The Boy Who Was

by Grace Taber Hallock

Stories include: Siren Songs / The Song of Odysseus / Poseidon and the Greeks / The Romans and the Volcano / The Last of the Goths / The Normans and the Saracens / The Crusader / Students of Salerno / Red Beard and Saint Andrew / The Bandits.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Short Stories, Childrens, Middle Grade, Fiction, Juvenile

153 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 1928

About the author

Grace Taber Hallock (born 1893) was an American children's writer.

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Opening in 1927, in the small Italian town of Ravello, this Newbery Honor title - one of six chosen in 1929, along with (among others) The Pigtail of Ah Lee Ben Loo , Clearing Weather and Tod Of The Fens - follows the story of Nino, the ageless goat-boy guardian of the peninsula of Sorrentum (modern-day Sorrento), overlooking the beautiful island of Capri, in the Tyrrhenian Sea. Presented as a series of stories - each one featuring the gentle, good-hearted Nino - The Boy Who Was documents the mythology and history of the region, from ancient times, when the island of Capri was said to be inhabited by sirens, and witnessed the passing of Odysseus' ship, to the nineteenth-century Carbonari, rebels who hoped to unite all of Italy into one country.

In between are tales of Poseidonian sailors building a temple to the god of the sea - "Poseidon, shaker of the earth, god of the dark hair;" of a young Jewish slave-girl escaping her Roman master in Pompeii, just before the infamous eruption of Vesuvius; and of a fierce (Ostro)Goth warrior, a survivor of the Battle of Tagina and the Siege of Cumae, making his way north. Here too are the stories of the Normans who saved the city of Salerno from Saracen pirates, "for the love of God" alone; the subsequent Normans, some sixty years later, who - under the command of Robert Guiscard - conquered the same city; and the coming of a heartbroken young man, whose visions led to the famous Children's Crusade, to the town of Ravello. Finally, the tales of the three medical students who saved the life of the fleeing Lord John of Procida, and of the miracle wrought by Saint Andrew, when the Turkish pirate Redbeard (Khair ed-Din), attacked the town of Amalfi, are also told.

An appealing collection of stories, unified by the running theme of Nino's contribution to the history of Sorrentum, The Boy Who Was is a book that will appeal to young mythology lovers, as well as readers with a taste for historical fiction. I imagine that many of the historical figures will be unfamiliar to contemporary American children, but the context is always explained, and the stories themselves are not difficult to follow at all. The artwork by Harrie Wood - both color plates and black and white chapter-headers - is just beautiful, and Grace Taber Hallock's writing is engaging. I particularly liked some of the poems, like The Siren's Last Song, sung for Nino, the Boy Who Was:

Let this boy forever be
Ward of hills and singing sea.
Let this boy, forever young,
ancient warder be among.
Never let this boy grow old,
Feed his hunger, warm his cold,
Never grudge him salt and bread,
Never grudge him fire and bed.

Let him watch the ships go by,
And cities rise and cities die,
And let his salt and let his bread
Wake visions of the storied dead.
All this I will to him who hears
A siren singing through her tears.
So take your song my little brother,
Never shall you have another.

[Amber Scaife · Rating 4 out of 5]

A collection of stories dealing with myths and history, all based around the town of Amalfi in Italy. The eponymous boy is one who mysteriously lives the life of a goatherd from the time of Odysseus's wanderings through the 1800s and who has a subtle hand in some key events in history despite his humble trade.

This is an early Newbery Honor Book - the last of the back catalog for me and one that took some doing to track down - but it stands up pretty well, honestly. It's a clever way of introducing kiddos to some key points in history, and the stories are interesting and nicely told.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another early Newbery Honor title. It is a series of short stories all featuring an Italian boy, Nino, granted immortality by a Siren. The stories take place over a broad time span, and show the history of the area in a fairly entertaining manner.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I added this book to my TBR when someone on LibraryThing reviewed it. I forget who now! It was very hard to find the book, until I thought to check out OpenLibrary. It's not a long work, but it packs a lot of history into a small space. The boy of the story is Nino, who is blessed by the Sirens with eternal youth and lives simply throughout as a goat boy in Amalfi. Each chapter is then a chapter of Italian history, a short story that tells us of things like the eruption of Vesuvius and the Children's crusade, but also lesser treated subjects, like the coming of the Normans.

The book is dated - copyrighted 1928. It was awarded a Newbery honour in 1929 (not the medal). Any criticism of the story would have to be understood in the light of the huge changes in the world of children's literature in the last century. All the same, it does have some issues. The story is clearly meant to be educational, and it is. But Nino is little more than a device for linking together the short stories. There is no character development, and no depth to him. Moreover, in recounting so much history in such a short space, any other sense of involvement or threat or anything else is set aside somewhat. I don't think a modern attempt at this idea would look anything like this.

Again, that is a product of its time. Despite its flaws, it is a quick and interesting read. I'm glad I finally found it.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I would have been all over this as a kid. This is a collection of stories set on and around the Amalfi coast of Italy that centers on the perpetual boyhood of the goat-boy Nino - being friends with mythological beings like Sirens can have a lasting effect. We first meet Nino in present day (1920s) when he befriends an artist and cajoles the man into painting some wooden figures/puppets(?) he has made. These figures all have a story and these are told in the book. An interesting historical aside is the presence of fascisti in the streets at the time Nino meets his painter; they're just mentioned neither for good nor bad. The stories cover Phoenician traders, the Sirens, Odysseus (1), the worship of Poseidon (2), the runaway slave Miriam and the eruption of Vesuvious 79 AD (3), the last Goth in Italy (4), how Robert Guiscard outwitted the Salernitans in 1076(5) Nicholas and the Children's Crusade in 1212 (6), medical students in Salerno and their teacher John of Procida in 1282 (7), Barbarossa's Turks being repelled by a storm sent by Saint Andrew in 1544 (8), and the re-education of an Italian prince by some bandits aka revolutionaries in 1821 (9). While I wish I knew more about Italian history, I had no difficulty following the stories. I read this for my 2017 Reading Challenge and for my Newbery Challenge (Honor book 1929).

[Jenn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another collection of short stories for the early Newbery winners and honors. This one follows a teen boy who never ages from the time of Odysseus to the Renaissance. Some of the stories are quite good, but the quality is inconsistent.

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an odd collection of stories loosely connected by the opening story. I liked it but also felt like it didn't make much sense as a narrative and the stories were a bit odd and I'm not sure how accurate any of them were. 

[Desiree']

1929 Newbery honor book

[Linds · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t know if this book is quite for people who don’t know their history. It follows Nino, an immortal Italian boy through several incidents in his thousands of years of existence. In one, I know why Nino’s saying no one will care tomorrow that a slave girl in Pompeii has run away. Gotcha. Then there was one about Nino going to investigate why Poseidon is cranky in Poseidonia (because there's nothing honoring him). Those two, I got. Those two, I enjoyed. I thought there was a clever mingling of fact and fancy. You just have to know the punchlines. You have to know what happens to Pompeii. You have to know about the Poseidon statue.

The rest of the stories… yeah, no idea. It gives specific dates and such, and references empires and uprisings, but there’s scarce more details than that, and the rest of the story is invented. Without being able to place the situation Nino is showing up in, the stories had no effect on me. The history is just the staging for some quirky tales, but I think it’s very important to have the background knowledge to pique interest in the story. I got a little bored/confused with the rest of the book… and felt ridiculously undereducated. I think if I’d known the history of Italy, I would have loved the idea.

Oh, and lovely drawings.

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the prologue, an artist is with Nino in the present day (1927), who has lots of stories to tell him. Long ago, he was friends with a siren who would sing him songs and show him stories. One day the siren and her sister tried to sing to Odysseus to lure him to leave his ship and drown, but they failed and threw themselves into the sea. Dion takes Nino's goats to sacrifice to Poseidon, but Poseidon reveals to Nino that what he really wants is for the people to build him a temple. Miriam, a Jewish slave, runs away from her master with Peter, Rebecca, and Nick, her goat. She is with Nino when Mount Vesuvius erupts. Nino saves a Goth from some soldiers. Nino talks with Robert Guiscard. Nino is around during the crusades and the children's crusade. Nino is with John Procida and his students when they hide him from French soldiers. Nino is there when Barbarossa comes to attack, and his ships are destroyed in a storm. Nino is there when some "bandits" "kidnap" the prince and help him to improve his health.

I thought it was an interesting idea to have an immortal boy who shows up in different important events throughout the history of Italy. Some of the stories, like the erupting of Mount Vesuvius, were really interesting.

[Lynette Caulkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Edit to add: Mark Harrington's narration in the free LibriVox Audiobook makes this so much better than just reading the physical book! Now, *that* I give 4 stars, so I'm bumping my review here to 3 stars overall for the book. |original review: The concept of this book is good, and a couple of the stories are nice, but the overall execution comes off clunky. It would have worked better had it been clear from the very start that this would be a collection of historical fiction snapshots progressing through time. It takes too long to realize that this is what is happening, and only readers with an ulterior motive (like reading every Newbery book) are going to stick with it past the first couple of chapters. I realized the author attempted a cue, but it was not effective. Additionally, commas where they shouldn't be (and a great many missing from where they should have been) make the reader need to repeat sentences often once the real drift is caught. It was quite annoying in a book that had been awarded a literary honor. The author must have had connections.

[Thomas Bell · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought that this was going to be an Italian history. However, the historical facts are mixed with historical inaccuracies, opinions about who was right or wrong, and the idea that purging Italy of all foreigners in the early 1800s was a good and noble thing to do. Guess that's the problem with books from the 1920s. :) Oh, and really, people don't like goat milk as much as Nino thinks they do. :)

[Christina Potter Bieloh · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. At first I thought it was going to be another Newbery honor book filled with stories of the past -- and well it is, but it's about a boy who is given eternal life by the sirens and so he is part of each story. I really found it to be engaging and one of the better Honor books I have read so far.

[Damaris]

1929 Newbery Honor Book

[Monica Fastenau · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read the full review here: http://newberyandbeyond.com/newbery-r...

[Scott Williams]

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