3.5 rounded up. A pleasant and (for the time it was published) realistic story from 1956 of a ten year-old girl reunited with the father she hasn't se3.5 rounded up. A pleasant and (for the time it was published) realistic story from 1956 of a ten year-old girl reunited with the father she hasn't seen since she was three. I read it in one sitting. Patricia's Secret holds few surprises, but I agree with other reviewers that the time capsule aspect of it is appealing....more
This would be a rather different book if it were told from the point of view of Ma Parker and we were privy to her feelings when she finds out that whThis would be a rather different book if it were told from the point of view of Ma Parker and we were privy to her feelings when she finds out that when Pa Parker lost his job as a trolley car driver (because this is the 1940s, so they're being phased out), in lieu of a month's salary, he asked for, and received...a trolley car. However, this is an old fashioned children's book, so of course it turns out for the best. There's a certain charm in how the family organizes the tiny space once they move into the trolley, and how they learn to farm and raise animals, and discover a spring and a wild orchard on the abandoned farm (at the end of a line that was never utilized) where they park their trolley.
This won the 1977 Whitbread Prize for children's literature, but reads as though it could've been written for adults. It's a fictionalized account of This won the 1977 Whitbread Prize for children's literature, but reads as though it could've been written for adults. It's a fictionalized account of the 1920s childhood of the author's mother, called Marjorie in this book, with interludes of an adult Marjorie talking to her children and reflecting on her past. Abandoned by her mother as a toddler, Marjorie is raised in her paternal grandparents' home (the distant father visits on weekends). Although Grandfather is kindly, hateful Gran rules the roost, and most of the rest of the vast extended family of uncles aunts and cousins follow her lead in despising Marjorie (on account of her "wicked" mother), and generally putting her down at every opportunity. Really, Cinderella's stepfamily could learn a thing or two about spitefulness from Gran and the two loathsome maiden aunts. This doesn't make for comfortable reading, but the writing is vivid and pulls you along, and Marjory's struggles to become her own person as she grows up are compelling and ultimately satisfying (view spoiler)[even though she never gets the chance to go to high school and become a vet (hide spoiler)]....more
In this 1950 novel, Carol (who is 11, despite looking like a teenager on the cover), is miserably unhappy to have exchanged her family's comfortable hIn this 1950 novel, Carol (who is 11, despite looking like a teenager on the cover), is miserably unhappy to have exchanged her family's comfortable home and garden in a small town for a cramped walk-up apartment in New York City. The family fortunes have changed because her father's shoe store went out of business, and he's had to take a position in a shoe store in the city (I find myself wondering if it was really so necessary for him to continue selling shoes). Carol finds the city unbearable noisy and is oppressed by the smell of garbage on the streets. Her younger siblings adapt to the change much more easily, and soon have many friends among the city kids of various (mostly) immigrant backgrounds who swarm around the neighborhood. Carol holds herself aloof, is snobbish, and becomes disliked, which makes the book not that much fun to read, even though she predictably learns a thing or two. I found the ending a tad unrealistic (view spoiler)[at the end she decides she loves living in the city, and wouldn't trade the noises and smells for the old house (hide spoiler)].
I've had an idea simmering for a while that it might be fun to make a little study of children's books from this era that portray "white flight" from the cities to the suburbs (two that particularly struck me as showcasing the sense of relief the characters feel to leave "rundown" cities are Binnie Latches On and A Boy for You, a Horse for Me). This one certainly bucks the trend, and it's hard to think of other examples of children having to adjust to city life after growing up in the suburbs. Is this the exception that proves the rule? There are plenty of mid-century books about kids in New York who haven't been transplanted from the suburbs, but they either seem to be more well off (like Harriet the Spy, or are recent immigrants (like the girl in The Hidden Garden). Author Frieda Friedman was born in Syracuse NY, but lived in NYC as an adult, and by the evidence of her books seems quite enthusiastic about it....more
Two Christmases bookend this family story set in Scranton, PA in the 1890s, based on the author's childhood and published in 1947. Olwen's close-knit Two Christmases bookend this family story set in Scranton, PA in the 1890s, based on the author's childhood and published in 1947. Olwen's close-knit family is part of a Welsh mining community. She and her four siblings are American born, but the father remember his childhood in the old country. Over the course of the year, holidays, birthdays and seasonal event pass. These are lovingly but unfortunately not very interestingly described. Olwen, who's around ten, learns to bake at her grandmother's side. Every step of the cake baking it is described, so it takes several pages to get through. No one has any personality beyond being hard working and kind. It did get a little more interesting towards the end (view spoiler)[when there is a mining accident. Uncle Joe has two broken legs, but recovers, the making of toys for his nieces and nephews Christmas presents giving him an interest in life (hide spoiler)]. The winsome cover illustration makes the book look a little more fun than it actually is....more
This novel, Kate Saunders' last, is a delightful account of children in the 1970s on a filmset, shooting a fictional musical, which is basically, but This novel, Kate Saunders' last, is a delightful account of children in the 1970s on a filmset, shooting a fictional musical, which is basically, but not quite "The Sound of Music." Each of the four children, who form a bond as movie siblings, has a personal problem which is more or less resolved by the close of the book. It is perhaps all a bit too sugar-coated, but it's done in a really lovely way, and the movie shoot setting is quite fun. The main character is Jenny, who plays the daughter who grows up to write the memoir of her family's escape from the Nazis which is the basis of the film. A stolid bookish sort, Jenny is an unlikely film star, but blossoms in a role that's just right for her. A Drop of Golden Sun has made me want to reread another book with a similar setting, The Painted Garden by Noel Streatfeild....more
Eliza Orne's White's books for children are like vanilla ice cream -- they're a little bland but go down easily.
As per usual, in this book, here we foEliza Orne's White's books for children are like vanilla ice cream -- they're a little bland but go down easily.
As per usual, in this book, here we focus on a family of well meaning but occasionally naughty children who have a series of mild adventures, described in prose that's a pleasure to read -- how I wish that White had focused on children who are, say 11 or 12 instead of her more usual 5 or 6. I found the heroine of this particular book a little more tiresome than most (view spoiler)[she was really a brat about that plaid dress! (hide spoiler)]. However The Blue Aunt has slightly more of a narrative arc than the other of White's juvenile's I've read thus far. Will Evelyn's young and charming Aunt Hilda, met for the first time by Evelyn's family at the start of the book, end up making her home with them? What are those plans she mentioned she has for the Fall? (view spoiler)[The cover rather gives it away that she will lleave them to serve in France, although we're never specifically told she's going to be a nurse (hide spoiler)] That the book takes place (entirely on the domestic front) during WWI also adds some interest....more
In this 1961 juvenile set in Brooklyn, Connie and her best friend Billy both live in a little community of families of university professors in campusIn this 1961 juvenile set in Brooklyn, Connie and her best friend Billy both live in a little community of families of university professors in campus houses where a private enclosed alley provides a sheltered oasis for them and many other children. The alley is a delightful place for unsupervised play, and is also a hotbed of childish intrigues and politics. Like some other reviewers, I'd probably have enjoyed the book more had it just been episodic accounts of alley life; I was bored by the burglary plotline that takes up most of the book.
The Brooklyn university where Connie's father is a professor of English is based on The Pratt Institute, which Estes attended and where her husband later worked. If you look it up on google maps and zoom in, you can see the little "T" of university housing so painstakingly described in the opening pages of this book, even down to the exact number of houses along each length of the T.
Although I enjoyed the old-timey Brooklyn setting, and bits were amusing, it was a book I found easy to put down and yet somehow less easy to pick up again....more