Rooted in Portland! Kid's Chapter Books

A good story is a good story no matter where it is set, but it's always fun to read a book about the place you live!  Recently we've been searching for good children's chapter books set in Portland.  Here's what we found.

Everyone's favorite Portland books are the Beverly Cleary books about Henry Huggins and Beezus and Ramona.   Since her first book, 'Henry Huggins', was published in 1950, you may have thought she was no longer with us.  But she's actually recently turned 98! She now lives in Carmel, CA but she will forever be associated with Portland. We've read most of her books and they are available on audiobook.  I don't wholly approve of them because I feel like there's too much adult indifference.  The lack of empathy on the part of parents, teachers, and other community members tends to be the cause of most of the kids' problems and they are rarely there to listen and help solve them.  But Jasper still loves the stories.  They have a strong sense of place, using many real Portland locations.  The Multnomah County Library has put together a walking tour honoring Beverly Cleary which is really fun for kids who love the books: https://multcolib.org/blog/20140324/take-walking-tour-beverly-clearys-neighborhood

The Wildwood Chronicles by Colin Meloy by contrast were just

completed, with the last book in the trilogy published earlier this year.  These are fantasy novels about a place Portland residents call the "Impassible Wilderness", a land based on Forest Park and protected from outsiders by a magical barrier.  They are definitely good stories.  How Portland are they?  You'd think that the answer would be "very!", but I'm not too sure.  Although much of the book takes place in the woods, the author does not really know his nature and doesn't use many details specific to the Pacific Northwest. I understand that since the animals talk and wear clothes, it's a bit silly of me to complain it's not realistic. But any nature lover would cringe to hear salamanders referred to as reptiles and lichen, which photosynthesizes, described as flourishing underground in the dark. The author knows his Portland, but he seems to have a love/hate relationship with it.  Much of the specific references to locations in Portland and the culture of Portland come across as parody.   Still they are epic tales with marvelous illustrations.

Terra Tempo: Ice Age Cataclysm! Is a wonderful graphic novel in which three Portland kids travel back in time to witness the Missoula Floods.  It's the only kid's book I've found about these epic floods, which is a bit weird if you ask me.  Talk about a subject that makes geology exciting! Huge ice dams breaking with tremendous force and causing floods of almost unimaginable scale!  They travel to Lake Missoula, so much of the story is not set in Portland. But it definitely does a good job of relating an important part of Portland's natural history. They are very well done and definitely worthwhile.

Philip Margolin is a famous Portland author of gritty detective novels for adults, but he has also penned a detective book for young readers with his daugher, Ami Margolin Rome.  Vanishing Acts (A Madison Kincaid Mystery)  is about a girl who is the daughter of a top Portland criminal defense attorney.  She sets out to solve two mysterious disappearances.  Not only is it a great story that will keep readers on the edge of their seats, it also explains the workings of the criminal justice system in detail. There are plenty of references to Portland, but I have to admit that Portland was not the star of the show by any means.  Anyone not familiar with Portland won't learn much about it through this book.

Minerva Clark Gets a Clue by Portland author Karen Karbo is another detective story set in Portland.  A teenage girl sets out to solve a murder while navigating the jungle of her junior high world.  The twist is that early on, she gets an electrical shock which somehow takes her from being totally self-conscious to being utterly fearless. As a mom, I wondered if the author's idea was born from the pain of watching a daughter struggle with self-esteem during her teen years.  But as a woman I was a bit annoyed by the idea expressed several times in the book that before her electric shock, Minerva's head was too full of concern about her own appearance to achieve anything as ambitious as solving a crime.  Even with someone dead and a killer on the loose, she otherwise would have been too busy with her hair and wardrobe to spare it a thought?  That seemed a bit condescending. I also objected when her cousin is at risk to lose a college scholarship, and it's described as her one chance to "get out of Portland".  I'm sure that no matter how cosmopolitan the place you grow up, you might very well want to spread your wings and see more of the world. But the author implies that we'd all agree Portland is some kind of one horse town.   This is the first of a series which so far includes two books.  While there are many references to Portland, the city is far from the heart of the story.

Once Upon a Toad by Portland author  Heather Vogel Frederick is about a girl named Cat who lives in

Houston with her astronaut mother.  When her mother leaves on a mission to the International Space Station, Cat must head to Portland to stay with her dad and finish out the school year.  For no apparent reason, her stepsister takes every possible opportunity to be cruel to her.  Then suddenly they find themselves having to cope with a strange phenomena.  Whenever Cat speaks, toads pop out of her mouth. And whenever her stepsister speaks, flowers and diamonds pop out. Hijinks ensue.  I quite liked this book, although I was puzzled by the relentlessly two dimensional nature of the stepsister's character. I loved it that Cat is a true-blue nature lover and bemoans the fact that so many people can't seem to distinguish toads from frogs.   And I'm happy to report that it's very Portland!  Readers will see much of the unique character of the city and its landscape reflected in this story.

Blue Thread by Ruth Tenzer Feldman is a dazzling book and well deserving of all the praise it's received since its recent publication. It's set in Portland in 1912, amid the women's suffrage campaign. Miriam is the daughter of a printer, longing to follow in the family business, and I loved the details of inks, papers, typefaces, and printing presses which are lovingly recorded.  Her family is Jewish, although they're not particularly observant.  The reader learns details of the Jewish faith and its history along with Miriam when she's transported back to the time of Moses.   She finds she's connected through an heirloom prayer shawl to the Daughers of Zelophehad who fought for women's rights long ago.  Portland in 1912 is described in such detail that you feel you are there. A must if you are looking for historical novels set in Portland. Perfect for anyone who likes spunky characters defying convention! There's also a sequel,  The Ninth Day, which I can't wait to check out.




Olla-piska: Tales of David Douglas by Margaret J. Anderson is a wonderful book about the great Scottish pioneering botanist who discovered hundreds of new species here in the Pacific Northwest and gave his name to many, including the Douglas fir.  It's told from multiple points of view, which really adds to the story and provides a rich look at life in the Pacific Northwest at the time of the fur traders.  It's obviously well researched.  Of course there was no such city as Portland at the time, but does describe Fort Vancouver and other familiar landmarks.  It gets all its details right and has a strong sense of place in the Pacific Northwest.

Moccasin Trail  by Eloise Jarvis McGraw is all about the end of the era of the fur trappers and the beginning of the settlement of the Willamette Valley.  It was a Newberry Honor Book in 1952, so you know it's going to be a good story.  It's the tale of a boy who ran away from his family in Missouri at age 9 to go fur trapping with his uncle.  The trappers are savagely attacked by a bear, and while the others get away he's horribly wounded.  He survives only because the Crow Tribe takes him in and heals him, raising him as one of their own.  After six years living with the Crow, he runs away again to return to fur trapping.  The story opens as he receives a letter from his younger brother explaining that both of their parents are now dead.  His three siblings need him because their mother died before they could reach the Oregon Territory, and he's the only one old enough to sign a land claim.  They are headed to the Willamette Valley to farm.  He meets up with them in The Dalles, and the rest of the story tells the tale of how he struggles to decide if he belongs with his siblings or with the mountain men or with the Crow.  While the story is respectful for the most part of Native Americans, and obviously didn't bother publishers in 1952,  here are some depictions that I have no doubt are offensive.  The author is particularly harsh on the Umpqua Tribe.  While Portland itself is only mentioned once in passing, the story is definitely rooted in our region.  Joseph Meek, a larger than life historical figure who is buried near Hillsboro, is a character in the book, and it's deep in wonderful historical detail.