The Sugar Creek Gang, Book 02
I’m a bit surprised at how much my kids have loved these eighty-year-old books! They were so taken in by the plot and style of Book 01, The Swamp Robber, that they just begged me for the next installment. I didn’t have it on hand, so we started reading the first book in the Mandie series, but the flow of that story was so much slower, they just didn’t like it. Whether it’s Hutchens’ back-country pace (which is definitely made for being read aloud) or the characters themselves, my children keep eating these Sugar Creek Gang books up. And since it’s my first time ever reading them too, well, I’m just as entertained.
Entertainment, however, isn’t the only goal of Paul Hutchens, and he makes that pretty clear. While he writes his recollections of growing up with his buds near Sugar Creek, and while he often talks of one day becoming a doctor, he doesn’t mince words when it comes to talking about Christ or sharing just what sorts of problems a Christian boy might face in a world gone wrong. There are enough opportunities in each chapter to discuss important issues with my kids to keep me busy long after we close our reading for the night.
While this story is titled The Killer Bear, and while there eventually is a surprisingly dangerous killer-bear scene, the book is roughly 95% not about the bear! Instead, Hutchens follows young Bill Collins and his pals as they enjoy the tent meeting in their town, pray for Circus and his dad to get saved, and get into a real fist-to-face battle with the notorious Till boys and their gang of ruffians.
It’s a book that teaches the importance of loving one’s neighbor, and praying for one’s enemies. Through it, and especially through the major role Little Jim gets to play in the story, I found it satisfyingly simple to draw out daily life lessons for my kids. One particular anecdote from this week will suffice.
I took my family to visit a farm with another family who’s boy is my own son’s age. The three kids were playing by a pond where the world’s ugliest dog chased a chicken into the water. Rather than help the chicken get out or watch it fend for itself, my eight-year-old son and his friend grabbed sticks and drowned the poor thing, all while my six-year-old daughter stood on the bank protesting. When the news reached us, I immediately took my boy out for a conversation. I thought my buddy would do the same for his own son, but instead he treated it almost like a joke, and I caught his boy spying on me while I was chatting with my son.
I didn’t discuss with my kid how only psychopaths-in-the-making enjoy torturing animals for fun, because he told me that he thought we could eat the chicken for lunch. Instead I talked about the importance of respecting other peoples’ property, the importance of being managers of God’s creation and not destroyers, and mostly the reality that he needs to choose to be either a leader or a follower. I talked about how the Till boys were followers, who went down the wrong paths of stealing and fighting, and ultimately becoming bullies and “the bad guys.”
Then I mentioned Little Jim who, although the smallest of the bunch, always shows the moral courage to speak up when his friends are doing wrong, to point them towards the path that’s right, and to be a leader despite his size. I took this route, because I’m 87% sure that his buddy (who also enjoys plucking feathers off our pet birds whenever he visits and pulling our poodle’s fur) was the first to dunk the chicken—though I didn’t tell my son my suspicions. I also was sure to compliment my daughter publicly for her courage to tell the boys that what they were doing was wrong and to demand that they stop. The fact that they ignored her made no difference: she did the right thing, and she proved herself a powerful example, just like Little Jim.
I’m loving this series and the close connection the stories and characters have with my own kids. I’m glad that there’s 36 books in the series, cuz as of right now, I don’t want it to end.
©2019 E.T.
Read More from The Sugar Creek Gang:
- #1 The Swamp Robber (1940)
- #2 The Killer Bear (1940)
- #3 The Winter Rescue (1940)
- #4 The Lost Campers (1941)
- #8 The Palm Tree Manhunt (1944)
- #10 The Mystery Thief (1946)
- #12 Screams in the Night (1947)