Thanksgiving Read: The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower
This time of year is always fun for us as homeschoolers, because both Mark and I have Mayflower ancestors. All the pretty Pilgrim books make my girls happy, because, in their words, "We have the coolest family ever! There are books about our family!"
I was thrilled to find this recent release at our library: The Boy Who Fell Off the Mayflower, or John Howland's Good Fortune, written and illustrated by P. J. Lynch.
Lucy saw it and said, "That's about our grrrrrrrreat grandfather!" (Obviously, the length that "r" is held is indicative of the number of generations passed.) Which is pretty cool. Although we did learn in the Author's Note that John Howland, the famous young man to fall off the Mayflower, had ten children and eighty-eight grandchildren. So he's got a lot of grrrrrrreat grandchildren around now.
P. J. Lynch's illustrations are, as always, breathtaking. Look at his beautiful faces!
See how handsome John Howland is? Obviously Mark takes after his grrrrrrreat grandfather. :) (Actually, there is a resemblance. It's kind of uncanny.)
Overall, I'd say the writing falls short when compared to the beauty of the illustrations. It is, however, meticulously researched--and it's easy to fall short of illustrations that are just that good.
You can read my own (slightly dramatized) account of John Howland and my own Mayflower ancestor here--I posted it four years ago today, in fact:
A Slightly-Dramatized Story of the Mayflower, and Things for which I am Thankful
Click on the image below to purchase through Amazon, or find it at your local independent book store:
Note: I am an Amazon Affiliate, so if you buy this book after clicking through the image link above, I will get a small percentage of the sale.
How exciting that your ancestors were on the Mayflower. I've done a lot of genealogy research and it's so much fun to discover your "roots." Their lives are fascinating, sad sometimes, happy other times.
ReplyDeleteSo nice to meet you. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
Isn't genealogy fun? Personally, I generally enjoy learning about what my other family members have discovered about our ancestors, because I never seem to have time to do much research. But I enjoy the bounty of their knowledge. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteFun post. I have read this book and, yes, the illustrations are really the strength of the book, although I did enjoy the story and felt the research was excellent. Thanks for the post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for commenting, Rosi! It says a lot about the strength of the artwork when I wouldn't even care if the text WAS bad. Which it isn't. But those paintings alone hold up the book.
DeleteThe illustrations are gorgeous! And it's a book about *your* family!!!!! I love it and will have to check this out at the library. And I like how artfully you propped up the book next to the lovely tea-cup and the new look of your blog.
ReplyDeleteApparently John and Elizabeth Howland had a very fruitful family, because their descendants now number in the millions. My girls were very excited to learn that they are related distantly to FDR, both Presidents Bush, Emerson, Longfellow, and a bunch more.
DeleteAnd thanks for your comment about the picture and look of the blog. I'm not very good at this kind of thing, but I'm pushing myself to get better.
That is amazing and wonderful!!!!
DeleteAnd it's fun to have a fresh, new look. Sure beats painting the walls or moving furniture around :)
So impressive that you and Mark both have Mayflower ancestors. LOVE your new blog look. And I'm smiling at Lucy's use of "grrrrrrreat" to indicate how many generations have passed.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Joanne!
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