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bookishcat23's review against another edition
4.0
Not as good as Daddy-Long-Legs, but still comical and fun to read. It was a little too long for the story it was trying to tell and the style, again letters, used.
tucker4's review against another edition
4.0
This book is the sequel to [b:Daddy-Long-Legs|1499952|Daddy-Long-Legs (Daddy-Long-Legs, #1)|Jean Webster|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1339593021s/1499952.jpg|1710545] (possibly can be read as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it), both published in the early 1910's. So it's not filled with sex and doesn't rely on sensationalism. It's just a well told story. And funny. The humor from the turn of last century might be a little more sophisticated, but it still resonates with a modern reader. As long as you like really dry humor. And can get past some political incorrectness. Not a lot, but as long as you keep in mind when this was written, you can get past it.
Like DLL it is written entirely in epistolary form, and like Judy in DLL, Sallie (our narrator) has a young, fresh and fun voice. She writes predominately to Judy, having just been appointed by Judy and her husband as the superintend of the John Grier orphanage (where Judy grew up and her husband is the trustee/president). Despite having been born into luxury herself, Sallie is kind and compassionate. Though she starts off as more frivolous, from working at the Home, she comes to love the kids and finds her true path in life. Characterizations of the different characters come out more in the stories that Sallie tells rather than in us being told anything (because Sallie's descriptions are always clearly prejudiced anyway). But its easy to separate Sallie's opinions from the true characterizations of everyone.
As Sallie learns the ropes of the John Grier Home she has help from the local Dr. McRae, who she immediately doesn't get along with - Sallie being free and open and fun and Dr. McRae being more formal and stoic. As Sallie says she cannot trust a man who never smiles. She takes to calling him Sandy (not totally sure why - I think this is some reference that I don't understand) and Enemy. There's a much larger cast of characters as well including many of the children and staff of the orphanage, the trustees, old friends and family and the locals. All vastly entertaining.
My one criticism would be the author's writing of accents. Sallie loved to try to imitate the doctor's Scotch accent, and sometimes adopt an Irish one herself, and it was incomprehensible to me. I understood maybe every other word. Sometimes less.
But bottom like, like DDL, what really drove the story were Sallie's entertaining interpretation of events and life. And her just deadpan one liners.
"And also, no matter what the doctor wants, so positive and dictatorial is his manner that just out of self respect one must take the other side."
"The more I study men, the more I realize that they are nothing in the world but boys grown too big to be spankable."
"I do wish that mice and snakes and toads and angleworms were not so portable. You never know what is going on in a perfectly respectable-looking child's pocket."
"Suppose that I should retire and marry and have a family. As families go nowadays, I couldn't hope for more than five or six children at the most, and all with the same heredity. But mercy, such a family appears perfectly insignificant and monotonous. You have institutionalized me. Reproachfully yours, Sallie McBride."
Like DLL it is written entirely in epistolary form, and like Judy in DLL, Sallie (our narrator) has a young, fresh and fun voice. She writes predominately to Judy, having just been appointed by Judy and her husband as the superintend of the John Grier orphanage (where Judy grew up and her husband is the trustee/president). Despite having been born into luxury herself, Sallie is kind and compassionate. Though she starts off as more frivolous, from working at the Home, she comes to love the kids and finds her true path in life. Characterizations of the different characters come out more in the stories that Sallie tells rather than in us being told anything (because Sallie's descriptions are always clearly prejudiced anyway). But its easy to separate Sallie's opinions from the true characterizations of everyone.
As Sallie learns the ropes of the John Grier Home she has help from the local Dr. McRae, who she immediately doesn't get along with - Sallie being free and open and fun and Dr. McRae being more formal and stoic. As Sallie says she cannot trust a man who never smiles. She takes to calling him Sandy (not totally sure why - I think this is some reference that I don't understand) and Enemy. There's a much larger cast of characters as well including many of the children and staff of the orphanage, the trustees, old friends and family and the locals. All vastly entertaining.
My one criticism would be the author's writing of accents. Sallie loved to try to imitate the doctor's Scotch accent, and sometimes adopt an Irish one herself, and it was incomprehensible to me. I understood maybe every other word. Sometimes less.
But bottom like, like DDL, what really drove the story were Sallie's entertaining interpretation of events and life. And her just deadpan one liners.
"And also, no matter what the doctor wants, so positive and dictatorial is his manner that just out of self respect one must take the other side."
"The more I study men, the more I realize that they are nothing in the world but boys grown too big to be spankable."
"I do wish that mice and snakes and toads and angleworms were not so portable. You never know what is going on in a perfectly respectable-looking child's pocket."
"Suppose that I should retire and marry and have a family. As families go nowadays, I couldn't hope for more than five or six children at the most, and all with the same heredity. But mercy, such a family appears perfectly insignificant and monotonous. You have institutionalized me. Reproachfully yours, Sallie McBride."
jcansdale's review against another edition
3.0
A lovely story, albeit with a predictable ending, written as a series of letters from the newly appointed female superintendent of an orphanage to various other characters.
nothingtoread's review against another edition
2.0
I found this book to be a lot worse than its prequel, Daddy Long Legs. Sally is no Judy! I struggled to make it until the end. What a shame.
watoozi's review against another edition
4.0
Darling Sallie! I found her transformation simply delightful, and I’m completely invested in those dear children of hers- what becomes of them?? I wanted to copy out several passages and commit them to heart. Excellent advice for anyone who loves a child.
I just really hated all the talk of lunacy and feeble-mindedness. I KNOW it fits with the historical narrative, but I hated it all the same.
I just really hated all the talk of lunacy and feeble-mindedness. I KNOW it fits with the historical narrative, but I hated it all the same.
lujain2's review against another edition
4.0
شعرت بأن الأحداث الأخيرة جرت سريعًا، أردت أن أعلم أكثر ما الذي حدث مع سالي ولكن إن تركت هذا جانبًا فالرواية لطيفة جدًا مثل سابقتها وتمنيت لو أن هناك أجزاء أخرى في السلسلة.
wordnerdy's review against another edition
4.0
http://wordnerdy.blogspot.com/2012/03/2012-book-75.html
mayar_reading_stuff's review against another edition
2.0
كل النجوم المفقودة على حساب الـ "بوليتيكال كورريكتنس" -التصحيح السياسي؟- و مبادئه المرتبطة بإن كره الأطفال أصحاب الأمراض العصبية أو النفسية، أو كرههم على حساب شكلهم، أو لمجرد إنهم أيتام مش مقبول.
I was dying a little whenever Sallie talked about her children in this awful way.
Edit: Thanks to college, I now learned that what Sallie was doing is called Eugenics. It's a messed up belief about how character traits are 100% hereditary. It's also how extremists got the idea of a master race and, oddly enough, none of the people responsible for it is Germans.
Bottom line is, you can't hate children for having alcoholic parents or Down syndrome or being less pretty than other children. If you do that, you're a pig. Please don't work in childcare.
I was dying a little whenever Sallie talked about her children in this awful way.
Edit: Thanks to college, I now learned that what Sallie was doing is called Eugenics. It's a messed up belief about how character traits are 100% hereditary. It's also how extremists got the idea of a master race and, oddly enough, none of the people responsible for it is Germans.
Bottom line is, you can't hate children for having alcoholic parents or Down syndrome or being less pretty than other children. If you do that, you're a pig. Please don't work in childcare.
twicebaked's review against another edition
1.0
So far, really boring. I also find it weird that she calls him Enemy to his face. I'm tired of people like Davie (Anne of Green Gables) and Punch (Dear Enemy) getting away with being brats - why is it that in these books the only way to get attention is to be obnoxious, obstinate, and irritating instead of emotionally stable, healthy, and kind? Davie and Punch are my least favorite characters in both books because of the everlasting tolerance for bad behavior.
And really? They didn't know what money looked like? This is incredibly hard to believe.
and guess what she's going to marry Dear Enemy. You can tell from the day she meets him whom she's going to end up with. Gordon? MacRae? Oh please. Is that even a question.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/238/238-h/238-h.htm
And really? They didn't know what money looked like? This is incredibly hard to believe.
and guess what she's going to marry Dear Enemy. You can tell from the day she meets him whom she's going to end up with. Gordon? MacRae? Oh please. Is that even a question.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/238/238-h/238-h.htm