some 200 years ago in London, Punch tosses his baby out the window and proceeds to kill off a whole cast of characters, beginning with his shrewish wife and ending with the devil. Provensen makes a few adjustments and gives us a trickster who is easy to like. She lets him wield his stick at Joey the Nasty Man, who surely deserves some punishment, but she has a manhole crocodile (another stock character in the Punch and Judy firmament) chomp the pursuing cop. She lets Punch spray paint graffiti on the Rolls, but we laugh because “Stupid” is an intrinsically funny word. And who would begrudge Punch for taking advantage of Mr. Helmstrump (any New Yorker would recognize the nod to the Trump and Helmsley empires in the illustrations)? Provensen, ever young with her crisp ironic sense of humor, wrote Punch in New York in her seventies. Over a 50+ year award winning career, she wrote and/or illustrated (either solo or with her husband, Martin, until his death) dozens of distinctive books. Try Our Animal Friends at Maple Hill Farm or A Day in the Life of Murphy for a taste.

Aside: There is another book with a high wire act over New York on the cover, The Man Who Walked Between the Towers by Mordicai Gerstein. In 1974, the French trapeze artist, Philippe Petit, in an audacious act of guerilla performance art, strung a wire between the twin towers and proceeded to dance for an hour to the amazement of the onlookers on the sidewalks far below and the grudging respect of the cops waiting with their handcuffs. This book, with its beautiful cover illustration, tells the tale.

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