Reviews
4β - (enjoyed a lot/really liked it) Absolutely loved this book when I was a kid and have enviously wished to spend the day picking cherries, storing bottles of milk in a stream, turning an old box car into a comfortable place to sleep, etc. ever since. The fact that I remember so much of it sort of surprises me but I think that shows how much I enjoyed it as a new reader. A very sweet and easy story!
4 stars
I had to re-read a book from childhood for one of my classes and I chose this one...It isn't as good as I remember it being but I think that is because there are so many issues that I can see now as an adult that I didn't pay attention to before. This book is about four orphan children that live on their own in a boxcar in the woods. That alone is so completely unbelievable to me I don't even know what to say. Then there are the major gender issues. The boys work and bring home money while the women make the home (the boxcar) pretty and prepare dinner. I know this was written in the 40s but I can't help noticing it. All that being said, I loved this book when I was little so I will still give it 4 stars.
I remember reading this as a kid and thinking it was the greatest thing ever. Children on their own, fending for themselves and making it! Reading it to my daughters as an adult - not the same. The writing was really stilted, everything works out for the best, and there is only about three paragraphs of tension in the whole thing. Who cares, though? It wasn't for me, it was for them and just like younger-me, they loved it.
