Strawberry Girl

Originally posted September 5, 2003

Strawberry Girl

by Lois Lenski,

Newbery Medal 1946

Well, this is one of the few Newbery books that I just plain didn't like much. I had to kind of force myself to finish it. The story takes place in Florida many years ago and tells of two neighboring families, one of which is featured in the story --- a family that is hard working and virtuous, building a farm of strawberries and citrus, raising a bunch of kids right. The other family, is ignorant and basically "white trash" though they never come out and use that phrase. There was something about that set up that just grated on me, the endless contrast between these two families and the moralistic judgmental undertone beneath that comparison.

In the end the "bad" family get's saved, starts reading the bible,the father quits drinking and becomes grateful for his kind neighbors. . .I don't know, it just didn't work for me quite.

HOWEVER, the cool stuff in this story is what you learn about life in that place, in that time. I loved the detailed descriptions of every day life, making sorghum molasses, the ice wagons/iced shipping boxes used to ship strawberries by train up north, the one room school, etc.

So, if you were just dying to learn about the early farming of Florida, hey! you will learn some of that!

I'm curious about Lois Lenski, she's written a whole bunch of books similarly depicting different regions of the US, or different times in US history, has anybody just loved any of them? This is the first one I've read.

Love, Louise