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Overview
In an instant Jane Hartley's world is turned upside down. During the bittersweet days of the Great Depression her family suddenly must struggle to make ends meet. Her father loses his job. The milkman stops coming to their door. And Jane has to wear old stockings riddled with ugly runs. But Jane is a girl of faith and hope who keeps alive her dream of becoming an author by making daily entries in her diary about the changing world around her and by writing stories for her favorite magazines. She also spends every spare moment helping the kindly Reverend Waltz, the owner of the Book Shop. She loves to read the books he gives to her as payment. When a rare school book is found one day hidden away in the Book Shop, life for Jane and her family takes yet another turn - this time for the better.As the Depression begins to take hold in the autumn of 1929, thirteen-year-old Jane records in her diary the day-to-day changes in her family's circumstances after her father loses his job.
Editorials
Publishers Weekly -
This quiet novel takes the form of a journal kept by a seventh grader during 1929-1930. Jane and her family are harshly affected by the Depression, so when her volunteer work at a newly established bookshop reaps a salaried job offer, she quits school. For Jane, the opportunity to read an array of books is as important as the income-she plans to be a writer. Ducey (Out of This Nettle) convincingly evokes the era, but it's hard to believe in a heroine whose diary entries include recapitulations of Sunday school classes and paeans to punctuation marks (``I love semi-colons-Miss Roop says I always use them in the right places. If I could only remember possessives!''). Ages 10-13. (Mar.)Children's Literature -
Twelve-year-old Jane keeps a diary of the hard times that arrive when her father loses his job at the beginning of the Great Depression. Her thoughts range from annoyance at having to mend her stockings to embarrassment when the electricity is turned off. Salvation arrives with a job at a secondhand bookstore and the precocious discovery that she loves books and wants to be a writer. It is pleasant to see forgotten classics like Christopher Morley's Parnassus on Wheels dredged from oblivion as inspiration.School Library Journal
Gr 4-6-In this novel written in diary form, 14-year-old Jane Hartley, aspiring writer, records routine and episodic happenings during the years 1929-1930. When her father loses his job, her mother's housekeeping employment and Jane's part-time job in Mr. Walz's bookshop help some, but as things go from bad to desperate and Papa leaves to find work, the girl feels compelled to quit school and work full time. Unfortunately, Ducey never develops enough intrigue, emotion, or suspense to keep readers interested. The writing is dull and forced, and characterization is minimal. This effort compares poorly with the numerous Depression-era titles, such as Barbara Corcoran's The Sky Is Falling (Avon, 1990), that vividly portray the poverty and despair as well as the daily small feats of joy during these years.-Rita Soltan, Baldwin Public Library, Birmingham, MIBook Details
Published
March 1, 1995
Publisher
William B Eerdmans Publishing Co
Pages
115
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780802851130