Brooklyn, Bugsy, and Me
by Lynea Bowdish
From Booklist
In a first-person narrative filled with wry humor, Bowdish
delivers life lessons on adjusting to personal loss and the disruptions caused
by moving. In 1953, nine-year-old Sam moves from his beloved West Virginia to
what seems the most alien and hostile spot on the planet: Brooklyn. Sam thinks
his mother is peculiar (she gives updates to the urn containing the remains of
his father), his grandfather mean, and Brooklyn awful. Sam's journey from
despair to reengagement with life moves in small, credible steps--from the front
stoop of the apartment building to a tiny park a block away and from a drugstore
where he discovers egg creams to the ocean, where his grandfather takes him
fishing. His guide to Brooklyn is a skinny kid named Tony, who urges Sam out of
himself and into new interests that are "different, but great"
--stoopball, stickball, fishing for coins in the sewer. Pictures by Nancy
Carpenter add a nice touch to this funny and touching chapter-book retake on
Brooklyn in the 1950s. Connie Fletcher
General Information
Sam is moving to Brooklyn, and he doesn't like it one bit. Well, not at first anyway. He can't imagine it will be better than his old home in West Virginia. Check out this website to see some great places to hang out in Brooklyn. http://www.thirteen.org/brooklyn/index.html
Okay, maybe we should see what Sam left behind in West Virginia. Visit the state, virtually that is, by clicking on the following website link. http://www.callwva.com/visitor/visitor.cfm
Sam tells us on page 4 that his Dad died in World War II at the "Battle of the Bulge" in Belgium. The following is a link to some information about that battle. http://bulge.free.fr/
Specific Topics
**U.S. Presidential Election of 1952**
On page 10, Sam talks about the presidential election between Eisenhower ("I Like Ike") and Stevenson. Here are some links to help you learn more about these men and this election. http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail422.html
http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail421.html
http://teachpol.tcnj.edu/amer_pol_hist/thumbnail420.html
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/de34.html
http://www1.sddt.com/features/convention/elections/1952.html
http://www.uua.org/uuhs/duub/articles/adlaistevenson.html
**Games**
On page 43, Sam's new friend, Tony introduces him to "stoopball". In addition, he refers to hopscotch as "potsy". Here are some links to some children's games you might want to try out for yourself!
http://staff.uscolo.edu/peterssl/topics/edition11/games-section.htm
http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum/Brueghel/imgmap.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110166/
**Egg Creams**
On page 51, Tony takes Sam to Moe's Candy Store where "they make the best egg creams in Brooklyn." They cost eight cents each, so the boys had to share one. Sam didn't understand its name, but he "had to admit, it was pretty good." You can make your own egg cream using one of the following recipe links. Enjoy!!
http://table.mpr.org/recipes/drink_egg.html
http://www.recipecottage.com/drinks/egg-cream.html
http://www.allchocolaterecipes.com/recipe/chocolateeggcream.htm
http://food4.epicurious.com/HyperNews/get/archive_swap4601-4700/4634/1.html (This one refers to a drug store in Brooklyn!)
**Newspapers**
On page 52, Sam was surprised that so many people in Brooklyn had already heard that he and his mother had arrived. "I wouldn't have been surprised to find out our arrival had been announced in The Brooklyn Eagle." While this was a real newspaper from Oct. 1841 - Jan. 1955, it no longer exists today. That's the bad news, but the good news is that you can create your own newspaper--online! Here's the link for that creative site along with a few more online newspapers for you to look over. http://www.crayon.net/scripts/login.cgi?mode=create
http://www.athensnewspapers.com/
http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/fc3/yahooligans/
**Riis Park**
On page 66, Gramps takes Sam and Tony on a night fishing trip to Riis Park. This is a real place! Check out the links below to see pictures of this beautiful place and to learn a little about the founder of this park, Jacob Riis.
http://www.ewav.com/stories/beach.html
http://www.bartleby.com/people/Riis-Jac.html
**Fishing/Flukes**
On page 66, Gramps explains to Sam that they will "fish from the beach. Casting. Not the kind of fishing he knows." Also, on page 77, Sam catches a fluke, and "it was a beauty." The following links give you information about fluke fishing.
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/flukefct.htm
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/images/fluke.gif
http://www.state.nj.us/dep/fgw/flukefsh.htm
**The Star-Spangled Banner**
This famous song is mentioned at the beginning and at the end of this story. On page 4, Sam says, "When I was a baby, Mom sometimes sang me to sleep. But she didn't sing soft, cuddly lullabies. Mom sand "The Star-Spangled Banner." It was the only song she knew and she sang it loud. For some reason, it put me to sleep." Then again, on page 84, after Sam's fishing adventure, on the way home, he "started to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" Before he got to the word "home," he was asleep." Find out more about this famous song and even listen to the music at the following links.
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0194015.html
http://wilstar.com/holidays/ssbanner.htm
http://www.treefort.org/~rgrogan/web/flag3.htm
