Rudyard’s childhood was filled with excitement. He and his sister, Trix, roamed the colorful streets of Bombay, exploring markets, tasting exotic foods, and making friends with people from all walks of life. The vibrant bazaars and bustling harbors of Bombay ignited his imagination, and he soaked up the sights, sounds, and smells of this fascinating city. These early experiences would later inspire many of the stories he would write.

But adventure wasn’t just limited to the city. Rudyard’s parents believed in giving him a well-rounded education. So, when he was just six years old, they sent him off to a school in England. Can you imagine leaving your home at such a young age and traveling to a distant land? Rudyard did, and it was a thrilling, albeit challenging, experience. He missed the sights and sounds of India, but he also learned to love the English countryside, the stories, and the books that filled his new world.

When Rudyard returned to India at the age of 13, he carried with him a wealth of stories, both from the books he had read and the adventures he had lived. He began to write his own tales, inspired by the vibrant and diverse culture of India. His first published works were written during his teenage years, and they showcased his growing talent as a storyteller.

One of Rudyard’s most famous books is “The Jungle Book.” Can you imagine a story about a young boy who is raised by wolves, befriends a bear and a panther, and faces off against a fierce tiger? Well, that’s exactly what Rudyard Kipling imagined. “The Jungle Book” is a thrilling adventure filled with animals that can talk and a young hero named Mowgli. This book has captivated the hearts and imaginations of countless children around the world for over a century. Rudyard Kipling’s childhood in India, where he was surrounded by exotic wildlife, inspired the enchanting tales of the jungle and its inhabitants.

Rudyard Kipling didn’t just write stories about the jungle; he also penned tales about the high seas and adventures on the open water. One of his most famous works is “Captain Courageous.” It’s a story about a young boy named Harvey who gets thrown overboard from a luxury cruise ship and ends up on a fishing schooner. Harvey must learn the ways of the sea and earn the respect of the rough and rugged fishermen. This thrilling tale takes readers on a journey across the vast oceans and teaches valuable lessons about hard work, determination, and courage.

Another book that will sweep you off your feet is “Kim.” This novel tells the story of an orphan boy who grows up in India and becomes a spy, traveling all over the country. Kim is a master of disguise and has exciting adventures as he explores the rich tapestry of Indian culture, meets fascinating characters, and navigates the complexities of British colonialism. Rudyard Kipling’s deep love for India shines through in “Kim,” as it is a captivating blend of adventure, mystery, and cultural exploration.

But life wasn’t all thrilling adventures and stories for Rudyard. He faced some challenges too. As a young man, he returned to England to work as a journalist and faced tough times. Yet, he persevered and continued writing stories that would later become classics. His life experiences, both good and bad, were woven into the tapestry of his tales, making them all the more relatable and inspiring.

Rudyard Kipling’s adventurous spirit took him to many parts of the world. He traveled to South Africa, where he covered the Boer War as a journalist. 

He visited America and made lifelong friends with famous figures like Mark Twain. These journeys helped him gather more stories and experiences to share with the world.

During the Boer War, Kipling embarked on a journey that would lead him to the heart of the action, traveling alongside British troops. Rudyard wasn’t a soldier, but he carried his pen and notebook like weapons, ready to capture the stories of bravery and valor. He witnessed the roar of cannons, the thunder of hooves, and the courage of men facing the unknown.

One day, while Rudyard was riding with a group of British soldiers, they found themselves deep in enemy territory. The Boers, fierce fighters who knew the South African terrain well, were lurking nearby. A skirmish broke out, and the British soldiers were outnumbered and outgunned.

Amidst the chaos of battle, Rudyard’s journalistic instincts kicked in. He crouched low, scribbling notes furiously as bullets whizzed past. The noise of the battlefield was deafening, but he remained calm, determined to record the bravery of the soldiers, who fought for a cause they believed in.

As the day wore on, the situation became even more perilous. The British soldiers needed to send a message back to their headquarters, but the enemy was watching their every move. Rudyard, known for his resourcefulness, volunteered to sneak through enemy lines with the urgent message. It was a daring mission, but he was determined to get the story out.

Under the cover of darkness, Rudyard set out, crawling through the tall grass and avoiding the watchful eyes of the Boer sentries. He moved silently, his heart pounding with each step. His adventures as a young boy in the bustling streets of Bombay had prepared him for this moment of danger.

After a nerve-wracking journey through the enemy’s territory, Rudyard finally reached the British camp. He delivered the message, and his courageous act earned him the respect of the soldiers. His storytelling wasn’t limited to pen and paper; he had lived an adventure that would become a part of his own legend.

Rudyard Kipling’s experiences during the Boer War served as the backdrop for some of his most poignant writings. He understood the sacrifices made by soldiers and the price of war. His stories from the battlefield, like “The Man Who Would Be King,” and “Soldiers Three,” reflected the human aspects of the conflict, the camaraderie, and the struggles faced by those on the front lines.

One of Rudyard’s most famous poems, “If—,” is a true inspiration. It’s a message about being brave and resilient in the face of adversity. “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” goes one of its lines. It’s a reminder to stay strong, no matter what challenges life throws your way. “If—” has been recited and cherished by people of all ages for generations, and its wisdom is just as relevant today as it was when Rudyard Kipling wrote it.

Rudyard Kipling’s life was like an adventure story itself. He faced triumphs and trials, explored distant lands, met fascinating people, and left behind a treasure trove of stories for the world to enjoy. His books continue to transport readers to far-off places, introducing them to incredible characters and exciting adventures.

So, young adventurers, as you read Rudyard Kipling’s tales, remember the little boy who once roamed the colorful streets of Bombay, the teenager who journeyed to England, and the man who traveled the world seeking inspiration. His stories are a testament to the power of imagination, the wonder of exploration, and the importance of never giving up on your dreams. Rudyard Kipling’s legacy lives on, inviting you to embark on your own adventures, whether in the pages of a book or out in the wide world beyond.

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This isn’t a small boat, this is a very big, shiny white boat, full of people floating down a great river called the Mississippi. The year is 1835 and people are chatting in excitement because the boat is about to stop in the next town. The riverboat’s whistle blows and soon the boat docks and you load off with a large group of people. You are in the bustling town of Hannibal, Missouri, which will someday become famous because of a certain child who grew up here.

When was Mark Twain born?

On November 30, 1835, a boy named Samuel was born to John and Jane Clemens in the United States in Missouri. He was their sixth child and was born early. For many years he was an unhealthy child and his mother always worried about his health. With their big family, his father was always very busy trying to find work to support the family. He dreamed of making a lot of money for his family, but most of his businesses didn’t do well. Later Samuel said he never remembered his father laughing. But his mother Jane was very different. She was very funny and loved to tell stories and make jokes.  

Hannibal, Missouri

When Samuel was 4 his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a town on the banks of the Mississippi River. Hannibal was a busy town and exciting for a boy of Samuel’s age. Three times a day steamboats blew their whistle as they stopped in Hannibal. A steamboat was a large, white steam-powered boat before gas was used to power boats. People from all over Missouri visited Hannibal. This included circuses and tradesmen, such as blacksmiths who made a show of their skills for all to see. To young Samuel, Hannibal was a place of excitement and adventure with all of these new visitors. He and his friend ran around the town freely, pretending to be pirates or other adventurers. They swam in the river, fished, and rowed canoes to the island in the middle of the Mississippi River. Two miles from town was a cave he and his friends liked to explore. When Samuel got older he used all of these adventures in Hannibal as part of the stories he wrote. 

But Hannibal was also a dangerous place. Slavery was common at the time, so he saw people of African descent treated badly. Many people in town also had to deal with disease and hardship from being poor. Samuel’s family was very poor. But he still played with his friends and tried to make the best of his life in Hannibal. 

When Samuel was 13 he started working to help take care of his family. He worked at a print shop and later for his brother’s newspaper and started writing stories for the newspaper at a young age. At age 17 he left Hannibal and traveled across the United States, working in places like New York, St. Louis, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. where he had different jobs. 

Riverboat Pilot

In his 20s Samuel began learning how to be a riverboat pilot, the person who drove the big steamboats up and down the Mississippi River. After much training and practice, he was piloting boats himself and loved the job. It gave him purpose and with it, he felt like he might go somewhere in life. He was paid him well and he enjoyed visiting new places every day. During this time he started writing more and first came up with the idea for his pen name. A pen name is a made-up name some authors give themselves. Whenever a riverboat wanted to measure the depth of the river they would call out “Mark Twain!” He thought it would make a great pen name, too.

Civil War

Samuel’s job as a riverboat pilot was cut short by the start of the Civil War. He returned to his hometown of Hannibal and was a soldier for a short time. The next job he found was a reporter, where he got to write all of the time. This is when he first started using his pen name, “Mark Twain.” Not long after this, he moved to San Francisco and continued writing as a reporter. His writing was very funny and soon he became very popular in the area. As his writing became more and more known around the country, he started touring and speaking. Americans loved listening to his funny stories about his life. Part of the reason they enjoyed what he said and wrote is that he was very honest, even when it offended others. With his growing popularity, he even started traveling outside of the United States where he visited faraway places like Europe and Jerusalem. During his trip, he wrote about his experiences and sent them back to the newspaper and they were read all across the United States and around the world. 

Tom Sawyer

It was at this time that he met Olivia Langdon, fell in love, and was married. He continued to write for magazines and newspapers and eventually started writing his books starting with one called The Gilded Age and one of his most famous books, Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer was about a rowdy, trickster, similar to himself and his friends who grew up in a town similar to Hannibal. Tom, his friend Becky Thatcher, and other friends played pranks, and went on adventures, which included an exciting escape from a cave with treasure. 

Huckleberry Finn

After Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain (we’ll call him by his pen name now) started working on a book called Huckleberry Finn. He wrote the book as if Huck Finn was writing it, using his same language. It took him many years to write the book, because he would often get frustrated or stuck and move to other projects, and then start work on it again. When it was finally finished, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published. In some ways similar to Tom Sawyer it was about a rowdy boy who doesn’t want to be civilized and his escape from his adopted family with a runaway slave named Jim. Together they float down the Mississippi River and struggle to stay alive and avoid being caught. To this day it’s considered one of the best American novels.

Mark Twain continued to write the rest of his life. He had many ups and downs, parts of his life were very hard, but he always kept writing. During the last years of his life he made friends with a group of 10 to 12 young school girls, who he called the “angel fish.” They wrote letters back and forth and helped cheer up Mark Twain who was growing older. He also spent his last years writing his autobiography. An autobiography is when someone writes their own history. Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, died on April 12, 1910. 

Conclusion

There is a famous quote associated with Mark Twain that says “write about what you know.” He spent most of his life writing about what he experienced and what he knew. He loved writing about his wild childhood in Hannibal, his life along the Mississippi River and his travels throughout the river. It’s fun to write about far off places or fantasy, I know I like writing about those things, but it’s also good to spend time writing about the things we know, the things that happen to us every day. A lot of people use a journal to do this. Think about starting your own journal. You can start simple, maybe it’s just a few sentences at first. But many people find writing in a journal helps them clear their mind and be reminded of what they are grateful for. Like Mark Twain, you can observe the world around you and write about it. He found much joy in it and so can you!

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By Edgar Allan Poe:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore—

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

“’Tis some visitor,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—

            Only this and nothing more.

This is the opening of one of the most famous poems in American History.  It is called “The Raven” and is written by Edgar Allan Poe.  

Read more Edgar Allan Poe poems.

Edgar Allan Poe was a writer who became famous for his dark, mysterious poems and stories.  His storytelling inspired many later writers to write mystery and detective stories. And Edgar Allan Poe’s stories and poems often come to mind for people this time of year near Halloween as the evenings get darker and spookier.

Edgar Allan Poe’s Early Life

Edgar Allan Poe was born in 1809 in Boston Massachusetts. His parents were both actors.  His mom was an actress from Britain and his dad worked in the theatres in Baltimore.  Unfortunately, Edgar never knew his parents, as they both died when he was very young.

After the death of his parents, Edgar was sent to live with his godfather in Virginia.  His godfather’s name was John Allan.  He owned a tobacco company and was very wealthy. 

Edgar enjoyed writing when he was very young and by the time he was 13, he had written many, many poems.  But Edgar’s godfather wanted him to learn more about business and not poetry so that Edgar could work at his tobacco company one day.  He told Edgar not to focus on writing anymore, but to learn about business.  Edgar listened, but entirely.  While he was supposed to be learning business lessons, he sneakily wrote poems on the back of his godfather’s business papers!

Education

When Edgar was old enough, he went to college. He did well at school but life became difficult for him at this time.  His uncle gave him money to pay for school, but Edgar also started gambling to pay for the rest.  Gambling means playing games of chance for money.  It can be quite exciting, as people that play hope to get rich.  But it also causes many people to lose all their money.  And this is what happened to Edgar.  After losing a lot of money, Edgar ended up in debt. This means that he owed money to others and no longer had any money for himself.  Around this time, Edgar also had his heart broken by his neighbor and childhood sweetheart when she became engaged to another man. 

Military Academy

Edgar Allan Poe dealt with his sadness about these things by moving away to Boston. He continued to write and he published his first book in 1827 when he was 18 years old.  He also joined the U.S. Army.  His uncle helped him get a position with the United States Military Academy at West Point.  But then he and his uncle did not get along and Edgar eventually left West Point to focus on writing full-time. 

Full-time Writer

As a full-time writer, Edgar traveled around to various cities in Eastern America, including New York City, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and Richmond. Edgar was quite poor because being a writer did not pay very much money. Edgar got a break when one of his short stories won a writing contest.  He began to publish more short stories and eventually got a job as an editor with a magazine in Richmond. 

Edgar got married when he was 22 to his cousin Virginia.  It was common at that time for people to marry their distant relatives. Edgar wrote a number of mystery stories around this time which were quite popular.  It was these kinds of stories that earned him a reputation as the father of the modern detective story.

Edgar had an aggressive personality, which means that he was often critical and mean to others.  He was difficult to work with and so he did not last in his job very long before being fired. Edgar found other editor jobs at magazines, but they never lasted very long. 

The Raven

In 1845, when Edgar Allan Poe was 36, he published “The Raven”.  People loved the strange and creepy story and he suddenly became extremely popular.  Edgar and his wife Virginia moved to New York City at this time to launch a new magazine called the Broadway Journal.  Sadly, his wife Virginia became ill and died of tuberculosis.  

Even though Edgar became a popular writer after this, he continued to struggle to have enough money. He died in 1849 at the age of 40. 

Later Fame

Edgar Allan Poe lived a short life but had a great impact through his writing. His poems are still read and studied today, over 150 years later.  Although Edgar’s life had many difficulties and sadness, there is a lot that we can learn from him.  

Edgar was passionate about writing at a young age and wrote all the time.  Even when he was told to go into business for a job, he still continued to write and pursue his passion. Because of his endless efforts to be a writer, Edgar became better each time he wrote and eventually found success in his lifetime and after.  He created a new wave of writing that inspired future writers to write detective stories. 

Conclusion

Is there something that you are passionate about that you could pursue as Edgar Allan Poe did?  Have you ever tried writing poetry?  There are many ways that we can use our hobbies to inspire ourselves even when times are tough.  In fact, many people use creative hobbies to help them overcome difficult times in life.  If you’ve never tried writing a poem, get out a pencil and paper tomorrow and see what you can create! 

Learn about other famous authors!

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But if someone had asked a young Frederick Douglass these questions, he wouldn’t have been able to answer some of them.  Frederick was born into slavery in the early 19th century, in the state of Maryland. Not only was he considered the property of his white master, but many other things were also denied to him and his fellow enslaved workers. Frederick never knew his birthday, or exactly how old he was. He never knew his father, though there were rumors that his master was his father. He barely knew his mother: she was forced to work on a farm miles away from Frederick. She wanted so badly to see her son that, whenever she could, she would walk for miles after a long day of fieldwork to visit him late at night. Sadly, these visits stopped when Frederick was seven. He would only learn later that his mother had died.

This was how life looked for millions of enslaved people at the time. Birthdays and close family members are important parts of who we are, but slave masters didn’t want their slaves to have these connections. They didn’t want them to learn to read or write. Family, birthdays, and books might give the enslaved worker things to care about and hope for that had nothing to do with working for their master from dawn til dusk, and work was what the master wanted.

Not long after his mother passed away, Frederick’s grandmother took him to a different plantation. Once there, the master made her leave. Frederick stayed. At 8 years old, he would get a taste of what life as an enslaved worker was like. He was given two long shirts to wear, but no pants, shoes, or even a blanket. He slept on the floor, sometimes stealing a flour sack to keep warm under. He saw the grown-ups go off to the fields to work before dawn, and not return until it was dark, so tired they were ready to collapse. He saw his aunt whipped for talking to a man she liked.

But soon, Frederick’s enslaver decided he’d be of better use elsewhere. He sent Frederick to live with his relatives in Baltimore, Hugh, and Sophia Auld. There, he would live in a house and be given better clothes to wear. But this wasn’t exactly a privilege: Frederick was going there to be a servant to the Auld’s son. 

Still, for a brief time, Frederick got a glimpse of a better life. But the nice house, the big, bustling city, and the real clothes were just a small part of that better life. His new mistress, Sophia Auld, gave him something far more valuable than those things..in fact, more valuable than even she realized. She taught him to read. 

Sophia Auld did not come from a family that kept slaves. She didn’t know it was illegal to teach them to read, and maybe she didn’t realize what a powerful thing reading was. But she was delighted to see how quickly Frederick learned, and he loved his lessons. 

Hugh Auld was not so pleased. He scolded Sophia that reading would ruin Frederick as a slave. He thought, like many other slaveholders, that if slaves knew how to read they might learn about ideas that made them question slavery. They might start thinking about freedom and democracy. They might rebel or run away. 

Sadly, Sophia came around to her husband’s way of thinking. She stopped teaching Frederick. She became distant and cold. Frederick wrote later that “slavery proved as injurious to her as it did to me.” It made her less kind and less human.

Hugh Weld was right about one thing though. Reading gave Frederick power.  Like many enslaved people, Frederick had wished for freedom even before he could read. But in books, he found people who argued that he deserved freedom, who said he was just as human as any white person. He learned about people and ideas that gave him the strength to keep hoping – for his own freedom and that of all enslaved people. 

Frederick didn’t want to stop learning. He befriended white children in the streets of Baltimore. He convinced them to help him with his reading and writing. Like Sophia, they didn’t know that they weren’t supposed to. They saw Frederick as just another little boy. Many of these children were hungry and poor, so Frederick would take a little extra bread from the Auld’s kitchen to share with them. By the time he was 12, he convinced many of these children that he should be free when he grew up, just like them. They could see what the grown-ups all around them couldn’t: Frederick was a child just like them, and he deserved the same freedom they had. 

Eventually, Frederick was sent to work on Hugh’s brother’s farm. Thomas Auld was far more strict than Hugh, and he and Frederick clashed from the beginning. Frederick would sometimes let Thomas’s horse run off. He knew the horse would always wander to a particular neighbor’s house, and that neighbor would give Frederick a good meal when he went to retrieve the horse. But maybe he secretly wished that escape could be so easy for him. Thomas soon got tired of this behavior. He thought he knew how to teach Frederick to be obedient and meek. He sent him to live with a man named Edward Covey. 

Covey was the worst person yet. He wasn’t a new master, who just wanted Frederick to work and obey his orders. Covey’s job was to break slaves who weren’t behaving the way their regular masters wanted. He worked Frederick harder than any other master had, and punished him more cruelly. He whipped and beat him almost daily. But Frederick stayed strong. He never gave in, and finally, one day, he had had enough. He fought back. The two fought with each other for hours, but finally, Covey gave in. From that day on, Frederick knew he could stand up to even the worst treatment. More than that, he knew he could escape.

Frederick was sent back to the Aulds in Baltimore. He had one goal now: to free himself. To go north, where he could make his own decisions and fight for the rights of others to do the same. 

In Baltimore, he met a free black woman named Anna. The two fell in love, but Frederick didn’t want anything to get in the way of his goal of freedom. He told Anna he would marry her when he was a free man.

Finally, he found a friend who was willing to help. The friend was a free black sailor in Baltimore, and he let Frederick use his identification papers. Wearing a rumpled sailor uniform that didn’t quite fit, Frederick got on a train to Delaware, then a ship to Philadelphia and freedom. He settled in New York and sent word to Anna to join him.

Freedom for himself wasn’t enough though. Frederick knew that millions of other enslaved people still suffered – children without mothers who didn’t have enough to eat or wear; grownups who worked every moment of the day with no pay and no choices in life. He began to speak against slavery, and in August of 1841, he traveled to a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Someone in the hot, crowded meeting hall had heard him speak before and urged Frederick to address the meeting. 

Frederick was nervous because he’d never spoken in front of such a large group. His voice shook. But soon after he began, he saw the sympathetic expressions on the faces in the audience. He told about his struggles to learn to read and about the harsh treatment he’d endured under Edward Covey. How he didn’t know his age or birthday, and never really knew his mother.

After that, Frederick joined the Anti-Slavery Society and began to tour the free states, speaking about his experience. His perspective was valuable since many in the North had not witnessed slavery up close. He wrote his autobiography, revealing the terrible things he and other enslaved people experienced every day.

None of this was safe or easy. Having his name in newspapers and pamphlets, then on a published book, meant that people in the south might realize who he was, and Frederick’s old master might send slave catchers to kidnap and bring him back. After his book came out, Frederick traveled to England. In England, all people were free. Frederick spoke to groups there about American slavery, convincing many British people to speak out against the system. Two English friends raised money to buy Frederick’s freedom. For 710 dollars and 96 cents, the Aulds officially gave Frederick the freedom he’d known all along was his right. 

Frederick returned to America as a free man in 1847. By this time, many Americans were starting to think that they would never be able to resolve their differences about slavery peacefully. Civil War broke out in 1861 between the Northern, free states, and slaveholding states in the South. Frederick knew this conflict would determine the fate of the millions of people still enslaved in America. 

Frederick was one of the most famous men in America by now. He met with President Lincoln in the White House and helped convince him to allow black men to fight in the Union army. He then recruited black men to fight, including two of his sons. He attended Lincoln’s second inauguration, and when he was turned away at the door for a reception afterward, Lincoln insisted the guards let him in. Lincoln asked Frederick his opinion of his speech, saying there was “no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours.” Frederick told the president that it “was a sacred effort.”

Frederick lived three more decades after the civil war. He kept working to help black people get to vote, get their education, and enjoy the rights that had been denied them for so long.

Frederick was born enslaved–denied a mother, a birthday, and his freedom. He was taught to read almost by accident, and that one forbidden activity opened a world of ideas–of freedom, justice, and opportunity to him. He discovered that words were powerful. With his speeches and writing, Frederick opened the minds and hearts of masses of people, even a president, to the experiences of enslaved people. He made them see these people as people, made them care, and made them act. Frederick’s voice may have shaken at first, but it grew strong and clear and deep. And it could never be broken. 

Sources

https://www.hup.harvard.edu/features/frederick-douglass/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7716878/

https://www.nps.gov/frdo/learn/historyculture/confronting-a-president-douglass-and-lincoln.htm

Douglass, Frederick. (1845) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Anti-Slavery Office, Boston. 

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. (2012) Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Disney, New York.

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Do you like to play board games?  Maybe you know of some popular games like Scrabble, Monopoly, Battleship, or Trouble.  Maybe you even have your own favorite board game that you play with your family.  One of my favorite board games is called “Clue.”  This game was created a long time ago, in 1944 by an Englishman, for people to play while they were huddled in underground shelters during bombing raids.  It was originally called “Cluedo” which means “I play” in Latin! It is a mystery game full of twists and turns, where players find clues and try to figure out who committed a daring deed with a household item, such as a fireplace poker, knife, or a walking stick, inside a spooky gothic house.  It is a game of cunning and conniving – of trying to figure out who is the villain and how to use clues to solve the mystery.  The characters have funny names like Professor Plum, Colonel Mustard, and Mrs. Peacock and you need to follow and remember their hijinks and clues during the game.  You need to be a super sleuth – or spy!    

Real Spies

During the time Clue was created, there were a lot of real spies.  But instead of playing a make-believe game, they were engaged in actual spycraft!  During WW II, US spies worked tirelessly and covertly – meaning secretly – to obtain enemy information, such as where the enemy was headed, where they would attack, how many planes, ships, or men they had, and other useful information.  And not all of these spies were men!  Women were also used as spies across Europe and Asia because they were so unexpected.  At that time, people did not think that women could be involved in the war, either fighting or spying.  So, women had the perfect spy cover!  They could act like a society lady, attending parties, and listening to war talk between men.  Or they could ride their bikes around town, stopping in shops and cafes to listen for war secrets.  And some even created news by writing fake radio announcements, newspaper articles, or postcards to confuse the enemy.  

Betty McIntosh – Spy

One such spy was Elizabeth “Betty” McIntosh who was born on March 1, 1915, in Washington, DC.  She was very brave and smart.  She knew how to speak Japanese and was working as a news reporter during the start of WWII.  Betty was stationed in Hawaii when Japanese planes bombed US ships docked at Pearl Harbor.  

The bombing of Pearl Harbor brought the US into the war and Betty moved to Washington, DC.  She kept busy writing articles about Eleanor Roosevelt, the President’s wife, and her war efforts.  She then interviewed a man working at the OSS – the Office of Strategic Services.  This was the US spy agency during WWII.  During the interview, she was asked if she would “like to do something more interesting.”  She was not told it would be spying – which was very sneaky of them!  She said, “I would like to do it if it involves going overseas.”  And they granted her wish!  

Betty reported for her first day of work and was fingerprinted – meaning they covered her fingers in ink and pushed her fingers onto a piece of paper, leaving fingerprints on the paper.  She was then told that she had to keep everything top secret and swear an oath – which she thought was strange because she didn’t even know what she would be doing yet.

Betty was then sent to a group called MO – Morale Operations.  Their entire job was to spread rumors.  Can you imagine that?  I’m sure all of us have been told by our parents and teachers not to tell lies or spread rumors.  But that was her new job!  She was taught how to start rumors and make them believable by mixing in bits of truth with lies.   She worked with other “spy craft” people, like radio announcers, artists, newspaper editors, cartoonists, and writers – people who had skills in writing and creating convincing stories and pictures.  Some of these spycraft people were captured Japanese soldiers who were artists and agreed to work with the allies.

Betty McIntosh Heads to India

Once Betty finished training in 1943, she was sent to India to spread false radio and news reports to Japanese soldiers who were getting very tired of fighting.  The Japanese government had told their soldiers that if they stopped fighting – or if they surrendered – they could never go home and they would lose their houses and savings.  This made the Japanese continue to fight very hard.  The US needed to find a way to let the Japanese soldiers stop fighting while keeping their honor.  So, Betty and the OSS created false Japanese military orders to surrender in one particular battle!  They had another spy capture a Japanese courier – a mailman – and put the false order in his mailbag.  This order was later read and believed by the Japanese officers!

Betty McIntosh in China

Betty then flew to China, where she started writing fake radio scripts and stories for the OSS.  One OSS radio worker acted as a fortune teller.  This fortune teller pretended to look at the stars and make predictions over the radio.  The Japanese loved to listen to these radio stories!  Betty was told she had to write a very scary, but believable story to scare the Japanese.  “What about an earthquake?” she said.  No, that happens all the time in Japan,” said her boss.  “Well, what about a Tsunami,” she replied.  “Nope, they have those, too,” he said.  “Well, I’ll think of something scary” replied Betty.  

She thought and thought, but couldn’t think of something truly scary.  So, she finally wrote the following announcement, “Something terrible is going to happen to Japan. We have checked the stars and there is something we can’t even mention because it is so dreadful and it is going to eradicate one whole area of Japan.” That same day, the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan.  Betty didn’t even know this was going to happen and she was shocked – as well as everyone else who listened to her radio announcement!  She was asked, “How did you know about the bomb because it was top secret?”  She said, “I just made the story up!”

Betty McIntosh Returns to the US

After the war ended, Betty returned to the US and started writing for Glamour magazine.  But it was very boring writing about clothes and makeup after being a spy!  So, Betty returned to government work, assisting the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the State Department, and the United Nations.  She also wrote several spy books, including “Undercover Girl” and “Sisterhood of Spies” as well as several children’s books.

Still, Betty missed the thrill and excitement of working as a spy, so she asked for a job with the new US spy agency, the CIA, or Central Intelligence Agency.  She worked there for many years until retiring.  She signed an oath to never talk about her work at the CIA, so we will never know about her other spy exploits, but I’m sure they were exciting!  

Betty passed away at the age of 100 in 2015 after 40 years of working as a spy.  Before she died, she stated that her work as a spy was the most exciting time in her life.  

In 1982, the US started an annual celebration called Women’s History Month, which starts on March 1^st in honor of Betty’s birthday.  

Life as a Spy

What do you think of Betty’s life as a spy?  Would you like to be a spy?  What would be your spy name?  What kind of spy would you be?  Would you write stories, sneak behind enemy lines gathering information, or smuggle people to safety?  Or maybe you would do something else, like crack codes or decipher messages.

I think Betty’s story reminds us that women can do courageous, patriotic, and amazing things.  Betty traveled overseas and did important work for her nation during a time of great crisis to save US lives and shorten the war.  Maybe you can continue to honor Betty and other brave women by participating in Women’s History Month and learning more about courageous women who changed the course of history. 

The post History of Super Spy Elizabeth “Betty” McIntosh for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Have you ever been given a chore to do, but found yourself doing something very different to get through it? Sometimes, jobs you have to do can be a bit boring. But you can make them fun by playing little games while you do them. Maybe you arrange your shirts into the colors of the rainbow when you put them away, or pretend to play hockey while you sweep. Maybe you’ve even found better ways to do some of these things because you were “playing around” while you did them. 

Benjamin Banneker was one of those kids who could turn any chore into a game, and those games often helped him learn something or make the task easier. Benjamin was born in 1731 in Maryland, before the United States was even a country. Back then, Maryland was still a colony of Great Britain. Benjamin was black, and most black people in the colonies at the time were enslaved. But luckily, Benjamin was born free. His grandmother, Molly, was a former indentured servant from England, who had married an enslaved man from Africa. An indentured servant was someone who works for someone in order to pay back money they borrowed. It was a lot like slavery, but after a set amount of time, you get to be free again. Molly’s daughter, Mary, was Benjamin’s mother and his father, Robert, was a freed slave. 

Benjamin’s Begins Counting

There was one book in Benjamin’s house growing up: the Bible. Molly put that book to good use, and taught Benjamin and his sisters to read with it. Benjamin learned quickly. He became fascinated with numbers, noticing how the Psalms in the bible were numbered and learning to count without even trying. Soon, he was counting everything: fingers, toes, his siblings’ teeth. 

He even used counting to make his chores more interesting. The Bannekers owned a tobacco farm. There are always jobs to do on a farm, and everyone had to help. Benjamin would count things while he went about his duties: clouds, pigs, slugs he picked off tobacco plants. Numbers and math just seemed to click with him. Benjamin not only taught himself basic arithmetic, but more advanced types of math, like geometry and statistics. 

The curiosity of Benjamin Bannekers

Benjamin didn’t just amuse himself with numbers though. He was curious about everything around him. He wondered about the stars, moon, and sun, how they moved and changed throughout the year. As he grew older, he became a tinkerer as well. When something was broken, he could always figure out how to fix it. Usually, he’d find a way to make it work better too!

When he was a young man, Benjamin inherited his parents’ farm. Although running a farm is a lot of work, Benjamin still found ways to improve things and make his job a little easier. At this time, most farmers relied on the rhythms of the natural world to tell them when to do things. Day and night, the position of the sun in the sky told them when to get up, do chores, eat meals, and go to bed. The weather, stars, and plants told them when to plow, plant crops, and harvest. But Benjamin thought it would be easier if he had a clock. 

Clocks weren’t common back then. Almost no one had one in their house. Benjamin thought his tinkering skills might help though. He borrowed a friend’s pocket watch. This friend must have had a lot of confidence in Benjamin’s tinkering skills too, because Benjamin took the watch apart, carefully taking notes, measuring, and sketching gears as he did. When he was sure he knew how it worked, he began to cut and carve his own gears, axels, and pins. He made his version bigger–something that would sit on a table, rather than in your pocket. And, he added a bell on top that would strike on the hour. Clocks were so unusual that neighbors came by to marvel at it. In fact, Benjamin’s clock may have been the first one in the colonies!

Friends with Quakers

When Benjamin was a young man, the Ellicott family moved in down the road from his farm. The Ellicotts were building a mill, and one day they came to ask Benjamin’s mother about buying supplies. At first, she was suspicious, because most well-off white people in the area owned slaves, but soon the Bannekers learned that the Ellicotts were Quakers, Christians who believed slavery was wrong. Benjamin soon befriended a member of the family, George Ellicott. 

George and Benjamin had a lot in common. Both loved math and were curious about the world around them. They studied astronomy together, observing the stars through George’s telescope and learned the positions of the planets and constellations at different times of the year. George lent Benjamin books and tools to use in his studies. Soon, Benjamin was hard at work calculating when a solar eclipse would occur. He showed George his work. His calculations were very good, and George helped him refine them.

Benjamin enjoyed this hobby so much, he decided to do something big with it. He decided to write an almanac. Other than the bible, an almanac was the book you’d be most likely to find in a farmer’s home in the 18th century. Almanacs gathered a wealth of information that was important to a farmer: tables showing cycles of the moon, sun, and tides; calendars of when to plant different crops; weather predictions, and more. Benjamin got to work calculating the data he would need to include in his almanac for 1791: when the moon would wax and wane, sunrise and sunset times, high and low tides for every day of the year.  

But sometimes, opportunities come up, and we have to take advantage right away, or lose the chance. Another member of the Ellicott family, Andrew, offered Benjamin a job helping to survey the land for the new United States capitol, Washington DC. A surveyor tries to figure out how things can be built on the land. They measure distances and slopes, make maps and find the best spot to build a new road or building.  It’s a very math-heavy job, and Benjamin couldn’t refuse. 

Benjamin worked on his almanac whenever he could. As 1790 came to an end, he still hadn’t found a publisher though, so he wouldn’t be able to put out the 1791 almanac in time. He had to start over and write a version for 1792. With the survey work over, Benjamin worked day and night on his almanac. A man from Pennsylvania named James Pemberton helped him find a publisher. This would not be easy, since many publishers didn’t think a book written by a black person would sell. But Pemberton was an anti-slavery activist, and commited to helping Benjamin overcome these challenges. 

Benjamin and Thomas Jefferson

When he’d finished most of the almanac, Benjamin wrote to Thomas Jefferson, sending a copy of the book along too. Jefferson had written the United States Declaration of Independence, which contains the words “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” 

Benjamin wanted to know how Jefferson could write those words, yet still hold captive “so numerous a part of my brethren under groaning captivity and cruel oppression.” Brethren means “brothers.” Benjamin was asking Jefferson how he could justify enslaving other people, people with skin like his. According to Jefferson’s words, these people had rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  At this time, Jefferson was Secretary of State, a high office in the US government.

Benjamin would not have been surprised if Jefferson had ignored his letter. But Jefferson actually wrote back! He complimented him on his almanac and said he wished that someday slavery would end. While Benjamin was surprised that Jefferson wrote back at all, he may have wondered how he could hope for slavery to end, but not do anything to stop it.

In the meantime, Pemberton had found a publisher for the almanac, a man named William Goddard. Goddard promised to pay Benjamin generously, and advertised the work as “BENJAMIN BANNEKER’S highly Approved ALMANAC.” Benjamin had been studious in his calculations, and the book was deserving of approval. It contained calendars for planting crops, tables showing phases of the moon and other astronomical events, home remedies and herbal medicines. 

Benjamin did not forget his brethren either, people like him who were forced to work and live as property of others. He included excerpts from powerful antislavery essays and speeches. He also included an essay by his friend Dr. Benjamin Rush that suggested a Peace Office in the United States government. Scattered throughout were meditations on how to live a good and just life. The almanac sold out quickly, and Benjamin published a new version each year until 1797.

Benjamin Banneker’s Latter Years

By that time, Benjamin Banneker was an old man. He could look back on his long life and accomplishments with pride. But he never forgot that such accomplishments were out of reach for most black people in the United States. As a surveyor, almanac writer, and astronomer Benjamin used a lot of numbers and math in his work, but he also spoke out for what he believed in whenever he could. Benjamin valued freedom and fairness, and he knew that everyone had a responsibility to stand up for those values.

Benjamin passed away in 1806, at home in his log cabin. The clock he had built over fifty years before still chimed each hour, marking out his days–his rising, his work, his rest. A fire destroyed the cabin just days later, along with many of his papers, tools, and the clock. It would never ring out again. But nothing could silence the brave words and knowledge that Benjamin had sent out into the world. And even though slavery wouldn’t end for another 60 years, nothing could silence the voices of those speaking out for freedom and fairness. 

Sources

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

https://web.archive.org/web/20170130044246/http://www.xyht.com/professional-surveyor-archives/feature-benjamin-banneker/

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h71.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h68.html

https://transcription.si.edu/project/8045

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Banneker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

Pinkney, Andrea Davis. (2012) Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America. Disney, New York.

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Imagine you live in a beautiful mansion, with green lawns, swaying, leafy trees, and pleasant gardens surrounding it. You and your family have everything you need: nice clothes, books, and toys, good food. You don’t have to work for anything. Sometimes your parents make you do chores, but you suspect it’s really just to teach you some lesson about the importance of hard work.  After all, you have servants to take care of the hard work. 

This was the life that Sarah and Angelina Grimke were born into, alongside their 12 siblings. Sarah was one of the older children in the family, while Angelina was the youngest. Their father, a judge in South Carolina who had fought in the American Revolution, believed in discipline and hard work. He had his children work out in the fields with those servants, to teach them that hard work was important. 

What he didn’t count on though, was that Sarah would learn a different lesson from these chores. She didn’t believe her father really valued the hard work of these servants. She knew that he didn’t even pay them. Instead, the hundreds of workers who tended the cotton fields–the source of much of the Grimke family’s wealth–were slaves. 

Sarah’s Drive to Bring Change

Sarah didn’t just learn that these enslaved workers had a hard job though. She learned that the African Americans working beside her were real people, with minds and feelings, hopes and desires, just like hers. She saw how poorly her family treated them, forcing them to work long days, dealing out harsh punishments, and forbidding the children from going to school. 

Sarah decided to try to change things. She taught bible lessons to the enslaved children in the area. She wanted to teach them to read the scriptures for themselves, but her parents wouldn’t let her. Instead, she taught her own servant, a girl named Hetty, to read. They would close the door to her room late at night and quietly go over the lessons in Sarah’s schoolbooks. When her parents found out, they were furious. In early 19th century South Carolina, it was against the law to teach a slave to read, and her father agreed with that law. 

Sarah felt trapped. She wanted to become a lawyer, and secretly went about studying her father’s law books. But of course, Judge Grimke didn’t approve of this either. He knew his daughter was smart and capable, but thought, like most people at the time, that women should be wives and mothers. 

Sarah wanted to do something different, but as a child, she had very little opportunity to do what she wanted. When her little sister Angelina was born, she thought she saw a chance to change things. She begged her parents to let her be the baby’s godmother, and they gave in. She promised she would always cherish and protect her sister. It was the beginning of a lifelong bond between the two–the sisters were so close that Angelina even called Sarah “mother.” 

What Sarah didn’t tell her parents was that she would also make sure that little Angelina not only knew the value of hard work, but the value of the people doing that work. 

Angelina turned out to be an enthusiastic student of Sarah’s teachings. She was curious, confident, and sometimes stubborn. Like Sarah, she was upset by the poor treatment of the enslaved people who served their meals, cleaned their house, and worked long hours in the cotton fields.  

As Sarah got older, she wasn’t what she could do to help end slavery. She began to lose hope that she could ever change things. She no longer tried to teach slaves to read, because her father had nearly whipped Hetty for her lessons. But she knew deep down that she needed to help. By the time she reached her twenties, her friends and family began to worry that she would never marry. They thought this would turn her into a sad, bitter old woman. They were wrong: Sarah would find meaning and purpose in her life, but not by getting married and having children. 

Sarah Grimke and the Quakers

In 1819, Sarah went with her sick father to Philadelphia to get medical treatment. While there, his condition took a turn for the worse. The treatment didn’t help, and he passed away. While he was sick, a group of Christians called Quakers helped Sarah take care of him. They were quiet, simple, and kind people. Sarah became friends with some of them and learned that they also believed slavery was wrong. She stayed with a Quaker family for a time after her father’s death, and returned home with books they’d given her. 

When Sarah returned from Philiadelphia, her feelings that slavery was wrong began to grow. Not only that, she missed her life in Philadelphia , and wanted to become a Quaker. So a few years later, she did just that. Her antislavery views had not made her popular in South Carolina, and had even caused her to argue with her family. She returned to Philadelphia in 1821.

In the meantime, Angelina rebelled against her parent’s views. She refused to join her mother’s church, instead joining another church where the minister was against slavery. Unfortunately, many members of the church were in favor of it. Angelina was kicked out after she spoke against slavery at a church meeting.

By 1829, Angelina was also growing frustrated with the way things worked in South Carolina. She decided to join Sarah in Philadelphia, and also converted to Quakerism. The sisters’ faith would guide their thinking about slavery and the role of women in society for the rest of their lives. But just because they were in the north, where slavery was illegal, that doesn’t mean they stayed out of trouble! 

Soon after arriving in Philadelphia, Angelina wrote a letter that landed her in hot water with their Quaker friends. The letter was to William Lloyd Garrison, who published an abolitionist newspaper. Abolitionists were antislavery activists. But unlike some activists who believed slavery was wrong and should end someday, the abolitionists thought it should end NOW. Angelina praised Garrison’s work, saying that she believed abolition was a cause worth suffering, even dying for. Garrison published the letter in his newspaper. When Angelina’s fellow Quakers saw it, they were not happy.

Even though the Quakers were against slavery, their rules said that their whole community needed to agree to something before speaking out publically. They also thought that some of Angelina’s words seemed to support violence in the fight against slavery, and Quakers never supported violence. But Angelina stood behind her words, and Sarah supported her. At this point, Sarah was also frustrated with the church–she had tried for years to become a minister, but the church didn’t support her. The sisters left the Quaker church, staying true to their personal beliefs.

Angelina, the Abolitionist

Angelina’s letter attracted attention though. The American Anti-Slavery Society invited them to a speaker training in New York City.  It was there that Angelina met her future husband, Theodore Weld. Soon, abolitionist groups were contacting the sisters, asking them to speak at meetings and events. At first, they only spoke to audiences of women, but as they became more well-known, they began speaking to audiences of men and women. This was scandalous in the early 19th century. People thought that women shouldn’t speak in public. Ministers chided them, even calling Angelina “devil-ina.” 

But the Grimke sisters gained a following. Many in the northern United States had never seen slavery close up, so they didn’t really know what it was like. Some northerners thought the abolitionists must be exaggerating how bad it was. Sarah and Angelina had seen it close up, and could tell the doubters just how bad it really was. 

Angelina wrote a book aimed at Christian southern women, urging them to do what they could to end slavery. 

“I know you do not make the laws,” she wrote, “but I also know that you are the wives and mothers, the sisters and daughters of those who do; and if you really suppose you can do nothing to overthrow slavery, you are greatly mistaken.”

Angelina’s argument was simple, but powerful: The bible teaches that you should treat people how you want to be treated yourself. That’s called the Golden Rule, and it’s part of many other religions as well. No slave owner would say they want to be a slave, so how can they justify enslaving others? She told women to teach slaves to read and free them if they were the owners. 

With her book, Angelina angered both pro-slavery southerners, and northerners who believed women belonged at home. Sarah, her wise older sister and protector, knew she had to find a way to support Angelina. So, she wrote her own book!

In her book, Sarah took on her sister’s critics. She argued that women should be given the same education, pay, freedoms and rights as men. She said that both men and women would be better off if women were treated as equals, rather than as inferior to men. 

The Grimke sisters could have stayed in South Carolina, in that beautiful house with the green grass and swaying trees. They could have married wealthy husbands and lived in luxury. But they realized that choice would harm the enslaved people forced to work their land. They knew they would be partly responsible for that horrible treatment if they stayed. 

Happily, both of the Grimke sisters lived long lives, and saw the end of slavery in the United States following the Civil War. It had been a long and difficult path, and there was still a long way to go before all people had equal rights. The Grimke sisters began to help forge that path the moment they stepped out of that big, white mansion and into the wider world.

Sources

https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/grimke-sisters.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Moore_Grimk%C3%A9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angelina_Grimk%C3%A9

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grimk%C3%A9_sisters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Faucheraud_Grimk%C3%A9

The post History of the Grimké Sisters for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Close your eyes and imagine you step into the basket of a hot-air balloon. You grab the sides of the basket tight as the flame ignites, adding gas to the gigantic red balloon above you. The basket lifts off the ground and suddenly you’re floating in the air, moving higher and higher into the sky. You look down below at the field and trees which have become very small. Soon, you are rushing across the countryside and passing villages and farmland and then crossing over a wide river and then a city. You pass over an ancient castle and then the ocean, traveling further and further from home, then across countries, around and around the world. This is what it might have felt like to be Phileas Fogg, the main character in Jules Verne’s famous novel, Around the World in Eighty Days. Listen closely as we learn about the life of this visionary author who took his readers around the world, below the oceans, and into the earth with his fantastic and educational tales that defined the genre which became known as “science fiction.” 

Jules Verne was born on February 8th, 1828 in Nantes, France. The home they lived in was built on an island in the middle of the river! From their home, Jules loved watching ships arrive from all over the world with passengers and goods to trade in France. He imagined what it would be like to be on the ships, climb up their tall masts, and be sailing around the world on adventures.

When Jules and his brother, Paul, were old enough they attended a boarding school. A boarding school is a place where kids go to school and live. There he learned to write and write and do math. While they weren’t at school, Jules and Paul loved to play in the field and dream about adventures they might one day go on together. One of Jule’s favorite books was called Robinson Crusoe about a man who is shipwrecked and has to survive on an island by himself for many years. It was an adventure story and Jules thought about the kind of adventures he might write about someday, too.

Later more siblings joined their family, 3 sisters, and their family moved to a larger home. They attended school and while Jules struggled with many of the subjects he did like writing. Also, his father wanted him to become a lawyer like he was, but Jules wasn’t sure that’s what he wanted to do with his life. But as he grew older, Jules followed his father’s advice and went to school to become a lawyer. He moved to Paris with a friend and loved living in a big city with all of the sights, sounds, and commotion. He spent his free time writing poems, plays, and songs. His father wanted him to focus on school, but Jules loved writing too much to take his advice. In Paris, Jules met famous writers such as Victor Hugo and Alexandre Dumas who had written books like The Three Musketeers, The Count of Monte Cristo, Les Miserables, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. At the time, Paris was the perfect place to live for someone who wanted to become a writer and learn from other great authors.

Living in Paris, Jules wrote his first play which became a live performance, and his first story was published in a local newspaper. The story was about a hot air balloon adventure. Airplanes weren’t invented yet, but hot air balloons were a popular form of travel and entertainment. Like ships, they filled Jules with wonder at the places they might take him someday and the adventures they might take people in his stories.

But, sadly, his father wasn’t happy with the success of his stories and plays. He told Jules he would stop sending him money and he had to come home and take over his business as a lawyer. By this time, Jules had made up his mind about what he wanted to do with his life. He told his father he would stay in Paris and do whatever he could to make a living as a writer. It was a risk he’d have to take, no longer receiving his father’s money, but writing was his passion so he stayed in Paris to fulfill that dream.

There, he took any job he could to make a living and spent most of his time continuing to write. Eventually, he met a woman named Honorine and they married and had two daughters. Jules was happy with his new family and writing in his free time. 

In 1859, Jules got his first chance to travel beyond France. He and a friend took a ship to England and Scotland. There, he saw many of the places he’d only read about as a child in books: castles, ruins, and huge mountain ranges. As they explored these wondrous places, his travels began to fill him with fresh ideas about how they might be used in the adventure stories he’d dreamed about writing since he was a child.

Sure enough, Jules’ travels inspired him to write his first novel in 1863 about a hot-air balloon adventure over Africa called Five Weeks in a Balloon. At first, it didn’t sell, but not long after a giant balloon was launched in France and people became excited about the idea of hot-air balloons and bought Jule’s book. Jules’ stories were different because they combined adventure with science and the many other advances in engineering that were taking place at this time. He lived in a time of many new inventions and scientific discoveries which included steam power and flight. Many new places like Africa were also being discovered around the world. It was an exciting time to live and Jules wanted to capture that sense of wonder and excitement in his novels. Little did he know, he was helping create a new category of writing called “science fiction.”

Jules’ publisher saw with how the world was changing, people would love these “science fiction” stories – even though they didn’t call them that at the time. He agreed to continue to publish each chapter of Jules’ stories in his magazine. Once the book was finished, it would be bound into a single copy for people to buy and read.

Jules began working on what became one of his most famous novels of all time. In the story, a professor and his nephew discover a volcano and Iceland and believe that if they can climb down into it they will find a path to the center of the earth! They travel far below the earth’s surface through caves and an underground river where they discover a huge cavern, fossils, and an underground sea. There they see fish, reptiles, and other mammals from the age of the dinosaurs. It became a chance to introduce readers to prehistoric life on earth as they imagined these now-extinct creatures living and battling in these caverns at the center of the earth. Of course, this story was fiction or made up, but it included many truths about living things and actual places like Iceland and volcanoes. If you’ve ever read science fiction, it’s made up but there are interesting things it can teach you about the world around you and science.

When Jules’ book was released in 1864, Journey to the Center of the Earth, was a huge success. People loved going on adventures through his characters and learning about new places and subjects like geography, geology, and the history of life on earth.

His following novels continued to mix exploration, science, and adventure. One was called From the Earth to the Moon about a group of soldiers who decided to use a huge cannon to launch one of them in a missile to the moon! Even though the book was written in the 1800s, it was thinking ahead about the big ideas like space travel and a real moon mission which wouldn’t happen until around 100 years later.

Although he was writing fiction, Jules Verne continued to be interested in science and innovation. He read papers about new scientific discoveries and met with scientists and great thinkers who lived in France and Europe. Every year he also spent time traveling to new places to be inspired by the world around him. In 1867 he traveled to the United States in a massive steamship and visited famous sites. He took notes about the places he visited, things he saw, and people he met. His travels and research gave him new ideas about what to write in his fantastic stories.

And he would need all the inspiration he could get because Jules had started on his most famous novel yet. Going back to his childhood, it included his dreams about ships and the vastness of the sea. This story would be about a massive submarine called the Nautilus. The Nautilus wasn’t like an ordinary submarine at the time, small and cramped. Instead, the inside was large and spacious, and richly designed. It was the home of its pilot, an adventurer named Captain Nemo. There, Nemo had a full library, an organ, a big bedroom, and an office. And on the Nautilus, Nemo and his crew traveled around the world visiting places like the North Pole and coral reefs. They even battle a giant squid! The book was later called 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and became an instant success. In it, Jules Verne took readers deep below the sea where they not only learned about the oceans of the world and exotic sea life, but also the mechanics of a fantastic submarine, which was powered by electricity – still a very new idea and invention at the time! 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea eventually became Jules most popular book and in 1916 was made into a movie then later in 1954 by Walt Disney, along with later film adaptations.

Jules’ next book was also a big success. It was called Around the World in Eighty Days about an Englishman named Phileas Fogg who accepts a bet that in a hot air balloon he can circle the world in … you guessed it … 80 days! During the book, they visit new places across the globe, another chance for Jules to teach his readers about all of the amazing places he’s visited and see the wonder of the wider world through his eyes. It was also turned into a play and later a movie in 1956 and even won an Academy Award for best picture.

With the great success of his books, Jules became very wealthy. He built his family a large home in Amiens and a yacht he used to sail to exotic places across the world. He was treated as a celebrity wherever he visited. At home, he threw large parties for friends, family, and the people of Amiens. He joined the town council and used his money to take care of people around him who were poor. Also, later in life he and his father became close again, and he accepted the fact that he decided to become an author rather than a lawyer. His father was proud of what his son had accomplished. 

Jules Verne spent the rest of his life with his family in his home in Amiens where he consistently wrote around 2 novels a year later into his life. On March 24, 1905, Jules passed away at his home. His son went on to publish some of his other stories and add to them himself. Many of his books have been translated into at least 140 different languages and inspired many famous science fiction writers. Being one of the earliest authors to combine science, adventure, and technology, he has often been called “the father of science fiction” as one of the founders of the genre. Many great explorers and engineers also said reading Jules Verne’s books when they were young inspired them to dream big and accomplish great things in their life. These include Werner Von Braun, the rocket scientist and the astronomer Edward Hubble.

Take a moment to think about something you are curious about. What are you interested in? Like you, Jules Verne had many things he was curious about as a child. He loved big ships and the ocean. Now, what can you do next to learn more about the things you are curious about? You might go to the library or find a good book about that topic another way. There are lots of educational videos online, too. Like Jules Verne, you can take something you are curious about and learn more. Maybe you can even write a story about it like Jules did! Remember, all big things have small beginnings!

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Imagine your dad or mom has just told you a magical story about a kind giant who brings pleasant dreams to children. As you close your eyes, you think about the giant–what he might look like, what you would do if you met him. Just then, you hear a gentle tapping on your open window, and a bamboo pole pokes through! A puff of air whiffs out of the tube in your direction. This is like the story you just heard! You wonder with excitement if it’s the friendly giant, blowing sweet dreams into your room. 

When Lucy Dahl was a little girl, this very thing happened to her. As a grown-up, she told a TV interviewer about it. Lucy’s father, Roald Dahl, told her the story of the big, friendly giant who puffed sweet dreams into the minds of children as they dropped off to sleep. He wrote that story, The BFG, and many others, as one of the most famous children’s authors of the twentieth century. Lucy and her siblings were lucky enough to hear many of his tales as bedtime stories.

Born in 1916, both of Roald’s parents were from Norway. They spoke Norwegian at home, and his mother told him Norwegian fairy tales as a child. They even named him after a famous Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundson, who was the first person to reach the South Pole. But his father, Harald, was convinced that England had the best schools in the world, and so that is where they lived. Harald was wealthy due to his work in the shipping industry, and the family lived in a very large house in Wales, which is in the southern part of the island of Great Britain. 

Despite the family’s wealth, Dahl’s childhood was sad at times. His older sister died of an infection when he was three, and his father passed away from an illness only a few weeks later.  This left his mother, Sophie, suddenly alone to raise 6 children, but she decided to stay in England so her children could attend school there, as Harald had wished. 

Unfortunately, some of the schools Roald attended were not quite what a loving parent would hope for. Roald loved to pull pranks, which didn’t go over so well with his elementary school’s headmaster. Once, he put a dead mouse in a jar of gobstoppers at a local candy shop. He and his friends thought the owner was mean-spirited and grumpy, and that may have been true, but the dead mouse may have taken things too far. The owner went to the headmaster of the school to complain. But what happened next should never have happened. The headmaster definitely took things too far: he punished Roald and his friends by hitting them!

Fortunately, Roald’s mother Sophie was a loving parent. She didn’t approve of the headmaster hitting her son, even though it was legal back then, and she told him so. She also took Roald out of that school and sent him to a boarding school–that is, where the students actually live at the school–the next year. 

Although Sophie wanted to improve her son’s situation, the boarding school was no better. Roald was watched over by another strict and cruel headmaster, and most of the other adults at the school, from the teachers to the nurse and dorm supervisor, followed his example. Roald wrote to his mother every week, but because the headmaster read the letters, he never wrote anything bad about the school. 

Though his school experiences were pretty awful on the whole, Roald did have happy times during his childhood. At one school, the students got to “test” Cadbury chocolates that the company provided. Roald dreamed of working in a candy lab, where he would invent a new candy that would impress Mr. Cadbury himself. Maybe this reminds you a little of Dahl’s book, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! 

Summers were another happy time for Roald. His family spent every summer in Norway, where they would visit with his grandparents and share a huge feast, then vacation on a remote island. There, they would fish, boat, swim, and relax as a family.  

When he finished school, Roald didn’t want to continue on and go to college–understandable given how terrible his experiences with school had been so far. Instead, he wanted to travel the world. He found a job with the Shell Oil Company that took him to live in Tanzania. 

When World War II started, Roald joined the Royal Air Force to train as a fighter pilot. His service took him to many more countries: Iraq, Egypt, and Greece among them. But in September of 1940, something terrible happened: Dahl crashed his plane in the Egyptian desert. He managed to crawl away from the wreckage, but his skull was fractured and he had been blinded. He was rescued and taken to a hospital, where he slowly recovered and his eyesight returned. He was released from the hospital in February 1941. 

The air force returned Dahl to flying planes. They sent him to fight in Greece, where he took part in the Battle of Athens. He described fighting in these aerial battles as “an endless blur of enemy fighters whizzing towards me from every side”.  Can you imagine being in a tiny airplane, with lots of other planes swooping and buzzing past you? 

Soon after his time in Greece, Dahl began having headaches and blackouts related to injuries from the crash. This time, the air force sent him back home to England. He couldn’t fly a plane when he might suddenly get a terrible headache or lose consciousness. He took a diplomatic job for the British in the US but didn’t like it. The work felt unimportant after fighting in the war.

But one thing did happen while Dahl was working in Washington DC that would change his life, and the lives of millions of young readers, forever. Dahl met a famous novelist named CS Forester. Forester asked Dahl to write about some of his war experiences, which Forester planned to turn into a story for the magazine The Saturday Evening Post. So Dahl wrote down his adventures as a fighter pilot. When Forester got Dahl’s version of the story, he liked it so much, he decided to publish it just as Dahl had written it, instead of rewriting it himself. Without really trying, Roald Dahl was suddenly a writer!

Dahl would go on to do all kinds of writing. He wrote short stories for grown-ups, some of which were turned into television shows. He wrote scripts for two movies. One of these was the children’s movie Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, about a family’s special car. You might be surprised to learn that the other was actually for the 1967 James Bond movie You Only Live Twice! 

But of course, Dahl is best known for his beloved children’s books. If you’ve read them (and I do recommend you read them), you know that his books are wildly imaginative, funny, exciting, and sometimes a little scary. 

Many of Dahl’s children’s books started out as stories he made up and told his own children when they were young. These stories were full of magic and whimsy, like a fantastic chocolate factory, giants who bring dreams to children, gnome-like creatures who live in trees, and a giant peach that carries a boy and his insect friends across the ocean. Roald was inspired by the English countryside around his home, by the Norwegian fairy tales his mother told him, and by people he’d met over the years. The hero of his books is almost always a child. Usually, they have to face adults who are unfair, even cruel. But of course, the child wins in the end by using their intelligence, imagination, and kindness. There’s always at least one adult who is kind and who is on the child’s side, though often it’s the child who helps this grown-up with their problems, instead of the other way around! 

Does this sound a little like Dahl was recalling his own childhood? Like his characters, he had to face some scary and unfair grown-ups, though he also had his kind and loving mother to come home to. He enjoyed having fun and playing pranks, just like many of the children in his books, and just like them, he was strong enough to get through these tough situations.

Millions of Dahl’s books are still sold every year. Many have been made into films over the years, including Matilda, The BFG, James and the Giant Peach  and The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory was made into a film twice!  Matilda was also turned into a Broadway musical. Every year on his birthday, September 13th, fans around the world celebrate Roald Dahl Day by dressing up as characters from his books, throwing parties, and putting on performances inspired by his writing. 

Roald Dahl faced many hard situations in his life, but always kept his sense of humor and wonder. Sometimes, reading about someone who overcomes a scary situation can help us face our own challenges in real life. Whether it’s performing on stage, jumping off the diving board, or going to a new school, new experiences can be both exciting and scary. As Dahl put it, “Most of the really exciting things we do in our lives scare us to death. They wouldn’t be exciting if they didn’t.” Dahl knew that sometimes, life throws up challenges, but that there was also magic and wonder in it. It’s important to keep looking for the magic, even when the world seems ugly and dark. Again, Dahl himself put it best: “watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you, because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.” And just like the children in Dahl’s books, you can get through hard situations, and you can find those unlikely places where beautiful things await you.

Sources

https://www.thebookseller.com/insight/eight-facts-about-roald-dahls-books-364066

https://www.roalddahl.com/roald-dahl

https://www.roalddahl.com/create-and-learn/join-in/roald-dahl-day

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roald_Dahl

Interview with Lucy Dahl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yvd_JiNXdz4&t=1s

Dahl, Roald, 1984. Boy: Tales of Childhood. Puffin Books, New York.

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