The Model English Butler Goes Native

Y ears ago, I tried to read The Code of the Woosters, and made it as far as the antiques shop before giving up the thing owing to intense second-hand embarrassment. A few years and a strong recommendation later, I’ve now finished nearly six P. G. Wodehouse novels with immense enjoyment. This Wodehousian immersion primed me for stories containing amusing English butlers, and I was delighted to find the near-equal of Jeeves in Sid Fleischman’s rollicking tale By the Great Horn Spoon!

Praiseworthy (and he truly lives up to the name) is a marvel. Tasked with guarding and guiding his young ward, “Master Jack,” on the lengthy trip from Boston to San Francisco, the noble valet is never at a loss in any situation. You see, it’s 1849, the year of the California Gold Rush, and every man — so it seems — is racing to the West. Twelve-year-old Jack is no exception, but it’s not just adventure that he seeks. Back home in Boston, his Aunt Arabella and his two sisters have only a little time before the family home must be sold to pay off debts. So Jack, as the man of the family, determines to make his fortune in gold and save the ancestral dwelling. Praiseworthy, out of a sense of duty (and something deeper, a cherished secret he does not share even with Jack), joins him, and the two set off as stowaways on the Lady Wilma.

The author of numerous books, both fiction and nonfiction, for children and adults, Fleischman knew how to spin a tale. As one Amazon reviewer put it, “no words were wasted” in this book. Fast-paced, amusing, and even surprising, the tale keeps us on our toes, wondering how Jack and Praiseworthy will get out of each new scrape. From a 15,000-mile ocean race by steamboat to money woes to striking it rich, our two adventurers rarely have a dull moment.

Fleischman was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1920, but spent most of his life in California — making his descriptions of the area ring true. Not having studied this time period closely myself, I can’t vouch for the accuracy of the tale, but five months to sail 15,000 miles doesn’t sound unreasonable to me. Nor does staking your claim with sticks and four tin cans seem outlandish, a rotten outlaw posing as a dentist strike me as strange, or a group of miners giving out nicknames with abandon come across as odd.

A man of many talents, Fleischman experimented with classical guitar and painting and was a skilled stage magician. He spent time on a destroyer escort during World War II, received his degree in English from San Diego State College, worked in journalism, and dove into fiction writing. He was asked to adapt one of his books for the screen, and Blood Alley had John Wayne and Lauren Bacall in starring roles. One of his children’s novels, The Whipping Boy, won the Newbery, and the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators created an award named after him in 2003. Interestingly, his son, Paul, also became a writer, and Paul and his father are the first father and son to each be awarded the Newbery.

I find Fleischman’s career as a stage magician particularly fascinating, and was amazed to learn that not only did he write books on this very topic, but this skill also played into his fictional stories. According to his website bio, he

decided in the fifth grade to become a magician. He practiced so diligently with cards, coins, and the occasional rabbit that shortly after high school he was traveling the country in the last days of vaudeville, performing magic with a midnight ghost-and-goblin show. Magic’s suspense and surprises would stamp his future books. “I was on the way to becoming a writer,” he wrote in his autobiography, The Abracadabra Kid. “I just didn’t know it.”

I was recently reminded of a promise I’d made to write about boys’ books, and By the Great Horn Spoon! has all the perfect elements of the genre. Competition, fights, thieves, lucky escapes, and treasure fill the pages. We also watch Jack grow in courage and strength as he labors diligently wherever he goes. In Praiseworthy, though, we see the more fascinating character arc. When we first meet him, he is impeccably dressed in full suit, bowler hat, gloves, and umbrella. As the tale progresses, each of these items falls away or is put to other use. The butler’s keen brain keeps the adventure on track, and his encouragement and perseverance fortify Jack and bring them closer together.

The Horn Book’s review of this 1963 novel declared that it is “a delectable story with zest and gust to the very last page” — an undeniable fact, to be sure. This heartwarming tale will also capture readers with its quick prose and quirky characters, and it just might prompt them to pan for gold in the creek, adopt a pig named Good Luck, and find out what exactly is a horn spoon.