LIS516 Su15 Extended Book Discussion - Anna Baccin

Me & Mr. Bell by Philip Roy
Sydney, NS: Cape Breton University Press, 2013
Recommended for ages 9-12. 

This novel for young readers is about a boy named Eddie, living in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, in 1908. We discover that Eddie has difficulty with reading and writing, and this negatively affects his self-esteem and the way he is treated by his family, friends, and teacher. This small rural community was also the location for the summer home of the inventor, Alexander Graham Bell, so it is no surprise that Eddie soon encounters Mr. Bell, who then gives him encouragement to overcome his learning disability. It is an exciting and inspiring story filled with interesting characters and historical details. Eddie is a very likeable character who tries his best, and is therefore confused and hurt by the treatment he receives from some adults in his life. Mr. Bell is a character that comes into Eddie's life at the right time, and helps open his eyes to new possibilities, and puts success and failure into perspective for him.

As I read...

Image: http://ns1763.ca/victco/flight1st-22453.jpg

I quickly became caught up in this story. By page 6, I was totally engrossed in the book and I could not put it down. It was easy to become sympathetic to the main character, ten-year-old Eddie, and by the end of the first chapter, I feared that things were not going to turn out well for him. The last two lines of the first chapter are, “It made me feel smart. It didn't last long.” I felt so sorry for this young boy; my heart went out to him, but I was interested in knowing what would happen to him.

The first chapter also made me laugh when I read the interaction between Eddie and his elderly neighbours, the McLearys. The couple seemed to be caricatures of elderly rural neighbours. They were not intentionally being funny in the way they spoke to Eddie and each other, but the dialogue was amusing. However, it was obvious right from the beginning that Eddie's father was hesitant to trust Eddie with the errand of delivering and receiving a message, but we do not find out what the problem is until Chapter 2.

Image: http://www.telcomhistory.org
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The more I read, the more my heart ached for Eddie. He was trying so hard, and he knew he was smart, but he was labelled a “learning cripple.” He could see the disappointment in his parent's reactions, and he had no one to talk to about his frustrations. When he first meets Mr. Bell, he introduces himself as “nobody.” In Mr. Bell, he finds someone that gives him encouragement and recognizes his intelligence and curiosity. Mr. Bell advises Eddie to celebrate his successes, and be grateful for failures as well because they can also teach us a lot. Eddie's life changed for the better when he met Mr. Bell. In Eddie's third encounter in Chapter 6, Mr. Bell says that he could see by the look on Eddie's face that he is “carrying a heavy weight.” Eddie had never known anyone that could see that burden in his face before. I got teary-eyed off and on throughout this story, especially at times when I felt Eddie's pain and self-doubt.

I responded to the book as I did because...

Image: http://beatoninstitute.com/beinn-bhreagh-5

I enjoy reading historical fiction, and it was obvious from the cover and the title of this book that it was about Alexander Graham Bell, the man best known as the inventor of the telephone. The story takes place in Baddeck, Nova Scotia, where Mr. Bell kept his summer residence. The book is a slim paperback of about 140 pages. Since it is not a thick book, it would probably appear less daunting for a young reader, especially one who may have difficulty reading like the protagonist. I try not to judge books by their cover, but this particular cover makes the book seem unexciting to say the least, and I regret to say that I probably would have passed it by if it were not on the reading list. The background of the cover is taken from a photographic postcard of the summer residence of Alexander Graham Bell, known as Beinn Bhreagh, which was provided by the Beaton Institute Archives. Superimposed on this is an image of Mr. Bell and a young boy, presumably Eddie, dressed as was typical for the time period.

Because I enjoy reading historical fiction, it was not difficult for me to be excited about the subject of this book. While reading about Eddie and Mr. Bell in Baddeck, I could imagine the setting, since it is described as farmland and open fields. Eddie mentions the land, the forest, and the lake. Neighbours were far enough apart that Eddie would be sent as a messenger. I have been to Nova Scotia, but not to Cape Breton, so it was necessary to use my imagination to recreate the setting.

One Room Schoolhouse in Nova Scotia
Image: http://www.oneroomschoolhouses.ca
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Eddie MacDonald is a likeable character because he has integrity, patience, and a strong will to learn. In school, he is willing to help his classmates in math, even though they had ridiculed his weakness in reading and writing. He is obedient and respectful to his parents, and wanted to make them proud of him. He wanted to surprise his father when he cleared the land of the large stone with the knowledge of pulleys that he gained from reading Applied Mathematics. Reading this textbook from school had required more effort and determination from Eddie than it would have for most people because of his dyslexia, although the word is not mentioned. The term 'dyslexia' was first used around the end of the 19th century, but it is easy to imagine that it would not have been heard of in rural Nova Scotia by 1908. The only characters that I did not like were the teacher, Miss Lawrence, and the School Inspector. Eddie discovers that the teacher is fallible, and she appears small-minded and prejudiced. After the School Inspector arrives and is told something privately by the teacher, the Inspector humiliates Eddie. Both the teacher and the Inspector are unlikeable characters, but otherwise, even though some of the characters are mean to Eddie at times, such as his brother, sister, and classmates, they were not overtly malicious.

The book followed my expectations of what a book should be. It had a dramatic climax and a satisfying conclusion. It had a likeable main character that made me want him to succeed. I could relate to him, although not directly with the problem of dyslexia, but we all have our own challenges to overcome, and it gives us hope to see a character's tenacity and his will to succeed. His relationship with his father triggered personal emotions for me. I could relate to the distant and remote father figure. Eddie wants his approval, and from that perspective in particular, the story has a satisfying conclusion.

Eddie as I imagined him
Image: http://www.weirdpalace.com/
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Roy writes the book from Eddie's perspective so that we understand his reactions to what is happening around him. We do not know what the other characters are thinking, but through Eddie's observations, we can make inferences. Eddie tells us that his mother looks like she is “trying to make up her mind about something” (pg. 8). He notices when she is frustrated, but the reader, like Eddie, can only guess what is going on in her mind. Eddie tells us what his teacher says to him, “She told me to ask her if I needed any help” (p. 105), but he also says that he could tell that she was hoping that he would not ask. While in church on a Sunday, after the simple Frankie MacIsaac yelled out a strange comment that made people laugh, Eddie notices his father staring at him. He says, “It made me uncomfortable. I wished I knew what he was thinking” (p. 60).

Although the book takes place in less than a full calendar year (it begins in Spring 1908, and ends before the Spring of 1909), we see Eddie maturing. His father begins to treat him more as a grown-up in the Fall when they clear the field of stones together, and brings Eddie with him for the first time to join the men talking after the Christmas Day service at church.

The chapters are short and many end with a teaser that encourages the reader to continue on to the next chapter. It is obvious that Roy used a lot of his research into Alexander Graham Bell, and he weaves accurate historical details through the narrative. The character Eddie has the same name as Bell's younger brother, Edward Charles Bell, who died at the age of 21 from tuberculosis. When Mr. Bell learns Eddie's name, he looks sad and mentions that his younger brother had the same name.

This book asks its readers...

To understand Eddie's struggles, the book emphasizes the details of his difficulty with reading and writing. Since it is written from Eddie's point of view, Roy makes us understand the effort that it takes for someone with Eddie's learning disability to read and write. When Eddie is reading the mathematics textbook, he has to look up many words in the dictionary, and when he finds words in the definition that he does not know, he has to look up those words, and therefore, it takes him a long time to understand. He re-wrote the letter to Mr. Bell seven times, taking it to his father after each revision. Mr. Bell realizes and appreciates how much effort it took for Eddie to write back to him.

About Philip Roy and the background of Me & Mr. Bell

Image: http://philiproy.ca/interv-page/

Philip Roy was born in Antigonish, Nova Scotia, and has written other historical novels for young people (Blood Brothers in Louisbourg, CBU Press, 2012). He enjoys writing historical fiction, and wants to share the “richness” of it with his readers. He himself was influenced by tales of the past, and feels as if “the past were a magical world that exists at the same time as us, but somewhere else, which maybe it does.” In preparation for writing this novel, Roy read Charlotte Gray's biography, Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion of Invention (HarperCollins, 2006). He says,“I read non-fiction to write fiction, and the lines between the two are still blurry.” Roy wanted to write about Alexander Graham Bell partly because of his connection to Nova Scotia, and he chose to focus on Bell's genius, humanity and compassion. Roy wanted young readers to know about this part of Canada's history.

In doing some of my own research on Alexander Graham Bell, it was interesting to know about the controversial way the deaf community views him. Bell published a paper in 1884, Upon the Formation of a Deaf Variety of the Human Race, that suggested that marriage between congenitally deaf people should be avoided, believing, erroneously, that this would lead to a greater likelihood that they would have hearing-impaired and speech-impaired children (PBS, 2007). He was an “oralist,” which meant he emphasized speech over sign language, believing that in this way, the deaf community would be better integrated into society. In order to encourage deaf people to use their voices, and to stop them from communicating by using their hands, he believed that their hands should be tied behind their backs in order to stop them from using sign language (Sweenie & Bowles, 2008, p. 19). This reminded me of the incident in Roy's book with the School Inspector when he ties Eddie's left hand behind his back to prevent him from writing with his left hand.

Let's look at another review...

Gillian Green's review from the University of Manitoba's CM Magazine, Vol. 20 (2), September 13, 2013, recommends this book, rating it at 3.5/4 stars. I agree with her in that the story is inspirational, and also with her observation that “Eddie, as the narrator, allows for the story to be as engaging as possible.” It is hard to imagine that the story would have been as powerful if we had anyone other than Eddie recounting the details of his struggles with reading and writing. Having a first-hand account allows us to understand Eddie's thought processes. The nature of Green's review is geared toward professionals in Collection Management, so she recommends this book as an addition to a classroom or library because of the themes, specifically, the opportunity to introduce the history of the period and Alexander Graham Bell, and the emphasis on overcoming challenges with determination and resourcefulness. I agree with her recommendation, and I can imagine all sorts of interesting activities that could go along with reading this book in a classroom setting. The children could be introduced to the process of inventing which, as Bell says in the book, begins with using your imagination. They could learn about the history of flight, or Canada's role in inventions of the 20^th century. The children would have the opportunity to learn about Helen Keller and Bell's work with the deaf community. This book contains many interesting ideas that could branch out into lesson plans.

Image: http://visitbaddeck.com/history-of-baddeck/

Awards for this book include...

OLA’s Silver Birch Award reading list 2014-2015

Shortlisted for Geoffrey Bilson Award for Historical Fiction for Young People (TD Canadian Children’s Literature Awards)

Shortlisted for the 2014 CLA Book of the Year for Children Award

Nominated for the 2014-2015 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award

Selected for Best Books for Kids & Teens, Spring 2014

References

Gray, C. (2006). Reluctant Genius: Alexander Graham Bell and the Passion of Invention. Toronto: HarperCollins.

Green, G. (2013). Me & Mr. Bell: Review. CM: Canadian Review of Materials, Vol. 20(2). Retrieved from http://umanitoba.ca/cm/vol20/no2/me&mrbell.html

History of Baddeck. (2015). Retrieved from http://visitbaddeck.com

PBS. (2007). “Signing, Alexander Graham Bell and the NAD.” Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/weta/throughdeafeyes/deaflife/bell_nad.html

Pinaud, M. (1997). History of Baddeck. Retrieved from http://baddeck.com/history

Roy, P. (2013). Me & Mr. Bell. Sydney, Nova Scotia: Cape Breton University Press.

Roy, P. (n.d.). Author Website: Bio. Retrieved from http://philiproy.ca

Sweenie, J.M. & Boles, D.W. (2008). Picture Yourself Learning American Sign Language, Level 1. Boston: Cengage Learning.