The Keeping Days

Keeping Days #1

by Norma Johnston

A fourteen-year-old girl tells about her family and their collective experiences during a seven month period in 1900.

Genres: Young Adult, Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical, Childrens, Middle Grade

Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

About the author

Norma Johnston was born in Ridgewood, New Jersey, USA, the only child of Marjorie (Pierce), a teacher and Charles Eugene Chambers Johnston, an engineer. She read voraciously--especially mysteries, to which her family was addicted. She was ducated at Ramsey public schools and Montclair State College, later studied acting at the American Theatre Wing and elsewhere, and received a teaching certificate from Montclair College. She was actress, director, designer, stylist, retailer, teacher, counselor, entrepreneur, preacher, editor, ... and in between all her other careers she was the author of more than 70 novels, mainly gothic romances for teens. She become a a full-time writer in 1973.

Johnston also wrote under the pseudonyms of Nicole St. John, Pamela Dryden, Lavinia Harris, Kate Chambers, Catherine E. Chambers, Elizabeth Bolton, and Adrian Robert.

Reviews

[Mariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this dusty time capsule in my backyard. It arrived on the back of a 1980s has-been actor (and he arrived on the back of a flaming jet pack!). The dry ice revealed a neon sticker that said "1900". "Remember me?" It said, "We loved this in our childhood. It reminded us of growing up in 1900! We were bosom buddies, skipped through prairies with our blind older sister and ate pickled limes and fixed up teenaged girls with older gentlemen! And warmed the hearts of dried up bitches so they could squeeze out their tenth kid for free manual labor!..."

Lieeeeeeeeeeeeeees! You are not from 1900! You are from 1983! For one thing, the best friend of the heroine says "Bat out of hell". Come on! (I just remembered which book I read last year that used the phrase "Bat out of hell" a total of three times. I'm too embarrassed to admit here which one it was.* No other idiom would do! The books had other useful phrases like "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" and the author shook her bleach blonde head "No, no, no! I must be true to the muse!") Not to mention that they call the token bitchy popular girl (I still say that if no one likes them they are not POPULAR. They are feared) is called both a bitch and a whore. Pleeaaase. This time capsule reeks of episodic quaintliness in spite of the verbal cattiness (they have to be so squeaky clean about it!). Like how the 1950s could only look in the 1970s? (No way did anyone like it at the time.) Their verbal cattiness is the squeaky clean cat suit worn by Olivia Newton John. There are still layers of underwear underneath the skin tight outfit. The Keeping Days oozes very special episode episodic qualities like Travolta's grease lightning. Like when they (gasp!) learn that Jews and foriegners are excluded from private clubs. Oh my god! No fucking way! "You mean that there are ugly girls in this school and I can change their lives for the better by taking off their glasses and instantly turning them into a hot bimbo like me?" To be continued...

It didn't come on a jet pack either. That was me lying. I don't know what to say. I thought it would sound good? This is another one of my I Capture the Castle readalikes. Yeah, another one.

It's not that it is a bad book, exactly. There are the kids books (technically this is ya. Same rules apply) that the author enjoyed writing for themselves as much as for any possible audience. Those are the kinds that grow with the reader and get passed down to future generations. The other kind is something else, like being told what someone else thinks you want to hear (and if the author thought it too dumb for themselves chances are they look down on the readers). The Keeping Days is a little bit off both. Ultimately it is more the second kind because of the easiness and white washing. The very special episode qualities ruins it. Yeah, it's a good message about families learning to listen to each other, I guess. That can be hard to do as kids grow up and their roles in their families change, and qualities of parents that need help come to the light. If the family is an excuse for a message it is boring and down talking.

The I Capture the Castle-ness comes in with the diary. Tish writes about her family and their life (this is a series and she grows up in future books. I didn't like this enough to seek out the rest). "The Keeping Days" IDEA is really good. Sensitive Tish [sensitive in the best and worst days. The worst that she takes too much as a slight. The best that she feels more because she doesn't shut anything off) collects days in her life of something meaningful happening. The look on her sister's face as she feeds a baby animal. Connectedness type of stuff. (I'm sensitive but I'm sensitive in the bad way so I'm too embarrassed to get soppy about this. Baby animals and smiles and shit... That's good stuff.) Heart strengthening moments to hold inside when stuff is bad.
The pain of learning that her mother could not remember being fourteen and that it would humiliate her daughter to give her underwear at a public party (in 1900?! Yeah right!). It was great when she learned that painful stuff could become a Keeping Day too. There's gotta be a dark side of the coin. My mom gave me a bra for my 10th birthday party. She knew it would embarrass me. If you want to talk about growing pains try getting breasts at age 10. Perverted boys and cruel girls. I called people worse things than whore and bitch. (I'll put that in my time capsule.)

Other than that the Keeping Days weren't that special. It's possible that as a sensitive person I don't need Tish to tell me any of this stuff. Not only me now. Young me would have gotten that stuff too. Also, she annoyed the shit out of me hounding her brother about religious shit and family duty (he no longer has faith). She goes from being confused if it is worth feeling if you are yourself you will hurt people who count on you to picking to be relied on because that's what "the bigger person" does. Ugh! What is with the fucking high horse? Cough Martyr coughs. See, Keeping Days are a feeling inside that you can't quite call to your tongue and remember the taste. You don't have the answers from those for a long time, if ever. Being sensitive isn't enough. And, really, her mom is sooooo bitchy to her kids that it is hard to believe that ANY of this can be fixed by someone being "the bigger person". It's just someone suffers in silence... I would have been pissed if I'd read this in middle school and this know-it-all author sent me a message from 1900 via 1983 that I should suck it all up and go to effing church.

Also, how come these coming of age tales are all about how shit is oh so important because it is about developing the protagonist's writing? "I can write about what happens to me and grow into a very important writer!" Vomit. (Or baseball player. With annoying voiceovers like in The Sandlot.) Ugh.

I've read a few books in recent weeks that were purported to remind one of I Capture the Castle (a book I really like). I did this annoying thing of feeling bad about being unoriginal after reading books that on the whole were only just okay, I'm so unoriginal in book choices blah blah. Today I read Portnoy's Complaint by Phillip Roth. You know what? A lot of it was about what we owe family and others and being ourselves. I'm so unoriginal! Or I just read the same shit into everything... That could be it. I'm more like Portnoy. I'll do what I want and then feel like shit 'cause I couldn't have it both ways. Is ANYONE the bigger person? Keeping Days are what you come back to over and over again. Patterns emerge. Still, what do you DO with them?

I forgot to mention in my Daddy-Long-Legs review that it was totally creepy of Jean Webster to reference Little Women and pretend (the omission was glaring in light of the references to other books) she wasn't totally influenced by the Green Gables books. I've read that The Keeping Days is an imitation of 'Gables' that's "darker". They may fight some in 'Keeping' but 'Gables' was totally darker! It depressed the shit out of young me when Anne loses her best friend because Diane's parents didn't approve of the minxish redhead. That's a hard hit no matter who you are. Or that they ever wanted an orphan to be a work slave. Not dark? Pfftttt. Anyway, I was gonna say that The Keeping Days is really more like Little Women. You know how shit happened constantly? Someone would run in with very. important. news every other page? Ohmygod someone died! A baby! War! (Okay, there's no war here. There probably will be at some point.) My novel is published! The Keeping Days is like that. For a series the author sure did feel the need to cram in as much shit as possible into one little book. Not to mention all of the 8-tracks and sweat shirts in that time capsule. I'm suspicious. (No doubt about it. My young time capsule would have had all the Little House, Green Gables, Little Women, et al in it.)

In 1900 rich kids liked ping pong! 1983 marked the end of the "golden age" of video games. That means that people emerged from their basements and realized they'd lost the '70s to playing Pong. (I should be an historian.)

* It was one of the later Black Dagger Brotherhood novels. The one that was entirely the gay subplot as opposed to homoerotic undertones that tasted stronger than the dish.

[Vicki Jaeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had to dig into my memory banks to find this book. I vaguely remember a series from my youth that included a girl named Tish and a boy named Kenny, and couldn't remember anything else. So a search of the Library of Congress, then a purchase on amazon.com, and here it is...The Keeping Days. It's a great little young adult novel based in the early 1900s in Yonkers. Tish, the main character, *can* be overly sensitive, and a bit emotional, but she really is a believable character. I really enjoyed it, and have tracked down the rest of the series to re-read.
ANNIE--the girls would like this series. Maybe you can borrow when I've finished reading them?

[Melody · Rating 5 out of 5]

7/2014 This might be the next-to-last time I read this. I love it dearly, but I'm aging out of it. I'm focusing on Evie more than Tish, for one thing. And I don't want to lose the magic entirely.

6/2010 Standing by my five-star rating. Tish's voice rings true in the overwrought way I remember from my own adolescence. I love the first chapter better than maybe any other first chapter in a series. It never fails to make me cry. I think the Sterling family is real and endearing. I love the fact that Tish is a little older than Betsy Ray (from the Betsy-Tacy series) and their experiences are so dissimilar while sharing a great deal. Hodel Resnikov is someone I think I remember from high school. I love this book, I do.

I'm ready to jump into the fray and say that I fail to see any stealing from Maud Hart Lovelace in this book, unless one counts the name of Gramps' horse and the moment when Tish and Celinda share a tempestuous hug.


5/2008 I had to re-read this after reading Random Family which takes place in the exact same neighborhood 100 years later. It was so disconcerting to have the modern Bronx overlaid on top of Tish's West Farms. I do adore this book, though having my own sensitive, misunderstood 14-year-old added to the vertigo this time through.

[Susann · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first read this about 14 years ago. Liked it well enough then but not quite enough to continue with the series. This read connected more with me, and I plan to track down the others in the series. Maybe it's because, given my current lockdown life, I can relate to the summer chapters when the entire family is at sixes and sevens with each other. My family is no Sterling clan, but we could all do with a Gramps retreat.

I had completely forgotten about the quarantine section. "During the daytime, Mr. Albright used the kitchen as his law office, conducting most of his business and holding conferences by phone." I still do not like Ma, although I sympathized with her predicament. Would have enjoyed an entire book about Hodel.

[Ginny Messina · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fourteen-year-old girl confronts issues of family, faith, bigotry, and the general angst of being an adolescent. The story takes place in Yonkers, NY in the year 1900. Sadly, this wonderful young adult novel is out of print. I devoured it in a couple of sittings and can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series.

[QNPoohBear · Rating 4 out of 5]

Set in 1900 in Yonkers, New York, this book is the journal of 14 year-old Tish, middle child of a large suburban family. Tish feels nobody understands her and longs to be a writer. She pours out her feelings about life, love and her family in her journal. Tish collects special days she calls "keeping days" and hopes her new year will be full of them, instead she gets a mother who insists on being an Early Christian Martyr, an older sister who is conflicted in her feelings towards two gentlemen, wild and unruly siblings and the Queen Bee of the neighborhood who is well on her way to becoming a Scarlet Woman! Through the year, Tish learns the true meaning of love and the importance of family. This is a typical coming-of-age story full of teen angst and critical family situations. I think I would have appreciated it better when I was a teenager but I could identify with Tish's feelings towards her family and the other teens. I felt that towards the end, the book took on a Christian slant that I didn't really care for. It raised some interesting questions about Faith but I didn't really sympathize with Tish's conclusions. The plot moved slowly and I didn't feel an overwhelming interesting in what happens next. I think fans of classic literature of the 19th and early 20th centuries will enjoy this book and teenagers will especially be able to relate to Tish and her situation.

[Rachel Piper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book, but might have been more in love with it if I'd read it as a moody teenager. I had a similar reaction to this book as I did to "Ballet Shoes"--that I didn't really like the characters enough to want to hang out with them, even though I really WANTED to like them. Tish Sterling's mother is the most dynamic character, relatable character (who hasn't had a mother like her, or felt overworked and underappreciated?), though she is often dismissed as a martyr and gets the short end of the stick in most situations, while the father and the children usually come out looking pretty golden.

I've read lots of comparisons of the Keeping Days to the Betsy-Tacy books, but I didn't really feel it. Keeping Days did remind me at different points of L'Engle's Meet the Austins, Bradbury's Dandelion Wine and Hunt's Up a Road Slowly, though it didn't capture the magic of any of them. I was also quite bored by Tish's and Ben's theological discoveries at the end of the novel.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first book in a series with the same title. It's a story of a 14 year-old girl and her family interactions and it takes place in 1900 in Yonkers, New York. The girl, Tish Sterling, decides which events in her life will be "Keeping Days" that she pens into her journal. Only it doesn't always work out that way. Her big family don't always get along and mama, who is expecting her 7th child, is often abrupt. Bron, the older sister, can't make up her mind whom to marry. Tish has the emotions of 14 year-olds throughout time. It's a nostalgic read that I enjoyed very much. Luckily, i have the other books in the series.

[Kayli · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I soooooo enjoyed reading this. It was funny, clever, and SPOT-ON what being in a family is. Plus, Tish's mother is SOOO much like mine. I wish I would have read it as a teen because I think I would have loved it even more, but it's still very likeable for an adult. It reminds me of the movie 'Meet Me in St. Louis' but perhaps that's just because they're the same era. Anyway, I like memoir-type books like this and I thought it was a goodie. I'm off to read the next in the series.

[Barbara Mader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Because I was up until three a.m. reading this, I figure I have to give it four stars. I had never read it before.

Don't know if it can really be compared to any of the Betsy-Tacy books, but if so, I'm afraid meeting Tish causes me to find Betsy Ray (even) more spoiled and vacuous than before. Maud is probably the better writer, though I would have to consider this . . . Johnston's scope is more ambitious.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's always refreshing to have a non-perfect family in young adult novels, especially historical ones. And they wrestled with some real problems--it was not all sweetness and light.

And yet, I couldn't really get into this book. It was hard for me to really like any of the characters, and I've realized that I must love the characters to love the book.

Except Ken. I kinda loved him.

[Sharon · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite series, but for a long time I couldn't remember the name of it. Unearthed the titles in a report I wrote for 7th grade. I will defintely be re-reading them. Also exc ited to discover there are more in the series.

[Nancy]

I loved this series when I was a young teen. Can't believe I've found it again!

[Jami Creager · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very minor spoilers included
I read this book as a young teenager, and it remains one of my favorite, favorite, favorites! I still have the battered paperback I read back then and first editions of all the books in the series that I found secondhand on Amazon and eBay. They have, sadly, been out of print for many years.
I’ve probably read this book 30+ times; it has been awhile since I re-read it…perhaps 10 years? The book begins on Tish’s 14th birthday, and I was 14 or so when I read it; at the time, I was sensitive just like Tish. She has 5 siblings, a kind father, and a brusque but loving mother. I found Tish very relatable, which fascinated me since the story took place about 84 years earlier. The book is very eventful, so I was never bored. There are many characters, some pretty fleshed out, others not so much; however, this is the first book in a series, and there is further development as the greater story goes along.
Tish is not perfect. She is overly sensitive, self-involved, judgmental, and at times quite selfish. As the stories go along, she gradually becomes more self-aware, and always strives to be a better person and to extend herself to others.
I highly recommend this book for any teenage girl, especially 13-15-year-olds. It is unlike modern YA; there’s no sex (although there is a scene where a boy, mistaking Tish for her older sister in a dim room, gives her a passionate kiss) or violence. There is some minor swearing; one character is prone to exclaiming, “Hell and damn!” when she gets angry. The word “whore” is also used about a particular character, but, ultimately, the character who uses that term realizes that she has no business judging and comes to regard the other girl with sympathy.
As I mentioned, it is out of print, but copies can be found periodically on Amazon, eBay, and probably any website where used books are for sale. It may be available in libraries or library apps. It may take checking a few times before you find it, but I believe it is worth it.
The book ends at Christmas, and that time of year is my favorite time to re-read it. As I get older—I’m 51 now—I find it harder to get into the Christmas spirit, and historically this book has really helped! I plan to re-read it starting around the beginning of December this year. I hope someone reading this will check out the book!

[Yue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this would have been one of my favorite books if I've read it back in Middle School, because it has that feeling of "young girl in the old days growing up", kinda like Little Women and Anne of Green Gables. It is all about family and friends and love interests. I like stories of big families and this one felt so realistic. So much I think I would have seen the mother as my mom back in the days.. now that I am reading this as an adult (but not a mother) I feel mostly pity and sympathy for the mother.

The only member of the family that we do not get to know very well is poor Peter. He is just the little boy who likes bugs, and that's it. All the other siblings we get to know: pretty Bron who has a lot of suitors; Tish the MC who is too sensitive; rebellious Ben who has a chapter where he doubts about the existence of God; tomboy Marnie who gets sick with scarlet fever (at least she is no Beth!); baby girl Missy; and then one on the way, "Whatsitname".

This book would have been a 4 (bc younger me would have rated it like that) if it wasn't because Bron picks the old Mr. Albright to get married :/ this old guy, who has a son of the age of Tish and who is Bron's best friend. So who is old enough to be her father since he is twice her age. I know it is the time and blah blah, but yuck. I don't care that he was responsible and nice and whatever... I was uncomfortable reading about them and I was rooting for Bron to pick someone else or no one at the moment.

The last chapter felt a bit LDS literature, what with Ben and Tish having spiritual existence crisis and then accepting it all because "God is Love".. it left me a bit puzzled, this strange and OoC problem.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm re-reading this series, which I first discovered as a teen. It was some time before I found this book; I started with the second one, recommended to me by my best friend.

The books are set in a town in the Bronx. They're old-fashioned; nearly all of the characters are white and middle class, with the notable exception of a Jewish immigrant girl. The stories are also largely based on the author's family. I liked these books because they weren't "problem" novels; they were about the particular concerns of a girl growing up in a large and exasperating family.

Tish is self-centered and impulsive, and that's what makes her interesting to read about. She also tends to cry as her go-to emotional response. All of the characters in this book (she is one of seven children, there's extended family, and she has many friends) are similarly well-drawn, with good points and flaws of their own. It also made history real to me in a way that it hadn't been before. These books may be why I started writing historical fiction, and in particular am inspired by art.

The book tends toward exposition, since it covers six months in the character's life, and it doesn't have the tightly woven plots we might see today. Still, I enjoy these and they're perfect for reading during the pandemic lockdown.

[A. Kuhlii · Rating 1 out of 5]

Ugh. Perhaps one of the most unfeminist books I’ve ever read, with the parody and the cruel treatment of the suffragist characters, the marriage of 18 yr old Bron to 42 yr old Albright, and the horrible treatment of Mrs. Sterling (kept barefoot, pregnant, in the kitchen, and not allowed to be told about her husband’s business affairs). Ben has a crisis of faith for 5 seconds, which is resolved by a Christmas carol. And the scarlet fever incident? “Hey, Marnie’s a tomboy--let’s feminize her by giving her a case of scarlet fever so bad it makes her a lifelong invalid! No more running wild for Marnie, now that she can’t even get off the couch!”

[Angie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming coming-of-age story set in the early 1900s. Ms. Johnston does a very good job of honestly and accurately looking at some of the issues that teenagers face - parental conflicts, spirituality, increasing sexuality, self-perception, popularity, and so on. Very little objectionable content. Please note: Some comments in the book could be taken as supportive of universalism.

[Pauline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally read this book in braille when I was ten or eleven and was delighted when it and two other books about this family were posted on BARD as audio downloads. This book did not disappoint my adult reading self. The story deals with the trials and thrills of growing up in the beginning of the 20th century. The Keeping Days was a great book to start reading for this weekend’s read-a-thon.

[Alana/MiaTheReader · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine if Betsy of the Betsy-Tacy series wrote. journal through a year of her teenage years and lived in the Bronx instead of Deep Valley- that was the feeling I got reading The Keeping Days. It was a high quality coming-of-age in a big family story. I liked the sequel even better.

[no u · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read this about 4 times but it never occurred to me that there's more books until today

[Heroes & Heartbreakers]

“As soon as I awoke on the morning of my fourteenth birthday I knew it was going to be a Keeping Day.”

So begins The Keeping Days, the first of six books in Norma Johnston’s charming series of the same name. Supposedly based on family stories told to the author by her aunts and uncles, these books follow two generations of a close-knit family in the West Farms neighborhood of the Bronx in the years leading up to World War I. Together the family copes with an array of challenges, from the death of their patriarch to the somewhat surprising birth of a child, as well as romances, illnesses, estrangements, and a scandal whose echoes will reverberate across a generation. Although these are not new books—they were first published between 1973 and 1981—they remain surprisingly readable and relevant today.

See why our reviewer is still talking about The Keeping Days, even 30 years later! http://www.heroesandheartbreakers.com...

[Becky Keeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved this series as a teenager. It's historical fiction told in the first person, my favorite when I was a kid! When I found it at the library, I thought I would reread it and see if it still as great as I thought. As a teen, I loved it so much that I saved my money and bought the whole series. They are somewhere down in the basement in a box, so it was easier just to check it out of the library.

Rereading this now, I don't find it as moving. I think it is because I'm no longer a "sensitive" 14-year-old like the main character anymore. Most of the characters come across as real people with flaws and strengths, and through it all the family members still love each other. I love that still I still want Tish to end up with Kenneth, her sensitive boyfriend who has read all the classics! Hey, this is 1900, and a 15-year old boy can be well rounded!

[Shelley · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first six months of Tish's 14th year, in 1900. I have mixed feelings on this - I liked a non-nostalgic look at the the time period, but I could feel the author's era (70s) creeping in, too. I suspect I would have liked this more as a kid/tween. There was a lot I still liked - the scarlet fever, Bron and her suitors, the time with Gramps, but characters like Hodel and Cee were so undeveloped, and the crisis of spirituality at the end felt like an odd way to end the story. I also wanted to shake her parents and have them grow up a little, too.

[Kira · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Keeing Days Books: Absolutely the best series of books I read starting when I was 13 - I loved loved loved Tish and her family and I have the entire series waiting for my five nieces and hopefully my own daughter...all six books are wonderful and I think that Norma Johnston's writing style is my favorite out of any author I have ever read, no matter how many favorite books came along over the years after these.
I only wish for other girls that these were still currently in print.

[Elisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I quite liked this book. It's very real and has extremely well developed and believable characters. I particularly liked the mother - she's just so snarky and hilarious - especially in her dealings with Aunt Kate; although I can see that she'd be difficult to live with... I loved the way Tish was such a teenager - this book depicts what teenage girls, and boys for that matter, go through very well.

[Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Keeping Days is very interesting book. It tells you the story of fourteen year old Tish and how she lives her life in 1900. It shows her feelings in a descriptive way. It shows her struggle to keep the family together and her faith. It uses some language that wasn't probably around back then, and it it was, it wasn't used that frequently, so it doesn't seem completely realistic, and distracted me from the plot. Besides that, it was well written, and I can't wait to read the next one.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I first read this book when I was in seventh grade. I have reread it so many times that its falling apart. Its actually part of a series called The Keeping Days and they are all wonderful. Every time I read I get something out of it. Even as an adult I still love to read it and hope to pass it on to my daughter someday.

[Kathleen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not sure I'd give this five stars if I were reading it for the first time now. But I loved these books as a child/teen. I don't think I'd read any of these since I was a teenager, so this is the first re-read in a long time. Anyway, the five stars was based on my memories and the feeling I had for these books as a child. I'm going to let it stand.

[Cookie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was pleasantly surprised to find that I enjoyed this book. The cover wasn't much. Plus, when I looked at the checkout slip, there wasn't much action...1976, 1982, 1984, 1990! Granted, the system may have been computerized after that date, but still! I'm looking forward to reading some of the other books in the series.