by Kate Seredy
This book is the sequel to The Good Master, which I read aloud to the children this past school year. Both books are mentioned for the Level 4 history program at Mater Amabilis™.
In The Singing Tree, Jansci and Kate are three years older and face a time of uncertainty and anxiety as the Great War (World War I). Jansci's father (the Good Master) and Kate's father both enlist. Kate's father spends most of the war in a prison camp in Russia, though his trials there are not mentioned in the story. Jansci and his mother shelter a motley crew of vulnerable people from the village (a young mother and her infant, a wayward girl whose father enlists and mother is ill), a work crew of Russian prisoners, and a half-dozen nearly starving children from Germany, Hungary's ally. They manage the farm well, comfort each other, and struggle to understand the changes wrought by war in the land and the people.
The greater politics of the war play little part in the novel. It is instead focused on how all people are suffering and the goodness of even those we may be tempted to treat as enemies. Jansci and Kate learn the need to protect a Jewish couple in the village, renown locally for their generosity and guidance. There are a few scenes and sentences that seem condescending (even while complementary) against modern sensibilities, but not so much I fear would be troublesome for children to read.
The original copyright for the book is 1939 but it gives no indication the author sensed a greater war on the horizon. There is also a reference to a "holocaust" in France, which we probably wouldn't say today given the Holocaust still to come.
I enjoyed this book, but not quite as much as The Good Master. I know First Daughter will happily read hundreds of extra books a year, though, so I intend to keep this on the shelf for her to read independently in eighth grade when she's in Level 4.
I purchased this book used on Cathswap. Links to Amazon in the post are affiliate links. All opinions are my own.
