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Dandy's Mountain
Dandy's Mountain is a loving story about a quirky girl's unyielding faith in the unapparent goodness of her troubled cousin.
200 pages, Library Binding
First published January 1, 1967
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
July 26, 2020
I fell in love with this book on the first page. The Adirondack dairy farm, Willow Wall Mountain behind it, the horses, and the exciting promise of the first day of summer after graduating from elementary school instantly set the picturesque scene. I loved her family on sight, from her boy-crazy older sister to her doting professor father to her lovely mother (who is in charge of the dairy business, since she both loves cows and thinks "women with nothing to do are pitiful") as well as the kindly old hired man who helps out. Along with beautiful detail about farm kid life, horseback riding, and and the perils of being lost on a mountain overnight, impressive full-page charcoal illustrations abound.
Dandy herself is the most darling child, with her habit of unconsciously saying her last thought out loud (to the confusion of anyone nearby who thinks she's talking to them), even if her imaginary pet squirrel monkey, Squire Heman Monk -- whom she sometimes also imagines as a man who becomes her future husband, somehow? -- is very strange. I love her determination to find something new and memorable to do this summer, whereupon she settles on studying the dictionary: 92 days at 10 pages a day.
She is still on the letter A when her juvenile delinquent of a cousin arrives and turns her plans upside down. Most of her attention and focus then shifts to trying to make him like her, for no reason that she can come up with besides he's her cousin and you do for family, though rest assured your vocabulary of obscure A-words will certainly grow along with hers if you take the time to look up all the ones she uses.
The only drawback is that Bruce is in fact abjectly terrible, with crimes that start at vandalizing a house undergoing renovation with his gang and kicking his little dog, and her bizarre insistence that he's just a poor little motherless boy who needs more compassion even after he breaks her arm (by purposely hitting her horse so it will buck and throw her) makes me feel like she's doomed to an abusive marriage down the line. He is redeemed, but in a very convenient and not very believable way.
Fortunately he's a fairly minor part of the book until the second half, and even then all the good is so overwhelmingly good that it overrides this aspect and allows my heart to remain full of love. I can't remember where I snagged this ex-library book, but I'm so glad I did. It's such a pleasure when you genuinely enjoy reading every page not only for the content, but for the sheer way the sentences are put together. This is some beautiful writing, and having just come from a book where much of the writing made me cringe, the contrast was a relief.
Dandy herself is the most darling child, with her habit of unconsciously saying her last thought out loud (to the confusion of anyone nearby who thinks she's talking to them), even if her imaginary pet squirrel monkey, Squire Heman Monk -- whom she sometimes also imagines as a man who becomes her future husband, somehow? -- is very strange. I love her determination to find something new and memorable to do this summer, whereupon she settles on studying the dictionary: 92 days at 10 pages a day.
She is still on the letter A when her juvenile delinquent of a cousin arrives and turns her plans upside down. Most of her attention and focus then shifts to trying to make him like her, for no reason that she can come up with besides he's her cousin and you do for family, though rest assured your vocabulary of obscure A-words will certainly grow along with hers if you take the time to look up all the ones she uses.
The only drawback is that Bruce is in fact abjectly terrible, with crimes that start at vandalizing a house undergoing renovation with his gang and kicking his little dog, and her bizarre insistence that he's just a poor little motherless boy who needs more compassion even after he breaks her arm (by purposely hitting her horse so it will buck and throw her) makes me feel like she's doomed to an abusive marriage down the line. He is redeemed, but in a very convenient and not very believable way.
Fortunately he's a fairly minor part of the book until the second half, and even then all the good is so overwhelmingly good that it overrides this aspect and allows my heart to remain full of love. I can't remember where I snagged this ex-library book, but I'm so glad I did. It's such a pleasure when you genuinely enjoy reading every page not only for the content, but for the sheer way the sentences are put together. This is some beautiful writing, and having just come from a book where much of the writing made me cringe, the contrast was a relief.
Displaying 1 of 1 review