Strawberry Girl

In some ways, the piney woods of Florida is just as wild as the Wild West. Birdie Boyer's family is determined to make a go of strawberry farming, but they will have trouble not only with the hazards presented by the natural world, but also resistance from a cantankerous neighbor.This book reminded me strongly of the Little House books, both in content and in writing style. Characters speak in the vernacular, which may present a challenge for some readers. The ending seemed rather deus ex machina to me. Still, I would probably recommend this to readers of all ages who can't get enough frontier fiction.

Rounded up from at least 3-1/2 stars. It's very good but if you're very far from the target age group you might need to have a particular interest in children's lit to think as highly of it as I did.

First and perhaps foremost, I'm not particularly a fan of Lenski's illustrative style. Her people just don't work for me, and never really have. That aside, the story is interesting and vivid but not compelling. There's a lot of what feels like exposition for exposition's sake. I remembered liking this until I picked it up again, then I remembered that I didn't much like it.

This is such a pleasant book, although, I am afraid if teachers and parents don't prepare their children for the dialect used in here, kids would have a hard time reading it. However, I think the dialect Lenski uses really makes the characters unique, and I think it also adds to the conflicts experienced between the Boyers and Slaters. This story always teaches the lesson of perseverance, and we see the frustrations of all of the characters when things don't always go smoothly. I plan on reading the rest of Lenski's series once I finish my first challenge of all the Newberry Awards! However, this book ranks right up there as one of the best Newberry Award winners.

A classic that should be read by all ,this book provided a refreshing look back in time when right was right and wrong was wrong. Although today's children may need a little historical background before reading this book, it will provide a link to an important part of American history. It was very interesting to read of Lois Lenski's life as an illustrator and children's author.

This story is about a 10 year old girl and her family trying to fix up and old home. The family is growing sweet potatoes, strawberries and oranges. The girl plants her own orange tree, and the family is growing other things so the can make a good living. But their neighbors doesn't think that growing fruit will work and they suggest to have cattle and to feed and sell them. None of them wear shoes they are farmers. And Birdies orange tree has been eatn on and her strawberries have been destroyed, so she ask her Pa if they can build a fence around everything. The boy that is named Shoestring thinks he is really smart, but Birdie doesn't like him. The kids went to school and met all the other kids. Shoestrings older brothers like to cause trouble plus the Slater boys ended up fighting the teacher and beating him up, and their won't be any school now for awhile. The family went to town and bought a new stove and Dan no longer has a toothache thanks to the town dentists. Summer was over and it was now time for cane grinding. Everyone comes for the cane grinding they have music and a bonfire. The fence had been cut and the strawberries had been damaged again. Birdies Ma had tricked Sam Slater by putting flour on the strawberries and they thought that it was poison. The orange tree had done really good. The family is a strawberry family. During strawberry season the schools were known as strawberry schools. The family picked strawberries twice a week. The Slater family doesn't like the Birdies family and their mule ended up getting poisoned. Now there was a grass fire and the school burned down. Mr Slater drinks all the time and that made it really hard on their family. Shoestring had to get Mrs Boyer because his Ma was sick. And the preacher came by and was hungry and when they eat the kids didn't eat with the adults. Sam Slater came back from where he went and he was very glad that the Boyer family took care of his wife. Sam Slater was a changed man. Now shoestring is going back to school when it gets rebuilt, and when Birdie got home from school she saw a organ sitting there something that she has always wanted. Personal reaction: I enjoyed this book very much, It was difficult at first because of the way they talked. But i did enjoy reading it.Classroom Extension: I could ask the kids if they had nice neighbors and if they got along with them. Also, I could ask if the kids could do what the people did in this book.