Category: | Our Mythical Childhood Survey

Alan Garner

Red Shift tells the stories of three men, connected by place and separated by time. These three characters are connected by place, particularly Mow Cop, a hill in Cheshire. The twentieth-century narrative focuses on the tense relationship and regular meetings between teenager Tom and his girlfriend Jan. Tom lives in a caravan with his overbearing parents and is studying in preparation for university; meanwhile Jan is moving to London for her own studies The novel concludes with Tom beh(...)

literary

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Classics vs. Modern in education Orion Plautus

Joseph Rudyard Kipling

Regulus

An introductory note preceding the story explains that the Roman general Regulus, about whom Horace wrote the Ode 3, 5, was captured by Carthaginians and then sent to Rome to negotiate on their behalf. Regulus convinced the Senate not to negotiate with his captors, knowing well that in retaliation, they would torture and kill him. At United Services College in Westward Ho!, the Latin teacher Mr. King asks Fifth Form students to prepare for the entry exam to military colleges to translate th(...)

literary

YEAR: 1917

COUNTRY: United Kingdom

TAGS: Classics vs. Modern in education Common points between Rome and British Empire Horace Importance of classics for education Patriotic virtues Regulus Roman virtues Teaching Latin

Cynthia Voigt

The Tillerman Cycle (Series)

The Tillerman Cycle follows the lives of four siblings – Dicey, James, Maybeth and Sammy Tillerman – abandoned by their parents and in search of a new home. Over the course of seven novels, spanning nearly a decade in the children’s lives, Voigt explores themes of family, home, resilience, and the relationship between individuals and society. Brief summaries of the novels are included below; for more detailed summaries, see the individual entries elsewhere in the OMC survey.Hom(...)

literary

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Aeolus Alexander the Great Ancient Greek Dance Apollo Aristotle Circe Classics vs. Modern in education Cyrus the Great Daedalus Dryades Fall of Rome Hippocratic Oath Homer Horace Icarus Lotus-eater Mortal/Immortal Nemesis Odysseus/ Ulysses Odyssey Orion Penelope Persian Empire Phaeton Pleiades Polyphemus Scylla Sisyphus Trojan War Venus

Cynthia Voigt

Tillerman Cycle (Series, Book 4): The Runner

The Runner is a prequel to the other Tillerman books (reviewed elsewhere in this survey). Set in 1967-68, the novel focuses on Samuel ‘Bullet’ Tillerman in his final year at high school before signing up to go and fight in the Vietnam War. His siblings have already left the family home, leaving Bullet alone to deal with his abusive father and downtrodden mother, Abigail. At his recently desegregated school, Bullet, himself bigoted against black people, largely ignores racial con(...)

literary

COUNTRY: United States of America

TAGS: Alexander the Great Aristotle Classics vs. Modern in education Cyrus the Great Daedalus Fall of Rome Mortal/Immortal Persian Empire Sisyphus Trojan War