Nostalgia reading (optional challenge)
@rachelmanija reads children's books (as do I) and (unlike me) posts reviews of them on her DW. There's currently a bonanza in availability, because the Open Library at the Internet Archive is now the National Emergency Library, and it has removed all restrictions on numbers of people who can borrow any one book. So no waitlist; all books are immediately available.
You can filter by genre and year. I looked up juvenile fiction published in 1956 (year I was born). There were a bunch of books I recognized: Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, The Enchanted Castle, The Last Battle, Millions of Cats, and Madeline and the Bad Hat. Also books by familiar authors, even if I hadn't read the particular book: Eleanor Lattimore, Mary Stolz, Ruth Sawyer.
I decided to read Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson. I don't think I'd read it as a child, but I was always attracted to the artwork of Joe and Beth Krush, who illustrated this one.
It's about a family of four from the POV of the ten-year-old daughter. The father is a hero and former POW of some unnamed war, and is clearly suffering from PTSD. The family decided to spend weekends (with the father staying there full-time) at the mother's old farmhouse in the country, and eventually moves there full-time.
There's very little sugar-coating of how hard the farm life is (the farm wife neighbor is angry and hates maple-sugar time because her husband worked himself into a heart attack), but the miracles are seen through Marly's eyes.
I enjoyed the book, but it's definitely a case of a happy ending only because the book stops at the right moment.
(SPOILER: The community gathers around to help with the maple sugar run for the neighbor who was hospitalized with heart issues and his wife, and which provides a good chunk of their annual income. But that doesn't solve the long-term problem of older people -- one of whom has chronic health problems -- running a farm with just one handyman to help.)
Rachel suggested a number of challenges, copied below. Feel free to do any or all of them yourself. The "me" therefore was obviously her originally, but but feel free to apply it to me as well.
1. Look up a year of your choice, and report back to me in comments about books you remember.
2. Download a book, read it, and report back on it in your own DW or here, as you wish.
3. Challenge me to read and report on something of your choice!
4. Post this in your DW, and let your readers challenge you.
You can filter by genre and year. I looked up juvenile fiction published in 1956 (year I was born). There were a bunch of books I recognized: Stowaway to the Mushroom Planet, The Enchanted Castle, The Last Battle, Millions of Cats, and Madeline and the Bad Hat. Also books by familiar authors, even if I hadn't read the particular book: Eleanor Lattimore, Mary Stolz, Ruth Sawyer.
I decided to read Miracles on Maple Hill by Virginia Sorenson. I don't think I'd read it as a child, but I was always attracted to the artwork of Joe and Beth Krush, who illustrated this one.
It's about a family of four from the POV of the ten-year-old daughter. The father is a hero and former POW of some unnamed war, and is clearly suffering from PTSD. The family decided to spend weekends (with the father staying there full-time) at the mother's old farmhouse in the country, and eventually moves there full-time.
There's very little sugar-coating of how hard the farm life is (the farm wife neighbor is angry and hates maple-sugar time because her husband worked himself into a heart attack), but the miracles are seen through Marly's eyes.
I enjoyed the book, but it's definitely a case of a happy ending only because the book stops at the right moment.
(SPOILER: The community gathers around to help with the maple sugar run for the neighbor who was hospitalized with heart issues and his wife, and which provides a good chunk of their annual income. But that doesn't solve the long-term problem of older people -- one of whom has chronic health problems -- running a farm with just one handyman to help.)
Rachel suggested a number of challenges, copied below. Feel free to do any or all of them yourself. The "me" therefore was obviously her originally, but but feel free to apply it to me as well.
1. Look up a year of your choice, and report back to me in comments about books you remember.
2. Download a book, read it, and report back on it in your own DW or here, as you wish.
3. Challenge me to read and report on something of your choice!
4. Post this in your DW, and let your readers challenge you.