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Title: Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932 (Dear America) by Kathryn Lasky ISBN: 0-439-21943-4 Publisher: Scholastic Pub. Date: 01 November, 2001 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.79 (38 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Christmas You Will Never Forget
Comment: Have you ever read a book that touch your heart so much that it send chills up and down your spine? I have, and the book that sent me these emotions was, "Christmas After All".
The setting of "Christmas after All", is what really interested me to read this book. The setting of this book was in Indiana during the 1930s, and the reason why I was so interested in it was because I live in Indiana. I just love to hear about our history, and what life was like back then. The special part about this book that really touched me was that it was written about living through the depression. My grandma lived during the depression and she told me stories about how life was like back then, and I thought it was really neat to compare that to this story.
This book was amazing and so entertaining, that I couldn't put it down. I kept imagining myself there in that time period, and just trying to get by like they did. It just made my heart break, because I feel so lucky to have what I have now. If you ever want to learn about Indiana history, the depression, or if you are just looking for a quick read that is enjoyable. I highly recommend you read this fantastic book.
Rating: 5
Summary: HURRAH FOR MINNIE, WILLIE FAYE AND CHIG !!
Comment: Is this the story of Minnie OR is it the story of Willie Faye enchanting the Swift family? She is their distant relative who comes from Heart's Bend, Texas, to live with them in Indianapolis in the Fall of 1932. Willie Faye captivates the four sisters and brother Ozzie, who are growing up just as the Great Depression intrudes on their comfortable life.
Minnie calls it "The Time of The Dwindling" and her diary holds all her thoughts from the month before Christmas. There are colorful colloquialisms scattered throughout, and clever hands working on such projects as Christmas gift hats decorated with guinea hen feathers. The grinding economies forced on the family by the Depression and Papa's loss of work is evident mostly in dress make-overs, and in the menus concocted to stretch some meat, or no meat at all. A description of aspics made this reader laugh out loud, knowing how most of our family hold wobbly gelatines in distain. Young Ozzie's inventions include a "vomitron" which measures the revulsion some recipes provoke!
Imagination and creativity thrived in those years, and favorite radio shows were an important part of family life. Movie-going was a popular pastime, too, although in hard-hit families only the boys with jobs could afford tickets, even at ten cents, or a quarter for a double feature. But for true entertainment nothing could match the starry-eyed magic of Willie Faye's Christmas Eve story. Author Kathryn Lasky makes converts of her readers!
While the Swift family takes a stiff upper lip attitude about difficult times, their lives are changed by the arrival of the orphan cousin, and even more by the disappearance of their papa. It turns out that Ozzie inspired his father to write a radio serial, "Ozzie, the Boy Wonder." It becomes so popular the family is catapulted right out of their personal Depression.
I wanted to reread Minnie's take on hard times after being charmed by the 2003 novel "CHIG and the Second Spread," which tells the story of a family living only fifty miles south of Minnie Swift. In the hill country Minerva (Chig) Kalpin (could Minnie's name also be 'Minerva'?)grew up in poor, rather than 'comfortable' circumstances. Her experience was different yet similar: both families pulled together to overcome hard times with ingenuity and integrity.
Does the Depression Era seem part of the realm of fantasy today? For young readers it must hold the attraction of the unknown. Today's computer-age children will learn much from befriending Minnie and Willie Faye, AND Chig.
Rating: 5
Summary: Extra!! Extra!! Read Christmas After All
Comment: I like this book because, it gets really interesting. Christmas After All gets sad sometimes like when Minnie's father goes away. But actually he sells some scripts for Ozzie, the Boy Wonder. He got 600 dollars! Thats more than Minnie's family ever dreamed of. Another sad thing is that the guinea hen froze its leg to the trash can and after a while the leg turns black and falls off. When Minnie's family came home from delivering the food to a shantytown to their surprise, the house was decorated with holly and candles and their stockings were hung up too! It was Papa! He was home! This book is worth a million dollars! Minnie's family had Christmas after all.
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