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NEWS for North Dakotans
Agriculture Communication, North Dakota State University
7 Morrill Hall, Fargo, ND 58105-5665
May 4, 2000
Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University
©2000 Plains Folk
This new book sent me by Dorling Kindersley Publishing, "Jake's Orphan"--it would be notable even for no other reason than its title hero, Jake Gunderson, a Norwegian bachelor farmer. A bachelor farmer hero! And a gentle, wise, sensitive fellow--the direct opposite of every Norwegian bachelor farmer joke you ever heard.
Fortunately, the book has many other good things going for it, too. The author is Peggy Brooke, of Crosby, N.D., where she teaches in elementary school and her husband, John, farms. Her book is intended for upper-elementary to middle-school readers.
Despite that reading level, or some might say because of it, I found "Jake's Orphan" a wonderful read. Peggy has great eyes and ears for both the general feel and the specific details of life on the northern plains. She knows her way around a milking barn, a threshing outfit or a box-lunch supper.
The main character is an orphan boy, Theodore, who comes to work on the farm of Delbert Gunderson and "the Missus." As I've already hinted, it is the bachelor brother, Jake, who becomes more important in the orphan's life.
Early in the book comes the long train trip from St. Paul to the farm in northwestern North Dakota, a scene that is wonderfully done. Reading these passages I tried to recollect what they reminded me of, and then it came to me--the opening of Willa Cather's "My Antonia," when Jim Burden first arrives on the prairie by train and farm wagon.
"Say hello to the prairie wind," says tough old farmer Gunderson on arrival. "It never rests. It's got more power than God."
It is the mark of fine juvenile fiction that a book is both accessible to its readers and also full of deeper meanings for those ready to absorb them. In "Jake's Orphan" I was struck by the circumstance leading to the importation of the orphan--that the Gundersons' only son had left the farm to pursue a career in Fargo. This left a need for help on the farm but also opened the question as to who would remain to carry on the farm.
Isn't this a basic and compelling theme of life in our region? To those remaining here, nothing is so wrenching as the departure of our children for opportunities elsewhere. Out of this unhappy circumstance, though, the book draws for us two beautiful lessons.
First, the lesson that parents are where you find them. Old Jake is the adult who shows the best impulses along these lines, and he finally exercises them.
Second, children are where you find them, too. Here on the northern plains, we cannot bring back those kids who have headed out for the bright lights of cities east and west. What we can do is open our arms to all others who come to us, make our houses and communities homes indeed to those who need homes.
"Jake's Orphan" is Peggy Brooke's first novel. Her sort of storytelling is a great gift to young readers and old on the northern plains.
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Source: Tom Isern, (701) 231-8339
Editor: Dean Hulse, (701) 231-6136
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