I’ll be reading from and signing my new novel
Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth
(Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)
Saturday, Sept. 11, 10am-Noon
at the Owl and Turtle Bookshop
32 Washington St.
Camden, Maine 04843
(207) 236-4769
“Dutton sensitively navigates the sticky debate between creationism and evolution.”
Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
Mary Mae is played by Jane Ackermann, and the video was made by CuriousCityBooks.
I was born in Springfield, Missouri, “Gateway to the Ozarks,” where my grandparents called anything they liked a “dandy,” made “throwed biscuits,” and lived down the street from “The Poor Boys Market.” I loved the way they spoke, with a Missouri twang, and was always aware of the difference between their speech and mine because we left Springfield when I was only two. I think that’s what made me sensitive to language, able to imitate different kinds of speech and loving the sound. And probably why I have a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition, because I loved learning all about language.
In “Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth,” Mary Mae speaks Appalachian English, the speech of many of the kids I knew growing up in Norwood, Ohio. Appalachian speech is a “dialect,” a way of speaking common to a group of people from a certain place or of a certain group and differing from standard English. Many writers of children’s books use dialect. Sharon Flake writes stories in black English. Several characters in Because of Winn Dixie speak non-standard English. And in Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski, which I read when I was ten, I remember enjoying the backwoods Florida dialect of the Slater family.
My own character, Mary Mae, is 10 years old and excited about digging up fossils. One night she sees a crab swimming around in a restaurant tank: “There’s this little crab a-setting in the corner all by hisself. If you ain’t seen a crab, here’s what one looks like. He’s got a top like a mushroom, only it’s hard, and all these little legs that come sprouting out like a spider’s, and then under his chin, he’s got these two little feelers he’s a-rubbing together like he’s trying to think of what to do next. . . . And I know just by watching that crab that my trilobite was alive, whether Mama thinks so or not.” Mary Mae’s observations grow out of her voice (not out of my head) and when I was working on this book I would read aloud because the voice could send me further into the story.
A farovite building in my hometown--it used to be a locksmith's
Often, when I visit my hometown, I carry a notebook and jot down words or phrases I overhear. Sometimes I drive around with a tape recorder, reading the names of the stores: My Humble Abode—a second hand furniture store, Gabbie’s Home Cookin’, Riddle’s Tree Service. I like to soak myself in the language. It’s what feeds the voices of my characters.
Following is a nice review of “Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth” by “School Library Journal.”
Gr 5-7–Mary Mae has always accepted the conservative, religious teachings of her family, including a very literal interpretation of the Bible. However, the arrival of her granny and a new teacher cause the 10-year-old to question everything she has ever known. When Miss Sizemore starts to teach the class about fossils, Mary Mae begins asking questions of the adults in her life, and her mother decides it would be better for Mary Mae to be homeschooled. At no point in the story does the child ever question the existence of God; she only sees God doing things in a different way. While her mother chooses to see science as an enemy to her beliefs, Mary Mae sees it as an extension of God’s work. Miss Sizemore opens her up to a new world, where inquisitiveness is not only valued, but is key. Here the relationship with Granny is also crucial to the story; she is always there to listen to Mary Mae and does not discourage her. This simple act of support gives the child the confidence she needs to not give up her quest for knowledge. This is a great story with valuable lessons. Told in an Appalachian dialect, it not only depicts real feelings about religion, but also shows the people behind them as good. It is both a lovely coming-of-age story and a lesson in respect between religion and science.–Kerry Roeder, The Brearley School, New York City
At the beginning of Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth I quote from scientist Brian Greene’s This I Believe essay: “I believe that the breathtaking ideas of science can nourish not only the mind but also the soul.” So naturally I was interested in learning of a multi-media musical he has written, “Icarus at the Edge of Time.” in which he re-invisions the Icarus myth. Icarus, who is defying his father by flying too close to the sun, finds that his wax wings are melting, and plunges into the sea. Greene gives this a modern twist by putting Icarus in a space ship and defying his father by flying too close to a black hole. But rather than having him disappear for ever, Greene has him re-emerging, though many years later, learning of all that has happened during the time he was gone.
Greene, on the closing night of the musical, told the audience he always disliked stories that told children if they disobeyed their parents they would die. “People laughed. Children squealed,” says Robert Leslie, writer of the article.
If you would like to read more about this production, and a brief interview with Greene, click here.
“Dutton dives deep into the rural speech of the Ohio River Valley without turning her characters cartoonish, and the varying views of the people in Mary Mae’s life, including her pastor, her great-grandmother, and others her mother respects, represent a variety of ways to balance faith and science; nor is Mary Mae’s mother demeaned as a person for her concerns.”
For the entire text of this review, please click here.
*Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth
Sandra Dutton, Houghton Mifflin, $15 (144p) ISBN 978-0-547-24966-7
Mary Mae’s inquiring mind and keen observational skills get affirmation from her fifth-grade teacher but distress her creationist mother. Refusing to take her pastor’s advice to “trust the Bible scholars,” Mary Mae ends up with more and more questions as she tries to reconcile the Bible’s account of creation with what she’s learning in class about fossils and the age of the earth. Eventually, Mary Mae’s questioning leads her frustrated mother to yank her out of school to provide Bible-based homeschooling. “Why can’t you be my sweet little Mary Mae?” she asks. “It’s all so easy if you just believe what the Bible says and don’t go asking no questions.” Dutton (Dear Miss Perfect) sensitively navigates the sticky debate between creationism and evolution both through the young narrator’s delightful curiosity and honest questions, and through the various responses she receives from numerous caring adults, who all strive to provide truthful guidance. Concluding with a pastor’s affirmation that faithful people can have different opinions, it’s an honest portrayal that respects both viewpoints, as well as those that slot somewhere in between. Ages 8–12. (June)
Mrs. Noah and Noah
One doesn’t hear much about Noah’s wife in Genesis, but writers of the medieval miracle plays dug deep into the story and came up with a feisty Mrs. Noah who speaks her mind. In “Noah and His Sons,” by the Wakefield master, Mrs. Noah sits and spins, refusing to board the boat, saying there won’t be enough food and that she’ll miss her friends. In “Noah’s Flood” of the Chester Pageant, she refuses to board, saying to Noah:
Yea, sir, set up your sail,
And row forth with evil hail,
For, without any fail,
I will not out of this town.
Finally, when she does board, she boxes Noah on the ear. (In both plays they’re constantly hitting each other.) Of course this is all a bit of a comedy. The miracle plays were performed not only to dramatize the stories of the Bible but to entertain.
In Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth, Mary Mae’s “Mrs. Noah” is feisty. She’s concerned that dangerous animals are running loose, that they won’t be able keep the boat clean. “Now we got some mighty big animals,” she says, “and they’s using their cage for a litter box.”
Since I have both puppets and theatre (I describe making those in earlier blogs), I decided to try and perform the play, taking both Mary Mae and Chester’s parts (Noah and Mrs. Noah). The puppets are rather fragile, being made of florists’ foam, but I think if kids were doing this with wooden puppets, some butting of heads would be in order.
If you hit the link, you can see the video.
Following is a nice review of Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth by Kirkus:
Ten-year-old Mary Mae loves questions. She adores her teacher, Miss Sizemore, who shows her fossils found right in her school’s backyard. She adores her Granny, who plays the guitar and will make up songs about anything. And Mary Mae loves Jesus with all her might. But she doesn’t understand why her church teaches that the earth is 6,000 years old, while Miss Sizemore says it’s more like 6,000,000. Her Mama doesn’t like Mary Mae’s questions. Don’t they show a lack of faith? Very few books for this age group tackle religious subjects as this one does, in a way that shows respect for all sides. Dutton allows Mary Mae to retain both her questions and her faith; instead of a definitive answer, she shows evolutionists and creationists working to find a small, shared piece of middle ground. Mary Mae is a memorable character—spunky but not defiant—whose search for truth drives the narrative.
Kristine Goding
I just learned a gospel singer lives down the street from me, Kristine Goding, so invited her over to hear about her music. She brought her guitar and we sat on my front porch and talked. She said she started singing at home, with her mother, when she was four years old. Her mother played piano. Kristine and her mother would get out the hymn book, she said, and sing old favorites such as “At the Cross,” “Bind us Together,” and Blessed Assurance.” “We sang all the time,” she says, “everything—‘Misty,’ Barbara Streisand, folk and old country, ‘Don’t Fence Me In.’” She also sang duets in high school, and for her high school graduation.
Kristine grew up mainly in Minnesota, but has also lived in Alabama, California, and now Maine. She often writes her own songs and says, “I feel when I compose I’m writing what God wants to say to the people today.” I mentioned that in Mary Mae and the Gospel Truth, Granny tells Mary Mae, when they’re writing music together, “If you work too hard at it, it won’t work. You just gotta let it bubble up.” And Kristine agreed it’s the same way with her.
She played a few bars of one of her own songs she calls “Casting”:
Cast all your cares on me
Cast all your nets to the sea
Only believe.
She also played and sang her own arrangement of “Amazing Grace,” in which she changes the tune slightly and adds a heavier beat. Her favorite song writer, she says, is LeAnn Rimes. Kristine hopes to have a CD soon, and has a friend who is going to help her put it together.
I look forward to posting one of her songs here.