Eaglebait Review Again

I first reviewed Susan Coryell's novel, Eaglebait, back in 2011 when the Authors Guild re-issued the original 1998 edition. It's not often I review the same book twice on this blog, but Eaglebait has recently been revised for a new generation of readers, and thus deserves another look.

The cats discussed who would help me with this review.

Grover: "Charlotte, do you want to do this one?"

Charlotte: "I suppose I could."

Tanner: "Charlotte, you're yawning. I'll do it.
 Just let me finish my nap first."

Never mind, cats. I'll do it. My original blogpost or the book's Amazon page covers the plot, so I won't repeat it here. 

The updated coming-of-age novel is now set in 2014 or thereabouts—long before the pandemic trapped kids inside and when kids could still walk to places they wanted to go. But recent enough for kids to have cell-phones and access to technology, but before teens abandoned Facebook in droves. The update makes the story much more relevant to today's young adolecent males.

Some readers might identify with the main character, Wardy Spinks, a pudgy 14-year-old  expelled from a military school where his parents sent him two years earlier when they couldn't cope with his rebellious behavior, low grades, and poor attitude. Despite Wardy's  intelligence, at military school his grades were low, his behaviour was still rebellious, and he suffered a horrific beating by his classmates. 

Back home, Wardy's mother enrolls him in public high school where his high intelligence puts him in gifted classes. But his tormentors from middle school pick up where they left off and cyber-bully him as well as physically attack him. Wardy's grades are low, his still has family problems, etc. But some things are looking up—Wardy likes the girl who is his biology lab partner, and a new teacher takes an interest in him. Plus his Grandma Lou, a successful artist, believes in him and gives him advice. Eventually, despite several complications, Wardy's life gets better. 

Since the Eaglebait's original publication, the public's perception of science geeks has improved. The wildly successful TV series The Big Bang Theory and its spin-off Young Sheldon made viewers appreciate kids who are science obsessed and/or who are exceptional and misunderstood. Also many school systems have added STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) curriculums.

However, bullying and self-esteem problems still exist, and Eaglebait addresses those problems. Eaglebait is appropriate for boys 11 to 14 who don't fit in socially and who don't match their parents' expectations, and it's also helpful for parents—especially mothers— who cannot cope with a son who doesn't meet their expectations. If these sons and their mothers read and discuss Eaglebait together, they might better understand their family situations.

Cat family: "Mommy, have you finished your review? We're hungry."

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Working Cats

While I've posted pictures of the housecats numerous times on this blog, I haven't posted much about the outside cats. There are four full-time outside cats: Spotz, Max, Skippy, and Cedrick, plus two of the resident housecoats—Tanner and Jim-Bob—who work a dayshift outside. While Spotz and the feral cat Max work in the area of the shop, the other four work around the house and occasionally in the pasture. These four are the ones pictured in this post.

We found Tanner at the dumpster in March 2013. He was only a few months old and had likely been dumped. Fortunately he came to me when I called him, so he didn't get squashed by a truck that was pulling away from the dumpster.

Tanner

Jim-Bob and his sister Chloe were born here in 2009. Chloe used to work in the pasture until she vanished for nine days in 2019 and finally returned home badly injured. She now works on rat patrol in the garage at night. Jim-Bob and Tanner are good buddies, but Jim-Bob hates Skipy and Cedrick.

Jim-Bob

Skippy and Cedrick are full-time outside cats. Skippy used to live down the road, but he started showing up for breakfast several years ago when he was about six months old. His owner used to come retrieve him and take him home, but Skippy would be back the next day. Mornings when I went out to feed, I'd see Skippy running down the road toward me. He really wanted to be live here.

Skippy

I can't remember how long Skippy has been around, but it's at least seven years. Maybe more. His owner never had him neutered, so Skippy would occasionally go looking for love for several weeks at a time. He always returned, though. After his owner had moved away five or six years ago, Skippy made our place his headquarters. He really wanted to sign on as our cat, but I told him the rule was he'd have to submit to neutering and a rabies shot if he wanted to stay here. 

In 2018, he vanished for more than a month. When he returned, he was missing both his manhood and the tip of one ear, so I figured someone, thinking he was a feral cat, had trapped him and had him neutered. He's officially lived here ever since. I figure that Otis and Charlotte, who were dumped here as tiny kittens in June 2018, were the last ones he sired. They have Skippy's distinctive green eyes, gray color and thick fur.

Cedrick showed up a few years ago and was wild for a while, but he tamed down in a few weeks. He appeared to be four or five months old and, since he never went looking for love, apparently had been neutered.  I don't know how he found his way here. 

Cedrick

Cedrick took up with Skippy and they became pals. However, he hates Tanner and Jim-Bob. Tanner and Jim-Bob hate him, too.

After breakfast, Skippy and Cedrick rally to plan their day's cat-work.  

Sometimes, they'll hunt around the gazebo. A groundhog often lives under the gazebo, but the cats prefer to hunt small rodents.

Sometimes Jim-Bob watches them from a nearby hunting spot.

Sometimes they hunt in opposite directions . . .

. . . but then check to see if the other might have missed something.

They know that sometimes it's best to sit still and wait . . .

. . . and occasionally check to see if anything interesting is overhead . . ..

. . . or behind.

Meanwhile, Tanner has found a good hiding place—or  maybe it's a hunting blind.

But these outside cats know that good things come to those who wait—at least often enough that they keep waiting. 

Successful cat-work apparently involves a lot of waiting.

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Why Genealogy?

 I got into genealogy late in life. I dabbled a bit in the pre-Internet days, but didn't find much at the local library—only a few names and dates. Once I had Internet access, though, I got lucky. But it still took me years to make the connection that genealogy is history.

Long ago, the 7th grade Virginia history and the 11th grade American history I studied didn't mean much to me. All the important events happened to people long before I was born and thus had no connection to me. Or so I thought.

I wish I had known on my 7th grade Virginia history trip to Richmond, Williamsburg, Yorktown, and Jamestown  that several ancestors had even been at Jamestown in the early 1600s, that one of my ancestors had laid out the town of Yorktown, that other ancestors had lived in Richmond—including the family scoundrel who had erected a lavish monument in Richmond's Hollywood Cemetery, and that many of my ancestors had moved westward across Virginia following a similar route that the Greyhound bus used to bring us home. 

It was only when I started working on my family genealogy that I became really interested in history—my history!—and started reading about events that affected my ancestors. I decided that—before I shuffled off the mortal coil—I wanted to know who I was,  who came before me, where these people came from, and what historical events affected them.

On my maternal side, I knew a few names of great-great grandparents and a cousin had given me a list of Nace descendants. I even had a picture of my great-great grandfather, John Christian Nace, who lived from 1828 to 1928 and had served in the Civil War. From some internet research, I learned that when he was a child, he shook hands with President Andrew Jackson.

John Christian Nace

Then, thanks to info gleaned at reunions, I learned a bit about the Noffsinger/Noftsinger line and that I descended from Peter Naftzger. 

On my paternal side, I had a picture of another great-great-grandfather,  Elder John Reid Martin. I'd seen his grave at Bethel Church when I was a child—but that was as far back as I could go. A few decades ago, however, I learned that his grandfather—my 4th great grandfather—was Brigadier General Joseph Martin. 

John Reid Martin

During the late 1990s, I'd started doing internet research and found occasional bits of info. By 2010, I'd found enough about my Nace ancestors to start a blog, The Naces of Lithia. But I didn't know much about other family lines. That's when I started searching for other names I'd learned, so I was able to find bits of information about several more ancestors. But not enough.

In 2015, I subscribed to Ancestry.com and started tracing my genealogy in earnest. Bit by bit, I found hints that led to discoveries about more of my ancestors. Sometimes I found false information, but I soon learned to be skeptical of where information came from and to check sources. Before long, though, I had a family tree filled out on Ancestry.com and four notebooks packed with information about my ancestors.

My Nace notebook and Ruble notebook.

I know now that many of my ancestors fought in wars I'd read about when I was a kid—the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, and the Civil War. I know most of my ancestors sailed to America before 1750, and many were involved in a lot of Colonial American history. Among my Jamestown ancestors, at least two—Willliam Hancock on my paternal side and Christopher Woodward on my maternal side—died in the 1622 Indian Massacre. 

I had ancestors on both sides in Bacon's Rebellion (1676), an event that I can't remember hearing about when I was in school. I even learned that my 8th great-grandmother was taken hostage by Nathaniel Bacon and used as a human shield.

I've been to Yorktown many times—the first time on that 7th grade trip—but I never knew until a few years ago that my 10th great-grandfather, Major Lawrence Smith (1629-1700), who was involved in Bacon's Rebellion (on Gov. Berkeley's side), surveyed and laid out the streets of Yorktown. 

—Daily Press, Newport News, VA, 19 Oct 1958

From Encyclopedia of Virginia Biography, Vol. 1:

I'd never thought about any American ancestors outside of Virginia, but as I researched I learned I also had New England connections. My 9th great grandfather, Robert Coles, came from England to Massachusetts in 1630 as one of the Puritans in Winthrop's fleet. I was surprised and delighted to discover so much about him online—including that he was once sentenced to wear a letter "D" for drunkard. A few sites I found about him: About Robert Coles, "Scarlet Letters of Punishment," and  "Robert Coles—Skeletons in the Colonial Closet."

Besides Coles, I also had Carpenters and Wrights in New England. During the mid-1700s, they came down the Great Wagon Road to Virginia.

Some of my ancestors came from the Palatinate to Philadelphia in the 1700s—among them were Matthias Nehs and his family aboard the Brittania in 1731,  Heinrich Surber and family aboard the Mercury in 1735, and Peter Nafsker and his two brothers aboard the Phoenix in 1749. I can't remember any mention of the Palatinate when I was in school.

I wish I had known about all these ancestors and the times in which they lived when I was a child. If you have children, I recommend you get them involved in learning about their ancestors while they're young. If you don't know who your ancestors are, you can work along with the kids to solve the mysteries. 

For some tips for getting your children started on your family's genealogy, check out these two sites:  https://www.americanancestors.org/education/learning-resources/read/getting-started and "Finding your Roots for Kids."

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Reading with Fur People

 Recently, some of the resident fur people joined me in reading a delightful book about a member of their species.

The Reading Group: Claudine, Grover, Otis, Orville, Tanner, & Charlotte

The Fur Person, by May Sarton, was originally published in 1957, and has been republished several times since then. A friend—and fellow cat-lover—suggested the book to me and I found a copy of the 2016 reprint on Amazon. While it looks like The Fur Person might be a children's book, it is not. This opening paragraph from "Sarton, 'the Fur Person,' Explores Cats and People" by Jonathan Beecher (March 1, 1957) gives you a good idea of the book's premise:

If The Fur Person is not like any children's book you have ever read, that may be because it isn't a children's book. It is an adult's biography of a cat who became her pet and then her friend. May Sarton knows how to tell an adult about a cat. The usual hurdles of condescension and over-indulgence cause her no trouble. And she conspicuously avoids the Walt Disney custom of fastening human personalities onto animals. And that, in fact, is what the book is about.

 

 

The Kirkus Review succinctly summarizes the plot:

Here's how the book begins:

The Fur Person is beautifully and elegantly written. Sarton, in her tale of her cat Tom Jones, captures the essence of cat-ness. I thoroughly enjoyed it and I think the resident cats did too.

In case you were wondering about "The Ten Commandments of a Gentleman  Cat," here they are:

1. A Gentleman Cat has a immaculate shirt front and paws at all times.
2. A Gentleman Catalow no constraint of his person, even loving constraint.
3. A Gentleman Catdoes not mew except in extremity. He make his wishes known and waits.
4. When addressed, a Gentleman Cat does not move a muscle. He looks as if he hadn't heard.
5. When frightened, a Gentleman Cat loks bored.
6. A Gentleman Cat takes no interest in other people's affairs, unless he is directly concerned.
7. A Gentleman Cat never hurries toward an objective, never looks as if he wanted just one thing, is not polite.
8. A Gentleman Cat approaches food slowly, however hungry he may be, and decides at least three feet away whethr it is Good, Fair, Passable, or Unworthy. If Unworthy, he pretends to scratch dirt over it.
9. A Gentleman Cat gives thanks for a Worthy meal, by licking the plate so clean that a person might think it had been washed.
10. A Gentleman Cat is never hasty when choosing a housekeeper.

I highly recommend this book. So do the resident cats—er, fur people.

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