I like George MacDonald's more famous juveniles, so when I saw this on the shelf at the library I grabbed it for fear it would get culled if I just added it to my to-read someday shelf. This is the version edited by Elizabeth Yates, with the brogue translated and the focus on Gibbie and his adventures tightened. Still, it was a slog. I suppose a good-hearted Christian would get more out of it than I - but on the other hand I did read it with an open mind and it's still, in my opinion, one of the weaker fables of its ilk. Try instead [b:The Secret Garden|2998|The Secret Garden|Frances Hodgson Burnett|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/5150Q2WZDFL._SL75_.jpg|3186437] or [b:The Little Prince|157993|The Little Prince|Antoine de Saint-Exupéry|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1233949421s/157993.jpg|2180358], or, perhaps best of all, [b:Mister God, This Is Anna|50807|Mister God, This Is Anna|Fynn|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170371785s/50807.jpg|49605] which I'll be reviewing soon. By the way, I've no idea what rates a comparison to Huckleberry Finn - but I'm due for a re-read of that classic soonish so I'll think about it again then. ( )

what a wonderful story. heart-wrenching in parts but overall uplifting in a way only tragic beginnings can be.

MacDonald seems to have real insight into the beatific state of being in which wee Sir Gibbie lives and informs us with impeccable timing that Gibbie is not to be pitied for he would not understand it from his regard of pure innocence.

"He was not to be pitied. Never in his life had he yet pitied himself. The thought of hardship or wrong had not occurred to him. It would have been difficult to get the idea into his head that existence bore to him any other shape than it ought."

the rooting of everything Good in this story in Christianity is a cultural artifact, for the most part, and comes off as a bit naive at times(feral young Gibbie takes to the teachings of Jesus like a suffocating fish to a babbling mountain brook) but does not overpower the fairy tale nature of the story. nonetheless, it is believable even when the hyperbole flows out of the page in great geysers and gouts like the mountain flood that is this book's harrowing act II where Gibbie saves everyone, including a horse.

maybe it would be better to call this a ripping good yarn... ( )

Macdonald weaves a tale about a simple minded lad who rises from living in rags on the city streets to becoming a "laird" of one of the great houses of Scotland. Along the way he never loses his child-like innocence and devotion to his fellow man. It is a charming story, although I found the colloquial Scots language hard to follow and Macdonald interjects lots of his own observations into the story which, if the reader is not enjoying them, will cause the story to drag. They are wonderful little homilies on the way Christians should strive to live like Jesus, and the way Gibbie is an illustration of someone who does. But despite the parts where I struggled to understand the dialog or skimmed over the "sermons" it was an enjoyable story. If you like classic stories told in an old fashioned way with old fashioned morals you'll savor this one. ( )

C.S. Lewis said that MacDonald's great strength was that he could make good characters interesting. That it was easy for writers to make villains sound interesting, but in real life, good people were interesting to be with and villains were often rather drab. MacDonald's good people are people you wish you knew. Sir Gibbie is one of his best. There's an edited version, the something Baronet, but this is better IMHO. One of MacDonald's best novels. ( )