I am STILL plodding through The Dyslexia Advantage. But I did manage to read the second installment of the Boston Jane trilogy.
In Boston Jane: Wilderness Days by Jennifer L. Holm, Jane is still angry about her fate. I love her character because she is impulsive, prone to anger, and slightly selfish. In other words, she is like most sixteen-year-old girls.
In Wilderness Days, she is still doing the laundry and most of the cooking to pay for her room and board, in Mr. Russell's flea-filled cabin, and she is NOT happy about it. When another woman arrives at Shoalwater Bay, one who is both charming and better kempt, Jane feels jealousy rather than friendship.
One of Jane's many problems is that she can never let go of her Philadelphia charm school idea of what is Proper. She assumes the worst of everyone, unless they are wearing fine clothes and have proper manners. This fault will allow a murderer to get clear-cut directions from Jane as to where to find his next victim.
I love Jane...and I want to slap her. By the end of Wilderness Days, she appears to have done some growing-up, though. I can't wait to read the final installment, The Claim, to see if I'm right.
Is Boston Jane anything like The Calico Captive? Have you made Susan and Lucy read that one yet?
ReplyDeleteI don't know if I read that one...
DeleteColonial girl, captured by Indians during the French and Indian War, winds up in Quebec as a seamstress to the aristocracy etc. Mary told me once that it's based on someone's actual diary. It's by Elizabeth George Speare
DeleteSo it sounds a bit like Mrs. Mike only she doesn't cope well with the wilderness. Or much of anything. But I was bored out of my mind when my book club read Mrs. Mike and did not for one second see the wonderful love story they were all gushing about. Are these 3 worth reading? I can't tell...
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing as tragic as Mrs. Mike in Boston Jane. They are fun reads for middle-schoolers and up. Mrs. Mike was SO sad! Boston Jane is more like Anne of Green Gables meets the wild side of Canada.
DeleteMy Sunshine tells me that yes, she grows up more in the last book. Keep reading.
ReplyDeleteSounds interesting, I'll put these on my reading list for my next downtime :)
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