With nine siblings growing up on a farm
in the Maine woods, Helen Peppe had an unusual childhood. The farm
boasted a variety of animals, but as every farmer knows some of the
animals become food for the family. Helen had great difficulty with
this as a child because she wanted to love all the animals. The
tension between feeding the family and Helen's love of animals is a
theme that is repeated throughout the book.
Being the youngest in a very large
family, no one had time to give exclusive attention to Helen. She
grew up gathering her ideas of life from watching what people did,
overhearing scraps of conversation, and asking numerous questions of
anyone standing still. I found it fascinating to see how she looked
at her family since it was a very unique point of view.
The book is filled with anecdotes, some
amusing, some sad. My favorite was catching the pig the family found
walking along the road when they were on the way to spend time at a
summer camp. Catching a pig and holding on to it can be difficult and
highly amusing.
Although I enjoyed the book, I found
the writing unsatisfactory at times. I got tired of reading the
rather drawn out descriptions of her siblings, such as my
hair-twirling-pretty sister, each time they appeared. I wish she'd
used pseudonyms. My other quibble was in the disjoint character of
some of the incidents. For example, in the barn fire chapter, we
start with a rather lengthy description of Helen's desire to steal
some of the pink pie when everyone's back is turned. We move from
that to the barn fire and then back to the pie. While I'm sure this
is the way it happened, reporting on life can make a good story
disorganized.
This is a humorous book with some heart
warming aspects. Although the author's tends to ramble, it's
illuminating to see how a child views the world.
I reviewed this book for Net Galley
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