Judging by other reviews on Goodreads, I'm one of the few people that didn't like this book, and I generally do enjoy old books. Probably because I was expecting from the title that it would be a jolly, upbeat book suitable for small children, and it wasn't.
Any book that has two deaths (one from alcohol, one from starvation and exposure) and a fire in the first few chapters isn't what I'd call upbeat, even if the main character maintains a cheerful disposition in the face of all disaster.
Most children's books centre around one or more children. This one is more about their mother. And death due to alcoholism (two different people), is a hard topic. Not to mention the romance subplot tacked on which probably wouldn't interest young children.
I also don't enjoy humour revolving around people who do or say things incorrectly because they don't know any better and most of the laughs in this book are that kind. Mrs. Wiggs naming her three girls Asia, Australia, and Europena because she likes "jography" names is a good example.
That's as far as I'd gotten in my thinking when I started reading Marm Lisa by Kate Douglas Wiggin, an author I enjoy and who was mentioned by several reviewers of this book as writing similar things. What should I come across but a set of twins named Atlantic and Pacific? A quick Google search showed Marm Lisa to be published earlier by five years, so if there was any influence, it was running from Wiggin to Rice.
I was telling my husband about this when he pointed out the similarity in the last names--Wiggs and Wiggin. Maybe we're looking at parody/black humour. Mrs. Wiggs IS rather over the top for the strong, independent but poor widow trying to raise her children--so independent that she'd rather let a child die than ask someone for help.
Right or wrong, I'm sure there's an English lit thesis in there somewhere, but I have no intention of going back to school to write it.
