A Little Maid of Old Maine

The Little Maid's Historical Series #8

by Alice Turner Curtis, Elizabeth Pilsbry (Illustrator)

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Childrens, Historical

160 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1920

About the author

Children's and young adult historical fiction author Alice Turner Curtis was born in Sullivan, Hancock County, Maine, USA. Her maiden name is Alice L. Turner. She is listed in the Daughters of the American Revolution Lineage Books. Her father was a sailmaker. She was married (in Boston on 20 May 1895) to Irving Curtis (18 Jan 1835 – 18 Nov 1910). Her parents (both born in Maine) were John Vinal Turner and Susan Ann Spear. Alice lived her life in Maine and Massachusetts (notably, in Boston). She had been in the literary profession since at least 1895 (with Marjorie's Way being her first known book, published in 1904).

Alice Turner Curtis is the author of "The Little Maid's Historical Series", originally published, during the period from 1910 to 1937. Reprinted by Knopf in the 1940's and 1950's with illustrations by Sandra James. Some books were reprinted by Applewood in the 1990's with the original illustrations. One book containing two original stories was printed by Derrydale Books in 1991. She is also known for the Grandpa's Little Girls series, The Yankee Girl Civil War Stories, the Frontier Girl series, The Little Heroine series, the Marjorie series, the Little Runnaways series, and other books.

Reviews

[Majenta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Actually there are two little maids, sisters Anna and Rebecca Weston, living near the Machias River in May 1775. Tomboy Anna, sometimes called "Danna" by her family, prefers to keep her curly hair short and thirsts for adventure. Her older sister Rebecca is going on 14, but so much is going on at the moment, her family might only remember at the last minute! (Which they do at Location 534 with a weird time-shift to September 10, then back to May 10.) Not that they could throw her a lavish bash, but few families they know could throw lavish bashes either. And Anna doesn't think a girl from a family who COULD afford to throw lavish bashes whenever they wished, would want to attend the lovely afternoon the family eventually provides...but what if she showed up uninvited?

The big story, of course, is The Liberty Pole. Mr. Weston himself is to find the very best wood for it, and Anna looks forward to going along. But Rebecca feels differently...

Thanks for reading!

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, this was an interesting book. At least some of the characters and events are based on real people. However, it should be noted that in real life, Hannah Watts whose married name is Hannah Weston (Anna or Danna Weston in the book) was the elder of the two girls (about 17 years old, married, and I believe pregnant, in real life), and Rebecca was her sister-in-law, reported to be 15 at the time, I believe. Hannah is given most of the credit in real life (and she was the one who got Rebecca to assist her). Their errand was not entirely secret (and not without opposition). Hannah did not live in Machias, but her husband had gone there, and she and Rebecca took more ammunition and metal than is mentioned in the historical fiction story with them (either 40lbs or 40lbs each). They did suffer fatigue and such in their journey. Rebecca did get quite tired and required encouragement to keep going. They were rewarded enough such that they were able to obtain with it what was then at the time a nice dress each.

Anyway, in the book, the characters seem to be younger than 15 and 17. Rebecca is the one leading the journey, and the one who got Anna to join her. Danna and Rebby (Rebecca) are sisters, and Rebby is the older one. They live in Michias with their parents. They make a two-way journey with the ammunion. Their journey is a secret. Rebby helped cut down the liberty pole, thinking it would help save the town, and later found out this was a terrible thing, and sought to make up for it. After they make the famous trip, Rebby is rewarded a golden sovereign and Danna is rewarded a golden necklace.

It is evident that the author knew a considerable amount of details about things that happened; nevertheless, there are some big differences. However, it should be noted that the Internet did not exist back then, and she probably did not have as much information as we do. I don't know what sources she had.

Anyway, how factual the book is isn't what's important, in my opinion. What's important is whether it's a good book, and whether it inspires one to learn about history. It was quite a good book, and it did inspire me to learn about the characters. So, I did some web searches, searched with Google Books's advanced search, and checked out their genealogy on familysearch.org's Family Tree. Anyway, there's a history book about Hannah, which is pretty interesting.

I really like that both Danna and Rebby were main characters, this time. In previous books in this series, there was pretty much just one main character.

Danna likes to sing, do stuff in the wilderness, play, run, pet rabbits, etc. She meets a girl named Melvina Lyon (whose father is a clergyman, and a real historical figure). Anyway, at first, she and a friend make fun of Melvina for her more civil ways, and her seeming ignorance of plants and animals, but then, Danna comes to want to emulate Melvina (after they play and experience some mishaps and offending Melvina's mother). Melvina kind of does the same, and emulates Danna. So, they kind of swap behaviors for a while (well, Melvina does permanently, as far as the book goes), and Danna just does for a good part of the book. Their parents even trade the two children for a while (the reason given is so Melvina can get some color in her cheeks and be healthy; I think Anna went to live Melvina's parents to get some education). I think they swapped places for about two weeks.

There are a lot of interpersonal issues here. There's some drama (between multiple sets of friends, as well issues to do with a number of things that the two main characters and a couple other characters did wrong). That all gets resolved, pretty much, with the liberty pole being cut down being a less resolved issue than the other issues (and although she never confesses it, due to a perceive promise not to, she does do some great things to further the cause of liberty).

So, Danna is told that she can have a rabbit (one of two identical captured wild rabbits), at one point. She and Melvina take the rabbits prematurely and dress them up in dolls' clothes. The rabbits escape (still wearing the clothes). Danna has to work at mending her friendship with Lucille, due to taking the rabbits (the rabbits are at her place). They find one of the rabbits, and decide to remove the clothes and let it free. Danna and Lucille become friends again.

The book is easy to read.

Anyway, that's probably enough information, for now. Sorry it's not very cohesive (I'm tired).

[Melissa King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this with my girls for a bedtime story. SO much better than the American Girl series. It is based on real people and real events, but of course highly fictionized to make it appealing to young girls. None of the ridiculous modern attitudes. Not dumbed down at all. Enough history to supplement the time period we’re studying, but enjoyable enough that they didn’t feel it was educational 😜

[Kerri · Rating 2 out of 5]

The style of this writing was very common of old children's books. Very melodramatic, soft, saccharine. I had trouble with it. And there was a lot of stuff put in that just seemed to be there to belabor a point awkwardly. Very awkwardly. But I can see smaller children enjoying this when it was written, maybe, so two stars.

Read on Project Gutenburg

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

MCL. Both Weston girls did well.

[Cate]

flesch-kincaid reading ease: 79.3

[Morgan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read several of these books when I was a child. I recently found that I could get them free on my kindle and so have picked back up where I left off:)

[Makenzie Baker · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love this book

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

My son really enjoyed this book. His favorite part was when Danna and Rebby went through the forest to get ammunition.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This very well might be my favorite of the Little Maid series. It tells the story of Anna and Rebecca at the time of the beginning of the Revolutionary War.

Anna who prefers to be called Danna is a complete tomboy. She dresses more like a boy, wears her hair shorter, and tramps in the woods with her father. Rebecca who prefers Rebby is older and is quite the opposite of Danna.

Unfortunately they both have friends that lead them into trouble. Danna and her best friend Lucretta do everything together, but Danna is secretly envious of Melvina the pastor's daughter. Pretty quickly Danna is trying to be more like Melvina ( much to Lucretta's dismay), and Melvina is trying to be wild like Danna.

Rebby is friends with Lucia. She doesn't know that Lucia and her family are secret loyalists. So Lucia tricks her into doing something against the settlement and Rebby spends the rest of the book trying to make up for it.

And make up for it they both do. Danna wants to prove she is a better friend to Lucretta after she does something to hurt her, and Rebby wants to clear her conscious.
They both succeed and help America in the fight against England.

[Kate Donnelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is more about the girls and living in Maine than the Revolution. Major historical information is about the Liberty Tree and Maine's role in the Revolution. There was a hint of the Tories and their traitorous acts. One interesting event was the exchange of one girl with another girl's family for two weeks.

[Jennifer Booth · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was ok

It was ok for the most part, there were some cute passages, I didn't like the idea of white rabbits as witches sounded dumb

[Carol Burris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Similar is style to the Little House on the Prairie books but set in coastal Maine in 1775. I read this to my 11 and 13 yo granddaughters. The 11 year old liked it. The 13 yo thought it was boring.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I still love these books as much as when I was a child. This one is especially dear as it takes place in Machias and tells of little known events from the Revolutionary War.