Customer Reviews

Magic for Marigold

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

When I was 8 years old, I found this book in the public library and read it over and over. Even years later, I always remembered the book, although I didn't realize that the author was the same one who wrote Anne of Green Gables. Somehow, Marigold struck a chord with me, and the magic seemed real. I imagined her home in the clouds as a fanciful heavenly place. It was my absolutely favorite book of all time, and I would recommend it for any young sensitive, imaginative, girl.

I love this book! Montgomery eliquent use of prose,her vividimagination and poetry allow the reader to see life throughMontgomery's eyes. Montgomery's talent as a writer enable girls young and old to view life in its wonderful aspects as she does in Magic for Marigold. Marigold is a delightful girl with wonderful dreams and high adventure. My personal favorite is her journey with the uncontrollable princess and her midnight rendevous with Budge. I recommend this not only to girls young and old but to mothers to read to their childeren. Everyone should read L.M. Montgomery's books. I guarentee joy and happiness with each page.

Looking forward to reading some of Montgomery's other works, I spent several days laboring over Magic for Marigold. The book is well written, sometimes enjoyable and entertaining, often slow and boring. Marigold is no Anne. She isn't Rilla, either. She has no spunk, no fire-- and that is what I always loved about Anne and all of the women in the Green Gables series.
That is not to say that Marigold doesn't get into Anne-like scrapes. She just doesn't get out of them in Anne-like ways.

The Princess Varvara incident is a great example. Marigold is lead-practically dragged- into mischief by a mysterious girl who insists that she is a princess. Not only is Marigold unable to be bad on her own, but she can't be good on her own either. She lacks decisiveness and a will. Perhaps that comes from being raised in a household with an over-domineering great-grandmother, a domineering grandmother and a push over mother.
A true L. M. Montgomery fan will have to read this book to experience another side of Montgomery, just don't have your heart set on meeting an engaging, enchanting girl. The most enchanting thing about Marigold is her name.

As a baby Marigold's life was saved by a lovely lady doctor who then married into the Lesley clan and became her Aunt Marigold. The little girl lives with her Mother, Young Grandmother and Old Grandmother as her father had died before she was born.

This is a fascinating book which is told from the point of view of a lonely little girl with a vivid imagination. She has an imaginary friend and shares her inmost thoughts with her. She also visits cousins and meets other children at school. As you read this book you learn all about the people who live on the beautiful Island with Marigold. You meet Old Grandmother, a fearsome old woman who has taken to her bed and the black cat sitting on the gate-post who is called the Witch of Endor. There are numerous aunts and uncles and cousins. Marigold grows older and learns about life. Her Grandmother learns lessons as well. (After Old Grandmother dies, Young Grandmother becomes just Grandmother).

The book was first published in 1935 so it tells of a long-lost very different world. I have a 1937 copy which belonged to my mother and it is one of my most treasured possessions.

My mother, who is 82, gave me her already old copy of this book about 40 years ago. I read it many times then and many times to my daughters when then were small. We consider it one of the best of the middle childhood books for girls. It uses images of nature to develop a powerful sense of place and an almost ecological ethic that is way ahead of its time. It is a feminist tale in that there is a big range of female characters of all shapes and ages, good and bad, strong and weak, boss and bossed, smart and very smart, to love and to hate. The book is a collection of chapters that stand up on their own, each with its own message, and in that way mirrors everyday life with stories of success and failure repeated over and over. It is a comforting book because Marigold is not too good, too beautiful, or too smart to stay out of trouble, but ultimately digs her way out using her own resources. Neither too good nor too bad, she is pretty much a regular, real girl trying to figure out how to grow up without being separated from her emotions, her imagination, and her true self.

This book was given to me by my parents for Christmas and when I saw who wrote it I knew I was in for a good book. Magic For Marigold is one of those books which can warm your heart with laughter because of childish mistakes, and make you angry because of how the other characters are treated. I recommend this book to anyone who has an imagination and would be able to imagine what goes on in a child's mind.

This delightful novel focuses on Marigold's growth from childhood to adolescense. She is a very likable and human character. The character portrayal is very good. The contrast between Marigold and Old Grandmother is interesting. Marigold triumphs, tragedies, fears, successes are on the surface commonplace but they are the stuff of life, this book is a treasure, a joy to read. (Interesting is Marigold's favorite word, I like rereading this book and seeing the world through her eyes.) The only disappointment in this book is Marigold's mother, Lorraine, who never deveops a back bone. Marigold is spunky enough, she always rises to the occasion as when she entertaing unexpected guests when her mother and grandmother were unexpectedly called away. The characterization of women (i.e. a woman doctor stops working just because she is married) is dated but need not interfere with one's enjoyment of this story.

Witty, funny, with a tang of bittersweet harmony woven within its pages, this story captures the essence of childhood struggling to grasp the joys and sorrows of adolescence. From the very beginning, Marigold works her magic on the entire clan. Take a walk with her and Old Grandmother in the moonlit garden one evening and discover the unspoken connection between this unlikely pair. Relive your childhood as she finds herself in more trouble than she can count. As you read the pages, you'll remember your first love letter, your first friend,and your first disappointment. Laugh with her as she shares a good joke with Uncle Horace. But be prepared. Marigold has her quiet, reflective moments too, especially with Aunt Marigold. Like all children, she too must learn the hardest lesson of all: letting go. Discover how she learns that the greatest magic comes from within herself.

This is a wonderful, humorous book filled with stories of a girl named Marigold. From her visit with a real live princess to the night before her "Old Grandmother" dies,from trying to be better behaved with a cousin to her introduction with lice, even the story of how she got her name itself is interesting!

I had been hoping to read this book for quite some time, but was in for a dissapointment. The book went nowhere, and except for a couple of parts (e.g. The princess visiting) I found the book to just go rambling. I suggest to any reader, Anne of Green Gables and its sequels, Pat of Silver Bush, Mistress Pat, and chronicles of Avonlea.