books I've read

Anne Hawn's books

Who Moved My Cheese?
If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans
Scientific Secrets for Self-Control
Just One Damned Thing After Another
The Vanishing
Exercises in Knitting
The Good Dream
The Very Best of Edgar Allan Poe
The Chosen
BT-Kids' Knits
Talking God
The Professor
The Christmas Files
The Finisher
Home Decor for 18-Inch Dolls: Create 10 Room Settings with Furniture and 15 Outfits with Accessories
Dracula and Other Stories
A New Song
Christy
All Quiet on the Western Front
File Under: 13 Suspicious Incidents


Anne Hawn Smith's favorite books »

I'm reading 150 Books

2019 Reading Challenge
2019 Reading Challenge 19614 members
<b>Are you ready to set your 2019 reading goal?</b> This is a supportive, fun group of people looking for people just like you. Track your annual reading goal here with us, and we have challenges, group reads, and other fun ways to help keep you on pace. There will never be a specific number of books to read here or pressure to read more than you can commit to. Your goal is five? Great! You think you want to read 200? Very cool! We won't kick you out for not participating regularly, but we'll love it if you do. Join us!

Books we've read

The Help
The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making
The Night Circus
The Golden Compass
11/22/63
The Little Lady Agency
Catch-22
The Good Father
A Discovery of Witches
The Knife of Never Letting Go
Fahrenheit 451
Frankenstein
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
A Christmas Carol
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
The Color Purple
Matched
Cloud Atlas
The Princess Bride
The Catcher in the Rye


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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Hetty Feather

Hetty FeatherHetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a delightful book about a red-headed orphan in the style of Little Orphan Annie and Anne of Green Gables .  Hetty was left at a foundling home (which still exists)and was fostered out to a country family until she was six.  The family had other foster children and one, Gideon, came together with Hetty when they were a few weeks old.  Life on the farm was idyllic and although she was small, Hetty thrived.  She was very attached to her brother, Jem, the youngest of the families biological children was about 5 years older than her.  Even in this loving family, Hetty's impetuous nature and fiery temper led her into trouble.  She was bright but headstrong.

Just before she was six, she and Gideon were sent back to the foundling  home, an event that was devastating to both of them.  The foundling home was regimented and unforgiving, especially for a child like Hetty.  She got into one scrape after another and earned the enmity of the two of the most important matrons.  The girls worked most of the day on household task which prepared them for life as servants, something that Hetty never intended to be.

This is a great book for girls, young and old.  We feel for Hetty when her irrepressible personality is hammered into a mold not made for her.     Today's children have little idea of the life of children of earlier and much harsher ages.  The Hetty Feather series does a better job of showing that the orphanage system, however problematic, was better than previous ages when children as young as 4-5 were left to roam the streets, surviving as they could.  Fostering the children under the age of 6 in a home was an enlightened step in the care of children.


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