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Title: Daddy-Long-Legs (Puffin Classics) by Jean Webster ISBN: 0-14-037455-8 Publisher: Puffin Pub. Date: July, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.65 (43 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Classic You Can Read in a Day
Comment: I've read this book a few times, and every time I come back to it, I can't put it down. It's short (around 200 pages) & sweet. The book was published in 1912, and is one-of-a-kind, as it consists almost entirely of letters written by Judy. Judy is an orphan from the John Grier Home, an orphange she was raised in since she was a baby. Her future seems very bleak until one day she is unexpectedly offered the opportunity for a paid college education to become an author by one of the orphanage's trustees. In return, she has to write monthly letters to the unknown trustee who is known as Mr. John Smith. She calls him "Daddy-Long-Legs" because she saw his tall shadow as he left the building. Her letters are very entertaining, and often impertinent. That is really all I want to tell of the story, but here are a couple of quotes from the book that I loved:
"It isn't the big troubles in life that require character. Anybody can rise to a crisis and face a crushing tragedy with courage, but to meet the petty hazards of the day with a laugh -- I really think that requires spirit."
"I think the most necessary quality for any person to have is imagination. It makes people able to put themselves in other people's places. It makes them kind and sympathetic and understanding. It ought to be cultivated in children."
Rating: 4
Summary: A Cinderella Story of the Odd Variety
Comment: Practical Jean Webster must not have believed in fey folk, however, as this novel's fairy-godmother is a man--and an orphan asylum trustee, of all things. (Readers find out exactly what that is by at least the third page and never forget it.) Nevertheless, he does bring the heroine closer to her dreams by sending to her to college for free. He's also mysterious and eccentric--a nice touch.
This heroine is Jerusha Abbot, who pluckily changes her name to Judy as soon as she enters college. Most of the novel is composed of her letters to the kind trustee, whom she has named Daddy-Long-Legs. Her observations on her roommates, friends, classes, teachers, and life in general are a delight to read and her style is light and funny. She remains as likeable today as she was when this book was first published in 1912.
Thankfully, the "modern" details that Webster sprinkled throughout the text will not get in the way of readers' enjoyment. When Judy confesses that she hadn't known that R.L.S. stood for Robert Louis Stevenson or that George Eliot was a lady--and almost laments that she "wasn't brought up on 'Little Women'"--readers don't mind that neither had they. It is the spirit of the words that comes through to them: they understand what is important--her embarrassment at the fact and her motivation to correct it--and that is enough.
As Webster considered herself a socialist and a reformer, one of the reasons she wrote "Daddy-Long-Legs" was definitely to show the more uppity folk of the early twentieth century that even children who are brought up in orphan asylums _can_ become useful, productive adults when they grow up.
Of course, the appeal of this children's novel has less to do with that message than with Judy's (and therefore, Webster's) sense of humor. I'm sure that children breeze through--and soon forget--Judy's little sermons about the need to cultivate imagination in children or the virtue of doing things out of love and not duty. (The passages about socialism are another story, however. Judy's socialist streak is one of the most fun--and one of the most important--elements in "Daddy-Long-Legs".)
On the other hand, children will love the more whimsical details. For example, during one lonely Christmas, Judy bought herself some presents; pretended that they came from her family in California; and proceeded to make up, name and characterize each hypothetical family member. Yes, this novel is great fun.
Rating: 5
Summary: strong female book
Comment: If any girl (5th grade and up) wants to read a book about a strong female lead, this is IT! Judy gets to go to college by an anonymous donor. She just has to write him a letter a month. No strings. See how Judy handles differences and the world around her. She is spunky! Great book for an independent read. I plan to use it in my classroom.
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Title: Dear Enemy by Jean Webster ISBN: 0848803248 Publisher: Amereon Ltd Pub. Date: December, 1996 List Price(USD): $27.95 |
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Title: The Railway Children by C. E. Brock, Edith Nesbit ISBN: 0140366717 Publisher: Puffin Pub. Date: November, 1994 List Price(USD): $3.99 |
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Title: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott, Ann M. Magagna, Louis Jambour, Louis Jambor ISBN: 0448060191 Publisher: Price Stern Sloan Pub Pub. Date: June, 1983 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title:Daddy Long Legs ASIN: 6302136261 Publisher: Twentieth Century Fox Pub. Date: 26 September, 1991 List Price(USD): $19.98 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $19.98 |
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Title: Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery ISBN: 0517189682 Publisher: Gramercy Pub. Date: 01 September, 1998 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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