What do You think about Strawberry Girl (2005)?
63 1946: Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski (Lippincott)This story takes place in the early 1900's in Florida. At the time, Florida was still the frontier and life was very different from today. According to the preface, all the incidents in the story were based on true stories - some of which had to be softened for the book.Spoilers included: Strawberry Girl is primarily the story of two families - the Slaters and the Boyers - think the Hatfields and the McCoys. The Slaters are dirt poor much of which is due to the drinking habits of the father. The Boyers are recent implants from the Carolinas, are hard workers, and are somewhat better off. However, the stories told are not ones that we would want to emulate - nor really even think about today. The Slaters do some terrible things to others. The boys beat up their teacher. The father cuts the barbed wire fences of the Boyers, and poisons their mule. He also sets their fields on fire which almost burns down the Slater home, does burn down the schoolhouse, and nearly kills children from both families playing in the woods. The Boyer dad, on the other hand, whips one of the Slater children, and kills three of their hogs depositing them on their steps. Birdie Boyer, the main character of the story, hates those things yet still wants to be friends with them. Mrs. Boyer treats Mrs. Slater with kindness and cares for her when ill. Perhaps two families could live like this, but I don't find the story believable, comfortable to read, or uplifting. I can not recommend it at all.My personal Newbery scale:Meaningt--Read-aloudtNoAgestanyLengtht194 pages (2 per minute) medium MetNot recommended
—Debbie
STRAWBERRY GIRL (1946)By Lois LenskiLois Lenski wrote picture books, early-grade chapter books, and the American Regional series. I read many of them – Blue Ridge Billy, Bayou Suzette, Judy’s Journey, as well as the Newbery-winning Strawberry Girl. In the foreword to SG she explains, “In this series of regional books for American children, I am trying to present vivid, sympathetic pictures of the real life of different kinds of Americans, against authentic backgrounds of diverse localities. We need to know our country better; to know and understand people different from ourselves; so that we can say: ‘This then is the way these people lived. Because I understand it, I admire and love them.’ Is this not a rich heritage for our American children?”Strawberry Girl is set in central Florida in the early 1900’s, “still frontier country, with vast stretches of unexplored wilderness, woodland, and swamp.” Ten-year-old Birdie Boyer and her family have come south from Carolina to reclaim an abandoned farmstead where they will grow a new cash crop: strawberries. The neighbors are the hot-tempered and shiftless Slaters who hold grudges and who refuse to fence in their cattle and pen their hogs. The Boyers are generous and extend aid and hospitality to the Slaters. There are some genuinely funny scenes – schoolhouse pranks and sibling antics -- and some very poignant ones. The Slaters sell a steer but Mr. Slater “took all the money and blew it in. He gamble most of it and got drunk with the rest,” sobbed Mrs. Slater. Later on Mrs. Slater and her daughters come down with a fever, Mrs. Boyer and Birdie nurse them back to health. Mr. Slater grudgingly thanks them.I was reminded of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings’ books, written a few years before Strawberry Girl, especially her memoir Cross Creek. This is a very different central Florida from today’s retirement and tourist destination.
—Nann
I shared this as a read aloud with my 9 year old girls. We all enjoyed the "Piney Woods" dialect and the general exploration of Floridian life in the backwoods. I loved the fierce and fiery spunk of Birdie Boyer and her families desires and efforts to be progressive and neighborly, most of the time, but I did not appreciate the intensity of the rivalry with the Slater's in a children's book. I understand the need for conflict in a plot. I understand the need to educate children about the pitfalls of the lack of education and even religion. Hate and anger and destructive behaviors are real in the world, but when I get nervous enough to start editing aloud because animals are being vengefully murdered, arsonists are deliberately putting people's lives at stake without a shred of concern, and drunken behavior is examined over and over, then I have to wonder at the age appropriateness, especially for sensitive readers. And one last thing...I am deeply religious, I believe in change. I believe that hard hearts can be softened, but I also believe repentance is a process--a journey for all of us--sometimes a long and difficult one. I do believe in miracles, but I just couldn't swallow Mr. Slater's immediate and total transformation. Faith isn't magic--it's an action verb and I want my little girls to appreciate the importance of that effort.
—Rachel
