"Everything happens for a reason, even the bad things.
You might find out the reason why that particular thing happened to you next week, or you might not find out for fifty years.
But, trust me, you will find out eventually.”

That, in a nutshell, is one of many insights I love about Pelagrie Piptree and the Doubling Stone by Kate Jensen and her mother Diana Jensen.

source

What a charming, Old World story, and what a surprise

to find it was written in the 21st Century by a Millennial young enough to be my daughter! This story has the wholesome appeal of The Boxcar Children (by Gertrude Chandler Warner), The Bobbsey Twins (by Laura Lee Hope), and the (Name a Country!) "Twins" series (by Lucy Fitch Perkins).

But don’t imagine this book is too long-ago and old-fashioned for today's children to relate. The conflicts and challenges Pelagrie and her family faced centuries ago are relevant today. Bigotry, persecution, poverty, food insecurity, class differences, and school bullies never fade away with yesterday's latest fad. Moving to a new community where the locals regard your people with suspicion is very timely.

A family of five living out of a wagon, all of them dressed in tattered, worn clothing, is not some historic fact of life that never happens anymore. Replace "wagon" with “tent,” and consider a USDA study showing us that seventeen million households in America don’t have enough food due to a lack of resources. Many are hardworking people whose jobs do not pay enough for them to feed their family. With rising food prices, food insecurity in America isn’t going away. If your child has never had to go hungry, books like "Pelagrie Piptree and the Doubling Stone" are a great eye-opener.

Statistics are easy to forget. The image of Pelagrie, her brother Simeon and sister Angyalka wishing for a bigger bowl of porridge will hit home in ways that facts cannot. For Christmas, each one will receive a single item: an orange, a chocolate bar, or a small sack of salted almonds. For most American children, all three items are every-day foods, not rare treats to be treasured. Nine-year-old Pelagrie and little Angyalka help earn their keep by venturing into the forest in search of food. They compete with squirrels for nuts, birds and bears for berries. They must be keen observers with good memories to avoid poisonous plants. Teachers could use this book in the classroom for a historical perspective on how children were educated by exploring and doing, not sitting all day at a desk, listening and taking notes. And Botany lessons might be a whole lot more riveting and memorable if children risked sickness and death, rather than a letter F on a piece of paper, as a result of not learning the flora and fauna of their world.

Kate Jensen had me at the dedication: “To my mom, whose love of stopping and picking up pretty rocks while we were out going for walks gave me the idea for this book.” (That's me, lagging behind everyone else as I check out the landscape rocks in parking lots. Horn coral! Sponge! Every rock has a story.)

It takes a while for Pelagrie to happen across the pretty green stone in the woods, but when she does, the magic begins.

Pelagrie’s family travels from town to town as her father makes boots or shoes until he’s run out of customers. On to the next town they’ll go. Mama teaches the children reading, writing, and arithmetic, but decides to send the children to a real school when they arrive at a coastal village that looks like a place they might stay a while. The children are ridiculed and ostracized--and happy to go back to what we know today as homeschooling, which sounds infinitely more fun than institutionalized education.

Imagine a family of five living in a "tiny house" on wheels. Where do you fit the beds, cooking utensils, clothing, food, and other items? Four oxen pull the wagon from town to town. Mama has painted it bright and beautiful, and the children never seem to be deprived of room to roam in or sleep in. It's food and more than garment each that they could use more of.

source

---

source

Mama sends nine-year-old Pelagrie and her little sister, Angyalka, into the forest to forage and gather nuts, berries, and mushrooms. If not for the constant hunger, this sounds like a marvelous childhood, full of nature, rich in sensory experience. The descriptive details are authentic and vivid.
Pelagrie “scuffed at the fallen leaves with her bare feet, and listened to them crunching as she stepped down on them. And she smelled the wonderful smell of autumn air, with just a hint of wood smoke from any campfires or chimneys nearby, and the slightly tangy, bitter smell of ripened walnuts.”

Then one day, she finds the shining green stone that will change her life.

By accident she discovers that rubbing the stone in one hand will double whatever is in her other hand. It begins with an extra helping of porridge. Always the children hunger for a more than there is to eat. When she mysteriously produces another bowl of porridge while Mama’s back is turned, Pelagrie and her siblings instinctively know that if the parents find out, the stone will be confiscated.

Unfortunately, two villains will find out first, and Pelagrie will suffer greatly as a result. Her abduction is a result of her using the stone. Then again, her rescue is made possible because of the stone. (No spoilers here! I swear!)

Her parents are wary of magic and the bad things it can bring. When Pelagrie suffers a prolonged fever and recurring nightmares, it’s easy to blame the stone, but there is so much good to be done with its magical gifts--if whoever has the stone is wise enough to remember “all things in moderation.” For a hungry family, double the coins for flour and milk is hard to resist. Of course they will soon want more, but Mama and Papa are judicious and wise, using it only for extra helpings of food to share with other families who are as hungry as the Piptrees used to be. This is just one of many aspects of the story that provide food for thought and springboards for discussions.

Later, Pelagrie will accidentally multiply living creatures, but this provides comic relief rather than deeper, darker troubles. I commend the author for not “going there” with “The Worst That Could Happen” to her protagonists.

Pelagrie’s story may sound like a fairy tale, but it’s a teaching tool as well, and I would love to see it in classrooms around the world. E.g., when the family moves north and the doubling stone allows them to put down roots, the children attend school once more. This time, they will not stand for bullying, and they defend two other new gpsy children, Pieter and his sister Mathilda, who are immediate targets. “...I’ve been told that ALL the children here are very nice,” Pelagrie says, looking around the group of children who were teasing the newcomers, “silently daring each child to be anything but nice.” I love the way she conveys her message, firmly but gently, and effectively.

I would especially love to see more attention to Pelagrie’s people, “gypsies,” not just in the classroom, but in the public awareness. In every country the Roma or Romani have traveled, they’ve been called gypsies, a derogatory term for an ethnic minority who’ve migrated as nomads for centuries. Europeans mistakenly believed they came from Egypt, hence the name Gypsy. (Their origin was actually in northern India.) Zigeuner, the German word for Gypsy, derives from a Greek term for “untouchable.” Known as gitanos in Spain, gitan in France, and by several names across Scandinavia that translate as "Travelers," the Roma have one of the most dramatic stories in human history, but few people know their ancient tale of travel, persecution and survival. "Though concentrated in Europe, there are also Romani populations on every occupied continent — about 1 million live in the United States, and roughly 800,000 in Brazil. But no matter where they go, the Roma have faced discrimination and persecution," and here is just one example: "Authorities in Italy have denied housing to Roma families — even those born in Italy — on the grounds that people living in cheap, makeshift metal containers in isolated Roma camps already have permanent housing." See more here: ["5 Intriguing Facts About the Roma" by Marc Lallanilla, livescience.com, October 23, 2013]

Online, I found a way to contact Diana Jensen, the artist/author who created the cover art for this book. She told me she homeschooled her daughter for ten years, and Kate chose her own favorite topics of interest. The plight of the gypsy was one of them. How many people know that the Romani (Gypsy) people were exterminated by both the Nazis and the Russians? "The Russians committed horrible crimes against their own people," Diana notes. Learning the history of man's inhumanity to man may be demoralizing, discouraging, and depressing, but like Pelagrie's mother in the story, the author's mother believes all things happen for a reason. And I believe that we need to know the dark side as well as the light, and that sheltering our children from all things unpleasant will not fit them for the cold, cruel world that faces them when our fledglings leave the nest.

And it wasn't just against the Romani. But that is another topic for discussion.

Moldova will build a monument to Roma victims of the Holocaust

This just in from Diana:

So here is a quote if you want to use it: Homeschooling Kate until she was ten allowed her education to revolve around her interests. Sometimes her interest was sparked by seeing something. She studied Ireland and Celtic customs after seeing Irish step-dancers at the Renaissance Festival in Bonner Springs. She studied Russian history after seeing The Treasures of the Tzars exhibit in Topeka. Other times it was a book that sparked her interest. She studied the Romani people after reading the book The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden.

)
source

She also learned a great deal from her mother's compassion

and appreciation of other cultures--in a time when xenophobia, racism, and intolerance show no sign of becoming historical artifacts, along with witch burnings and Manifest Destiny. If a book could infuse every reader with the kinder and gentler traits of the human race, this one would be required reading for all.

I cannot recommend this story highly enough - I can only hope you will take my word for it, invest three dollars (a cup of coffee! A few donuts you didn’t really need anyway!), and share this book with young readers.

Thank you for reading!

More Book Reviews by Keangaroo

Rave Review! by Keangaroo: A Traveler from an Antique Land by Harvey Click

---

Sidequest: In Realms Ungoogled by Frank J. Fleming #Keangrooview

The Cat's Page by @GuyTMartland

---

There's more, lots more, at @carolkean

if you care to slog through scroll through all those posts listed under my name.

---

"Keangaroo,"

because Kean sounds like Kane (not keen, hint, hint)

Find me at Twitter:
@tea_in_carolina
novelist, reviewer, editor, book critic
fan of indie authors & underdogs
Follow My Reviews at Goodreads, NetGalley, Amazon Vine
Rants, Raves, Reviews, History, Current Events My Wordpress Blog
Perihelion Science Fiction
Let's Fry Chicken Little nominated for 2015 Pushcart Award

My book reviews outside of Steemit

have been around for years:
AmazonVine, NetGalley, Goodreads, my blog, Perihelion Science Fiction, and more.