The Wheel on the School
I mentioned recently that we were reading Meindert de Jong's book, The Wheel on the School at tea time. I chose it both because I love it and because we were going to be learning about the Netherlands. When I went to link to the book with my Amazon Associates account [And thank you to everyone who clicks through those links and purchases something. I see a little bit of money as a result.] I discovered that this Newbury Award winner was out of print.
I don't think it is too strong to say I find this a tragedy. I've now read this book aloud to each group of my children as they have grown old enough and I love it more each time. I would certainly rank it right up there with The Secret Garden as a book that every child should read and adults, too, if they didn't have the chance as a child. It is that good.
At the outset, it doesn't seem to be about much. A little girl in a very small town in the Netherlands wonders why their town, like so many others, doesn't have storks nesting on the roofs of their houses. When she voices this question to her teacher, it fires up the entire school to go and find a wagon wheel to put on the roof of their school to see if they can coax a pair of storks to nest there. The rest of the book follows the children as they look for a wheel to do just that.
I know, it sounds fairly dull. In fact, the first time I read it out loud to my oldest children, I admit to wondering how this search for a wheel was going to sustain a decent length book. It seemed as though it was going to be a stretch.
But I was so wrong. Instead of dragging, the action becomes increasingly riveting even though nearly all the action takes place in a very small village with a handful of children.
The first time I read it, being a new homeschooler, I was struck by the somewhat subversive message about how children learn. The second time I read it, I remember my heart jumping into my throat at a particular part of the story which involved a somewhat outcast boy and his attempt at being the one to bring home the much coveted wheel and have a chance at being a hero. This last time I read it, I was utterly struck with how the book is really about transformation.
The search for a wheel eventually involves the entire village. As a result, the relationships within the village are transformed, particularly between the youngest in the village, the school children, and the oldest in the village, the elderly who have free time and do not go out to sea to fish any longer. The search for the wheel allows each character to begin to see others as more fully human.
This is particularly true of the character of Janus, a fisherman who lost his legs and spends his days scaring birds and boys away from his cherry tree. I don't want to say to much and give away some of the really good parts, but the search for the wheel is the vehicle by which Janus is granted back his humanity and manhood and becomes an integral and accepted part of the village once more. It was at the end of a chapter when Janus realizes this that I started to cry, much to the amusement of my children. (Don't worry, my children are quite used to me crying over books while I'm reading to them.)
The Wheel on the School is a story of shared humanity and finding depths in oneself of which the person was unaware. All because of a wheel. It saddens me that there are so many people who are unaware of this beautiful story.
As I was writing this, I did a little research. Mr. De Jong was born in the small coastal village of Wierum in the Netherlands. It was the town he renamed Shora for this book. It turns out that the places in the book are actual places in the real town, so of course I've been staring at these pictures quite a bit and can't wait to show them to everyone. Then I started to research how one might get from Amsterdam to Wierum. Although it is a small country, it doesn't seem particularly easy to get between these two places without renting a car. But how cool would it be to go and actually walk around the streets of a town which appears in a book I love? I'm not going to give up the idea quite yet, but I also don't know how much of our time will be flexible. One can hope.
In the meantime, if you have never read the book, do yourself a favor and read it... even if you are an adult. Wouldn't it be great if so many people were clamoring to read it that a publisher decided to reprint it?
I don't think it is too strong to say I find this a tragedy. I've now read this book aloud to each group of my children as they have grown old enough and I love it more each time. I would certainly rank it right up there with The Secret Garden as a book that every child should read and adults, too, if they didn't have the chance as a child. It is that good.
At the outset, it doesn't seem to be about much. A little girl in a very small town in the Netherlands wonders why their town, like so many others, doesn't have storks nesting on the roofs of their houses. When she voices this question to her teacher, it fires up the entire school to go and find a wagon wheel to put on the roof of their school to see if they can coax a pair of storks to nest there. The rest of the book follows the children as they look for a wheel to do just that.
I know, it sounds fairly dull. In fact, the first time I read it out loud to my oldest children, I admit to wondering how this search for a wheel was going to sustain a decent length book. It seemed as though it was going to be a stretch.
But I was so wrong. Instead of dragging, the action becomes increasingly riveting even though nearly all the action takes place in a very small village with a handful of children.
The first time I read it, being a new homeschooler, I was struck by the somewhat subversive message about how children learn. The second time I read it, I remember my heart jumping into my throat at a particular part of the story which involved a somewhat outcast boy and his attempt at being the one to bring home the much coveted wheel and have a chance at being a hero. This last time I read it, I was utterly struck with how the book is really about transformation.
The search for a wheel eventually involves the entire village. As a result, the relationships within the village are transformed, particularly between the youngest in the village, the school children, and the oldest in the village, the elderly who have free time and do not go out to sea to fish any longer. The search for the wheel allows each character to begin to see others as more fully human.
This is particularly true of the character of Janus, a fisherman who lost his legs and spends his days scaring birds and boys away from his cherry tree. I don't want to say to much and give away some of the really good parts, but the search for the wheel is the vehicle by which Janus is granted back his humanity and manhood and becomes an integral and accepted part of the village once more. It was at the end of a chapter when Janus realizes this that I started to cry, much to the amusement of my children. (Don't worry, my children are quite used to me crying over books while I'm reading to them.)
The Wheel on the School is a story of shared humanity and finding depths in oneself of which the person was unaware. All because of a wheel. It saddens me that there are so many people who are unaware of this beautiful story.
As I was writing this, I did a little research. Mr. De Jong was born in the small coastal village of Wierum in the Netherlands. It was the town he renamed Shora for this book. It turns out that the places in the book are actual places in the real town, so of course I've been staring at these pictures quite a bit and can't wait to show them to everyone. Then I started to research how one might get from Amsterdam to Wierum. Although it is a small country, it doesn't seem particularly easy to get between these two places without renting a car. But how cool would it be to go and actually walk around the streets of a town which appears in a book I love? I'm not going to give up the idea quite yet, but I also don't know how much of our time will be flexible. One can hope.
In the meantime, if you have never read the book, do yourself a favor and read it... even if you are an adult. Wouldn't it be great if so many people were clamoring to read it that a publisher decided to reprint it?
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