Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Wordsworth Children's Classics) (Wordsworth Classics) [Paperback]

Kate Douglas Smith Wiggin (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 3 and up | Series: Wordsworth Classics

Rebecca Randall is one of seven fatherless children, but is full of fun and strange ideas. She leaves her family at Sunnybrook Farm and goes to live with her two aunts in Riverboro. There she goes to school for the first time, embarks on a madcap scheme to sell soap, nearly runs away, befriends the kindly stagecoach driver Jeremiah Cobb, and with 'Mr Aladdin' helps repair her family's fortunes.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Author Jack London wrote Kate Douglas Wiggin a letter about her classic Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm from the headquarters of the First Japanese Army in Manchuria in 1904: "May I thank you for Rebecca?... I would have quested the wide world over to make her mine, only I was born too long ago and she was born but yesterday.... Why could she not have been my daughter? Why couldn't it have been I who bought the three hundred cakes of soap? Why, O, why?" Mark Twain called Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm "beautiful and warm and satisfying."

Who is this beguiling creature? The irrepressible 10-year-old Rebecca Rowena Randall burst into the world of children's book characters (and her new life in Maine) in 1903 when storybook girls were gentle and proper. A "bird of a very different feather," she had "a small, plain face illuminated by a pair of eyes carrying such messages, such suggestions, such hints of sleeping power and insight, that one never tired of looking into their shining depths.... " Soon enough, she wins over her prim Aunt Miranda, the whole town, and thousands of readers everywhere with her energetic, indomitable spirit. This beautiful trade edition features the artwork of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm's original illustrator Helen Mason Grose, with 6 full- color plates and 32 pen-and-ink drawings. (Ages 9 and older) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"The illustrations impart a cozy, familiar feel to a long-ago world, and reveal a lively, generous spirit in the heroine who leaves her home to live with her two elderly aunts." (Publishers Weekly )<br /><br /><DIV><DIV>"The illustrations impart a cozy, familiar feel to a long-ago world, and reveal a lively, generous spirit in the heroine who leaves her home to live with her two elderly aunts." Publishers Weekly</DIV></div> --New York Times Book Review --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 3 and up
  
• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Wordsworth Editions Ltd (March 5, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853261343
• ISBN-13: 978-1853261343
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,814,182 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rose of Joy, December 29, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Mass Market Paperback)

No review could do this marvelous book justice, but I will attempt it. My mother bought the book for me some years ago because she thought it would be good for me to read classics. Thinking that it would be boring, I didn't read it for a long time. But a couple of days ago I was bored and picked it up. Soon, I fell under the same spell Rebecca cast over nearly every person she met. Around the age of 10 or 11, she was forced to leave her home, Sunnybrook Farm, to live in a brick house with her spinster aunts in Riverboro. Her aunts Jane and Miranda weren't used to young people, but they let Rebecca stay with them in order to help out her poor widowed mother who had 6 other children to care for. Rebecca charmed nearly all the citizens of Riverboro, Aunt Jane, and, in time, her strict, austere Aunt Miranda.

There were many things to love about the story. In fact, it has become one of my favorite books of all time. (and I am a voracious reader) The characters were all realistically and richly delineated. Rebecca especially came alive for me. She was such a talented, imaginative, caring girl. She was the kind of person that anyone would love to have as a friend. Actually, I would want to be her. I didn't want to stop reading about her adventures. The events played before my mind's eye like a movie. I traveled back in time, to 100 years ago. This is considered a children's book, but it has truths and insights that people of all ages can learn from. Several of the passages, the literary allusions, and Rebecca's poems were so beautiful that I had to reread them. The language was eloquent. As another reviewer said, the vocabulary wasn't "dumbed down" like the vocabularies of modern children's books, and there was a protagonist one could love.

The only part about the novel that I didn't like was that there isn't a sequel. I would love to find out what Rebecca's career turns out to be. I believe that she marries Mr. Ladd (a.k.a. "Mr. Aladdin"), but I wish we could know for sure.

Overall, I highly reccomend this book to readers of all ages. If you like books with wonderful supporting characters and an unusual, loveable heroine, treat yourself to "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm".

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Rebecca is the Girl's Complement to Tom Sawyer, June 30, 2002

By 

David Bond (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Books of Wonder) (Hardcover)

I tried to read this book to my 5 year old daughters, (they loved Anne of Green Gables), but the language was too advanced for them. However I couldn't put it down. Ms. Wiggin's use of turn of phrase and metaphor remind me so much of Mark Twain. I'm in awe of their common talent for making it possible to see a concept in a new light by merely a precise juxtaposition of words. Much of this might be lost on younger readers, but my daughters were nevertheless facinated by Rebecca's spirit; so much so, that they asked me to tell them the whole story when I had finished.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Eternal Rebecca Randall, October 16, 2006

By 

L. M Young (Marietta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (Puffin Classics) (Paperback)

Rebecca has been my friend since I read her story in a cheap Whitman hardback when I was a little girl. A lively and creative 10-year-old girl is sent to her maiden aunts to receive a good education, but chafes under the restrictive yoke of her elder aunt. As Rebecca learns to channel her energies into positive action, she remains unquenched by her dour aunt and lends joy to both the younger aunt, but also the elderly Cobbs and her best friend, Emma Jane Perkins. The vocabulary in the story may be a bit high for younger readers as REBECCA was not actually written as a children's story; it was the best seller of the year 1904. There is a sequel, NEW CHRONICLES OF REBECCA, that is worth finding, with more adventures of Rebecca, the Simpson children, and even Emma Jane.