Juvenile Fantasy Mystery (classic?): The Diamond in the Window, Jane Langton

The Diamond in the Window
Jane Langton, illustrated by Erik Blegvad
ISBN: none
Pubdata: Harper and Row, NY, 1962
Read May 4, 2016

This is the starting point of a series of 8 children's novels written between 1962 and 2008 that focus on the Hall family children, starting in this book with Eleanor and Edward. They live with their Aunt Lily and Uncle Fred (Fred and Lily are brother and sister, not married). Their parents are dead (of course) and one day while exploring the old rickety mansion, they discover a hidden attic room and a mysterious sad case involving even more of Lily and Fred's siblings.  It seems that long ago, when Lily was a young woman, her youngest two siblings (a boy and girl named Edward and Eleanor: crucially and luckily nicknamed Ned and Nora) and her beau, a maharaja from India (yes really) all simply up and vanished one night, and no one could ever find them. Now the house is on the hook for back taxes, and the current set of siblings are off and running to solve the mystery and save the house.

It's cute, but it's dated, and the endless references to Lousia (Alcott) and Henry (Thoreau) and Walt (Whitman) are meant to be enriching, but end up as somewhat tiresome: although a few of the dream sequences involving the Alcott sisters as children, and showing Walden in his cabin are sweet and deftly done.  I can see how the book sticks in the mind (I discovered it when a patron was searching for it, half-remembered from their own childhood) because the dreams are creepy and unsettling and visually evocative, and the scenario is just wild enough to not quite be preposterous.  The ending is quick and utterly mundane, and everyone is happily settled down in the best possible fashion.  I'm glad I read it and made ms Langton's accquaintance, but I don't think I'll continue with the series - it's not quite my style, even though sections were very enjoyable.

Portraits of Little Women (set 1 of 3), Susan Beth Pfeffer

Portraits of Little Women: Set 1: 
Meg's Story: ISBN:0385325207
Jo's Story: ISBN: 0385325231
Beth's Story: ISBN: 0385325266
Amy's Story: ISBN: 0385325290
Susan Beth Pfeffer
Read December 15-18

Fiction: Pfeffer has written a set of "prequels" to Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott.  This is a set of three series, each comprising four books featuring each of the four sisters of the March family when they are 10 years old.   This set of Portraits is the first.  The second set of Portraits are Meg/Jo/Beth/Amy Makes a Friend, and I'm gathering them together for a read now.   After that, I'll find and read the final set: A Gift for Meg/Jo/Beth/Amy.  These books are so far very similar in design to the American Girl books, but seem to be a bit shorter.

Meg is invited to a picnic hosted by a wealthy (and somewhat snobbish) neighbor, but when a family emergency calls the housekeeper away, Meg has to babysit her younger siblings - instead of going to the picnic.  Always levelheaded, Meg contrives to watch the girls AND go to the picnic, and learns a few lessons about pride and kindness.

Jo overhears her Aunt March offering to adopt one of the March girls and keep her as a companion, to relieve some of the financial strain on their parents.  In a fit of filial duty, Jo prepares for the theatrical role of a lifetime; a womanly, submissive, and patient companion to her irascible aunt.

Beth is treated to the trip of a lifetime, going to New York with her parents.  There the shy Beth blossoms, surrounded by culture and beauty.  She also meets a quite famous personage, but when she returns home, even her sisters disbelieve her adventures.

Amy is delighted when a photographer sets up shop in town.  A real photograph, to forever immortalize her beauty, is just what she's always wanted.  But photography is expensive, and Father's just been called away to support the Union Army as a Chaplain.  Will Amy's good heart win out over her superficially selfish nature?

Nothing earth-shattering here, but excellent "clean reads" especially useful for a precocious reader, and fun little tidbits to build anticipation of reading Little Women itself, either solo or as a bedtime serial.

Thematic Battle: Understood Betsy vs Eight Cousins

Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, illus Kimberly Bulken Root.
ISBN: 0805060731
Read October 9, 2013

Eight Cousins, Louisa May Alcott, illus Ruth Ives.

ISBN: Nelson-Doubleday Hardcover 1958 (MCMLVIII).

Re-read October 9, 2013

I never thought I'd say this, but I actually like Fisher's book better than Alcott's. Weird.

To be clear, Eight Cousins is a long-time favorite, and I've read it at least 5 times, maybe as many as 10 times over.  (I don't like Rose in Bloom, the sequel, as well as I do Eight Cousins, but that's another post.)

In contrast, this is the first time I have read Understood Betsy.  

I really like it.  I don't know if it's the deft touch with the moralizing, or the very carefully developed tongue-firmly-in-cheek descriptions of the "delicate" little child creating more trauma to satisfy the delicate aunt's fearmongering, or the only somewhat obviously shoehorned-in Montessori principles, but it really is a very clever, very well-written, very straightforward read.  

Sadly, the more I read Alcott, the more it starts to feel Elsie Dinsmore-ish, or (horrors) Uncle Arthur's Bedtime Stories-ish.  She's just so moralistic, and the preaching tone is starting to grate on me as I get older (and to be perfectly honest, less interested in having God show up in everything just as a matter of course or culture).

So in a total shock to myself as much as anyone else, I found Understood Betsy to be more readable and more modern, where Eight Cousins is more melodramatic and ostentatious.  On the other hand, they both are better than a lot of what's out there.  I would be interested to read them both in sequence (it works well because Betsy is around 8 to 10, and then Rose is a pre-teen) and see how it goes.  I do have to admit that the action is more present and prevalent in Eight Cousins, where Understood Betsy is fairly straightforward and only has a few discrete adventures.

I think for an upcoming post I'll compare and contrast Rose in Bloom (which I read immediately following Eight Cousins, and it grated me something fierce) and Jo's Boys.  Both are roughly the same book, but for some reason, Jo's Boys always struck me as being much more progressive and modern (read less sexist and less preachy) than Rose in Bloom.  I find that interesting.