feather_ghyll (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
feather_ghyll) wrote2010-04-09 09:50 am
feather_ghyll) wrote2010-04-09 09:50 am
Entry tags:
- adult books,
- alice lunt,
- alison anderson,
- american setting: canada,
- authors: b,
- authors: c,
- authors: e,
- authors: l,
- authors: s,
- continental setting: france,
- genre: adventure,
- genre: career story,
- genre: coming of age,
- genre: family story,
- genre: historical,
- genre: school story(ies),
- historical setting: middle ages,
- josephine elder,
- margaret love,
- mary b. sandford,
- muriel barbery,
- overview: books,
- the extraordinary new girl,
- translator: alison anderson
PERSONAL: Easter reading
I caught a bug over Easter, and I’m not quite fully recovered yet. Anyway, here’s what I read...
Isle of Gladness by Mary B. Sandford starts as one story, then turns into another, and the last part reminded me of The School at the Chalet. Three orphaned sisters in early twentieth century Canada, ages ranging from 19 to 14, are now low on funds and low in spirit, having heard enough of neighbours’ advice. To stave off debt, they rent their house and take up a friend’s offer of a house out in the wilds for the summer. There they’re attacked by bears, joined by an Indian family and survive a forest fire that destroys the property. Having been rescued, through the efforts of Zillah, the youngest and most cheeky/enterprising, she Naomi and Damaris join a newly set up girls camp as counsellors and cook. The woman who set it up is not the most practical of people and welcomes the sisters’ help (although Zillah is not older than all the girls she’s in charge of) and it turns into a 'girls at camp' story with a rebel with a miserable home life that they win over, although there's an interesting North American slant. It lacks the zip (and purpose) of The School at the Chalet or even similar Bessie Marchant etc. books.
I thoroughly enjoyed Lady of Letters by Josephine Elder (republished by Greyladies which I wouldn’t have heard of without this lj). She’s such a thoughtful writer, and it was good to sink into the story of the development of Hilary over the years, from a childhood that was both sheltered and troubled and limited too through to becoming the lady of letters promised in the title. Hilary as a person and a representative of the new breed of educators in a world where young women were starting to reap the benefits of formalised education to the highest levels was fascinating. I am glad that this attempt to bring more work by authors I loved their children's stories back out there will give me more to read in the future!
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman is a vivid portrait of a teenage high-born girl in medieval England. (Would she have been educated enough to write such a diary? And as ever with a fictional diary, you have to be willing to suspend some disbelief about its content, easier to do if the story you’re getting is as well-wrought as this.) Having said that, her life and frames of reference are immediately drawn, and I think girls close to that age would adore this book.
I picked up The Elegance of a Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson for the title and liked the summary. It’s...very French, but it was fascinating to sink into a different world, and I was enthralled by the characters, even if things got a bit convenient towards the end. Quirky, and with Birdy a reminder that I should read more widely every now and then for the different viewpoints.
Having said that, I then reread Clare, the Younger Sister, a well-meaning book (set in the fifties? - I'm too lazy to check) by Margaret Love about a reunited family of orphans. Clare, the youngest, was adopted, but her adopted parents have recently died and her guardian, her adoptive uncle, is only too happy to let Clare move into the home that Helen, her eldest sister, had scrimped and saved for their brothers, David and twins Geoffrey and Brian who were just leaving Homes. They’re all different types, and the first months aren't easy, but Helen’s self-abnegation and threats from the outside gradually rub some of the corners off and they all become more considerate and think of themselves as a family by the time that national service and marriage changes things for them all again.
I also reread Jeanette’s First Term, by Alice Lunt, a lively story about the first term of Jeanette and her best friend Agnes at a secondary school for girls. They manage to get into scrapes that often amuse their teachers, although Jeanette finds it easier to work than Aggie. It was better than I thought it would be after the first few pages, and although our heroine(s) are a pair of remarkable new girls, it was refreshing to read about very small fry in this milieu.
Isle of Gladness by Mary B. Sandford starts as one story, then turns into another, and the last part reminded me of The School at the Chalet. Three orphaned sisters in early twentieth century Canada, ages ranging from 19 to 14, are now low on funds and low in spirit, having heard enough of neighbours’ advice. To stave off debt, they rent their house and take up a friend’s offer of a house out in the wilds for the summer. There they’re attacked by bears, joined by an Indian family and survive a forest fire that destroys the property. Having been rescued, through the efforts of Zillah, the youngest and most cheeky/enterprising, she Naomi and Damaris join a newly set up girls camp as counsellors and cook. The woman who set it up is not the most practical of people and welcomes the sisters’ help (although Zillah is not older than all the girls she’s in charge of) and it turns into a 'girls at camp' story with a rebel with a miserable home life that they win over, although there's an interesting North American slant. It lacks the zip (and purpose) of The School at the Chalet or even similar Bessie Marchant etc. books.
I thoroughly enjoyed Lady of Letters by Josephine Elder (republished by Greyladies which I wouldn’t have heard of without this lj). She’s such a thoughtful writer, and it was good to sink into the story of the development of Hilary over the years, from a childhood that was both sheltered and troubled and limited too through to becoming the lady of letters promised in the title. Hilary as a person and a representative of the new breed of educators in a world where young women were starting to reap the benefits of formalised education to the highest levels was fascinating. I am glad that this attempt to bring more work by authors I loved their children's stories back out there will give me more to read in the future!
Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman is a vivid portrait of a teenage high-born girl in medieval England. (Would she have been educated enough to write such a diary? And as ever with a fictional diary, you have to be willing to suspend some disbelief about its content, easier to do if the story you’re getting is as well-wrought as this.) Having said that, her life and frames of reference are immediately drawn, and I think girls close to that age would adore this book.
I picked up The Elegance of a Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson for the title and liked the summary. It’s...very French, but it was fascinating to sink into a different world, and I was enthralled by the characters, even if things got a bit convenient towards the end. Quirky, and with Birdy a reminder that I should read more widely every now and then for the different viewpoints.
Having said that, I then reread Clare, the Younger Sister, a well-meaning book (set in the fifties? - I'm too lazy to check) by Margaret Love about a reunited family of orphans. Clare, the youngest, was adopted, but her adopted parents have recently died and her guardian, her adoptive uncle, is only too happy to let Clare move into the home that Helen, her eldest sister, had scrimped and saved for their brothers, David and twins Geoffrey and Brian who were just leaving Homes. They’re all different types, and the first months aren't easy, but Helen’s self-abnegation and threats from the outside gradually rub some of the corners off and they all become more considerate and think of themselves as a family by the time that national service and marriage changes things for them all again.
I also reread Jeanette’s First Term, by Alice Lunt, a lively story about the first term of Jeanette and her best friend Agnes at a secondary school for girls. They manage to get into scrapes that often amuse their teachers, although Jeanette finds it easier to work than Aggie. It was better than I thought it would be after the first few pages, and although our heroine(s) are a pair of remarkable new girls, it was refreshing to read about very small fry in this milieu.