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The Open Gate
6.5" x 8.25"
280 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1943
5 people are currently reading
145 people want to read
About the author
Kate Seredy
75 books90 followersSeredy (Serédy Kató) was a gifted writer and illustrator, born in Hungary, who moved to the United States in 1922.
Seredy received a diploma to teach art from the Academy of Arts in Budapest. During World War I Seredy travelled to Paris and worked as a combat nurse. After the war she illustrated several books in Hungary.
She is best known for The Good Master, written in 1935, and for the Newbery Award winner, The White Stag.
Seredy received a diploma to teach art from the Academy of Arts in Budapest. During World War I Seredy travelled to Paris and worked as a combat nurse. After the war she illustrated several books in Hungary.
She is best known for The Good Master, written in 1935, and for the Newbery Award winner, The White Stag.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 18, 2025
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
Probably the best discovery I made last year is the fact that Newbery-winning author Kate Seredy lived for many years in Montgomery, NY, which is very near to where I grew up, and is the town in which I had my first library job. This fact alone was enough to make me want to read all of her books, and I got off to a good start with The White Stag, The Good Master, and The Singing Tree. But regardless of how beautifully written those other books are, it is The Open Gate which has caused me to fall completely in love with this author's work, because it is actually set in and around places I know well and can easily envision.
The story opens in New York City in June 1941. The Preston family - Janet, Dick, their parents, and their grandmother, called Gran - live in a fancy apartment with many modern amenities, which make their lives very easy and convenient. When Mr. Preston loses his job at an advertising firm, he decides that the family will take a trip upstate to relax before he begins looking for work. Gran is thrilled by the idea of the trip, since she believes her son and grandchildren have become soft due to city living, and because she not-so-secretly wishes for a place to live with fewer buttons to press. On the way to their destination in Sullivan County, the family decide to pull off onto a side road in Orange County to have lunch. Nearby, Gran spots a sign for an auction and announces that she would prefer to stop there instead. Mr. Preston obliges, and once there, gets the bidding started on a piece of property. To his great surprise, no one else places a bid, and suddenly, the family owns an entire farm! Though Mr. Preston is at first eager to correct his mistake and continue on with his plan, he warms up to the idea, and before long these city slickers are bringing in livestock, making friends with the neighbors, and settling in to live in Orange County permanently.
The most wonderful thing about this book is its characters. The Prestons encounter two very interesting families as they begin their lives as farmers: Mr. Van Keuran, and his cold, stern wife, who are raising their artistic grandson, Andy, after the tragic death of his parents, and Mike and his wife, Linka, Slovakian immigrants whose son has gone into the military in anticipation of the United States entering World War II. These characters not only welcome the Prestons to farm life; they also form close friendships with the family, and in time, are changed for the better by the arrival of the city slickers. Through these friendships, the story slowly shifts from a comic tale of city people fumbling their way through farming, to a testament to the power of friendship, and the value to be found in returning to a slower, simpler way of living where people really spend time getting to know one another.
Another wonderful thing about this book is the way it incorporates history into daily life. Radio reports punctuate the story with news of what is happening in Europe, and eventually what happens in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Most children's books and films about this time period jump right into the action, showing kids what it was like on the front lines, or in Nazi Germany, or in England during night bombings. The fact that this book focuses on the average rural American child's experience of these events makes it easier for kids to relate to World War II, as they can put themselves in the shoes of a child their same age, living in circumstances similar to their own more easily than they can picture themselves as a soldier, resistance leader, or concentration camp survivor.
My favorite thing about this book, though, is the inclusion of references to places I have lived or frequently visited. My husband read this book aloud to me, and when I heard him mispronounce "Shawangunk" (the correct way to say it is "Shon-gum") I nearly fell out of my chair in excitement. I grew up in the hamlet of Wallkill within the Town of Shawangunk, but I have never seen it referenced in fiction before.
How I made it to adulthood without being aware of Kate Seredy is beyond me, but I hope to visit the Montgomery Library on a future trip home to see her papers, and maybe we'll go track down where she lived as well.
The Open Gate is every bit as well-written - though perhaps a bit more sentimental than - The Good Master or The Singing Tree. It's hard to find, but definitely worth tracking it down on inter-library loan if you can. And now that I have discovered Kate Seredy, I've already got two more of her books on deck to read and review: A Tree for Peter and Chestry Oak.
Probably the best discovery I made last year is the fact that Newbery-winning author Kate Seredy lived for many years in Montgomery, NY, which is very near to where I grew up, and is the town in which I had my first library job. This fact alone was enough to make me want to read all of her books, and I got off to a good start with The White Stag, The Good Master, and The Singing Tree. But regardless of how beautifully written those other books are, it is The Open Gate which has caused me to fall completely in love with this author's work, because it is actually set in and around places I know well and can easily envision.
The story opens in New York City in June 1941. The Preston family - Janet, Dick, their parents, and their grandmother, called Gran - live in a fancy apartment with many modern amenities, which make their lives very easy and convenient. When Mr. Preston loses his job at an advertising firm, he decides that the family will take a trip upstate to relax before he begins looking for work. Gran is thrilled by the idea of the trip, since she believes her son and grandchildren have become soft due to city living, and because she not-so-secretly wishes for a place to live with fewer buttons to press. On the way to their destination in Sullivan County, the family decide to pull off onto a side road in Orange County to have lunch. Nearby, Gran spots a sign for an auction and announces that she would prefer to stop there instead. Mr. Preston obliges, and once there, gets the bidding started on a piece of property. To his great surprise, no one else places a bid, and suddenly, the family owns an entire farm! Though Mr. Preston is at first eager to correct his mistake and continue on with his plan, he warms up to the idea, and before long these city slickers are bringing in livestock, making friends with the neighbors, and settling in to live in Orange County permanently.
The most wonderful thing about this book is its characters. The Prestons encounter two very interesting families as they begin their lives as farmers: Mr. Van Keuran, and his cold, stern wife, who are raising their artistic grandson, Andy, after the tragic death of his parents, and Mike and his wife, Linka, Slovakian immigrants whose son has gone into the military in anticipation of the United States entering World War II. These characters not only welcome the Prestons to farm life; they also form close friendships with the family, and in time, are changed for the better by the arrival of the city slickers. Through these friendships, the story slowly shifts from a comic tale of city people fumbling their way through farming, to a testament to the power of friendship, and the value to be found in returning to a slower, simpler way of living where people really spend time getting to know one another.
Another wonderful thing about this book is the way it incorporates history into daily life. Radio reports punctuate the story with news of what is happening in Europe, and eventually what happens in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. Most children's books and films about this time period jump right into the action, showing kids what it was like on the front lines, or in Nazi Germany, or in England during night bombings. The fact that this book focuses on the average rural American child's experience of these events makes it easier for kids to relate to World War II, as they can put themselves in the shoes of a child their same age, living in circumstances similar to their own more easily than they can picture themselves as a soldier, resistance leader, or concentration camp survivor.
My favorite thing about this book, though, is the inclusion of references to places I have lived or frequently visited. My husband read this book aloud to me, and when I heard him mispronounce "Shawangunk" (the correct way to say it is "Shon-gum") I nearly fell out of my chair in excitement. I grew up in the hamlet of Wallkill within the Town of Shawangunk, but I have never seen it referenced in fiction before.
How I made it to adulthood without being aware of Kate Seredy is beyond me, but I hope to visit the Montgomery Library on a future trip home to see her papers, and maybe we'll go track down where she lived as well.
The Open Gate is every bit as well-written - though perhaps a bit more sentimental than - The Good Master or The Singing Tree. It's hard to find, but definitely worth tracking it down on inter-library loan if you can. And now that I have discovered Kate Seredy, I've already got two more of her books on deck to read and review: A Tree for Peter and Chestry Oak.
April 7, 2008
When I was younger the library in my old home town had this book in their children’s section and I loved it. Then they got rid of it and for years I suffered its lack in silence. Finally I realized that I needed to read it again and so I asked for it for a Christmas present. My copy is very old and in a protective cover and my father told me that it was extremely difficult to find so I am very careful with it. It is the story of an American family who lives in a modern apartment filled with “push-buttons” until the day that Gran drags them to a country auction. Highly recommended for all ages (if you can find it).
July 28, 2009
This book is a darling family romp, with a wonderful push for industry and self-sufficiency. I don't think we all need to give up our current lives and move to a farm, but there is still a lot of wisdom in this story, very relevant to our current economic struggles. I also loved the family interplay - the patience, love, and creativity that they fostered in one another. The illustrations were beautiful, though I wish there had been more of them. It would, perhaps, seem a little long to young readers, but in every other way I highly recommend this book to the whole family.
September 10, 2025
I have yet to read a Kate Seredy book that I didn't completely adore and this one is no different.
Very sweet story of a family moving from the city to a farm in the country at the onset of WWII and how the move impacts the whole neighborhood.
Very sweet story of a family moving from the city to a farm in the country at the onset of WWII and how the move impacts the whole neighborhood.
September 20, 2014
Equal parts charm and WWII-era propaganda, this book was a sweet reading experience. I loved the Machiavellian grandmother and her farm-wise ways. I loved the reverence for Art as well as Labor that is evident throughout. The story held few surprises but was warm and wholesome throughout. The pencil illustrations are incredibly evocative of the era, though I'm not sure that the illustrator had ever actually seen a snapping turtle. Highly recommended, if you're a fan of this sort of thing. Some of the "Aw, shucks, you city slicker you" dialogue is grating.
January 20, 2019
A cute book that reads like looking at a romanticized painting of an American farm in the 1940s. The boys were strong and brave, and Janet, the sister, was always described or treated “like a girl,” and even the women were treated as somehow less intelligent then the men. WWII was treated with over sentimentality like it was a grand thing, even if it was horrible. The immigrant neighbors were treated as friends but always somehow treated as being ignorant. All the dialogue was written in dialect, which added a sense of realism, but at times it was hard to decipher what was being said.
It was a nice book, but really only as far as looking at a sentimental painting is nice. I think the best part of it has to be the dust jacket.
It was a nice book, but really only as far as looking at a sentimental painting is nice. I think the best part of it has to be the dust jacket.
January 12, 2025
This was a surprisingly funny book
January 18, 2016
A great story of getting back to the old ways; another perspective to the slightly later The Egg and I. It suffers a little bit due to the overt patriotism of wartime, but that can't really be faulted too much - we ended up winning that war, after all. Plenty of great Seredy illustrations too.
October 19, 2022
This story of a farm family & their neighbors in upstate New York on the brink of World War II is one of my favorite comfort reads.
March 5, 2017
I read it again to Mamma and May, then brought it home and my husband and I took turns reading it aloud.
Our edition was given as a gift on April 15, 1944.
Our edition was given as a gift on April 15, 1944.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews