First of all, when reading this book, keep in mind it's a children's classic, originally written in 1955. Times were different.

I did have a few issues with the book - most of which was the way Ramona was treated. First of all, everyone talked down to her. Yes, she's a little kid, but I don't believe in talking down to kids. Sure, simplify things so they can understand, but you don't need to talk down to a child. It's insulting to everyone, and kids pick up on that crap faster than you'd think. Second of all, Ramona's a brat. Some of the things she did was funny, but mostly she was just a brat, and deserved some punishment other than "go to your room". Again, times were different, but geez... let's be real.

Poor uptight Beezus is the real star of the show, though she gets second billing in the book because let's face it, the series ends up being all about Ramona. Beezus is such a hoot, and she handles Ramona so much better than the mother does.

Lastly - this is really just a cute first book to a beloved series. Yup, I read them all repeatedly as a kid. It was definitely not one of my favorite kid's series, but one I did read over and over again. Because, let's face it, I lived in a very small town, and there was only so many kid's/preteen books available in the 80's to read, so even the series I wasn't crazy about I'd reread every year or so. I mean, I devoured books.

This book was really rather depressing, disappointing, and under-developed. I never read this book when reading the series as a kid/teen, and if I ever re-read the entire series again, I won't include this book. It's worth reading once, I think, if you are a fan of the series, but there's some big issues with this one.

First of all, it's not edited or fleshed out like the other books. It's tone is very dark & depressing. There's a lot of horrific things that happen to them in this book, and it should make you feel very sad and depressed, but I didn't really feel anything at all, except for one major disaster/scene. Other than that one scene, you aren't emotionally invested, so you just don't really care when the bad stuff happens.

Second of all, it just drove me CRAZY that Laura calls Almanzo "Manly" throughout the entire book, especially since in a previous book she makes such a big deal about Nellie creating a nickname for Almanzo which he didn't like and she makes some comment about how she'd never do that to him. Maybe she called him that in real life, but it was just very jarring, and made me feel like he was a whole different person then in the rest of the series. Not to mention, the way he was written, he did seem like an entirely different man. He came across as very incompetent in this book, unlike in the rest of the series where he literally saved the town from starving. The Almanzo in this book is not very likeable.



And honestly, neither is Laura. She never came across as spoiled and selfish, but she does in this one. She doesn't even act like she cares about her kid or her husband. Which I realize is pretty typical of the time (I remember my own grandparents treating each other as distantly as Laura & Almanzo does in this book, and that was in the 1980s), but it still drives me crazy. My grandmother might not have acted like she loved my grandfather in public because it wasn't proper to show affection in public, but it was obvious she loved him from the way she looked at him, and the way he looked at her. Even those very small signs of affection were missing from this book. Yes, it was the beginning of the marriage, and maybe they didn't really love each other in the beginning, but by year four there certainly should have been some emotions involved.

Well, I thought I had a third point, but I guess I didn't. My only other issue was this book was just so short, but if Laura had worked on it a bit more, I bet it would have been fleshed out with more balance.

Ah, Charlotte's Web. Another childhood classic. I haven't read this one in years - 30 years, give or take? I knew it was going to make me cry at the end, and the entire book I was just so sad reading it because I knew how it was going to end. I am dying to watch the movie now - or is there two versions of this now?

Anywho, have you read Charlotte's Web, either recently or as a kid? It's one of those books that are impossible to review, because all I want to say (all I have to say) is "I love this book! It's greeeeaaaattttt" and that's not really helpful in a review... LOL.

So, what do I love about the book? It's so cute, first of all... animals talking gets me every time. Charlotte (a spider, if you are living under a rock and/or can't tell from the title of the book) is amazing. She's so smart, clever, and just adores Wilbur so. Wilbur himself is a bit of a rock... I mean, seriously dude, you are a pig, you don't know what's going to happen in a few months? Even when he understands what the farmer has in store for him, Charlotte tells him not to worry so he doesn't. Every time I read this book I want to see a bit more emotion from Wilbur... but it's just such a marvelous play of Charlotte & Wilbur's personalities against each other, that even that tiny bit of negativity isn't really a negative at all.

And of course, the ending gets me every time. Even if you haven't read the book before, you're going to know where the ending is going (as an adult, anyway, as a kid I had no idea) and it just reminds you of how fast life goes by, how important it is to cherish every minute with the people you love...

And as a final sidenote, I just love how we see Fern grow up so quickly in the year this book takes place, though I do wish Fern showed a bit more care towards Wilbur at the end, but again, isn't that so true of any relationship? People move on, people grow & change...

So I liked this one MUCH better than the first book, and I'm so glad I gave the rest of this series another chance! I can't wait to finish the rest of these books, though that'll have to wait a bit I think - other book reviews that are overdue must come before personal reading sometimes. (maybe)

So, let's see, my thoughts. I finished this up in a couple of days about 3 weeks ago. It was a fast read. I liked the characters much better this time - everyone was more likeable and more human/more real this time and not so fake like the first book. There's like next to no romance in this one, which was a huge A+++ in my book. I'm thinking there's going to be the usual love triangle coming up pretty soon though, but not in this one - whew!

Cia's still a bit too perfect, but she's not quite as braggy about it as she was in the first one.

There's more mystery to this book - a feeling that there's stuff going on under the surface that we don't quite fully understand yet. I'm not a fan of the traditional "who done it" mystery genre, but this is good, it keeps you reading and wanting more.

The only down side to the book is there's little action, not really much happens. It's kind of like the first couple of Harry Potter books - not really much happens but man, is it setting the scene for future action.

Old Town in the Green Groves fill in part of the gab between two of the classic little house books: "On the Banks of Plum Creek" and "By the Shores of Silver Lake", and is not a "real" Little House book. But, again, I read the entire series so I wanted to read all the books now considered part of the Little House family.

I actually really liked this one more than I was expecting - These First Four Years was so awful in so many ways that I really didn't have high hopes for this one, yet I actually liked this one more than the last Little House book. It's not written by Laura, but definitely has the same feel/flavor, and the characters are just exactly the same. Ma & Pa are there wonderful selves, you get to see their cousins & a whole other life not previously seen in other books, and there's a horrible tragedy that the family lives through and it's just marvelous to see how they all manage. If you like the Little House series and haven't read this one, just skip "These First Four Years" and read this one, instead (but do read them in chronological order, as I wish I had but didn't).

This series chronicles Rose's life, Laura's daughter.

Laura continues to call Almanzo "Manly" in this book (and I'm guessing the rest of the series) but this doesn't drive me as crazy as it did in These First Four Years. I'm getting used to it, I guess.

Once again, I liked this book more than I was expecting to. I think I'll continue to read the rest of the series, but I think I'll slow down the pace to a book every few months or so - we'll see.

Rose is a bit annoying, and Laura as the mother isn't as amazing as her Ma is. Laura still sort of acts like Rose is a bother and doesn't exactly smother her in love, but again, that's the time and the way kids were raised. Laura still acts like she'd rather be with the horses than her family, but she at least acts like she cares for her husband during the book, so that's a great improvement.

It was heartbreaking watching Laura leave her family - I wish we could've seen a scene where Laura cried or something, instead of just accepting it all with a grain of salt. The travels by wagon was fascinating as in the other books - a journey that was much faster than Laura's earlier travels, so it seemed anyway. The book was a bit slow moving for my tastes, but I think worked as a introduction to a new generation.

So, I'm pretty sure I read Carrie back in high school and I remember being terrified, and I know I definitely watched a movie version way back when as well.

Well I wasn't really terrified reading Carrie this time - in fact, during the first half I was pretty much bored. Part of it is because you know how it's going to end, but it was also written like someone was interviewing the characters, and I just didn't like that format. I'm older now, too, so what's going to scare me then isn't going to scare me now.

Honestly, I mostly just felt sorry for Carrie. She had an awful mom, an awful life, and an awful school filled with awful people who didn't even notice how pitiful she was. And you know perfectly well there's someone right now that's probably in your kid's school that is going through some awful things right now, and no one is noticing her, either. I think it just hit a little too close to home - especially that awful scene in the gym's shower room when they were all making fun of her - well, I was mad fun of too for an especially bad period gone wrong, for years afterwards.... kids, especially girls, are cruel. I at least had parents & teachers who knew what was going on & cared & tried to stop the bullying, and I was emotionally able to handle most of the teasing, but there were days that I too would've killed them all, if I could (well, maybe not but I understand the urge). Bullying is awful, no matter what decade it takes place in. So, I guess after that awful scene, I just felt so much pity for Carrie that the horror in the rest of the book just wasn't as horrible as that bathroom scene. It's all relative ;/.

And of course, at the end, everybody dies. And I just finished reading the book feeling sad that Carrie had to kill people in order to survive high school, and pity that she had to die, especially the way she did.

2017 review
So, I LOVE this book.

I believe this is the forth time I've read it, or maybe even the fifth - it's become sort of an annual tradition for me to read it every summer. I actually finished this in April, I think, but because of health issues, I haven't been reading or reviewing like I normally do. I didn't even update goodreads with it, because I've read this book so many times before - and can I just say, for a huge book, it reads so fast? I read it the first time in 4 days, and I've never taken more than a week to finish it.

Well imagine my surprise when I realized I've never actually reviewed the book here on the blog (though I have reviewed it on goodreads) - of course, now I wish I hadn't sat on the review for so long, because for me, I write the best reviews (you know, well thought out, arguing both good & bad parts of the book with specific reasons for why I feel the way I do) 3-7 days after I finish a book. I need a couple of days to muse on the book & to start writing the review in my head, often arguing with myself over certain points. So a few months later? Ugh, not good.

So my first part of my review I'm going to lift from my original goodreads review:

I'm a big King fan, though I probably have only read about 1/3 of his books. This one is no exception. Sure, it's long, sure there are sections that drag, and sure it's far-fetched, but that's why it's called fiction. Dale and Julia are two of the many, many, many characters in the book, and they are probably my favorites. Junior, Jim Rennie's Sr.'s crazed son, is also one of my favorites, in that "love to hate him" sort of way. This book, at its heart, is about ordinary people trying to survive and live another day.

I love the last line of that paragraph - so much so, that I had to really stop and think what else to write in my review.

I hate the Rennie's - every time I read the book, I hate Jim & Junior all the more. Poor Junior is literally insane, and he does horrific disgusting things, but it's not his fault, but man, Jim is just evil.

For the first time, really, I picked up on all the foreshadowing in the book. I was actually very, very surprised when I started picking up on it - how could I have not known the ending of the book (the first time), with all of the clues S. King left us? I just think every time I've read the book, I'm so swept up in the narrative and the little moments in everyone's life, that I just didn't see the foreshadowing.

I love disaster, end of the world type of books and movies, so yeah, I just love this, slow moments and all.



2016 review

I first read this book a few years ago, when it first came out. Hubby enjoyed the first season of the show so much he wanted to read the book - even though he isn't much of a reader. Well, needless to say, I ended up rereading it & hubby read 20 pages.

I'm a big King fan, though I probably have only read about 1/3 of his books. This one is no exception. Sure, it's long, sure there are sections that drag, and sure it's far-fetched, but that's why it's called fiction. Dale and Julia are two of the many, many, many characters in the book, and they are probably my favorites. Junior, Jim Rennie's Sr.'s crazed son, is also one of my favorites, in that "love to hate him" sort of way. This book, at its heart, is about ordinary people trying to survive and live another day.

My only gripe with the book is the exact same one as the first time I read it - you spend 1000 pages reading about what is happening Under the Dome, for it all to end in a small handful of pages, and without enough of an explanation to satisfy me. There's a lot of fore-shadowing throughout the book, which I noticed the first time but sort of ruined the book for me the second time (yes, I did know how it ended, but it still ruined the ending).