Posted on by TracyC

Changes for Kirsten

Kirsten, An American Girl

Changes for Kirsten by Janet Beeler Shaw, 1988.

It’s winter, and Kirsten’s brother, Lars, is going to set animal traps in the woods with his friend, John Stewart, who lives nearby. Kirsten is friends with John’s sister, Mary. Trapping animals for their pelts is one of the ways that the boys make some extra money. The local men are all away, working at a logging camp for the winter. Kirsten isn’t really interested in trapping animals so much as she just wants to get out of her family’s little cabin because she’s been cooped up due to the winter weather, so she persuades the boys to let her come along on their trapping expedition.

As they go through the woods, Kirsten spots an animal snare that someone else set out, and John explains that there’s an old trapper called Old Jack who lives by himself in the woods. He has no family and often prefers to be by himself and avoids meeting many people, although he sometimes helps locals with their own traps. The snare is probably one of his traps. When they find a trap that has a baby raccoon caught by the tail, the boys say that it’s too small for them to kill it for its pelt, and Kirsten feels sorry for it. She persuades them to let her take it home and nurse it back to health, like she did with an injured bird, before releasing it into the wild again.

Kirsten is supposed to leave the little raccoon in the barn because, as her family tries to explain to her, wild animals are wild and uncontrollable. However, Kirsten feels sorry for the little thing because the barn is cold, so she brings it into the cabin. It turns out to be a terrible idea. The raccoon gets loose and knocks over an oil lamp that sets the cabin on fire! Kirsten makes her her little brother and sister get out safely, and when she realizes that the fire is spreading too fast for her to stop it, she manages to save the painted trunk with some of her family’s most important belongings. Unfortunately, the cabin is completely destroyed.

Kirsten’s aunt takes in Kirsten, her mother, and her siblings. It’s a little crowded in her house, but at least, they have a place to go. Everyone is understandably upset, although they are not too hard on Kirsten for causing the disaster. However, her mother says that they had been hoping that maybe they could buy a little land with the money Kirsten’s father is making at the logging camp, but she doesn’t see how they can now. They’re going to have to build a new cabin and replace some of essentials that they lost in the fire.

Then, John and Mary Stewart tell the Larsons that their family will be moving to Oregon because their father has found a new job managing a logging camp there. Kirsten is sorry to see the Stewarts leave because they’ve been good friends, but Aunt Inger points out that the Larsons’ problems will be solved if they can manage to buy the Stewarts’ house. The Stewarts’ house is much bigger than the little cabin where the Larsons lived, and the Stewarts will have to sell their home before they can move anyway. The problem is that the Larsons just don’t have the money to afford the Stewarts’ house.

All Lars can think to do is try to make more money through trapping. Kirsten goes along to help him, and one evening, they stay out much later than they mean to and get lost in the dark woods. When the spot some human tracks in the snow, they think that they are probably the tracks of Old Jack, the trapper hermit. Kirsten thinks that Old Jack sounds frightening, but with no one else to turn to for help and shelter, they decide to follow the tracks to where Old Jack lives. When they find Old Jack’s home in a cave that he has turned into a rough house, they make an important discovery that changes everything for the Larsons.

The book ends with a section of historical information that explains how new settlers moving westward turned frontier areas like the area where Kirsten’s family lived into more settled towns. The farms where people lived became less isolated, and railroads connected cities and rural areas across the country. The first transcontinental railroad in the United States was completed by the time Kirsten would have turned 24 years old, changing the ways that people and goods traveled.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction and Spoilers

This was one of the books that I remember I didn’t like in the Kirsten series when I was a kid because it’s just so painful when the family’s cabin burns. Reading the book again, I appreciated how the family wasn’t overly hard on Kirsten about bringing the raccoon into the cabin that caused the fire. I couldn’t really blame the others if they were upset with Kirsten because it’s a major disaster that destroys their home and leaves them in a very precarious position. However, even though they’re understandably upset at the situation, it is nice that they don’t lay a guilt trip on Kirsten about it because that would have made it a much sadder story.

It also helps that the situation works out for the best in the end. When they hear that the Stewarts are moving, they do want the Stewarts’ house, but they just don’t think they will be able to afford it. What changes for the Larsons is that they receive an unusual sort of inheritance from Old Jack. When Kirsten and Lars are lost in the woods and seek shelter from Old Jack, they discover that Old Jack has died. There doesn’t appear to be any foul play. Old Jack was an elderly man, and he seems to have died from natural causes in his house. It’s a grim discovery, but while Kirsten and Lars shelter in his house with the body overnight, they also realize that Old Jack has a hoard of fine animal pelts. Since Old Jack has no family and no one to inherit his property, there is no dispute that the Larsons can claim his pelts because they found his body and plan to arrange for his burial. With the money that Old Jack’s pelts bring, they are able to afford the Stewarts’ house, which is much better than their old cabin. The Stewarts also leave them some furniture and household supplies.

I do like it that the story worked out for the best, although I wasn’t fond of the theme of trapping animals for pelts. I remember that this was an aspect of other books that I read as a kid, like Where the Red Fern Grows, but I never liked hearing or reading about it. I understand hunting for food, and I know the family in the story traps animals for fur because they badly need money, but it’s not a subject that I enjoy hearing about. The metal traps the boys use for trapping animals are considered inhumane in modern times, and their use is now banned or restricted in many countries and states.

Posted on by TracyC

Kirsten’s Surprise

Kirsten, An American Girl

Kirsten’s Surprise by Janet Shaw, 1986.

It’s winter, and Kirsten’s family is just starting to prepare for Christmas. Kirsten’s mother has her help make their Christmas bread. So many things have changed for their family since they came to America and moved to the frontier in Minnesota, Kirsten asks her mother if they will be celebrating Christmas just like they used to when they lived in Sweden. The family doesn’t have much money and can’t afford extra treats, but her mother says they will do the best they can.

When they arrived last summer, the family didn’t even have enough money to pay for a wagon to carry their belongings to their new house, so they had to leave them in storage in Riverton, including Kirsten’s doll, Sari. Since then, Kirsten has been using a stuffed sock as a doll. Kirsten’s mother tells her that her father has arranged for their trunks to be sent to Maryville, which is closer, but still 10 miles away. Kirsten is eager to retrieve them, but her mother says that will have to wait because there are too many other things they need to do now to get ready for winter. Kirsten worries that they won’t be able to get their trunks before the snows come. If the roads are blocked by snow, they won’t have their trunks until spring! The more Kirsten thinks about the trunks, the more she wishes that they had the things in them, the things that would remind her of her home in Sweden and make their cabin feel more like home.

One day, while she is playing with her cousins, Lisbeth and Anna, Kirsten mentions St. Lucia, and she is surprised when her cousins don’t know what she is talking about. In Sweden, families traditionally celebrate St. Lucia’s Day before Christmas. However, Lisbeth and Anna were too young when they left Sweden, years before Kirsten left with her family, so they don’t remember that tradition, and since they came to America, they only remember celebrating Christmas in December. They ask Kirsten what happens on St. Lucia’s Day. Kirsten explains that it’s the shortest and darkest day of the year. One girl in the family dresses up as the Lucia queen, wearing a white dress and a wreath of candles on her head, and she wakes her family, bringing them a special breakfast with coffee and Lucia buns. Anna is enchanted by this description, and the girl talk about surprising their families with their own St. Lucia’s Day celebration.

Then, Kirsten remembers that the long, white nightgown she used for her St. Lucia’s Day dress last year is in one of her family’s trunks, and St. Lucia’s Day (December 13th) is only five days away. The other girls are about to give up on the idea of celebrating St. Lucia’s Day, but Kirsten thinks maybe they should ask Miss Winston if she knows what to do. Miss Winston is their schoolteacher, and she’s still living with Lisbeth and Anna’s families. Miss Winston has mentioned that she misses the Christmas parties her family and friends had back East, so the girls think that she might enjoy helping them plan a special surprise.

Miss Winston is happy to give the girls some candles and help them make St. Lucia crowns, but Kirsten’s father is still too busy to get the family’s trunks. He gets so annoyed with Kirsten asking about them that he tells her not to ask about them again. Lisbeth says that, if their plan won’t work out for this year, they can do it next year, but Kirsten feels badly for getting their hopes up. Her own hopes are also set on having a St. Lucia Day, but she doesn’t know what to do without the dress in the trunk.

Then, one day, she finally hears her father say that he will have time to go for the trunks, and he thinks he had better do it soon because there will be more snow coming. Kirsten is excited and asks if she can go along with him to get them. At first, he doesn’t want to take Kirsten because there won’t be much room in the sleigh for her, and he thinks it would be better for her to go to school with the other children, but she persuades him to let her come.

The journey to Maryville is fun, riding through the snow and singing a Christmas carol. Kirsten even gets a piece of candy at the general store. When they retrieve the trunks, Kirsten wants to open them right away, but her father says they need to leave because it’s already snowing harder, and they need to get home.

The weather gets worse on their way home, and Kirsten wonders if they should turn back, but her father thinks they can make it home. As it gets worse yet, Kirsten’s father gets out of the sleigh to lead the horse through the snow, and he accidentally twists his knee. With her father injured, Kirsten gets out the sleigh to lead the horse. The situation is dangerous, but fortunately, Kirsten realizes where they are, and she knows that there is a cave nearby where they can take shelter.

When Kirsten and her father arrive home, they are greeted by their worried family, and it’s St. Lucia Day. With some help from Miss Winston and her cousins, Kirsten is able to give her whole family their St. Lucia Day surprise, but it has even greater meaning because of everything they’ve been through.

There is a section of historical information in the back of the book about how Christmas was celebrated on the American frontier in the mid-19th century and how it was different from the Christmases families like Kirsten would have experienced in Sweden.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

My Reaction

This was my favorite of the Kirsten books! Although there is some danger to Kirsten and her father when they get caught in the snowstorm after retrieving the trunks, everything turns out fine, and Kirsten saves her father because she insisted on going with him on the trip. This book is also fun because it introduces readers to the concept of St. Lucia’s Day. I think the first book I read as a kid that explained about St. Lucia’s Day was the nonfiction book Christmas Around the World, but I liked seeing this frontier family celebrate their St. Lucia tradition.

thought that Kirsten’s parents impatience with her “pestering” them about retrieving the family’s belongings was realistic, just like parents in real life might act when a child repeatedly asks for something they can’t give them right away. However, at the same time, Kirsten’s mother seems to understand that Kirsten is asking for the trunks for deeper emotional reasons. Not only does Kirsten badly miss her doll, which has been stored in one of the family’s trunks since the beginning of the series, but the other things in the trunk are both useful for the winter season and have connections to the people the family left behind in Sweden. With Christmas coming, Kirsten and other members in the family are missing those connections and the feeling of home. Kirsten’s mother points out that people are more important than belongings, but she also agrees with Kirsten that some belongings represent ties to other people.

Kirsten also misses the tradition of St. Lucia’s Day because that tradition usually marks the beginning of the Christmas season for the family. When Kirsten surprises her family by dressing in her St. Lucia costume, it’s a happy surprise for everyone and really makes everyone feel like Christmas. However, Kirsten also feels the significance of the holiday more than she ever did before because, having been welcomed home by the lights of their house and her waiting and worried family, she better appreciates the tradition of St. Lucia welcoming others with light and food.

As with other historical American Girls books, I also enjoyed the detailed colored pencil drawings of the characters and scenes!

Posted on by TracyC

Kirsten Saves the Day

Kirsten, An American Girl

Kirsten Saves the Day by Janet Beeler Shaw, 1988.

It’s summer, and for a frontier family, the summer chores can be the most fun! Kirsten and her younger brother, Peter, are going fishing. They’re hoping to get enough fish for their family and their Uncle Olav’s family to have for supper. There is plenty of trout in the stream, and they should be able to get enough fish, although sometimes, disasters happen on their fishing trips. Once, Peter chased a skunk, and their mother also warns them to be careful of snakes and bears. Kirsten wears a whistle around her neck that she can blow if they get into trouble. Kirsten thinks her mother worries too much.

The children take their dog, Caro, fishing with them. Kirsten is a little concerned because Caro likes to chase things, but Peter insists that he can watch the dog and fish at the same time. When they don’t seem to have much luck getting big enough fish in the stream, they decide to go upstream to the pool. The fishing goes well, but Caro is stung by a bee.

Kirsten realizes that Caro must have found a “bee tree”, a tree where bees have built their hive. Kirsten is interested in finding the tree because it’s a source of honey and honeycomb that their mother can make into special treats. If they can collect enough honey, their father might even be able to sell some and buy some of the things the family needs. They need to be careful while looking for the tree, though, or they might get stung themselves. Kirsten is pleased when she finds the tree, but she notices that there are marks on it from a bear’s claws, so it looks like a bear was trying to get the honey, too. Kirsten could ask her father how to get the honey and get him to help, but she wants to figure out how to do it herself and surprise everyone. She asks Peter to keep the bee tree a secret while she tries to figure out how to get the honey, and Peter reluctantly agrees.

Meanwhile, Kirsten’s cousins tell her about the town’s Fourth of July celebration. Kirsten’s family hasn’t lived in America for very long, so her cousins have to explain the significance of the holiday to her. Every year, the nearby town holds a parade and picnic with music and games. A lot of the local farmers also bring things to sell, like pies, butter, or preserves, and they use the money they make to buy things they need. Kirsten thinks again about the honey tree and the things her family could buy. She really wants a straw hat, like her cousins wear.

Later, when Kirsten is picking berries with her cousins, she sees a little black bear cub. She thinks it’s adorable, but Lisbeth says they have to leave the area immediately. If the baby is near the berries, its mother is sure to be somewhere nearby, and mother bears get dangerous if they think someone might hurt their cubs. Kirsten doesn’t really take the warning seriously until she tries to take Peter and Caro back to the bee tree with her to get the honey, and they meet the mother bear face-to-face!

The book ends with a section of historical information about the wilderness on the American frontier in the 1800s. Wild plants and animals were sources of food, but they were also sources of danger, like the bears in the story. The attempts of the pioneers to control the land were about securing sources of food and reducing sources of danger. There is information in the book about how pioneers cooked and how they dealt with changing seasons and weather. It also discusses the Fourth of July and how trips to town were rare treats for pioneer farming families.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction and Spoilers

It’s a good story about the difference between bravery and being foolhardy. From the beginning, even young Peter reminds Kirsten that being brave and being foolish are not the same thing. After their hair-raising encounter with the bear, in which the children have a narrow escape and their dog is injured (but fortunately not killed), the children’s father lectures Kirsten about putting both her life and her little brother’s life in danger. When Kirsten explains what she was trying to do with the bee tree, her father also tells her that she doesn’t really know what she’s doing. She took his equipment, but if she had carried out her plan the way she was thinking of doing it, she would have both destroyed the hive and ruined the honey as well as getting badly stung. Kirsten should have just gone to her father as soon as she found the tree and got his help from the beginning. Kirsten is ashamed for getting their dog hurt and putting herself and her brother in danger and almost ruining her special find, and she apologizes.

Because Kirsten’s father now understands the situation, he gets Kirsten’s older brother, Lars, to help him move the colony of bees to their farm. He knows how to set up hives and keep bees long term, so instead of this being just a one-time find and honey harvest, they will be able to get honey from the bees regularly. Kirsten goes with her father and Lars to watch them move the bees. She does it because she’s been having bad dreams about the traumatic escape from the bear, and she thinks it will help her to recover if she goes to the area again and sees it with her father and brother, when it’s safe.

Kirsten still feels bad that she wasn’t able to get the honey all by herself and that her attempt to do it was a disaster, but her mother consoles her. She says that she and Kirsten’s father understand that Kirsten was just trying to help and that her discovery has helped them. She just needs to learn to be careful as well as being brave. I thought that it was also a lesson in learning to share the glory instead of trying to take all the credit by going it alone and risking the success of the project, but the book didn’t quite say that. Kirsten wanted to be the one to say that she did it all herself, but because she couldn’t really do it all herself, everything went wrong. She could have accomplished her goals by talking to her father in the beginning and still been the heroine who found the bee tree, as her mother pointed out. She still gets credit for what she did without needing to take credit for what she couldn’t do alone.

The book ends with the family enjoying the Fourth of July celebration. Thanks to the discovery of the bees, they are able to buy the things they need.

Posted on by TracyC

Happy Birthday, Kirsten

Kirsten, An American Girl

Happy Birthday, Kirsten by Janet Beeler Shaw, 1987.

It’s spring, and Kirsten’s family is planning to build a new barn on the farm that they share with Uncle Olav and his family, and her mother is expecting a new baby.

One day, while they are outside, working, dark clouds come, the wind picks up, and Aunt Inger thinks it might be a tornado. She urges everyone to get into the root cellar for safety. Miss Winston, the school teacher who is staying with Uncle Olav and Aunt Inger, joins them in the cellar. She brings her quilt with her for comfort and because it reminds her of home, so she wouldn’t want to lose it to a tornado.

She tells Kirsten and her cousins that her mother and other women and girls in her family made the quilt for her as a present when she left Maine. The scraps of cloth in the quilt came from clothes members of her family used to wear and things she used to wear when she was younger. Everyone who worked on the quilt signed it, making it a “friendship quilt.” Kirsten and her cousins ask Miss Winston if she could teach them to make a quilt like this one, and she agrees. She says that she will give them some muslin for the backing, but they’ll have to supply the scraps of cloth for the designs themselves. Because it takes a lot of work to make a big quilt, she suggests that they each make a square. Quilts are an unusual concept to the Swedish family because people in Sweden during their time usually use woven blankets. Kirsten’s mother also reminds her that she will need her help to sew more clothes for the new baby. Kirsten’s cousins, Anna and Lisbeth, suggest that they do their quilt sewing during recess at school, and Miss Winston agrees.

At school, the girls trade cloth scraps with each other and invite other girls to join them in quilting. One of the other girls, Mary Stewart, has done quilting before, so she helps the others. While the girls sew, they talk, and Kirsten talks about the baby that her mother is expecting. Mary says that the little girl her family calls her little sister is actually her cousin. She was born as one of a set of twins to Mary’s aunt, but the other twin died at birth, and their mother died shortly after, so Mary’s mother took the baby to raise with her family. Stories like that worry Kirsten because she worries that something might happen to her mother or the new baby.

Mary also brings up the topic of whether or not Miss Winston will move on. She’s been going to Powderkeg School for four years, and every year, the previous teacher moves on, and they get a new one. Although Kirsten initially had trouble with Miss Winston, she has become fond of her, and she wouldn’t like to see her go. With all the other changes happening in Kirsten’s life, she doesn’t want any other major changes now. Kirsten suggests to the other girls that they turn their quilting project into another friendship quilt for Miss Winston, signing it like her family members signed their quilt. The other girls debate about whether they could manage to finish a quilt like that by the end of the summer term. Lisbeth thinks they could, but Mary doesn’t want to rush the project because the best part of making a quilt is sewing it with your friends.

The talk then turns to Kirsten’s birthday. She will be turning ten years old soon. She didn’t celebrate her last birthday because that was during their voyage to America. Mary says that ten is a more important birthday anyway, although Kirsten isn’t sure if her family will do anything for her birthday this year, either. Everyone’s attention is taken up with preparations for the new baby.

When Kirsten’s mother tells her that the new baby is about to be born, she also tells her that she remembers the day Kirsten was born, too. She says that she will never forget that day because she had been hoping for a daughter, and she knows that Kirsten’s birthday is coming in two more weeks. Kirsten is happy that her mother remembers, and she hurries to get her aunt to help with the birth of the baby.

Fortunately, Kirsten’s new sister is born safely, although Kirsten has to take some time away from school to help her mother with the new baby and household chores. However, her mother tells her that her friends from school will be coming to the raising of the new barn, which is the day before Kirsten’s birthday, and she will allow Kirsten to have her birthday free to have fun with her friends.

At the barn raising, Kirsten and her friends have a chance to work on their quilt again. Kirsten is behind on making her quilt square, but her friends have arranged a special surprise for Kirsten’s birthday.

There is a section in the back of the book about babies and young children on the frontier during the mid-1800s. Children were born at home then, with the help of family members and midwives because there were few doctors and hospitals on the frontier. With limited access to medicine and without some of the modern medicines we have today, childbirth and early childhood were often risky. It was sadly common for families to lose a child or two before they were five years old. Because accidents as well as illness posed a threat to young children, parents were often strict with discipline so their children would listen to them and follow their instructions to avoid disaster.

This part of the book also talks about the phases of a child’s life on the frontier. Older children wore clothes that looked like smaller versions of their parents clothes, and they would often do the same kinds of chores that their parents did on their farms. Most children expected to become farmers or farm wives, like their parents. They were raised doing farm work, and they didn’t expect to do anything else when they were older.

Although their lives were filled with chores, there were still some opportunities for fun. Sometimes, neighbors would turn chores into social occasions, called “bees.” These work parties could center around any kind of chore that the community needed to do and could do together, like raising a barn or making quilts, like the characters in the story. Along with accomplishing their task, it was a chance for friends and neighbors to get together and talk and have a little fun.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction

I don’t think I read this particular book in the Kirsten series when I was young. I wasn’t as fond of the Kirsten books as I was other series in the American Girls franchise because there are some really sad parts in the series. However, I really enjoyed this particular book. Kirsten is worried at first about the welfare of her mother and her family’s new baby because she knows that life on the frontier can be dangerous, and sometimes mothers die in childbirth, and babies don’t always survive. Fortunately, everything turns out well for Kirsten’s mother and new little sister.

This is a happy spring story with a focus on new life and friendship. Even the smallest kitten in the new litter seems like it’s going to be fine. I liked it because, while life on the frontier could be very hard, it’s nice to see that not everything turned out as a tragedy. The book ends with the barn raising and birthday celebration for Kirsten.

Posted on by TracyC · 1 Comment

Kirsten Learns a Lesson

Kirsten, An American Girl

Kirsten Learns a Lesson by Janet Beeler Shaw, 1986.

It’s November, 1854, and now that nine-year-old Kirsten’s family has settled in their new home in Minnesota and the harvest season is over, it’s time for the children to go to school. Kirsten and her brothers, Lars and Peter, will go to the small local school with their cousins, Lisbeth and Anna. Powderkeg School is a one-room schoolhouse in a little log cabin. Lisbeth and Anna’s stories about what Powderkeg School is like worry Kirsten. They talk about how strict their teacher, Mr. Coogan, is. Sometimes, the boys in class get rowdy and fight, and Mr. Coogan uses physical punishment on them. However, the girls tell Kirsten that she probably won’t have any problems with Mr. Coogan because he likes children who are well-behaved, and Kirsten is well-behaved. Still, Kirsten is nervous about what her new school will be like.

When they get to school, they learn that Mr. Coogan was injured in a fall from his horse, so they will have a replacement teacher, Miss Winston, who has only recently arrived from Maine. When one of the mean boys in class says he hops the horse also stepped on Mr. Coogan, Miss Winston tells him that nobody talks out of turn in her class and, although they live in the country, “we are not savages like the Indians.” (This is a 19th century attitude toward Native Americans, but this concept is challenged later in the story.)

Miss Winston has each of the children in class introduce themselves so she can get to know everyone. When it’s Kirsten’s turn to say her name, she forgets to address her teacher as ma’am, like the other students. Miss Winston insists that she say “ma’am”, and when she sees Kirsten struggling with the language, she asks Kirsten if she speaks English. Kirsten says that she speaks a little, and her cousins explain that her family just came from Sweden and that they speak Swedish at home. Miss Winston says that “practice makes perfect”, so Kirsten will practice her English in school. For now, she will have the easiest lessons and share seven-year-old Anna’s schoolbook.

When the mean boy, Amos, laughs at Kirsten, Miss Winston glares at him and strikes the school’s iron stove with her ruler, startling the students. Miss Winston says that her father was a ship’s captain, so she knows how to be in charge of her students, like he was in charge of his crew. Then, she deconstructs the sentence “Miss Winston hit the stove”, pointing out which words are the subject, verb, and direct object of the sentence. Then she warns the class to “Be careful that the direct object of hit isn’t the student.” The implication is that Miss Winston is just as willing to use physical punishment against her students as Mr. Coogan was.

When Amos introduces himself to Miss Winston, we learn that he is nineteen years old, the same age as the new teacher, but the new teacher says that, in spite of being the same age, she’s still the teacher, and he’s the student. In spite of being more a young man than a boy in age, Amos has only just finished the third reader, and Miss Winston says her role is to help him read and do math like a man would, embarrassing Amos. (He can’t use his age to put himself on an equal footing with the new teacher because they are not intellectual equals. She’s the same age, but she has graduated from her own school and become a teacher, and he’s still struggling along with low level math and reading.)

Anna helps Kirsten with her lessons, and Miss Winston praises her for helping to teach Kirsten, but she doesn’t praise Kirsten for doing a good job. At the end of the school day, Kirsten and her cousins talk about the new teacher. Anna thinks that Miss Winston seems nice, but Kirsten thinks that Miss Winston doesn’t like her and that she seems very strict. She asks if that was what Mr. Coogan was like, and Lisbeth says he was worse. The best part of the day for Kirsten was lunchtime, when the children were allowed some play time. When she ran around and played tag with the other children, it didn’t matter if she didn’t speak much English.

When the girls play school with their dolls, Anna imitates Miss Winston and her comment about “savages.” Kirsten asks the other girls what that word means. They say it means “wild.” Kirsten asks them if the Indians (Native Americans) are really like that, and they say that some people say they’re kind and will help people if they need food but others day that they’re “cruel and bloodthirsty.” They’ve seen an Indian man before. He came to their house when their mother was roasting meat, and he left when their mother gave him some. They thought he looked pretty “savage” because his face was painted, and he had eagle feathers in his hair. The girls say that Native Americans also wear knives and live in tents. As a farmer, their father is concerned about the Native Americans. He knows that, if the farmers take too much of their usual hunting grounds for farming, it will drive away the animals, and the Native Americans will be starving and angry. While he is happy that he has been able to secure some farmland for his family (I explained a little about the famine conditions and lack of farmland in Sweden around this time that caused people like the Larsons to leave their country when I covered Meet Kirsten), he is aware that the Native Americans also need land for their survival.

At school, Miss Winston announces that each student will memorize a poem and recite it for the class. When they recite their poems, she wants them to say them with feeling and show the emotions their poem is trying to convey. Kirsten worries about this assignment because she’s still learning English. It’s hard enough for her to learn to read anything in English and understand the meaning of the words. She doesn’t know how she can also learn to memorize an entire poem and say it in front of everyone. Miss Winston gives Kirsten a short poem to learn, but having even a short one doesn’t seem to help Kirsten.

Meanwhile, Kirsten has her first encounter with a Native American when she spots an Indian (Native American) girl watching her while she’s getting water from the stream. The girl runs away, but Kirsten finds a blue bead that she dropped. Kirsten takes it and leaves her a little pretend cake that she and her cousins made for their dolls. Later, she finds that the cake is missing and that there’s a green duck feather in its place. She and the Indian girl trade little objects in this way, gradually becoming friends.

Kirsten’s secret friendship with the Native American girl becomes a comfort to her when school is stressful. Frontier teachers often board with families who live near the school, and when Miss Winston comes to stay at Kirsten’s aunt and uncle’s house, Kirsten feels like school is following her home. What’s worse is that Kirsten’s family will be joining them for dinner, and they will practice English during the meal. Kirsten knows that the meals, instead of being comfortable family time, will now be like lessons, and they will struggle to say things they would want to say because her family still hardly knows English. Worse yet, Miss Winston is cross with Kirsten because she can’t seem to memorize even her short poem.

Sneaking away to visit the Native American girl, who is called Singing Bird, gives Kirsten an escape from her struggles with English. Somehow, Kirsten and Singing Bird manage to communicate well enough with each other, even though neither of them speaks each other’s language. Then, Singing Bird takes Kirsten to see her village. To her surprise, Kirsten realizes that she has been gradually teaching Singing Bird English words without realizing it. However, Singing Bird’s people are going to be moving on soon. Kirsten’s uncle is correct that farming is driving away the animals the Native Americans depend on for food, and they’re suffering for it. Singing Bird invites Kirsten to come with her tribe when they leave, and it’s tempting to think of living an exciting life, traveling with Singing Bird and not going to school. But, is that what Kirsten really wants?

The book ends with a section of historical information about frontier schools in the mid-1800s.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive (multiple copies).

My Reaction and Spoilers

Along with the first book in the series, this is the book that I remember the best of the Kirsten books. I think I either didn’t read the others or didn’t finish them because there are some sad things in the Kirsten stories that I didn’t like. In the first book, Meet Kirsten, another child Kirsten befriends on the journey to Minnesota dies of cholera. It’s historically accurate that some children died of disease on the journey west, but it was still hard to take. I also talked about how the reason why families like Kirsten’s wanted to come to America was that Sweden was experiencing famine around this time. The first book didn’t say much about that, but in this book, Kirsten remembers experiencing hunger in Sweden when her father’s crops failed and how her little brother cried from hunger.

Kirsten understands the plight of the Native Americans when they have to move to a new area when their food supplies run low. However, when Singing Bird invites Kirsten to come with them, she realizes that would mean leaving the rest of her family, and she can’t do that. While it’s tempting to go with her friend and escape the problems in her life, Kirsten can’t do that without also giving up the good things in her life and trading the problems in her life for a different set of problems. Although there are appealing aspects to their lives, the Native Americans also have their own struggles. To use an old adage, the grass isn’t always greener on the other side of the fence. People say it in different ways, but just because someone else’s situation is different doesn’t always mean that it’s better.

In this book, we also see what it’s like for Kirsten’s family as they begin learning English, so they can communicate with other people in their new country, and the children begin going to school. The little frontier school is different from other schools they’ve experienced before, and the teachers are strict. They have to be strict because some of the students are rough and fight with each other physically, and they have to make it clear that they’re not going to put up with that. This is a real-life aspect of schools from this time period. Fortunately, we never see the teacher actually using physical punishment against anybody. She just threatens to do it so her students will think twice about misbehaving.

When Miss Winston comes to board with Kirsten’s relatives, Kirsten thinks that everything is going to be worse, that she’s constantly going to be bombarded with lessons and the problems she’s been having at school. However, it turns into an opportunity for Kirsten and Miss Winston to get to know each other better. At first, Miss Winston can’t understand why Kirsten is having such a difficult time remembering her poem, even though it’s pretty short and easy. It’s partly because she’s still having difficulties with her English, but also, the content of the poem has no relation to anything currently happening in Kirsten’s life. It doesn’t interest her, and her mind is preoccupied with all the changes happening in her life, making it difficult for her to focus on the poem and remember it. When Miss Winston shows Kirsten a model of her father’s ship, it brings back memories of the ship Kirsten’s family traveled on when they came from Sweden. Miss Winston realizes that Kirsten has strong memories of the ship, so she gives her a different poem to memorize, one about a ship. Kirsten finds this poem easier to remember because it connects to memories she already has.

Although Miss Winston can be tough, she genuinely does care about Kirsten and looks for ways to help her learn. It just takes time to figure out the best way to help her, and Kirsten also needs time to adjust to her new language and new home. Once Kirsten sees that it’s possible for her to learn and for her new home to begin feeling like home, she begins to feel better about her new life in Minnesota.

I enjoyed the realistic aspects of the story and the references to historical events and real life conditions on the frontier. I think I liked this story better as an adult because I understood more about the historical background than I did when I was a kid. Parts of this series are still sad. Kirsten remembers people being sick and dying on the journey to America, and although she doesn’t go into detail about it, her family did suffer genuine hardship in Sweden.

Posted on by TracyC · 2 Comments

Kirsten’s Cookbook

Kirsten, An American Girl

Kirsten’s Cookbook by Terri Braun, Jodi Evert, and Jeanne Thieme, 1994.

This cook book is one of the activity books that was written to accompany the Kirsten series that is part of the American Girls franchise. The American Girls books were written to help teach American history (as well as sell the accompanying dolls and accessories), so this book has recipes of the type that people would have eaten on the American frontier during the mid-1800s, when the character of Kirsten lived, and some historical information.

The book begins with some historical information about cooking on the frontier. Pioneer families like Kirsten’s family ate what they grew themselves and things they could gather from the woods around them. They ate certain foods only in the season when they could get them, and it was hard work to produce food and process it before using it in recipes. There were certain types of food that they had often because the ingredients were simple and often available, like potatoes and bread, and they rarely had time to prepare special or elaborate meals. However, they would take the time to make some special treats for holidays.

There are special sections that describe what pioneer kitchens were like and the dishes and table settings they would use. Pioneer families like Kirsten’s lived in one-room cabins, so her family cooked, ate, and slept all in that one room. They had a wood-burning cookstove, but stoves like that did not come with temperature settings. (This is why you don’t see temperatures specified in old recipes from the 19th century, although this book does include that information for modern readers.) People learned to judge roughly whether the temperature was right to bake bread or cook other recipes by feel, and could regulate the approximate temperature through the type or amount of wood they burned.

There is also a section of cooking tips and kitchen safety tips for modern child readers. Then, the recipes are organized by type of meal with a section of Kirsten’s favorite recipes. Each section and recipe is accompanied with additional historical information and trivia.

Breakfast

  • Pork sausage patties
  • Hard-boiled eggs
  • Swedish rice porridge
  • Round rye bread
  • Homemade butter
  • Ginger cookies – Although cookies seem like an odd thing to see at breakfast, a pioneer family might have them and save some for a snack in the mid-morning, before lunch, or as they called it, dinner.

Dinner

“Dinner” is usually the biggest meal of the day, but depending on when and where you live, that might be either the midday meal or the evening meal. In modern times, it tends to be the evening meal, after a family or individuals are home from work or school and have more time for a large meal. Modern people sometimes use the terms “dinner” and “supper” (the evening meal) interchangeably for that reason. In Kirsten’s time and, sometimes, in rural areas even in modern times, the biggest meal is the midday meal, what most of us would call “lunch.”

  • Baked ham slice
  • Swedish potatoes
  • Cabbage and apple salad
  • Fruit Soup
  • Swedish Almond Rusks – Swedish rusks are crunchy sweet breads, a little like biscotti.

Favorite Foods

This section just has an assortment of recipes for Kirsten’s favorite foods. Some of them are traditional Swedish foods, and others are more American. There is a mention in this section that pioneers learned how to make maple syrup from “Indians”, meaning Native Americans.

  • Potato soup – Soup with bread and cheese was a popular supper meal for farming families in the 19th century.
  • Swedish meatballs
  • Fresh applesauce
  • Swedish pancakes – These thin pancakes are rolled and filled with jam.
  • St. Lucia buns – These special buns are topped with raisins, and it’s a tradition in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries to serve them on St. Lucia Day, December 13.
  • Pepparkakor cookies – These are thin, spicy cookies that are cut into shapes and served at Christmas.

The book ends with a section of tips for having a pioneer-themed party. When real pioneers had parties, they were often organized around chores they had to do or tasks to accomplish. They called these work-play parties “bees”. Besides accomplishing a task, friends and neighbors would also bring food and share a meal, talk, and have fun. The suggestions in this section are organized seasonally. A Winter Baking Bee could involve everyone getting together to bake holiday treats, like the ones included in this book for St. Lucia Day and Christmas, or whatever the guests want to bake. At a Spring Gardening Bee, guests can get together to plant a garden or potted plants, with plants for guests to take home themselves. For a Summer Berry Bee, guests can pick berries (if they grow locally or at a “pick-your-own” farm) or make jam, with some for everyone to take home. For a Fall Apple Bee, guests can pick apples and make recipes with apples, like applesauce.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Samantha’s Cookbook

Samantha, An American Girl

Samantha’s Cookbook by Polly Athan, Terri Braun, Jodi Evert, and Jeanne Thieme, 1994, 1998.

This cook book is one of the activity books that was written to accompany the Samantha series that is part of the American Girls franchise. The American Girls books were written to help teach American history (as well as sell the accompanying dolls and accessories), so this book has recipes of the type that people would have eaten during the early 1900s, when the character of Samantha lived, and some historical information about cooking and dining during that period.

The first section in the book discusses innovations that made cooking easier in Samantha’s time than it had been in earlier time periods. The kitchen in Samantha’s house had running water, a gas stove, and an icebox for refrigerating food. Because Samantha comes from a wealthy family, who can hire people to cook for them, Samantha’s education focuses more on learning how to be a good hostess, meaning that she would be more likely to be in the dining room, helping to entertain guests, rather than in the kitchen, preparing food. However, Samantha would have been familiar with cookbooks, discussing new recipes and studying sections of cookbooks that offered advice about dining etiquette. There are sections in this book that discuss the role of servants in shopping for and preparing food and the proper way to set a table for an elegant dinner party.

After that, there is a section of cooking tips and kitchen safety tips. The recipes in the book are divided into sections based on meals, followed by a section of Samantha’s favorite recipes. The recipes are also accompanied by historical information.

Breakfast

The book explains that, because Samantha is from a wealthy family, her family’s cook begins making breakfast before Samantha wakes up in the morning, so it will be ready for her as soon as she’s awake and dressed. In her time, breakfast was typically the lightest meal of the day, but wealthy households had a variety of foods at breakfast. Breakfast was typically served with hot drinks. Adults usually had coffee or tea, while children might have hot chocolate.

  • Strawberries with cream
  • Ham slice
  • Cheese omelet
  • Saratoga potatoes – These are fried potato chips, which were a relatively new innovation in Samantha’s time. The book explains that potato chips were invented by a Native American cook at a resort in Saratoga Springs, New York in 1853 after a customer complained that the fried potatoes should be thinner.
  • Blueberry muffins

Dinner

“Dinner” is usually the biggest meal of the day, but depending on when and where you live, that might be either the midday meal or the evening meal. In the past and in rural areas, “dinner” was often lunch. By Samantha’s time, as it typically is in modern times, it was the evening meal, after a family or individuals are home from work or school and have more time for a large meal. For wealthy families, like Samantha’s family, dinner was a very formal meal. They would often dress up for dinner, and at formal dinner parties, there would be name cards on the table to tell everyone where to sit. At a formal dinner in a household with servants, individual dishes and parts of the meal would be served in “courses”, but the number of courses could vary. Samantha’s family followed the English style, with fives courses at dinner. The book mentions Samantha’s family having soup, salad, appetizers, a main course with roasted meat, and dessert and coffee at the end of the meal. Some larger, fancier dinner parties could have many more, some as many as 18 courses!

  • Cream of carrot soup
  • Roasted beef tenderloin
  • Mashed potatoes
  • Fresh green beans
  • Corn oysters – These are fried corn patties.
  • French salad
  • Dressing
  • Ice cream snowballs – These are scoops of vanilla ice cream coated in shredded coconut.

Favorite Foods

This section has an assortment of recipes for Samantha’s favorite foods. The book explains that, while Samantha was being trained to be a hostess more than a cook, even wealthy girls like her would taught some basic cooking skills. Sometimes, Samantha would help the family’s cook in the kitchen and make some simple recipes.

  • Apple Brown Betty
  • Jelly biscuits
  • Cream cheese and walnut sandwiches
  • Chicken salad sandwiches
  • Gingerbread
  • Lemon ice

The book ends with a section about how to plan a tea party, like girls in Samantha’s time might have. The suggestions include themed tea parties, like afternoon tea, a color tea (a popular concept in the early 1900s, where everything at the party, from decorations to food, would be themed around a particular color), a garden tea party, and a doll tea party (girls would bring their dolls, and there would even be tiny treats to serve to the dolls).

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Felicity’s Cookbook

Felicity, An American Girl

Felicity’s Cookbook by Polly Athan, Rebecca Sample Bernstein, Terri Braun, and Jodi Evert, 1994.

This cook book is one of the activity books that was written to accompany the Felicity, An American Girl series that is part of the American Girl franchise. The American Girls books were written to help teach American history (as well as sell the accompanying dolls and accessories), so this book has recipes of the type that people would have eaten during the American Revolutionary War, when the character of Felicity lived, and some historical information.

The book starts out with some historical information about cooking in Colonial Virginia, where Felicity lived, and some general cooking tips, like measuring instructions and safety information. It includes information about late 18th century kitchens, cooking utensils, and dishes. Colonial kitchens were frequently located in an outbuilding, separate from the rest of the house. It was best to keep the kitchen a little away from the house because, rather than using stoves, their main method of cooking was a large kitchen fireplace, which made the kitchen very hot. During warm months, the heat would be uncomfortable, so keeping the kitchen separate from the house kept the house cooler. They would vent heat from the kitchen by opening the kitchen windows. On the other hand, during cool or cold months, the warmth of the kitchen fire could be pleasant, so family members might gather there. Families with servants and slaves might have them live in a loft over the kitchen, keeping them separate from the family. The kitchen fire could also be a potential fire hazard, so the kitchen typically had a brick floor or packed dirt because a wood floor might catch fire.

The types of dishes a family might have depended on their social class and what they could afford. Felicity comes from a prosperous merchant family, and a family like hers might have imported dishes from England or China as well as locally-made dishes. Wealthy people might have had silver or pewter serving dishes, while poor people had wooden dishes, often poplar or linden, which wouldn’t contribute much flavor to the food.

Hospitality was very important in Colonial Virginia. Friends, family members, and business associates frequently visited each other’s homes, and because there were no telephones, there often wasn’t much advance notice that guests were coming. People were often prepared to provide food for unexpected guests. Because she is being raised to be a gentlewoman, much of Felicity’s education focuses on how to be a good hostess, how to plan meals and social events, and how to properly prepare and serve different types of foods.

Modern people might not view these topics as being very important from an educational standpoint, but in Felicity’s day, they served a very important purpose. The book doesn’t really go into the reasons why it was important for Felicity to be a good hostess as part of her social status, but it essentially boils down to what 21st century people might call “networking.” As the daughter of a socially-prominent businessman and the potential future wife of someone with a similar social standing, being a good hostess could help her family or future spouse establish and maintain good relations with other members of the community, helping to cement business arrangements or arrange marriages between members her family (siblings or her future children) and other families of good social standing, possibly including her own. Being capable of cooking delicious food and arranging dinner parties could be for fun and family celebrations, but the ability to be a competent and charming hostess for anyone who might have business with her family or anyone her family might want to associate with could help smooth over possible social difficulties or quarrels or promote better relationships with members of their community.

In a way, Felicity’s lessons in manners, tea party etiquette, making pleasant conversation, preparing appropriate meals, and providing food and a pleasant visit for guests on short notice would have been the 18th century equivalent of taking courses in social networking. This type of social role is one that housewives have performed for centuries, both before and after Felicity’s time, and it also appears in some of the other American Girl books, such as Samantha, An American Girl, which is set in the early 1900s and focuses on a girl from a wealthy family. It’s a sort of unofficial role, not unlike that of the First Lady of the United States, who organizes social events, acts as hostess for important visitors, and promotes good causes to better the public image of the President, although the specific methods they use to do this varies based on the social standards of the day, their own tastes and abilities, and the image they want to promote. This is the type of lifestyle that Felicity’s family is preparing her to fulfill. People still do this sort of thing, even if it’s just being prepared to offer someone coffee, tea, or water when they’re visiting on business, seeing to the small social niceties to make the guest a little more comfortable and start important discussions on a positive note. It’s not just about keeping women in the kitchen and out of men’s business; there’s a purpose behind it for promoting the family’s business and social standing. Deep down, Felicity might wish that she could be the one to work in the shop and make business deals directly rather than learning the social niceties and networking skills to promote relationships, but it’s still an important and useful role that her family wants her to fill.

The recipes in the book are organized by meal. Each section and individual recipes come with historical details related to the different types of food.

Breakfast

  • Apple butter
  • Johnnycakes
  • Breakfast puffs
  • Fried ham with gravy
  • Dressed eggs

Dinner

“Dinner” is usually the biggest meal of the day, but depending on when and where you live, that might be either the midday meal or the evening meal. In modern times, it tends to be the evening meal, after a family or individuals are home from work or school and have more time for a large meal. Modern people sometimes use the terms “dinner” and “supper” (the evening meal) interchangeably for that reason. In Felicity’s time and, sometimes, in rural areas even in modern times, the biggest meal is the midday meal, what most of us would call “lunch.”

  • Chicken pudding
  • Veal balls
  • Sweet potatoes and apples
  • Sally Lunn bread
  • Green beans
  • Whipped Syllabub

Favorite Foods

This section just has an assortment of recipes for Felicity’s favorite foods.

  • Beefsteak pie
  • Baked pumpkin pudding
  • Raspberry flummery
  • Almond tarts
  • Queen cakes
  • Spiced nuts
  • Liberty tea – an herbal alternative to traditional tea, used after colonists started boycotting imported tea to avoid and protest taxes

The book ends with tips for planning a Colonial party, such as an elegant tea party or Twelfth Night party.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.

Posted on by TracyC

Lady Margaret’s Ghost

Felicity, An American Girl

Lady Margaret’s Ghost by Elizabeth McDavid Jones, 2009.

This book is one of the mystery stories published to accompany the American Girl series of historical books. The main character of this book, Felicity Merriman, lives in Colonial era Williamsburg, Virginia, around the beginning of the American Revolution.

Felicity’s mother is going on a trip to visit a relative, along with Felicity’s younger siblings. As the oldest girl in the family, Felicity will be in charge of the household while her mother is gone and her father and his apprentice, Ben, are working in the store her father owns. It’s a big responsibility and an honor that Felicity’s mother considers her capable of managing the household, but because Felicity is still young and some household tasks involve heavy work that is difficult for her to do alone, her mother has hired a temporary cook, Mrs. Hewitt, to help her. Because Felicity is known as a daydreamer who doesn’t always pay attention to what she should be doing, her mother reminds her to focus on the task at hand while she’s minding the house, although she has faith in Felicity and is sure that she will do a good job.

Soon after her mother leaves, a crate arrives at the house for Felicity’s father, along with a letter. The letter explains that a cousin of Felicity’s father has died and that the crate contains some family heirlooms that his cousin left to him. These heirlooms once belonged to a common ancestor of theirs, Sir Edward Merriman, a wealthy nobleman and the first member of their family to live in the colonies, more than 100 years earlier. Felicity’s father didn’t know his cousin well because they never lived very close, and his cousin was much older, but he does know the history of the heirlooms. The heirlooms include a lady’s silver vanity set and a silver cup and rattle for baby. The story is that Sir Edward’s wife, Lady Margaret, owned the vanity set, and the rattle and cup were for their infant son. Unfortunately, the baby was stillborn, and Lady Margaret died shortly after the birth. After her death, her husband and the household servants believed that she still haunted the house. The haunting may have been part of the reason why Sir Edward decided to leave his home in England and go to America, but even though he later remarried and had other children, he could never bring himself to part from the things that belonged to his first wife and child. Even before Felicity’s father tells her about the ghost story, Felicity gets a strange feeling from the vanity set, and she wonders if the objects could be haunted.

However, Felicity soon has to turn her attention to household issues. Mrs. Hewitt, the temporary cook arrives, and she is a brusque and unpleasant woman. She is rude and condescending to Felicity when they are working in the kitchen together. Because Mrs. Hewitt is so rude, Felicity is nervous and makes mistakes, making her look like more of a fool to Mrs. Hewitt. They can’t easily replace her because cooks are in demand right now because this is Publick Times in Williamsburg, and there are many visitors to the city. Everyone is busy tending to them. Mrs. Hewitt was the best they could find available. Felicity’s father does speak to her about her rudeness to Felicity. After that, Mrs. Hewitt is sullen and resentful, and she is even more pleased whenever she sees Felicity doing something wrong.

There is also an exciting event taking place. Felicity has entered her horse, Penny, in a horse race at the fair in town! Ben, her father’s apprentice, will ride her. The day of the race, Penny seems to be doing well, but then, she suddenly develops a problem during the race. When Felicity and Ben check her out to see what was wrong, they discover that someone put burrs under Penny’s saddle! Worse still, the wounds caused by the burrs become infected. Felicity is very upset and worried about Penny, and she wonders who would have hurt her horse. There were a couple of men looking at her before the race. There was also a boy named Dawson and a girl called Anne.

Dawson turns out to be a runaway, but he also has some knowledge of horses. Although Felicity is a little suspicious of him at first, Dawson helps to heal Penny’s wounds. He also says that he saw Anne gathering burrs, but it was probably on behalf of someone else.

When Felicity realizes that her treasured coral necklace, which her mother also wore as a girl, has disappeared, Felicity questions whether she carelessly lost it or if someone has stolen it. Felicity has been doubting herself and her ability to manage the household because of all the mistakes she has made since her mother left, and the clasp of the necklace was a little loose. This could just be another disastrous mistake, but it is suspicious that Anne seemed so friendly to her at the race and then ran away from her later. Anne also literally bumped into Felicity at the race. Could she have taken the necklace? Dawson seems to think so, but then again, can Felicity really trust everything he says?

Felicity still gets an odd feeling from Lady Margaret’s heirlooms, and she thinks that she sees something white moving around at night. At first, she thinks that it could be Lady Margaret’s ghost, but then, strange things begin happening around the house. Things disappear, and Felicity worries that maybe she carelessly mislaid them. Then, her necklace unexpectedly turns up, and Lady Margaret’s vanity set vanishes! Are these strange things part of the haunting of Lady Margaret or the work of a thief? If it’s a human thief, is it the work of the runaway Dawson, mysterious Anne, unpleasant Mrs. Hewitt, or the mysterious person who arranged for Penny to be hurt?

The book ends with a section of historical information about Colonial era Williamsburg. The story is set during Publick Times, which was when court was in session in Williamsburg. People would gather in Williamsburg during Publick Times to see the trials in court and attend a public fair in Market Square. The fair offered various kinds of entertainment, games, and races, like the horse race in the story.

My Reaction

The story leaves it a little ambiguous at the end about whether Lady Margaret’s ghost exists, but if she does, she is not harmful and has nothing to do with the thefts in the story or what happened to Penny at the horse race. As the section of historical information explains, there are many new visitors in Williamsburg during Publick Times. This was a good setting for the story because there are many strangers to the city with unknown pasts and motives, and crowds at the fair might harbor thieves.

Part of the story and part of the section of historical information in the back focuses on the subject of orphans. Both Dawson and Anne are orphans, and neither of them is really being cared for. Dawson admits that he used to steal to support himself after his father died, but he is seriously looking for work. Anne technically has a guardian, but her guardian is abusive and uses her as a servant rather than taking care of her.

When the thefts occur and mysterious things start happening around the Merriman house, both Dawson and Anne look like the best suspects, but there are also possible adult suspects. Even after Felicity realizes Anne’s situation, she isn’t entirely sure which of the men at the fair that day is Anne’s guardian. Mrs. Hewitt also looks suspicious because she is so unpleasant and seems to be trying to make trouble for Felicity. I though the book did a good job of supplying an array of suspects to consider. The solution to the mystery was one of the possibilities I thought was most likely, but there were enough other possibilities to make the story interesting.

Posted on by TracyC

Addy’s Cook Book

Addy, An American Girl

Addy’s Cook Book by Rebecca Sample Bernstein, Terri Braun, Tamara England, and Jodi Evert, 1994.

This cook book is one of the activity books that was written to accompany the Addy series that is part of the American Girls franchise. The American Girls books were written to help teach American history (as well as sell the accompanying dolls and accessories), so this book has recipes of the type that people would have eaten during the American Civil War, when the character of Addy lived, and some historical information.

The book begins with sections of historical information about African Americans, kitchens, and table settings in the 1860s. It describes the lives of slaves and explains how they were given basic rations of food which they could supplement and extend by producing or gathering some food of their own, such as vegetables they grew or fish they caught themselves. When they managed to escape from slavery, they had to depend on help from others, such as churches or abolitionists, until they became established in their new lives. When they were able, many of them provided help to others who were in the same position. (This was a topic covered in the Addy books.)

The types of kitchens they used depended on where they were living. As slaves, Civil War era African Americans would do their cooking in small fireplaces attached to the small cabins where they lived. Because they needed the fire for cooking, they kept it burning all the time, even in hot weather. Free African Americans had more options. Depending on their living arrangements, they might have a stove for their cooking, or if they lived in a boarding house, they might be provided with meals as part of their boarding, paid for along with the rent on their rooms.

The recipes in the book are divided into three sections: breakfast, dinner, and favorite foods. There is a section with some general cooking tips, but there are other cooking tips and pieces of historical information included along with the recipes. Some information that I found particularly useful explains why some historical recipes can be confusing to read. Because some people were using cooking fires and some were using stoves, 19th century recipes can have vague-sounding instructions like “fry until golden brown” instead of specific cooking times and temperatures. It was also common for people to cook favorite dishes from memory instead of following written recipes. People learned to cook from their elders, and they just continued doing what parents and grandparents always did when they cooked. The book doesn’t mention it, but this style of cooking also continued into the 20th century, so even when people wrote down recipes, they might seem vague or incomplete to modern readers. It was like that with recipes that my grandmother and great-grandmother wrote down, too. They were accustomed to making certain recipes mostly from memory, and they didn’t feel obligated to write down every little step, assuming that anyone who read it would already know how to make that kind of dish and would just need a few reminders about amounts. Fortunately, the recipes in this book are all written with detailed, modern instructions and include cooking times and oven temperatures.

The book explains that poor people during the Civil War didn’t usually have much for breakfast because they had to rise early and get to work. Most mornings, they might have some leftovers from the previous night or some simple hot foods, like buttermilk biscuits and hominy grits, a traditional Southern breakfast food made from corn (my grandmother said that she had it when she was growing up on a farm in Indiana, too). As a special treat, they might have scrambled eggs or sausage and gravy.

The dinner section includes main dishes, like fried fish, and side dishes, like hush puppies. A particular recipe that gets extra attention is Hoppin’ John, a rice dish with black-eyed peas and bacon. Hoppin’ John is special because it’s a dish traditionally served at New Year’s Day.

The section of favorite foods include chicken shortcake, a few other side dishes, and a few special treats, including peach cobbler and shortbread. I’ve tried the shortbread recipe, and I like it. It’s easy to make and includes only a few ingredients, and it’s really good. It does contain a lot of butter, so it’s just an occasional treat.

The book ends with a section of advice for planning an Emancipation party. It explains how people celebrated when the Emancipation Proclamation was read publicly on December 31, 1862, having been transmitted to communities by telegraph. Children played games like Novel Writers (which is a story-writing game similar to Consequences) and Blindman’s Buff. The book also describes the origins of Juneteenth – slaves in Texas were freed on June 19th, 1865, about two and half years after the Emancipation Proclamation.

The book is available to borrow and read for free online through Internet Archive.