This week's book is “Follow my Leader” by James B. Garfield.
Follow my Leader is the tale of young Jimmy Carter--not to be confused with the former US president--who is a rather ordinary eleven-year-old. He enjoys a good game of baseball played among friends and, in fact, it is on the baseball diamond that Jimmy’s world changes forever. For, you see, the boys are playing on the fifth of July, and one of them finds an unexploded firecracker left over from the previous day’s festivities. The boy lights the firecracker, panics, and throws it in Jimmy’s face, where it explodes, roughly four pages into the narrative. Jimmy is completely, permanently blinded and spends the rest of the book (183 pages) learning to live without his eyesight.
He grows accustomed to moving about in perpetual darkness, graduates to the use of a white cane, learns Braille, and, finally, gets a seeing eye dog. Then, at the end of the book, he and his dog, dubbed “Leader” go on a Boy Scout trip and save some of the boys from being lost in the woods. This brings Jimmy full circle, from his popularity on the baseball team to his low points of isolation and blindness, back up to the status of hero and good man all around, despite the terrible accident’s lasting effects.
This children’s book hails from 1957, the era of “Golly!” and “Gee whiz!” The following conversation is typical for the book.
“‘Are you going to the school for the blind?’ [The woman] asked.
‘Heck, no. I’m going to the guide-dog school. I’m going to get a dog,’ Jimmy said proudly.
The lady turned to a passenger across the aisle. “This young man is going to a guide-dog school and is traveling all by himself. Isn’t that wonderful?’”
Yes, apparently Jimmy’s harrowing story touches the hearts of all the passengers on the bus, as later they all try to buy his lunch for him.
The themes of American perseverance and patriarchal masculinity are almost overpowering throughout the book. Jimmy, who is, just to remind you, eleven, cries about his blindness only twice before shouldering his burden and pushing forward. He tries his best to carry on as if nothing has changed, though he must learn new ways to read, write, and move about in the world. He appears to be more concerned with no longer being able to captain the baseball team and go on Boy Scout trips than anything else. Except, of course, his pride in not asking his sister for help. He is more than willing to walk down the street holding hands with one of his male friends helping to guide him, but goodness forbid his sister do anything more than bring him cookies and lemonade.
I found this book to be so sentimental and cheesy that it was hard to read. Also, the book was full of randomly placed exposition about various blindness-related topics, which really broke up the narrative. That being said, this was an excellent children’s version of a pulp fiction novel. The kitsch value is almost immeasurable. Notice on the cover the stylish button-down and sweater-vest combo our hero is wearing. And, if he weren’t blind, those glasses wouldn’t be out of place on a greaser. (Seriously, just imagine Jimmy wearing a black leather jacket.)
I didn’t really care for this book, though my mother claims it was her favorite as a child. Being such a product of its times, it is difficult for a person not from that era to read. The values and mores and norms of society had made such radical changes that reading this book was a bit like digging through the contents of a time capsule. (Plus, you know, it’s always a pet peeve of mine when the female characters are second fiddles. Jimmy is the main character, I know, but there’s no female lead character to balance it out.)
Overall ranking: C. For all its faults, it was entertaining to watch Jimmy going along until achieved his ultimate goal of getting a guide dog. The scout trip at the end was kind of ridiculous and over the top.
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