Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana 1932 (Dear America Series) [Hardcover]

Kathryn Lasky (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 9 and up

At the age of twelve, Minnie Swift is living through one of toughest times in America's history, The Great Depression. She keeps a detailed diary over the span of one Christmas month. Reflecting the sadness -- but also the optimism -- that characterized that time, this is an intimate portrait of a midwestern family's days and nights, ups and downs, triumphs and losses. It is the story of one family's persevering spirit. The Christmas Spirit.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

To 11-year-old Minnie Swift, Christmas, 1932, is not going to be the time of bounty she's used to. Instead, it has become the "Time of the Dwindling." The Great Depression has changed everything: Minnie's father is working fewer and fewer hours, her hungry family eats more and more aspic and "rumor of pork" (high up on the Vomitron, a zero-to-ten scale Minnie and her brother have invented to determine the vileness of their meager dinners), and a tiny orphan girl has joined their family from Heart's Bend, Texas. Minnie finds a worthy outlet in her daily journal, in which she records the sometimes troubling, sometimes exhilarating experiences of one winter month in Indianapolis during the depression. Nothing can subdue Minnie's lively spirit, although the disappearance of her father challenges her sorely.

Kathryn Lasky's latest addition to the Dear America series is chock-full of period details: Greta Garbo's hairstyle, The Shadow radio program, Charlie Chan, Hooverville shantytowns, Buck Rogers, Amelia Earhart, and phrases like yee gads and go-to-the-dickens. Minnie is an exuberant and witty chronicler of her family life, as well as the world outside. Young readers will come away from Christmas After All with a strong image of life in the 1930s, and a sense of the resiliency and ingenuity of many Americans during that deeply troubled time. A historical note and photos follow the diary, providing background to help readers understand the era in which the fictional Minnie lived. (Ages 9 to 14) --Emilie Coulter

From Publishers Weekly

Kathryn Lasky adds to the Dear America series with Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, set in Indianapolis, Ind., in 1932. Even though things look bleak, Minnie's family figures out a way to celebrate the holiday. Period photographs and the lyrics to Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? add historical color.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 9 and up
  
• Hardcover: 190 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Inc.; 1st edition (November 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439219434
• ISBN-13: 978-0439219433
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #153,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hi Readers! Thanks for coming by my author page. I've written all sorts of books - from fantasy about animals to books about science. One of my favorite animal fantasy series, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, is a major motion picture. I liked writing about Ga'Hoole so much that I decided to revisit that world in a new series, Wolves of the Beyond. Visit my website, www.kathrynlasky.com to see a slide show about the real wolves I researched for the series and for the latest update on the Guardians of Ga'Hoole movie. All my best, Kathryn

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A girl's diary of one holiday season during the Depression., October 17, 2001

By 

Rebecca Herman (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana 1932 (Dear America Series) (Hardcover)

It's late November, 1932, and the entire nation is feeling the effects of the Great Depression. Christmas is nearing, but for many families, it will be a joyless holiday. Eleven-year-old Minnie Swift fears that will be the case for her family. Although her father still has a job, he hasn't been making much money. Life changes for the whole family, however, when Minnie's orphaned cousin, Willie Faye, comes to live with the family. Eleven-year-old Willie Faye is the same age as Minnie, but she is very different. Having grown up in the dust bowl of Texas, she's had an even harder life than Minnie. Minnie and her older sisters, and even her pesky younger brother, welcome Willie Faye into their family. But when her father loses his job, Minnie fears that her family will soon be joining the homeless. This wonderful new Dear America book, told through Minnie's diary entries over the month from Thanksgiving to Christmas, showed how the love in a family could help make the worst of times bearable. All fans of the series will want to read this book.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars HURRAH FOR MINNIE, WILLIE FAYE AND CHIG !!, January 1, 2004

By 

mcHaiku "nmi" (Brown County INDIANA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana 1932 (Dear America Series) (Hardcover)

Is this the story of Minnie OR is it the story of Willie Faye enchanting the Swift family? She is their distant relative who comes from Heart's Bend, Texas, to live with them in Indianapolis in the Fall of 1932. Willie Faye captivates the four sisters and brother Ozzie, who are growing up just as the Great Depression intrudes on their comfortable life.

Minnie calls it "The Time of The Dwindling" and her diary holds all her thoughts from the month before Christmas. There are colorful colloquialisms scattered throughout, and clever hands working on such projects as Christmas gift hats decorated with guinea hen feathers. The grinding economies forced on the family by the Depression and Papa's loss of work is evident mostly in dress make-overs, and in the menus concocted to stretch some meat, or no meat at all. A description of aspics made this reader laugh out loud, knowing how most of our family hold wobbly gelatines in distain. Young Ozzie's inventions include a "vomitron" which measures the revulsion some recipes provoke!

Imagination and creativity thrived in those years, and favorite radio shows were an important part of family life. Movie-going was a popular pastime, too, although in hard-hit families only the boys with jobs could afford tickets, even at ten cents, or a quarter for a double feature. But for true entertainment nothing could match the starry-eyed magic of Willie Faye's Christmas Eve story. Author Kathryn Lasky makes converts of her readers!

While the Swift family takes a stiff upper lip attitude about difficult times, their lives are changed by the arrival of the orphan cousin, and even more by the disappearance of their papa. It turns out that Ozzie inspired his father to write a radio serial, "Ozzie, the Boy Wonder." It becomes so popular the family is catapulted right out of their personal Depression.

I wanted to reread Minnie's take on hard times after being charmed by the 2003 novel "CHIG and the Second Spread," which tells the story of a family living only fifty miles south of Minnie Swift. In the hill country Minerva (Chig) Kalpin (could Minnie's name also be 'Minerva'?)grew up in poor, rather than 'comfortable' circumstances. Her experience was different yet similar: both families pulled together to overcome hard times with ingenuity and integrity.

Does the Depression Era seem part of the realm of fantasy today? For young readers it must hold the attraction of the unknown. Today's computer-age children will learn much from befriending Minnie and Willie Faye, AND Chig.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars CHRISTMAS IS MORE THAN EXPENSIVE GIFTS!, December 7, 2001

By 

Sandra D. Peters "Seagull Books" (Prince Edward Island, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana 1932 (Dear America Series) (Hardcover)

Anyone who has "had to do without" will relate to the story of Minnie Swift who is coming of age during The Great Depression. I can personally recall my mother's account of her early teens and of my grandfather, who was a shoemaker, living each day in fear and sadness because during this devastating period of time no one could afford new shoes and few could afford to have old ones repaired. If there was no work, there was no food. The evening meal consisted of home-made bread and goat's milk. Times were tough and food was scarce. As my Russian grandmother would tell her children, "You can have home-made jam or butter on your bread, but not both."

Those who fill their shopping carts at a supermarket today with convenience foods, processed foods, delicate sweets and junk foods, might have difficulty understanding what times were like for little Minnie Swift. However, though times are not the best and money is scarce, Minnie's family still finds a way to celebrate the Christmas season. While this book is definitely a children's book, there are many parents, particularly those raising their children in a materialistic world, who could also benefit from the lessons of the story. This is definitely a highly recommended book and most deserving of a five-star rating.