Four siblings face their first New England winter without their parents. Meh. Not the best in the kids-on-their-own-in-the-semi-wilderness genre, but not horrible, either. ( )

Rounded up from 4.5 stars because there is no way in heck this is a bad book that deserves a low community rating.

To be honest, I didn't expect a lot. These old Newberys are hit & miss, mostly miss, for me. But, this is actually a very good book, imo. It's quiet, sure. But it's basically a story of two teen girls learning who they are and what they can do, as they run a household in their parents' absence, with the nearest neighbors across the road and down a long driveway. (Garry is short for Margaret.)

They're very different girls, but the wonderful thing I noticed about them is that neither is boy-crazy at all, into clothes/fashion very little, and into gossip only to the extent everyone in a small rural community is. The taxi driver, their link to town, is female. The neighbor father is loving and supportive. Another male runs a nursery (garden center). Almost everyone else is female. Such a refreshing read after so many Newbery reads of adventurers and warriors.

Another good thing is that this book does have four pictures by [a:Kate Seredy|80667|Kate Seredy|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-9e23bac89f169d02e43709e42b361705.png], whom we know from [b:Good Master|7166627|Good Master|Kate Seredy|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1267293902s/7166627.jpg|250092]. At least in the edition I read.

I also found it interesting that this family was viewed, suspiciously, by some of the locals, as 'citified' or hoity-toity. But the local equivalent of 'baron' assumed them to be peasants and unworthy of notice. Meanwhile, they were just being their own amiable hard-working selves.

Here's another reviewer's positive take on this subtle spellbinder: http://collectingchildrensbooks.blogspot.com/2008/02/its-cold-outside.html ( )