Eighteen and on Her Own (Grandma's Attic Series) - Softcover

Richardson, Arleta

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0891915125 ISBN 13: 9780891915126

Publisher: David C Cook Foundation, 1986

Synopsis

Fresh out of school herself, eighteen-year-old Mabel takes a teaching job in a farming community similar to the one where she grew up.

About this title

From School Library Journal:

Grade 5- 8 It's 1891 and 18-year-old Mabel has secured a job teaching in a one-room schoolhouse. Soon a rumor surfaces that Mabel has "set her cap" for Len, son of the school-board president. It turns out that the older sister of one of Mabel's students started the rumorshe's determined to land Len for herself. A further complication is that this student is beaten regularly by his cloddish father. What will Mabel do about Elizabeth? And should she try to help poor Abe? As it turns out, she does nothing much about anything except to leave it "in God's hands," so half a dozen plot lines are never really resolved. In the end, she gets Len, which any reader could have predicted after reading the first chapter, but everything else just sort of hangs there. In addition to having one of the weakest plots going, this book is full of leaden dialogue and completely shallow characters lacking any redeeming qualities except a kind of simpy "goodness." Worst of all, it is filled with so many discussions of "God's will" (and other religious questions) that it reads more like a tract than a novel. Only libraries that have a demonstrated need for pietistic Christian fiction should consider, and even then they should be aware that this is the kind of didactic novel that gives that genre a bad name. Audrey B. Eaglen, Cuyahoga County Public Library, Cleveland
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: David C Cook Foundation
• Publication date: 1986
• ISBN 10: 0891915125
• ISBN 13: 9780891915126
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 173