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A review by lgpiper
Mother Carey's Chickens by Kate Douglas Wiggin
4.0
My spouse got a weird crossword puzzle clue: "Mother Carey's Chickens". The answer, apparently, was "petrel", a flying water bird. It seems that the "stormy petrels fly out over the seas to show the good birds the way home". Who knew? Well, I Googled and found this book, which dates from 1911. Given that most people who are still living weren't kids until several decades after 1911, I'm surprised that the reference still appears to some to be in common usage.
Anyway, it turns out that, while this book hits on the topic of the petrels repeatedly, the actual reference comes from a book written some 50+ years further in the past, The Water Babies. I didn't learn this until I'd tackled quite a bit of this particular book. Later on, I read the predecessor so as to help me figure things out better.
I wasn't sure about this book at the beginning. It seemed a bit too much goody-two-shoes even for my elderly, repressed Calvinist tastes. But then I got into the book, and rather liked it.
Mother Carey is a young(-ish) woman who has four children, Nancy, Gilbert, Kathleen, and Peter. Her husband is a sea captain and is visited by an admiral, who is the one who named the children "Mother Carey's Chickens". Anyway, Capt. Carey gets sick and dies. So, to cut down on expenses, Mother Carey and her children move to Beulah, Maine, a place where they fondly remember a lovely, yellow house from one of their earlier travels. The lovely, yellow house is up for rent, so they rent it. They make friends in the town, they make friends with the yellow house's owner, a diplomat named Mr. Hamilton. So, anyway, in all these interactions, they help the people around themselves become better people...or something. And, of course, it's all hearts and flowers, or is trending that way at any rate, in the end.
If you like old stuff and heartwarming stuff, this is a lovely book to pick up.
Anyway, it turns out that, while this book hits on the topic of the petrels repeatedly, the actual reference comes from a book written some 50+ years further in the past, The Water Babies. I didn't learn this until I'd tackled quite a bit of this particular book. Later on, I read the predecessor so as to help me figure things out better.
I wasn't sure about this book at the beginning. It seemed a bit too much goody-two-shoes even for my elderly, repressed Calvinist tastes. But then I got into the book, and rather liked it.
Mother Carey is a young(-ish) woman who has four children, Nancy, Gilbert, Kathleen, and Peter. Her husband is a sea captain and is visited by an admiral, who is the one who named the children "Mother Carey's Chickens". Anyway, Capt. Carey gets sick and dies. So, to cut down on expenses, Mother Carey and her children move to Beulah, Maine, a place where they fondly remember a lovely, yellow house from one of their earlier travels. The lovely, yellow house is up for rent, so they rent it. They make friends in the town, they make friends with the yellow house's owner, a diplomat named Mr. Hamilton. So, anyway, in all these interactions, they help the people around themselves become better people...or something. And, of course, it's all hearts and flowers, or is trending that way at any rate, in the end.
If you like old stuff and heartwarming stuff, this is a lovely book to pick up.