Great Books for Little Girls

Georgie is madly addicted to chapter books. Yes, we read regular kids books every day, but she's so into the classics, and she loves moving from one chapter to the next of a long, ongoing story.

Right now, we're reading The Secret Garden, a great choice for February when spring is just beginning to poke through the brown of winter.  But that's the fourth classic we've started this week. Yes, fourth.

I'd like to share a short list of some of our latest favorites:

• A Little Princess by Frances Hogsden Burnett: The entire family got into this story. David asked me to only read it at night when he could be home. It deals with grief in a very real way,  and the heroine learns to be an awesomely strong person through her grief and ill treatment.  Like the Apostle Paul, she learns to abase and to abound: that is, when she is rich, she is kind and generous; when she is poor and all is taken from her, she is still kind and generous, but ends up growing an even stronger spirit. A great lesson in how to deal with sudden change, and how to stand strong in the face of enemies and adversity.
• Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher: I had never heard of this book before, but it's one of my absolute favorites. It's another story of a little girl taken out of her element into a situation she can't control, but in this case a sickly city child learns to think for herself and becomes healthy in the Vermont countryside.  It's not a dumbed-down story at all. No, the situations are very realistic, but also very entertaining. I particularly liked the scene in the one-room schoolhouse.  Betsy has only had experience in a public school setting, so she is floored when the teacher puts her in seventh-grade reading, second-grade arithmetic, and third-grade spelling. I was shouting "Amen!"  That's exactly the kind of school I want to provide for my girls!
• All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor: Another book I'd never heard of, but Georgie had her little giggle box turned over several times during this account of a Jewish family of 5 young girls in 1912 New York City. We learned about the Sabbath, Passover, Purim, and Succos, as well as the ups and downs of sibling love and rivalry. 

So, there's the Oak Knoll Review of Books for this week. I think that, for obvious reasons, Georgie especially likes stories about little girls, and these are three very good ones. The Secret Garden has also been great so far, but is much denser than the aforementioned books, plus I've been forced to try my hand a Yorkshire accent!