Customer Reviews

Elsie's Holidays at Roselands

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

 

 

This book is a part of one of my favorite series and has inspired me to get closer to my love, Jesus Christ. Her loving nature and also the way she loves Christ and knows that through all he will love her more than anyone. For those who dislike the "old-fashionness" of this book I recommend reading the rewritten series published by Mission City Press. The rewrites do not display as much sadness or happyness as the originals but do leave out a few short portions of the book. Elsie loves her earthly Father so very much and has inspired me to love my family all the more. For very young children I would not recommend this book because they seem to be subject to greatly disliking sad stories and this series is very sad at the beggining. When I was young I disliked Secret Garden and some people I know read the book to their young children and now they remember that sadness now that they are older. I have incouraged all my sisters to read these books, even my younger brother is listening to the book on tapes that I got for my birthday and likes them. My mom is just starting to read the books and is finding them interesting even though she has not read much yet. I admit that I am an Elsie fan and collect the books. I love looking at my Elsie doll and remembering her great faith. I think that this is because I read this book at a period in my life when I had a interest in loving God but I just did not see many examples of kids around me following Jesus with all of their hearts. These books have inspired me greatly through the few years that I have been reading them. Not all might agree with me and I believe that it truly depends at where you are at with your walk with God; whether you want to know him more or not. If anyone is interested with the rewrites please go to alifeoffaith.com and you can find out more about them. Believe me when I tell you that hundreds of girls around this world are fastenated with Elsie's Godly Character and I hope many more will be after reading this reveiw. God bless, An admiring teenager

I love the original Elsie books and Hendrickson Publishers did a great job of taking the Hibbard publication

and enlarging the books making them easier to read. They also did a great job on the covers. They shipped quickly too.

We thoroughly enjoy this book and the whole series. It was hard to put down and yet my daughter was really able to understand the story and relate to the characters.

When I first read this book I thought that Elsie could have read to her father on Sunday when he asked her because Jesus said it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. But one day it came to me why it would be wrong to read to him, and the reason was because it was against her consciences, and it would be wrong to violate it. And one person said that the title did not match the story, and what I say to that is `Don't judge a book by its cover'.

"Elsie's Holiday" is a bit of a strange title for this book that leaves the reader a little depressed throughout the majority of it. The beginning is confusing for anyone who has not read the first book, as it was originally part of the first book, but Martha Finley had to chop it apart because it was too long. Therefore, a series began.

The first couple of chapters are well done, but then Horace Dinsmore asks Elsie to read him a book that's not the Bible on a Sunday. Because she has this belief-ignoring what Jesus says in the New Testament-that she can't do anything on Sundays but read the Bible, Elsie refuses. Thus begins a battle of wills that lasts for over a hundred pages and quite a few chapters. Horace is "stubborn" over this stupid book, and takes everything too far. He moves into a house, takes her precious Mammy, and takes away all of Elsie's pleasures, all so that she could become his slave.

Nowadays, we would normally say that he was emotionally abusing the child and he would be in quite a few therapy sessions.

What is the point of the title except the first couple chapters? Holidays are normally happy and when I hear "holidays" I think Christmas, but Christmas was already covered in the first book. So the title makes little sense, no wonder why Life of Faith changed all the titles when adapting these books.

Yet again, I have to compliment Martha Finley on her talent of writing and getting a feel of the times she lived in.

"Elsie's Holidays at Roselands" is a good, old fashioned book. I like it very much, but I notice in all the Elsie books, including this one, her father is very possesive and authoritative. I also notice that Elsie is very much against Catholics, which I don't think as true Christian spirit. But this is a good book, and I like to read it.

i would like to say that for all her faults elsie is a Christian
but the endless talk of her devoted faith leaves you with the impression that elsie is a angel that somehow ended up on earth.
also she cries way to much, a baby cries less then elsie does! and her father borders on abusive,heck,he is abusive! i dislike
these books intensly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I enjoyed this book, as I have all of the books in the Elsie Dinsmore series. However, it is written in an old-fashioned, somewhat syrupy style. I also found the anti-Catholic bias of the book somewhat disturbing.

I didn't read this whole book, I quit on about page 104. If you like perfect characters, read this book. I hate Elsie, she is too angelic, one wonders how anything happens to her...
And she doesn't stand up for herself. Her father shuts her in the closet for practically nothing, forgets about her, and then she crawls back to him. (Mind you, he FORGOT about her), and she says 'I wonder if I'll EVER be good'. C'mon! What a joke! Well, I recommend this book for more laughs than tears.
I can understand why Martha Finley chose to write this series. She has a wonderful technique. Miss Finley lived in a time period when books were rather scarce. The children had no money (basically), and so who purchased the books? Adults. And what did the adults want? A wholesome book with good characters. Today children's behavior is influenced by the TV, back then it was novels and books. Miss Finley didn't just decide to write these, she was injured and so she must have done something to live. And she did this more for money and goodness than pleasure. She could have given Elsie flaws, but Miss Finley never had children, so she probably didn't realize how inhuman Elsie was.