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Morrow #2
Treasures of Morrow
Two teenagers with telepathic powers, having spent some time with a more advanced culture, return to their own primitive society and wonder where they really belong.
171 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1976
1 person is currently reading
79 people want to read
About the author
Helen Mary Hoover
19 books55 followershttp://www.orrt.org/hoover/
Over the course of her twenty-three-year career as a writer, H.M. Hoover won eight awards for her writing, including three Best Book for Young Adult designations from the American Library Association and two Parent's Choice Honor Awards. Another Heaven, Another Earth received the Ohioana Award in 1982.
H.M. Hoover lived in Burke, Virginia. Her last published work was The Whole Truth - And Other Myths: Retelling Ancient Tales, in 1996.
Hoover changed her pen name to H.M. Hoover before Children came out because there was already a children's author named Helen Hoover.
Over the course of her twenty-three-year career as a writer, H.M. Hoover won eight awards for her writing, including three Best Book for Young Adult designations from the American Library Association and two Parent's Choice Honor Awards. Another Heaven, Another Earth received the Ohioana Award in 1982.
H.M. Hoover lived in Burke, Virginia. Her last published work was The Whole Truth - And Other Myths: Retelling Ancient Tales, in 1996.
Hoover changed her pen name to H.M. Hoover before Children came out because there was already a children's author named Helen Hoover.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
October 19, 2018
Again, mid-80s read.
June 18, 2020
Tia and Rabbit's adventures continue from Hoover's Children of Morrow. The adventure itself can be described quite briefly: the children are taken to Morrow, introduced into Morrowan society and start learning to adapt, then the Morrowans decide they should send an expedition to the Base to see the only other group of human survivors they have ever come across – the children go with them. What follows is an unhappy reunion when the Base people are hostile to the children and regard the Morrowans as aliens – or at least not human. The Morrowans, with Tia and Rabbit, retreat intact and return to their home.
More important than the adventure is deciphering the author's intent regarding the Morrowans. In part they are portrayed almost as colonial explorers entering a land of wilderness and hostile natives: wary, distrustful, but absolutely convinced of their own superiority; or, to reverse that, absolutely convinced of the Base people's inferiority. I don't know if there was some sort of moral behind it but the Morrowans are tall and wear white coveralls over their whole bodies, while the Baseites are small and dark skinned and wear animal hides. There is more than a hint of late nineteenth and early twentieth century British imperial adventure authors: Henty, Kingston, Manville Fenn, and others. I think it was supposed to be a scientific mission. If it was, the final report would not fill a hefty volume.
The Morrowans are a frustrating group. Although they are telepathic their only use for it seems to be to communicate with each other. Their scientific and technical abilities are the equal of the humans of the past, but where are they going with it and what ambitions do they have beyond survival? Culturally they have an appreciation of art, which seems to be directed at looting artefacts from ruined buildings. Through their computers they have access to all the works of literature ever produced by humanity, yet there is little indication of creativity among them.
The novel suggests a future in which, after disaster, Earth's nature may rebound to a paradisical state – minus a lot of the animals – while humanity, regardless of its intelligence, will be reduced to a band united through telepathy which despises all other humans. To use the derogatory expression of Ashira, the Morrowan leader, they are mere “Simple Talkers”. We really will have to start looking after the planet if that is what awaits us.
More important than the adventure is deciphering the author's intent regarding the Morrowans. In part they are portrayed almost as colonial explorers entering a land of wilderness and hostile natives: wary, distrustful, but absolutely convinced of their own superiority; or, to reverse that, absolutely convinced of the Base people's inferiority. I don't know if there was some sort of moral behind it but the Morrowans are tall and wear white coveralls over their whole bodies, while the Baseites are small and dark skinned and wear animal hides. There is more than a hint of late nineteenth and early twentieth century British imperial adventure authors: Henty, Kingston, Manville Fenn, and others. I think it was supposed to be a scientific mission. If it was, the final report would not fill a hefty volume.
The Morrowans are a frustrating group. Although they are telepathic their only use for it seems to be to communicate with each other. Their scientific and technical abilities are the equal of the humans of the past, but where are they going with it and what ambitions do they have beyond survival? Culturally they have an appreciation of art, which seems to be directed at looting artefacts from ruined buildings. Through their computers they have access to all the works of literature ever produced by humanity, yet there is little indication of creativity among them.
The novel suggests a future in which, after disaster, Earth's nature may rebound to a paradisical state – minus a lot of the animals – while humanity, regardless of its intelligence, will be reduced to a band united through telepathy which despises all other humans. To use the derogatory expression of Ashira, the Morrowan leader, they are mere “Simple Talkers”. We really will have to start looking after the planet if that is what awaits us.
February 18, 2023
Treasures of Morrow by Helen Mary Hoover
This book is a worthy sequel to Children of Morrow published three years previously in 1973. Like the first book, it achieves a good balance between introspection and action. The first part handles the adjustment of the children, Tia and Rabbit, to a society very different from that in which they had lived during their formative years. The second half is the account of the Morrowan expedition back to the place from which they rescued the two youngsters.
The true purpose of revisiting the repressive society which had abused the children is not made absolutely clear, and I think that the author may have done this deliberately. It is ostensibly an anthropological mission to allow the Morrowans to understand more about the only other surviving human settlement they had ever been able to locate. However, if that were the only reason, they could have made such observations the first time they visited, and there would be no need to take Tia and Rabbit along, something which Tia in particular greatly fears. Moreover, they do not seem to engage in much anthropological research when they have the opportunity, and they occasionally commit the kinds of errors which might populate an anthropologist’s nightmares, although this may because the local people make matters difficult for them.
Of course, if you had for generations believed that your community was the only one which had survived a global disaster and continued to develop, it would be exciting to find another, and forming ties with that other society might seem desirable. Although the Morrowans possess many virtues, older readers may discern that they are not without their flaws, one of which is a belief in their own superiority. In conclusion, the return to the original home of the children may have served several purposes, one of them being to make absolutely certain that Tia and Rabbit belonged with the Morrowans, to contribute to their training, and to confirm that no other potential people of Morrow were living in that community.
On the whole, I think that this story is as profound or as flawed as the reader wants to make it. Much more could have been said about how the children adjust to Morrowan society, ideals, and ways of thinking, but I liked the fact that it does not have the ideal ending that many young readers may expect, as this adds to its realism and originality.
Here are some of the more interesting quotations from the story:
But available records covering the decade known as The Death of the Seas indicated that over 93 percent of all living creatures on the earth’s surface and under the seas died by simple suffocation.
Solar radiation through the thin atmosphere had made fertility the exception instead of the rule, the “normal” abnormal. Fathers were privileged men of rank.
This is the story of what happened to Tia and Rabbit when they left a primitive, repressive society and entered overnight into a culture centuries more advanced.
Almost ever since she could remember, Morrow had been a dream, beautiful, unobtainable. Now it was soon to become reality and if reality spoiled that dream, then she had nothing.
And she perceived a new fact, that the sound of one’s voice created its own image for the listener, one which might differ from both the physical aspect and the mind of the speaker, and enhance or distract from the transmission of ideas.
Mature Morrowans seldom used the slow imprecise verbal method of communication among themselves.
If you recall the unchallenged power of your Major, total authority destroys all privacy. It leads ultimately to madness.
A good mind, even when unbalanced, does not destroy to retain power. It seduces.
Her life and her position in life had changed so radically in the past month that she found it hard to accept. Logic told her she was no longer a pariah. Conditioning was not so quickly changed.
Tia and Rabbit were chronologically children, but so different from the Morrowan—so crudely cynical and suspicious of others.
For all their intelligence, she thought, there were a lot of things Morrowans didn’t know. They had never been hungry or cold. They had never had to live being scared all the time. Even when they were little, nobody ever beat them. And when you had to live that way, you had to learn how to put up with it. What right did any Morrowan have to feel sorry for her and Rabbit? The two of them had been smart enough to live through it. She doubted if any Morrowan her age or Rabbit’s could do that.
It was all part of their education, this work. He showed them how he cut and taped a graft so that new life flowed into it from the parent shoot. “We are grafts, Rabbit and I,” thought Tia. “I wonder if we will ‘take’?”
How do you establish trust in a mind that has known too much betrayal?”
As speech lost its great importance, gradually and without any conscious effort, Rabbit’s stutter disappeared. As if, now that he no longer had to talk, he felt free to do so.
You’re too clean and quiet. They won’t even think you’re strong enough to be dangerous. But they might worship the cars.” “That is primitive,” Elaine sneered. “No,” answered Tia. “That is ignorance.”
If you destroy their faith, when you have nothing to give them in its place, you act without ethics. You take all and give nothing.
We look better, cleaner, and well fed and dressed. But none of them asked why.
But now it was enough to know that she had an innate sense of ethics that enabled her to put aside desire for personal revenge and see the picture whole.
This book is a worthy sequel to Children of Morrow published three years previously in 1973. Like the first book, it achieves a good balance between introspection and action. The first part handles the adjustment of the children, Tia and Rabbit, to a society very different from that in which they had lived during their formative years. The second half is the account of the Morrowan expedition back to the place from which they rescued the two youngsters.
The true purpose of revisiting the repressive society which had abused the children is not made absolutely clear, and I think that the author may have done this deliberately. It is ostensibly an anthropological mission to allow the Morrowans to understand more about the only other surviving human settlement they had ever been able to locate. However, if that were the only reason, they could have made such observations the first time they visited, and there would be no need to take Tia and Rabbit along, something which Tia in particular greatly fears. Moreover, they do not seem to engage in much anthropological research when they have the opportunity, and they occasionally commit the kinds of errors which might populate an anthropologist’s nightmares, although this may because the local people make matters difficult for them.
Of course, if you had for generations believed that your community was the only one which had survived a global disaster and continued to develop, it would be exciting to find another, and forming ties with that other society might seem desirable. Although the Morrowans possess many virtues, older readers may discern that they are not without their flaws, one of which is a belief in their own superiority. In conclusion, the return to the original home of the children may have served several purposes, one of them being to make absolutely certain that Tia and Rabbit belonged with the Morrowans, to contribute to their training, and to confirm that no other potential people of Morrow were living in that community.
On the whole, I think that this story is as profound or as flawed as the reader wants to make it. Much more could have been said about how the children adjust to Morrowan society, ideals, and ways of thinking, but I liked the fact that it does not have the ideal ending that many young readers may expect, as this adds to its realism and originality.
Here are some of the more interesting quotations from the story:
But available records covering the decade known as The Death of the Seas indicated that over 93 percent of all living creatures on the earth’s surface and under the seas died by simple suffocation.
Solar radiation through the thin atmosphere had made fertility the exception instead of the rule, the “normal” abnormal. Fathers were privileged men of rank.
This is the story of what happened to Tia and Rabbit when they left a primitive, repressive society and entered overnight into a culture centuries more advanced.
Almost ever since she could remember, Morrow had been a dream, beautiful, unobtainable. Now it was soon to become reality and if reality spoiled that dream, then she had nothing.
And she perceived a new fact, that the sound of one’s voice created its own image for the listener, one which might differ from both the physical aspect and the mind of the speaker, and enhance or distract from the transmission of ideas.
Mature Morrowans seldom used the slow imprecise verbal method of communication among themselves.
If you recall the unchallenged power of your Major, total authority destroys all privacy. It leads ultimately to madness.
A good mind, even when unbalanced, does not destroy to retain power. It seduces.
Her life and her position in life had changed so radically in the past month that she found it hard to accept. Logic told her she was no longer a pariah. Conditioning was not so quickly changed.
Tia and Rabbit were chronologically children, but so different from the Morrowan—so crudely cynical and suspicious of others.
For all their intelligence, she thought, there were a lot of things Morrowans didn’t know. They had never been hungry or cold. They had never had to live being scared all the time. Even when they were little, nobody ever beat them. And when you had to live that way, you had to learn how to put up with it. What right did any Morrowan have to feel sorry for her and Rabbit? The two of them had been smart enough to live through it. She doubted if any Morrowan her age or Rabbit’s could do that.
It was all part of their education, this work. He showed them how he cut and taped a graft so that new life flowed into it from the parent shoot. “We are grafts, Rabbit and I,” thought Tia. “I wonder if we will ‘take’?”
How do you establish trust in a mind that has known too much betrayal?”
As speech lost its great importance, gradually and without any conscious effort, Rabbit’s stutter disappeared. As if, now that he no longer had to talk, he felt free to do so.
You’re too clean and quiet. They won’t even think you’re strong enough to be dangerous. But they might worship the cars.” “That is primitive,” Elaine sneered. “No,” answered Tia. “That is ignorance.”
If you destroy their faith, when you have nothing to give them in its place, you act without ethics. You take all and give nothing.
We look better, cleaner, and well fed and dressed. But none of them asked why.
But now it was enough to know that she had an innate sense of ethics that enabled her to put aside desire for personal revenge and see the picture whole.
August 27, 2021
Nice follow-up to the first novel. We see Tia and Rabbit a year after the first book, after they've started to settle into the colony of Morrow. Their world has become broader, and they've learned a lot since leaving Base.
In this book, the Morrowans decide to go on a new expedition to Base, the only other human settlement that they know of.
It was an interesting journey, but the comparisons between the Base people and the Morrowans wasn't very flattering to either party. The Base people are primitive, ignorant, cowards, while the Morrowans are sooo much better. The saving grace with this aspect is that Tia is aware that the Morrowans were privileged to have had shelter in a place that wasn't as environmentally wrecked as the Base people's settlement. She noticed several times that the Morrowans had never suffered the hardships that the Base people had.
I was happy to revisit Rabbit and Tia.
In this book, the Morrowans decide to go on a new expedition to Base, the only other human settlement that they know of.
It was an interesting journey, but the comparisons between the Base people and the Morrowans wasn't very flattering to either party. The Base people are primitive, ignorant, cowards, while the Morrowans are sooo much better. The saving grace with this aspect is that Tia is aware that the Morrowans were privileged to have had shelter in a place that wasn't as environmentally wrecked as the Base people's settlement. She noticed several times that the Morrowans had never suffered the hardships that the Base people had.
I was happy to revisit Rabbit and Tia.
July 4, 2020
70s Sci-fi YA. I had been unaware of this sequel to CHILDREN OF MORROW, which was a favourite of mine when I was younger.
July 26, 2020
A good sequel to her first book.
April 22, 2022
Tia and Rabbit continue their adventures and find out really who they are, combining both their past and their future
August 14, 2024
Not as good as the first Morrow book, but still a worthy read
August 5, 2020
REREAD: 3 August 2020 - 5 August 2020 (7/10)
I found a copy of this for myself in a bookshop, so of course I had to reread it. I admit I enjoyed a bit here and a bit there, so it wasn't necessarily read in order, but I did pretty much all of it, so I'm counting this as a reread.
REREAD: 5 November 2015 - 6 November 2015 (7/10)
Lovely to reread this one as well. It isn't as good as Children of Morrow, but it's great to have a "how they coped afterwards" kind of book as they can be fascinating.
I found a copy of this for myself in a bookshop, so of course I had to reread it. I admit I enjoyed a bit here and a bit there, so it wasn't necessarily read in order, but I did pretty much all of it, so I'm counting this as a reread.
REREAD: 5 November 2015 - 6 November 2015 (7/10)
Lovely to reread this one as well. It isn't as good as Children of Morrow, but it's great to have a "how they coped afterwards" kind of book as they can be fascinating.
April 7, 2014
Tia and Rabbit have reached Morrow after their long ardous journey, but they feel lost in the alien environment and wonder about what life is like back at the base. Along with Ashira and the crew of the Simone 2, they travel back to their old home. HM Hoover has done it again, with a wonderful tale of discovery. Morrow has it's flaws and Tia and Rabbit realise that they can never go back to their old life. Beautiful, lyrical writing by a mistress of the genre.
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May 29, 2016I was delighted to find this second-hand copy which is the sequel to Children of Morrow, a childhood favourite, read whilst on holiday at the age of 8 or 9. Helen Hoover enchanted me with her first story about Rabbit and Tia and this book continues on from this.
April 13, 2008
Very weak plot. There seemed to be little point to the story other than a "where are they now" detailing of the kids from the first book. Children of Morrow was much more involved and interesting.
January 26, 2023
Two teenagers with telepathic powers, having spent some time with a more advanced culture, return to their own primitive society and wonder where they really belong.
December 27, 2020
For me this was a good middle grade dystopian story. I like Hoover's writing, she captures the imagination of young readers and expands knowledge of nature and the dangers of ignorance.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews