Narrated by the youngest child, this novel depicts growing up in a large family in the country as alternately idyllic and horrifying (although clearly Stratton-Porter thought it was all awesome.) The good: playing unsupervised outdoors all day, having adventures and learning all about flora and fauna. The bad: playing unsupervised outdoors all day, so one older brother tries to hang her to see what it’s like, she tries to kill a ram, she and the same brother feed a goose until it splits open and dies. This dichotemy seems incredibly realistic to me and reminded me of my girlfriend’s account of her childhood in County Clare. The teacher hits the main character across the face on her first day and her brother tells her it was her own fault and to keep quiet about it; again, this seemed like searing realism. At first the main character feels unwanted and unloved because her mother didn’t want to have another child, but her brother Laddie of the title is her champion and truly cares about her, and by the end of the book so does the rest of the family. There’s a romance between Laddie and a neighbor girl, and a lot of religious content that was completely mystifying to me. I thought it was forward-thinking for the mom to say that women should have their own money. ( )

My favorite book. Mr. Sanders read it to our 8th grade class. It's about a little sister enthralled by her big brother, Laddie. My big brother was overseas serving in the army in Vietnam. He was in my thoughts every day. I definitely identified with Little Sister in the book, and appreciated the reprieve from worrying if my brother would return home. ( )

Interesting variation on Stratton-Porter's usual romances. Instead of one romance belonging to the viewpoint character, the viewpoint character is a child (maybe 9 at the end of the story?), and romances abound. The family is nice but rather idealized - all the terrible troubles they have evaporate very quickly. The religious angle is pushed a bit too hard, but it's not as preachy as some of her books. The wildlife descriptions follow her usual pattern, though she goes to some effort _not_ to describe some of them accurately - again, the viewpoint character is a child, who's familiar with the creatures and plants around her but doesn't necessarily know their proper names. The girl is never named - she's called Little Sister through most of the book, and though she thinks a couple times about her "proper name", it's never actually mentioned. I hadn't realized the story was semi-autobiographical; I did think that Little Sister might grow up to be the Bird Woman of Freckles and the rest of the Limberlost books. She has that kind of focus. The happy ending(s) here is as contrived as the one in Freckles, and somewhat similar - titles and lords and redemption. Enjoyable, but not particularly memorable I think. I'll probably reread, in a few years. ( )

Despite having a feisty narrator and beautiful descriptions, this book became a chore to finish. Part of that was actually due to those beautiful descriptions. The author was so avid to capture her childhood environment that not a single birdsong could be left out, and the story suffers for her self-indulgence. If you have read Freckles, the mystery and the ending will probably be pretty easy for you to figure out. Even if you haven't, it shouldn't take too long. The tone is at times too preachy, and though I agreed with a lot of what was said, I often felt it need not be so heavy-handedly forced into dialogue. The mother's speech to Mr. Pryor in particular felt that way. It reminded me of John Galt's radio speech in Atlas Shrugged--something that should've been published separately as a sort of manifesto, because it had already been explained so thoroughly throughout the book. To make things worse, I never could really bring myself to care about Laddie and the Princess as the author did. I wanted more of the narrator's own life and less of the lives of those around her.
I wanted so much to really love this book. When I began it I was certain it would be a 5 star book. I am so disappointed to have to mark it 2 stars in this way. If only an editor had taken Ms. Stratton-Porter to task... ( )

I have read this twice and draw such pleasure from it, I cannot explain. One of my favorites! ( )