(okay fine, by Julie Andrews, she of Mary Poppins and Sound of Music fame)
Any book that starts with an orphan at an orphanage is bound to be fraught with social issues if you want to think about it deeply enough. In the case of Mandy, Andrews does mention that Mandy’s lack of family leaves her with a sort of all-encompassing sadness that can come upon her at any time. Of course, I have a strong premonition that something in this book will happen to change all that (although I hope we know that in real life, there is absolutely no panacea for such a situation). Mandy does work for money (Child labor laws may not apply to orphans? At least orphans in old-fashioned stories…)
Now, the book clearly extolls the virtue in doing good hard work. Mandy is delighted to work hard in a garden because she feels ownership of it. On the other hand, her desire for secrecy and privacy has lead her to lie to people about what she does with her time, as well as steal things from the orphanage to take to her little cottage.
Unsurprisingly, it all ends well with a slam bang finish and you guessed it…adoption!
The beginning where Mandy is working in the garden is a bit slow and at times the author’s tone is a bit odd, but it’s a decent old-fashioned book if you’re into that sort of thing (which generally the children of today are not, but I can hope right?) Mandy often seems much younger than her 10 years, so I’d wager this is best for third and fourth grades, if you can get past the one random and inexplicable Dammit.
Sex, Nudity, Dating – The maid has a boyfriend that she plans on marrying. In a big house there is a secret passageway which a gentleman says is so that “the lord of the manor could visit his lady.”
Profanity –”my gosh,” “shut up,” “dash it,” “Dammit,” “golly,”
Death, Violence and Gore – A barn owl swoops down and captures a mouse.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking – None.
Frightening or Intense Things – Mandy gets quite sick.
Have the copy I got for Christmas when it first came out. Have always adored this beyond reason, so it still circulates fairly well. I am always a sucker for orphan books.
I got this for my birthday in 1975 and I’m just now getting around to reading it.
Drugs, Alcohol and Smoking: Jake the gardener habitually drinks a beer or two at lunch and then takes a snooze. Dr. Matthews smokes a pipe.
I picked up on the secret passage smarminess. I was thinking of donating this to my school library, now that I’m coming to the eye-rollingly predictable ending, but someone might complain about Jake’s beer and Bill’s secret passage between bedroom cupboards.