When We Were Little
I learn something new about my favorite books from childhood every time I do this post. I had no idea that Evaline Ness the author/illustrator of Sam, Bangs and Moonshine was married to US Treasury Agent Eliot Ness – famous for being the leader of the Untouchables and adversary of Al Capone.
The book Sam, Bangs and Moonshine, Ness wrote in 1966 and she won the Caldecott Medal for it in 1967. It is the story of Sam (Samantha) who lives with her father – a fisherman – and cat called Bangs. Sam’s mother is dead and she has developed a penchant for making up stories, or Moonshine as her father calls them and he warns her that she needs to ‘talk REAL not MOONSHINE. MOONSHINE spells trouble.’
‘Not even the sailors home from the sea could tell stranger stories than Sam. Not even the ships in the harbor, with curious cargoes from giraffes to gerbils, claimed more wonders than Sam did. She said her mother was a mermaid, when everyone knew she was dead. Sam said she had a fierce lion at home, and a baby kangaroo.’
It is her little friend Thomas to whom she tells the most Moonshine, sending him on missions all over their village looking for her made-up kangaroo; he believes every word she says. On one particularly perilous day by the sea, Sam sends Thomas directly into danger with another story about her fictitious kangaroo.
At this point the story becomes really powerful and while re-reading it recently I instantly recalled the feelings that it conjured up for me as a child. I know exactly how little Sam feels as she worries intensely for her friend who she has put in danger because of her Moonshine; it’s the same feeling I can still get as an adult when you have unintentionally done something that may hurt someone else. Sam really suffers, hoping and waiting to see if her friend can be rescued and also craving her father’s forgiveness.
This is not a story that revolves around the moral, it’s not purely about the pitfalls of telling untruths, it’s a story about love, understanding, imagination and forgiveness.
Along with the powerful text, Ness is also an amazing illustrator. Using only a colour palette of blacks and greys with splashes of bronze in her paintings she creates an amazing atmosphere for this story. There is no glamour in this book, the illustrations accurately portray a fishing village, slightly dreary and cold.
Ness is also amazing in her portraiture and capturing her characters emotions. In one illustration in particular where Sam in crying there is such a mix of pain, sadness and relief in her expression and body language that it is just heart-breaking to look at.
Although I know there has often been debate about this book’s worthiness of a Caldecott, I would go as far as to say I believe it is one of the most beautiful and important picture books ever written. It has certainly left its mark on me.
