"The Littlest Big Kid" is a childhood memoir that is representative of how life was for American children growing up in the 1940s. Stories are told from a child's perspective in a light-hearted, humorous way yet expressive of the fears and anxieties children had during this time in America's history, the WW11 years. The primary purpose of this book is to entertain adults who enjoy remembering childhood.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Donna has recaptured her child self, speaking honestly and humorously within an authentic framework of time and place. -- Story Circle Network, September, 2001
Enthusiastic stories about life in a small town in Wisconsin during the WW11 years, told from a child's perspective. -- Appleton Post Crescent
This entertaining book represents an era through stories about family and community. -- Green Bay Press-Gazette
Enthusiastic stories about life in a small town in Wisconsin during the WW11 years, told from a child's perspective. -- Appleton Post Crescent
This entertaining book represents an era through stories about family and community. -- Green Bay Press-Gazette
About the Author
Donna Van Straten Remmert grew up in Wisconsin. After graduating from the University of Wisconsin in 1960, Donna married and taught high school English, speech and drama until her two sons were born. When she and her family moved to Tokyo, Japan in 1971, Donna trained as a journalist through the University of Wisconsin's extension program. She published 50 articles about the Japanese culture while living there. Upon moving back to the states, she became a writer for Westchester Magazine in New York, published travel pieces in the New York Daily News and published a collection of children's plays. After retirement and a move to Austin, TX., Donna began writing a childhood memoir, "The Littlest Big Kid", using her family and community stories as representative of childhood and an era, the 1940s. Donna's sequel, "The Jitterbug Girl" will soon be available. She again uses her life to entertain with stories about an era, the 1950s. Donna teaches writing workshops through the auspices of Story Circle Network, a national organization dedicated to helping women tell their stories. She also teaches dream workshops, having informally trained at Jung Centers throughout the nation.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Eavesdropping on a childhood in Wisconsin,
By PJ Pierce (Austin, TX United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Littlest Big Kid (Paperback)
Although I grew up in Texas, not Wisconsin, and Protestant, not Catholic, I delighted in the author's vivid descriptions of growing up in a large Catholic family in Wisconsin in the 1940's. Van Straten's stories depict the human situtation and thus draw the reader into a childhood to which everyone can relate. I found myself laughing out loud as the author described Sunday mass from a child's eye view: "It's a mortal sin to miss Mass on Sunday and I never do unless I get sick. Pretending sick is a dumb thing to do because God knows and he'll put a mortal sin on your soul if you do. And if you die with a mortal sin on your soul, you burn in hell forever and ever and ever and ever, which is infinity. Or maybe it's eternity. I can't remember."And later I chuckled as she recounted her days in battle-ax Mrs. Palmer's third grade: "I hate Mrs. Palmer every time she says, 'Your sister was my best student when she was a third grader. She never spilled ink, she never watched the clock, she never cheated in arithmetic by counting on her fingers behind her back.' What a battle-ax." But I also felt the seriousness of other experiences, such as the war. "A shiver goes through me every time I hear an airplane in the sky," the author's childlike voice says. And after the war was over, "Thank God it's over. War is boring and sacrificing is hard." Telling her stories from a child's point of view makes the author's stories all the more believable and readable. Van Straten takes the reader from 1937-1950 and comments on events happening in the small town of Black Creek as well as how she relates to national events, such as President Truman winning the election after he had "lost." It is a book I want to pick up again and again to delight in one chapter or another. And I look forward to the sequel to read Van Straten's stories about her teenage years, told from a teenager's point of view.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Childhood memories, vividly unfold,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Littlest Big Kid (Paperback)
The language is so real and engaging as told through the voice of a young child. The author's stories of growing up in rural Wisconsin in the l940's, got into my heart and stayed there long after I finished the book. It is the childhood so many of us remember; from the scarlet fever quarantines to the blackouts of WWll, all told with freshness and simplicity.
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