VAN STOCKUM | Give Someone a Book by HvS

Give a book by Hilda van Stockum this year. Click on a title in blue below to order from Amazon

For Kids - books by Hilda van Stockum -

Little Old Bear – About an old bear that was blind and thrown away. An elderly lady sews new eyes on the bear so he can see again, and he see boys and girls having fun. He wishes one of them would be his friend. And then...!!! For kids and their grandparents.

Patsy and the Pup – A puppy follows a little girl in Ireland home. She is told she will have to bring the puppy back to the owner. She does this, and has many adventures. She wishes she could have a puppy like this. Another surprise ending, making for a happy little girl and a happy puppy.

Kersti and St. Nicholas – This book was written in 1940, the year that Hitler's troops invaded and occupied Holland. While not about the occupation (which is the subject of two other famed books by van Stockum, The Winged Watchman and The Borrowed House), it's about a girl who persuades St Nicholas to be merciful to the naughty boys and girls because they need love.

King Oberon's Forest – A book recommended by Eleanor Roosevelt (a letter from her is reprinted by permission of her estate). It is about challenges to a forest kingdom posed by progress. Illustrations by Brigid Marlin.

For Teens - books by Hilda van Stockum 

Penengro  – This is the story of a boy who leaves home and becomes part of a Roma caravan in Ireland. Hilda van Stockum tries to help us understand the life of the Roma, who are outcasts in Ireland. There is a love story between Rory and a Roma girl, carefully told and resolved.

Memoirs and Inspirational Books

To Africa with a Dream, by Olga Marlin, daughter of HvS. Olga tells of her life as an educator of young women in Kenya. She went to Kenya with two other young European women with a dream, at a time when European teachers were leaving Kenya because of the Mau Mau drive for independence. Olga became a Kenyan citizen and is still there. This is her story.  (She has also written the story of the parents of one of her co-workers in Kenya.)

A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin, daughter of HvS. Brigid tells the story of Danny, a boy with both epilepsy and autism. The remedies for one aggravated the symptoms of the other. Brigid seeks meaning for the sadness of Danny's story.

The Box House, by Brigid Marlin, daughter of HvS. This is Brigid's touching story about a neglected girl in England who seeks to replace the mother they never had and provide a home for her young siblings.

Science Fiction
Time Bomber, by Robert Wack, is based on the life of Willem van Stockum, Hilda van Stockum's brilliant brother. A mathematics lecturer at the University of Maryland, Willem volunteered for the RAF as a bomber pilot, having spent many months training pilots in navigation. He flew a Halifax with a crew of six others during the week of D-Day. He knew the lousy odds against his coming home from the war. He is buried in France, shot down on June 10, 1944. Robert Wack puts Willem's story into a sci-fi framework to get across the decisions that Willem had to make.

EAST HAMPTON | Bois Books at Children's Fair 2014

Featured Book: Little Old
Bear, by Hilda van Stockum

Boissevain Books LLC - which was originally created by her children to keep alive the books of Hilda van Stockum - will be represented at the East Hampton Library Children's Fair in the afternoon, 2:30 to 5:30 pm, of August 10, 2014.

Little Old Bear, by Hilda van Stockum, is the featured book. It will be read out to any children stopping by the table by the author's son,  John Tepper Marlin - or possibly daughter, Brigid Marlin, who illustrated one of Hilda van Stockum's books, King Oberon's Forest.

The Boissevain Books team has been involved in bringing a Harvard singing group, the Din & Tonics, to the Children's Fair at 4 pm.

I described the last one, a year ago, here. There were 2,500 children and their families visiting the fair.

I will be reading out Little Old Bear to anyone who will listen, in the book area under one of the tents. It takes me less than five minutes to read it out. Little Old Bear was written by my mother and I try to keep it in print by reading it out. It's a great story that appeals to young and old (the bear, after all, is old and is blind when you first meet him) and I never get tired of reading it out.

The book authors are arranged alphabetically, so the van Stockum table is likely to be close to the end of the line, by the cash register.

May 2014 - Boissevain Books Update

Seven Boissevain Books Published so far (Click title to order from Amazon):

Logo for Boissevain Books
Children's Series 

Pre-School Children and Early Grades (up to 10 years old), by Hilda van Stockum

Little Old Bear, for young children and their grandparents; suburban setting, England.

Patsy and the Pup, for young children who would like to have a puppy; in rural Ireland. 

Kersti and St. Nicholas, Dutch girl charms St. Nick into leaving gifts for naughty kids; rural Holland.

Older Children and Young Adults (7+ years old), by Hilda van Stockum 

Penengro, about gypsies; teaches tolerance and also its limits; Ireland

King Oberon's Forest, life among the animals, environmental message; magical forest setting.

Memoirs/Biography - 

To Africa with a Dream, by Olga Marlin, about her half-century in Kenya

A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin, about her son with Asperger's; England.

Update, May 2014 - Three More Books in the 2014 Pipeline
1. April 2014 - A Meaning for Danny, by Brigid Marlin co-published with Philadelphia-based Infinity Publishers, has been getting interviews, press coverage and some rave reviews. It tells the story of an autistic boy from the point of view of his mother. Some membership organizations and writers specializing in autism, Asperger's, epilepsy or mental illnesses generally have been ordering the book.

2. May 2014 - Our web site has been redesigned. Next in the Pipeline, Book #8: Time Bomber. The first book in a new series, "Science Fiction/Historical Fiction", is AS OF MAY 17 AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. The book is written by Robert P. Wack.  The first half of the book adheres fairly closely to the biography of Willem Jacob van Stockum (brother of Hilda van Stockum), the first person to have demonstrated to a broad audience how Einstein's equations for his special theory of relativity generate time-like curves and provide a basis for conceptualizing time travel. Van Stockum is the first physicist listed as providing a scientific basis for time travel in David Toomey's synoptic view of the idea of time travel. He was also a bomber pilot in World War II and was shot down over Laval, France during the week after D-Day. The second half of the book explores a "What if?" question about Willem's life. Publicity for this book is being oriented to the 70th anniversary of D-Day.

3. June 2014 - After Time Bomber, Boissevain Books will be publishing Book #9, the third book in its Memoir/Biography series, The Box House, by Brigid Marlin. It is based on a true story about a young girl in a family in England with a mother who virtually abandons her children. The girl takes responsibility for the raising of her younger siblings, and creates a secret home for them out of cardboard boxes in a vacant lot.

4. July 2014 - Boissevain Books returns to keeping in print books by Hilda van Stockum - Book #10, reprinting Andries, is in production.

5. August 2014 - We again plan to participate in the Children's Fair at the East Hampton Library, on August 10. Also, we will move into production two more books (Books #11 and #12) for adults: (1) The influence of Oxford and Cambridge alumni on the 13 original American colonies (Biography), and (2) A biography of Will Woodin, FDR's first Treasury Secretary.

6. September 2014 - The Board of Boissevain Books meets again in Ottawa, where two members of the Board reside.