Me and Caleb Book Reviews
THE KANSAS CITY STAR.
LIVELY, rib-tickling stories as true to life
as their next-door neighbors or their     
classmates at school are always favorites
with both boys and girls. The following
title for the 8-12 age group is sure fire:
ME AND CALEB, by Franklyn E. Meyer
is the winner of the 1962 Charles W.
Follett Award given annually to a "worthy
contribution to children's literature." In
this, his first book, Franklyn Meyer tells of
two young brothers living in a small town
in the Missouri Ozarks. They adopt a
hound dog, Petunia, go on a hand fishing
expedition with their grandfather, celebrate
Halloween in typical trick or treat fashion,
and frighten themselves almost to death
while exploring a haunted house. The
vividly natural dialogue reminiscent of
"Tom Sawyer" and "Homer Price" will
prove irresistible to young children.
By Jean A. Merrill
OCT 21, 1962
SEP 1962

ME AND CALEB.  By Franklyn E. Meyer,
Illustrated by Lawrence Beall Smith.  160 pp.
Chicago:  Follett Publishing Company.
For Ages 8 to 14.
No wonder Me and Caleb won the 1962
Charles W. Follett Award for a worthy
contribution to children's literature. It is
one of the finest books of its kind that I've
seen.  Here 12-year-old Bud tells of life
with his little brother Caleb in a small
Missouri town at the edge of the Ozarks.
There is no plot; rather a series of episodes
related by Bud, who has a grand sense of
humor, a roaring enthusiasm for his story
and a real zest for living. The boys find a
dog, hand-fish for carp with Gramps in
mud-bottomed caves, hunt squirrel with
Papa in the hickory grove. These and other
highlights, as related by Bud, are sometimes
funny,  sometimes sad,  and  always  
adventuresome.  One  boy had no sooner
finished the book than he picked it up to
begin all over again.  What better tribute?    
    OLGA HOYT.
NOV 1962
ME AND CALEB.  By Franklyn E. Meyer,
Illustrated by Lawrence
Beall Smith. (Follett).
Sometimes in reading books for boys
one wonders if the author ever knew
a real boy.  Not so in Me and Caleb.
These two are the most refreshing
lads to come along in a coon's age.  
Far from being those rather
professional type boys who never
seem to have a mischievous thought,
Bud (the me) and Caleb are most
thoroughly on top of every situation
whether it is bearding a haunted
house at midnight or tethering a goat
in the hall closet. On Halloween they
are much more interested in tricks
than in treats—with some rather
remarkable results.  Mr. Meyer has
chosen to tell his story in the first
person of a 12-year-old. He has
succeeded masterfully. It is often
hilarious and in one place sure to
bring a tear. This book won the 1962
Charles W. Follett Award. It is easy
to see why.
THE JUNIOR BOOKSHELF
by POLLY GOODWIN
June 24, 1962
ME AND  CALEB,  by Franklyn E. Meyer;
illustrated by Lawrence Beall Smith
An author who obviously knows boys
inside out, and likes them, has written, in
this winner of the 1962 Charles W. Follett
award a tale about two very real boys who
are brothers, living in a small Missouri
town. "Me and Caleb" think and act and
talk as boys do—if not always as their
parents would like—and the result is
thoroughly engaging.
Any boy will understand Bud's tears when,
under the porch one night, he finds a
helpless big dog, who has been poisoned,
and her two dead puppies, and he'll rejoice
when Petunia earns a permanent place in
the family by protecting the dachshund
Weenie from a "live meat grinder" of a dog.
Hilarious chapters tell of hand-fishing with
Gramps in the Gingham river, of
Halloween pranks, like painting doorknobs
with old bacon grease—and worse; of
three Birddogs entering a haunted house at
night, in order to qualify for 'Hounds'
status in their club.And there is a poignant
episode when Weenie breaks his back
chasing a squirrel and must be put away
for good.
But, mostly, the story is pure fun, packed
with humor in incident and conversation, a
splendid tale for boys and girls of 8 and up
and for parents with long memories.
Meyer's Book Is Award Winner
June 1962
Franklyn E. Meyer, who directs the
physical education program at the
Out-of-Door School and teaches social
studies in the upper grades, has joined the
growing list of Sarasota authors.  Meyer,
according to the Follett Publishing
Company, has won the annual $3,000
Charles W. Follett Award and gold medal
for this book, Me and Caleb.
The award is given to books of high
literary quality and spirited action that will
appeal to young readers.
Meyer, his wife, Janice and their three
children will leave for St. Louis, Mo., his
former hometown, next week from where
he will go to Chicago to receive his
awards in the Boulevard Room of the
Sheraton Hotel June 13.
The Sarasota author will help be feted at
Miami Beach during a convention of
librarians when the publishing firm will
charter a boat, the Dolly Madison, for an
afternoon cruise on June 2l.
Meyer received his elementary education in
St. Louis, won a writing contest
scholarship to Dartmouth College, studied
at Missouri Valley College, Marshall, Mo.,
and received his BA degree from the
University of Missouri in February 1954.  
He was commissioned a second lieutenant
in the Marine Corps Reserve.
"Me and Caleb," Meyer's first literary
success in book form, tells of the
adventures of Caleb and his older brother,
Bud, a wonderfully funny story.  Bud tells
of their experience while hand fishing,
Halloween tricking, finding a dog, and
other boyhood experiences in his own
warm and simple terms that make the
reader a partner in their escapes, the
publisher says.
Meyer not only teaches at the Siesta Key
school, but transport pupils from Venice in
his own bus, starting out from Siesta Key
at 7 a.m. and getting the pupils here by 9
a.m.  After close of school he returns the
pupils to Venice and is back home at 5:30
p.m.
"I do my writing from 7:30 p.m. to 11:00
p.m. on weekdays and over the
weekends," Meyer said when queried about
having any time for writing in view of his
heavy daily curriculum.
The Meyers reside at 4 Ocean Boulevard
with their children, Jim, 8, John, 6, and
Lyn 4. In the summer he  takes his family
to Eagle's Nest Camp in Pisgah Forest,
NC, where he has been in charge of the
boy's unit of the camp.
July 15, 1962
A wonderful book for the 9 to 12
year old set that has the nostalgic
quality of adult reminiscences of
childhood is Me and Caleb, by
Franklyn E. Meyer which won the
1962 Charles W, Follett award for its
author. It is a realistic story of two
boys who live on the edge of a small
town in the Ozarks. Discovery of a
half dead dog under the house, eel
fishing with Gramps, Halloween
tricks, a squirrel hunt, and a
Christmas goat for Caleb are some of
the exciting, funny and near tragic
events in the lives of Bud and Caleb,
who were fortunate to have parents
who understood boys.
The drawings of Lawrence B. Smith
and the story have just a touch of
Tom Sawyer about them.