More Recent Reads:

The Four-Story Mistake and Spiderweb for Two: These are two of the four Melendy family books by Elizabeth Enright, more children's books that I never read "way back when" because I preferred animal stories. I'm trying to get the other two from the library: they were supposedly at the Central Library when I went there Friday but were not on the shelf I wouldn't be surprised if one or both were missing; libraries don't seem to keep track of "old" books anymore. Anyway, it was fun to read about the wartime adventures of the children, with no preaching about issues, just plain old-fashioned kid stuff. Kids in these books seem to do such fun stuff: exploring the countryside, putting on plays, doing creative projects.

Miss Nina Barrow: This is actually a serial story in St. Nicholas that I finished this morning, a Victorian tale about a orphan child who has been spoiled rotten by her indulgent grandmother and how a gentle cousin tries to break her of her selfishness. Part of Nina's reformation comes from a visit to English cousins who are rich but unspoiled. Nina fits into the latter of two categories of Victorian children's books. The first is that of the desperately poor child, who by perserverance mixed liberally with a great deal of luck, becomes rich and comfortable at last, or at least comfortably well off. The second category is like that of the family in Alcott's An Old-Fashioned Girl, obscenely rich and discontented people who become happy and content by losing all their money and learning to work. Nina's salvation comes in the last chapter of the book, though, after we've been entertained by her bratty ways for an entire book.

----------------------------------------------------------------
. . . . . noted and logged by Linda at 8:14:00 PM

Comments: Post a Comment