This short book took a surprisingly long time to read! I really enjoyed the story, but the writing style wasn't my cup of tea. I didn't think that was a possible combination, but there you have it.
First off the main character, Garnet (lots of girls in town have gemstone names), is quite realistically written. She is adventurous but not very good at considering the feelings of others, though she is not really unkind or self-centered - their feelings just never occur to her. Her friend Citronella - that really is her name - is rendered less realistically, but she only pops up from time to time so c'est la vie.
The plot is primarily episodic, skipping from event to event while rarely tying anything up. 'Adopt' the wandering teen? Okay! Building a barn? Sure! Listening to great-grandmother's story? Got that! Locked a library? Double check! Ten-year-old hitchhiking 20 miles by herself without telling anyone? That's here... what?
Yep, Garnet gets angry and runs off to the big city, by the time she gets there she isn't as mad anymore and starts buying presents for everyone and then runs out of money. She hitchhikes her way back... dial M for Murder anyone? One of the books most frequent review points across the internet is that her hitchhiking could never happen today without something bad happening. No. It couldn't happen today because anyone seeing a ten year old on the highway by themselves is reporting it. Looking at the homicide rates (a measuring stick for violent crime) we see...
Her living odds are equal to or better today than the 30s.
Yup, more dangerous back then. *Not my perfect past you ---* The internet seems to collectively believe that we are living in a particularly murder-y age. No, we aren't, we are living in a quickly reported and broadcasted age. What concerns me more is that there are apparently no consequences for not once - but twice going several miles away without mentioning to anyone where she was going.
There are many people who say Charlotte's Web was totally robbed of the Newbery. They're probably right (I haven't read it yet).
Hey, I never read Diary of a Young Girl until last year. So I've obviously got issues.
You see, as I was reading I couldn't help but notice how certain points in the plot reminded me of what I did know about Charlotte's Web. Basically there is less spiders and dying. So not to say that both didn't deserve the accolades but... perhaps the committee was afraid that giving another medal out just 15 years later would make it look like they loved runt pigs. I don't know.
Of course my information came from a movie purchased at McDonalds so...
I leave you with one remaining piece of advice: If you want to write about a country girl, the setting ought to be Wisconsin. I mean really. Thimble Summer, Little House in the Big Woods, One Came Home, and Caddie Woodlawn.
Literature.
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