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A review by piburnjones
Felicity Saves the Day: A Summer Story by Valerie Tripp
4.0
Ahhh, summertime on a Virginia plantation. So charming... as long as you have the right set of privileges.
Here's what jumps out as an adult in 2019, vs. as a kid in the early '90s:
1. Book after book, we keep referring back to Felicity "saving" Penny or "helping Penny run away" from mean old Jiggy Nye. You guys, even though she wasn't caught or punished, even though she let Penny loose, she still stole. that. horse. I am 100% positive this didn't bother me at all as a kid, or even seemed right that Felicity and Penny were reunited at last. As an adult, this plot bothers me a lot.
2. Was this the first time one of the Felicity books used the word "slave"?! Given the degree to which these books avoid explaining anything about slavery, it's no wonder that I was (at age seven) confused by the distinction between slaves and servants. Yikes.
3. What exactly is wrong with Ben's leg that can be solved with a poultice, yet leaves him unable to walk on it for DAYS? I'm settling on some kind of sprain, I guess, but gosh isn't it convenient that Felicity can help, and yet Ben can't leave.
4. Felicity and Ben must be just charming as all get-out, because the Merriman parents just never seem as angry with them as one might expect.
5. I can't decide whether it would suck more to be Nan, who at SIX YEARS OLD, seems to spend a lot of time trying to keep Felicity in line, or to be Felicity, who is constantly chided by her six-year-old sister. I'm a little amazed these polar opposites aren't more antagonistic.
Here's what jumps out as an adult in 2019, vs. as a kid in the early '90s:
1. Book after book, we keep referring back to Felicity "saving" Penny or "helping Penny run away" from mean old Jiggy Nye. You guys, even though she wasn't caught or punished, even though she let Penny loose, she still stole. that. horse. I am 100% positive this didn't bother me at all as a kid, or even seemed right that Felicity and Penny were reunited at last. As an adult, this plot bothers me a lot.
2. Was this the first time one of the Felicity books used the word "slave"?! Given the degree to which these books avoid explaining anything about slavery, it's no wonder that I was (at age seven) confused by the distinction between slaves and servants. Yikes.
3. What exactly is wrong with Ben's leg that can be solved with a poultice, yet leaves him unable to walk on it for DAYS? I'm settling on some kind of sprain, I guess, but gosh isn't it convenient that Felicity can help, and yet Ben can't leave.
4. Felicity and Ben must be just charming as all get-out, because the Merriman parents just never seem as angry with them as one might expect.
5. I can't decide whether it would suck more to be Nan, who at SIX YEARS OLD, seems to spend a lot of time trying to keep Felicity in line, or to be Felicity, who is constantly chided by her six-year-old sister. I'm a little amazed these polar opposites aren't more antagonistic.