Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

This is a great book. There are lots of funny twists to it. Like, for example, their servant, Jackie, goes to lots of funerals and takes pictures of the bodies in the caskets to show everybody back home. Another funny twist is when a chicken they bought from some friends gets frozen to the trash can and the parents pour ale over it to get the ice to melt. The chicken has one leg that turns black and falls off, and hopped around on one leg, falling face-down wherever it hopped, so Jackie killed it for dinner. The best part is that my town, Greenfield, is a suburb of Indianapolis!

Another wonderful addition to the Dear America Series this one is about the Great Depression told through Minnie Swift diary about how the depression is effecting her family and those around her. The changes they have to make. Like only living out of the few rooms in their house their family can keep heated. As they prepare for what Minnie expects to be a joyless Thanksgiving and Christmas her cousin Willie Faye arrives from Texas and the Dust Bowl having an even harder life then Minnie. This book goes to show how far love in a family can go.

Have you ever read a book that touch your heart so much that it send chills up and down your spine? I have, and the book that sent me these emotions was, "Christmas After All".
The setting of "Christmas after All", is what really interested me to read this book. The setting of this book was in Indiana during the 1930s, and the reason why I was so interested in it was because I live in Indiana. I just love to hear about our history, and what life was like back then. The special part about this book that really touched me was that it was written about living through the depression. My grandma lived during the depression and she told me stories about how life was like back then, and I thought it was really neat to compare that to this story.
This book was amazing and so entertaining, that I couldn't put it down. I kept imagining myself there in that time period, and just trying to get by like they did. It just made my heart break, because I feel so lucky to have what I have now. If you ever want to learn about Indiana history, the depression, or if you are just looking for a quick read that is enjoyable. I highly recommend you read this fantastic book.

Very creative & real. It felt like I was in the story. Feeling Minnie's joys, hopes & sorrows. This is a very fun book. My fave parts was when she went on & on about how her sister had 'a beau!!' I also liked the part were the chicken's feet froze off! (i no, mean, but it was funny!) A very good book. Worth reading again & again!

I thought this was a really good book because it was funnie and historical. I learned a lot about the Great Depression. Plus, her cousin adds a certain twist to it.

"Christmas After All: The Great Depression Diary of Minnie Swift, Indianapolis, Indiana, 1932" was a very good book and showed how the era of The Great Depression affected America's lifestyle. This book is very heartwarming and really shows how lucky we are to be living in this era, but also showed how family life has changed over the years. Although at times this story was sad, the ending will lift your spirits. The epilogue is one of the better one's I've read and the Historical Note is very educational. I also thought it was very wise how Lasky pointed out how she mentioned some events that did not occur during the year 1932, but put them in the story to make the plot thicker. I recommend.

The "Dear America" books are something I can take or leave. MY SECRET WAR was pretty good, as was WHEN CHRISTMAS COMES AGAIN (not really a Christmas book, but about the "Hello girls" in World War I), and the story of the Italian girl crossing the great plains. The Titanic book was average and the Pearl Harbor book was pretty bad. I've heard some pretty scathing criticisms about the two books involving Native American characters.

But in CHRISTMAS AFTER ALL, Kathryn Lasky has created a masterpiece within the diary format of the books.

It is the story of Minnie Swift, youngest of four sisters, her precocious genius younger brother Ozzie, and her parents during the days of the Great Depression. Dad's job is going badly and the family is reduced to shutting down rooms in their home to cut down on coal bills. They rarely have meat for supper, but eat a succession of aspics and "O'Grotons," as Minnie calls them. Then, as December begins, Willie Faye Darling comes into their lives. Willie Faye is the only daughter of cousins of Minnie's mother. Her parents, from a small town called Heart's Bend, Texas, have died after losing a battle with life in the Dust Bowl. Willie Faye is Minnie's age (11), but looks two years younger due to malnutrition and hardships. She arrives at the Swift home covered in dust and with a kitten named Tumbleweed whose nose she had to suction out morning, noon and night to keep him from smothering. Willie Faye has never seen an indoor bathroom, gone to a movie, read a Buck Rogers comic, or listened to the radio, so Minnie thinks that Willie Faye will have a lot to learn from them.

She never dreams what she--and the entire family--will learn from the fragile-looking but tough little girl from the Dust Bowl when the ravages of the Depression begin leaching away the family's security.

I have many of Lasky's other books and love them as well including PRANK, which takes place in East Boston, and her adult mysteries starring Calista Jacobs. But this story has a special magic to it, perhaps because it is based on Lasky's mother's experiences as well as her own and the characters ring true. Highly recommended.