well beat me over the head with a hickory stick

Finished 1947 Newbery winner, Miss Hickory, (Carolyn Sherwin Bailey) today.

Two words of advice: NEVER READ. I am not sure what bothered me the most: the fact that the main character was a twig doll with an acorn for a head and a huge attitude problem; the fact that the story was boring as hell; or the fact that the main character pisses off a squirrel who then bites her head off.
 
This book was so terrible that I don't want to review it, but I did find this review which both spoke to what I felt and cracked me up.
This is how I felt the whole time I was reading Miss Hickory.

Feels like everything will be an improvement on this book. Today I started 1980 Newbery winner, A Gathering of Days: A New England Girl's Journal, 1830-32; A Novel,  Joan W. Blos.

Comments

Kt said…
Is it wrong that after reading that review I really want to find this book? Surely it's got some redeeming quality if it won the Newberry.

I wonder if the tragic plot has some connection to the time it was written, with atrocities of WWII just coming to life. Or does it fall into the Grimm's fairy tale category? Has our culture lost its stomach for dead protagonists and unhappy endings?
February 25, 2012 at 1:13 PM
Monster Librarian said…
No, it's not wrong, I've read many a strange book because someone else hated it. :)

I don't what the plot line was, other than weird. Did you check out the link I posted of that persons review? I thought it said it all.
February 26, 2012 at 1:11 AM
Kt said…
Yeah, I read that entire review. It sounds horrific. What was going on there? That's why I was wondering if it's supposed to be some kind of analogy for, I don't know...Hitler or something.

She's having her last thoughts WHILE her head is being eaten? It's just too unreal to be real.
February 26, 2012 at 4:39 AM
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