Sam, Bangs & Moonshine Review

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(More customer reviews)Not, as you might think from the title, about Uncle Sam, fireworks, and illegal hootch. Instead, this book examines a girl and her inability to face up to the harsh realities of her life. A 1967 Caldecott winner, "Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine" follows Samantha (commonly known as Sam), her cat Bangs, and her extraordinary imaginings that inevitably lead to a heap of trouble. A tale that is simultaneously quiet and riveting, the multitalented Evaline Ness wrote a book that examines, in a roundabout way, how the death of a parent can change a child's very perceptions.
Sam and Bangs live in a fishing community, where her father works with the other men at sea. Prone to telling tale of gross exaggeration, Sam is warned repeatedly by her father not to tell "moonshine" (as he refers to her tales and stories). One day, Sam's father encourages her to go a whole day without indulging in moonshine, and then he's off. While gone, Sam's younger friend Thomas arrives to inquire after her supposed pet of a baby kangaroo. Every day Thomas asks to see the pet, and every day Sam tells him that it just left and where Thomas can go to find it. On this particular day Sam sends the boy to a "cave behind Blue Rock". As Thomas leaves Bangs remarks (as the wise old cat was wont to do) that the tide rises early at Blue Rock that day. Sam doesn't wish to have anything to do with the matter so Bangs goes himself to find Thomas. When the rain begins to fall heavily and neither Thomas nor Bangs return, Sam gets a rude awakening as to the extent to which moonshine can harm the ones she loves.
The book ends happily, I assure you, but there are some harrowing moments. The scene in which Sam sobs against her father's chair, her dad sitting with his back to her and his face sorrowful and long, is heartwrenching. I really did feel that the book was a cut above the other picture books out there on a variety of different levels. The story is exceedingly well written. In the climax of Sam's self-discovery, she sits in bed pondering (at her father's suggestion) the difference between real and moonshine. "Moonshine was a mermaid-mother, a fierce lion, a chariot drawn by dragons, and certainly a baby kangaroo...Real was no mother at all. Real was her father and Bangs. And now there wasn't even Bangs". Here we get a glimpse into what makes Sam tick. Her mother died long ago, leaving her little daughter to pretend that it was not so. What child could easily face her mother's death at such a young age? Sam is undoubtedly not the first child to pretend such glorious things when she is blue.
Ness's story is remarkable, but her illustrations are really what gave this book the attention it deserved. Ness was a commercial artist at one time, and her pictures are an amazing mixture of print, pen and ink, and a four-color pallet of blue, maroon, navy, and mustard. She is simultaneously realistic and fantastical. Also, she has drawn the most lifelike cat I've seen in a book in a long long time. Bangs is spot on. I can only assume that Ness used a real cat as a model, so well done is the feline.
Altogether "Sam, Bangs, and Moonshine" is a beautifully laid out piece of, to my mind, relative obscure material. Only its Caldecott Medal status has kept it in the public eye for as long as it has. This is a bit of a shame when you consider how great the book is when discovered. Should you happen to have a child that is prone to extravagant imaginings and lurid tales, this may be the book for them. Should you happen to have a child that lost a parent at a young age, this may be the book for them. And should you happen to have a child period, this may be the book for them. It's an excellently written picture book that fully deserves both its credit and its praise.

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Samantha (known as Sam) is a fisherman's daughter who dreams rich and lovely dreams--moonshine, her father says. But when her tall stories bring disaster to her friend Thomas and her cat Bangs, Sam learns to distinguish between moonshine and reality.

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