The Golden Name Day, by Jennie D. Lindquist, was highly recommended by a friend- and I quite enjoyed it, although I had some problems with the heroine. It felt like an old-fashioned book, and I suppose it is, a Newberry Honor Book from 1956. In it, Nancy, a nine year-old girl whose mother is in the hospital, goes to the country to live with her grandparents for a year(several uncles, aunts, and cousins live close by.) Nancy's family is most kind, and goes out of their way to make her feel at home and loved. In style and feel, the book reminded me a lot of The Good Master (by Kate Seredy), Understood Betsy (by Dorothy Canfield Fisher), and Strawberry Girl (by Lois Lenski).
The problem that I had with Nancy as a character is that I didn't feel that she really grew up or matured or changed at all over the course of the book. In the other books listed above, the main characters all come to an awareness of their abilities and potential and you really feel like they start to figure out where they fit in the world. Nancy, on the other hand, is a rather needy little girl who still is a rather needy little girl at the end.
My favorite character in the book was Aunt Martha- the coolest and most fun aunt ever- I want to be just like her when I grow up (even though I must admit that I'm not much of a cat person.)
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