Customer Reviews

Mable Riley: A Reliable Record of Humdrum, Peril, and Romance

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Mable Riley, a bundle of original energy, has recently moved to a small community in Canada, in 1901. As the story opens, and much to Mable's delight, she leaves her "crowded" house to accompany her sister on what Mable hopes will be a true adventure. The lively story includes hard work, nosy neighbors, pesky boys, a hint of romance, and a friendship with the local "trouble making" spinster. The story includes passages of Mable's own writings - the melodramatic tale she is posting back to her old schoolmates in segments. I liked the "real" story more, but found the whole book a great escape on a rainy day.

1901, Stratford, Ontario. Mable Riley has been sent off with her sister, Viola, to accompany her to her first teaching post. Mable hopes for excitement and romance, and despite the drag of daily chores and sibling rivalry, finds adventure when she befriends the eccentric Mrs. Rattle and her Ladies Reading Society. For bloomer-clad Mrs. Rattle is a real writer and her reading group are actually (gasp!) suffragists! Women's rights, a mill strike, and Mable's first kiss are all told through Mable's diary, letters home, and the poems she writes for Viola's classes. Comparisons to Anne of Green Gables are inevitable and deserved. Fun, irreverent, and anything but didactic.