Watership Down-- Richard Adams

My worlds collided last week in a great little discussion group on housing rights. We watched a snip from the inspiring documentary "A Village Called Versailles" and read about preserving Asian enclaves and immigrant neighborhoods in the face of gentrification and anti-immigrant ordinances. We talked about opportunities for people to band together to fight developers and local government... but the whole time I was thinking about rabbits. Why? Because at the time I was halfway through Watership Down.

This is more a testament to the depth of the latter than my superficial appreciation for the former (at least I hope so). I just hope no one was turned off this book after seeing the scary cartoon.

For those who have not had the pure joy of reading it, Watership Down is the story of a group of rabbits who flee a warren destroyed by developers. They pass through some strange places, encountering other lapine communities with radically different social structures, making for some clever allegory.

Above all, however, Watership is a classic adventure story, with elements reminiscent of folk mythology and Homer's epics: heroism, prophecy, fraternity, and the journey home. It was only after this discussion group that I began to appreciate a third dimension of the story-- how to unite a community, who decides and speaks for a group, and sustaining a social organization are classic themes in community organizing also explored in the book.

In short, it's worth discovering, rereading, and passing on.

I Rode a Horse of Milk White Jade-- Diane Lee Wilson

I never would have picked up this book if I had known it was a horse story. I am not a horse girl. I don't understand horse girls (no offense, horse-loving friends; you just keep doing your thing). So why someone would enlist in Kublai Khan's army on account of a horse blows my mind. (My dear brother, a bottomless pit of miscellaneous knowledge, lectured me on the incredible importance of horses in Mongolian culture. Thanks, A, for that. Even so, this seems a little extreme.) Also, why does homegirl bring a kitten with her? I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, as Super Grover would say, on to our story...

Our heroine, Oyuna, is all bad luck. When she was two, she was injured by a horse and has been crippled ever since. Her mother later dies in a tragic accident. No one wants to marry her. She gets to choose a horse of her own, and even she doesn't fully understand why she chooses an old, injured mare. Shaman grandma comes to visit and Oyuna admits that she hears the horse talking to her. Grandma tells Oyuna to prepare for a journey, and then disappears. When the Khan's army comes for the family's horses, Oyuna decides to go with them. Quest ensues. Oyuna makes chit-chat with the Khan (which just seems weird to me) and ultimately gets the swift horses of her dreams. Maybe, thinks Oyuna, it's possible to make your own luck. (In this book, that last point is about as subtle as a whack with a baseball bat.)

This book is all plot. The characters are flattish, and the cultural context seems contrived. That said, it's very fast-paced and readable for age 10-12.