Other Favorites

There’s a page on this blog called “Farm Girl Rosie’s Favorite Books” and it lists my top ten favorite novels ever. They are Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery, Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild, The Family at Caldicott Place by Noel Streatfeild, Friendly Gables by Hilda van Stockum, From Anna by Jean Little, Gemma and Sisters by Noel Streatfeild, Hitty: Her First Hundred Years by Rachel Field, Jill’s Story by Jean Fielder, Ramona Forever by Beverly Cleary, and What Katy Did at School by Susan Coolidge.

But there are several other books that were right out of my top ten, and I decided to list them here. Enjoy!

1. Patty Fairfield by Carolyn Wells

Patty Fairfield, age fourteen, visits her four aunts in turn to see how she wants to run her own home someday---with some funny results.

2. Katie John by Mary Calhoun

At first, Katie John Tucker doesn’t want to live in a boring little town in Missouri, but she changes her mind by the end of the summer because of some highly interesting adventures that she gets into!

3. Rebecca and Ana by Jacqueline Dembar Greene

Rebecca Rubin’s cousin, Ana, has just arrived from Russia to live in New York City! Rebecca is excited to begin with, but soon she begins to wonder how to cope with the change.

4. Dancing Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Rachel and her sister Hilary are sent to their Aunt Cora, who is a renowned dancing teacher. Immediately, problems arise when the girls can’t get along with spoiled cousin Dulcie.

5. The Cricket in Times Square by George Selden

Through a series of wild circumstances, a cricket named Chester ends up in a bustling New York subway station. He’s not sure how to ever get back to Connecticut, until new friends help him out.

6. Theater Shoes by Noel Streatfeild

Sorrel, Mark, and Holly Forbes are siblings who are uprooted to a new home with their actress grandmother. After the eccentric lady decides the children must learn to act as well, they find it difficult to adjust to their amazing new lifestyle.

More Winter Reading

TITLE: Depend on Katie John

AUTHOR: Mary Calhoun

COPYRIGHT: 1961

ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.

NUMBER OF PAGES: 181

PLOTLINE: The highly entertaining sequel to Katie John is just as good, if not better than its predecessor.

Katie John’s family has just turned their home into a rooming house, and Katie is excited. She’s going to help with the housework, find boarders and everything!

Unfortunately, the excitement soon fizzles out when Katie John realizes that living in a rooming house isn’t as much fun as she thought it would be. The boarders are fussy, and the housework is hard. She can’t even escape to fun when she goes to school, because she’s still a new girl among the other kids, and no one pays any attention to her. But maybe, she reasons, if she changes herself from a tomboy to a lady, things will be different.

“Things” don’t exactly turn out the way Katie had expected, but in the end, she discovers that it’s all for the best.

Depend on Katie John is an interesting book about a funny almost-eleven-year-old girl.

*****

“They were playing checkers on Cousin Ben’s bed, or at least they were supposed to be playing checkers, but mostly Cousin Ben was talking.” - Depend on Katie John

Another Book Review

TITLE: Katie John

AUTHOR: Mary Calhoun

COPYRIGHT: 1960

ORIGINAL PUBLISHER: Harper & Row Publishers, Inc.

NUMBER OF PAGES: 134

PLOTLINE: Katie John’s family moves to Missouri---right when Katie is old enough to become a Campfire Girl! For years, she’s been waiting to go on the camping trip in the Sierras, and now she’s stuck at a hundred-year-old house, just recently inherited by her mother from Great-Aunt Emily.

Katie John is positive that she won’t like living in the sleepy little town of Barton’s Bluff, even if it is only until her parents can sell the house. But by the time summer is over (and many escapades later), Katie realizes that she loves living in Missouri and doesn’t ever want to leave.

But time is running out---can Katie John convince her parents to stay before it’s too late?

This wonderful book is accompanied by refreshingly excellent writing, and the copy I own has beautiful illustrations by Paul Frame. If you’re in the mood for a good story about the adventures of a ten-year-old girl and her best friend, then this is the book to read!

*****

“It’s all my fault!” {Katie} cried in despair. “I wanted to make a nice fire, but the smoke didn’t go up the chimney.”

“Because the chimney is capped!” - Katie John