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elenareads's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
didyousaybooks's review
3.0
I’m glad I found that book in a little bookshop in Pitlochry before leaving Scotland (for now), as I was looking for a Scottish book to bring home with me and this one is a perfect fit.
Even more as Jessie’s family was from (kinda) Pitlochry and his surroundings so it’s a lucky streak I had when I bought it there.
It’s the story of travellers, « tinker » folks and I think it’s the first book I read about this subject. Every country have traveling communities, even today where the general way to treat them doesn’t differ from the way they were treated before, in Scotland or elsewhere.
As a girl who loves traveling, you see all those people now doing it and it’s so good and well seen from their friends and family, but people that are literally born in traveller communities are seen as « less » and it just baffles me how for many « different=bad/less ». That’s just sad.
But anyway, Jessie’s Journey certainly was not sad. It’s composed of many small stories of her childhood spend traveling in a bus with her parents and sisters. From 5 to 16, in the 50s/60s she’s had such a wonderful childhood and certainly is a free spirit and storyteller at heart, as she was brought up with it.
Some stories are funny, some sad and life was not always perfect for her family and yet it felt by reading a bit of their adventures that it was always full of love and more often than not filled with wonder.
As I’ve traveled in Scotland a bit, and looking forward to go back, it was very pleasant to read about places I’ve been so I knew what she was talking about and left me wanting to see a few other places still to be explored.
Even more as Jessie’s family was from (kinda) Pitlochry and his surroundings so it’s a lucky streak I had when I bought it there.
It’s the story of travellers, « tinker » folks and I think it’s the first book I read about this subject. Every country have traveling communities, even today where the general way to treat them doesn’t differ from the way they were treated before, in Scotland or elsewhere.
As a girl who loves traveling, you see all those people now doing it and it’s so good and well seen from their friends and family, but people that are literally born in traveller communities are seen as « less » and it just baffles me how for many « different=bad/less ». That’s just sad.
But anyway, Jessie’s Journey certainly was not sad. It’s composed of many small stories of her childhood spend traveling in a bus with her parents and sisters. From 5 to 16, in the 50s/60s she’s had such a wonderful childhood and certainly is a free spirit and storyteller at heart, as she was brought up with it.
Some stories are funny, some sad and life was not always perfect for her family and yet it felt by reading a bit of their adventures that it was always full of love and more often than not filled with wonder.
As I’ve traveled in Scotland a bit, and looking forward to go back, it was very pleasant to read about places I’ve been so I knew what she was talking about and left me wanting to see a few other places still to be explored.
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