Plumfield and Paideia

Rascal: A Memoir of a Better Era

Reviewed by Diane Pendergraft
Near the end of Sterling North’s Rascal, Sterling and his aunt Lillie discuss what Sterling might want to be when he grows up. Aunt Lillie thinks Sterling’s deceased mother would have wanted him to be a writer. When he asks why, she says; “And then you could put it all down, the way it is now. . . You could keep it just like this forever.” That is just what North has done. He has preserved for us a snapshot of life in an American World War I-era small town. Read the full review

The Reb and the Redcoats

Reviewed by Sara Masarik
As an American, when I think of children’s books about the Revolutionary War, I think of things like Johnny Tremain, books about Paul Revere’s ride, or books about the Founding Fathers. I would never have thought of a book about English children living on an estate in England where American rebel prisoners of war were being held. And I wasn’t expecting to be rooting for the Redcoats in a book about the American Revolution. But there it is. Read the full review

Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

Reviewed by Sara Masarik
While reading Rebecca for the first time last year I was struck by how much Wiggin’s style reminded me of Alcott, but her characters reminded me of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s. Rebecca opens with a journey that features a tenderhearted but practically mute old soul and a gregarious little lady who speaks in dreams and poetry. Sound familiar? Read the full review