Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski

1946 Newbery Winner
Finished 11-28-06

When the Boyer family moves onto their new farm in Florida, they are more than anxious to be neighborly. Unfortunately, the Slaters don’t reciprocate the feeling. In fact, Mr. Slater employs various methods to try to run the Boyers of their farm, from letting his cattle trample the Boyers strawberry crops, to cutting fences, to setting a fire. We see all this through ten-year-old Birdie Boyer’s eyes, as she attempts to sort out her feelings about the whole mess and struggles with how to treat the Slater boy, Shoestring.

I’m afraid that Lois Lenski books and I have never gotten along too well. I think it’s because I can never relate to her characters. Their emotions, the way they react, seem so out of place to me. They have so much harsh and abrupt anger, and they change from nice to ornery faster than you could blink. Maybe it wouldn’t bother me if I understood the reasons behind the changes, but to me, everything seems so abrupt.

Something that bothered me particularly about this book was the sudden resolution of the conflict. I don’t want to give away what happened, but it just seemed like a cop-out to me. I would have preferred a more gradual build-up to the resolution rather than the quick, easy fix that happened.

On the good side, however, I enjoyed the setting of the book. You don’t read much about the pioneers of Florida. The only other book I can think of (which doesn’t mean their isn’t more) that is set in the wilds of Florida is The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.

So overall, I’m afraid I wasn’t very fond of Strawberry Girl. If you know you enjoy Lenski’s style of writing, I’d recommend it. Otherwise, not so much.