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Booky #2
With Love from Booky
Booky is back. She is growing up and getting into more scrapes than ever -- sneaking into a show, telling ghost stories and scaring the daylights out of little kids, getting fired from her first babysitting job, and more.
160 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
1 person is currently reading
74 people want to read
About the author
Bernice Thurman Hunter
19 books44 followers She was born in Toronto, Ontario, on November 3, 1922 and died May 29, 2002. She married her high school sweetheart, Lloyd Hunter, and had two children, Anita and Heather, and four grandchildren, Meredith, Lisa, Hunter and Franceline. No Greats.
Bernice was the middle child of 5 children (Wilma, Gordon, Bernice, Jack and Robert). She struggled in school because they moved so often. The Booky Trilogy, set during the Great Depression, depicts her family being forced to stay ahead of the bailiff, who threw them out when her unemployed father couldn't afford the rent. (Despite the hardships of poverty, it was her nature to be happy, so the books are upbeat.) They lived in Birchcliff and Swansea. The "new house" was on Cornell Avenue and she went to Birchcliff Public School, but most of her childhood and teens were spent on Lavinia, which is why Swansea claims her for their own. She attended Runnymede Collegiate, but didn't graduate because the war started and she went to work (depicted in The Girls They Left Behind). As a new bride, she lived on Gladstone Avenue in Toronto. Her husband was transferred to Peterborough, so they moved to Millbrook when her children were young. In 1956, she and her husband bought their own home on Meldazy Drive in a beautiful new subdivision in Scarborough, when McCowan was a gravel road and north of Ellesmere was farmland. Her books accurately depict these locales in different eras. Toronto is "a character" in her books.
She was interested in writing since early childhood and would often have a captive audience of school chums lined up along the curb to listen to her stories. In her teens, she met and had the temerity to present a story to her idol, L.M. Montgomery. The famous author of Anne Of Green Gables complimented Bernice: "Your characters ring true!...You have a good imagination" – blissful words for the young author's ears, but the next bit of advice was a crushing blow to the fourteen-year-old's already faltering self-esteem. Montgomery said, "A writer must have higher education -- it is imperative that you go to University." The young hopeful went away dejected. What Ms. Montgomery could not know was that Bernice came from a very poor background and had no hope of a University Education. The fateful words stayed buried in her heart for many years. An avid reader, she was self-educated. She often read a book in one night.
She continued to write because writing was as natural to her as breathing. When her own children were small, Bernice wrote for them an ongoing story about their lives in Millbrook, Ontario with themselves as heroines. (Her first manuscript, Kimberley of Millpond, has been published 55 years later in 2010 by her daughter.) Her stories were written in longhand because Bernice didn't own a typewriter. It was not until her children were grown that she decided to try to publish. She obtained an old Underwood typewriter and tapped out a story about her first grandchild, aptly titled, "A Grandchild Can Make Life Beautiful Again". She sent it to The Toronto Star and they published it and sent her a cheque for fifty-dollars. After that she wrote and published numerous stories for children in magazines and anthologies and then went on to publish 17 novels.
Bernice's novels, especially the "Booky" trilogy, are autobiographical in nature. Her strength as a writer lies in her ability to bring her childhood memories vividly to life for her young readers. Because the setting and tone of her novels accurately capture the past, she was acknowledged by the Toronto Historical Society and her books are used in history as well as language programs in schools. She was in constant demand as a guest speaker in schools and libraries across Canada and her daughter, Heather Hunter, now goes in her stead. Heather gives a power point presentation on Bernice's life and works.
Of her school visits, Bernice once said: "My favourite part of a school visit is 'que
Bernice was the middle child of 5 children (Wilma, Gordon, Bernice, Jack and Robert). She struggled in school because they moved so often. The Booky Trilogy, set during the Great Depression, depicts her family being forced to stay ahead of the bailiff, who threw them out when her unemployed father couldn't afford the rent. (Despite the hardships of poverty, it was her nature to be happy, so the books are upbeat.) They lived in Birchcliff and Swansea. The "new house" was on Cornell Avenue and she went to Birchcliff Public School, but most of her childhood and teens were spent on Lavinia, which is why Swansea claims her for their own. She attended Runnymede Collegiate, but didn't graduate because the war started and she went to work (depicted in The Girls They Left Behind). As a new bride, she lived on Gladstone Avenue in Toronto. Her husband was transferred to Peterborough, so they moved to Millbrook when her children were young. In 1956, she and her husband bought their own home on Meldazy Drive in a beautiful new subdivision in Scarborough, when McCowan was a gravel road and north of Ellesmere was farmland. Her books accurately depict these locales in different eras. Toronto is "a character" in her books.
She was interested in writing since early childhood and would often have a captive audience of school chums lined up along the curb to listen to her stories. In her teens, she met and had the temerity to present a story to her idol, L.M. Montgomery. The famous author of Anne Of Green Gables complimented Bernice: "Your characters ring true!...You have a good imagination" – blissful words for the young author's ears, but the next bit of advice was a crushing blow to the fourteen-year-old's already faltering self-esteem. Montgomery said, "A writer must have higher education -- it is imperative that you go to University." The young hopeful went away dejected. What Ms. Montgomery could not know was that Bernice came from a very poor background and had no hope of a University Education. The fateful words stayed buried in her heart for many years. An avid reader, she was self-educated. She often read a book in one night.
She continued to write because writing was as natural to her as breathing. When her own children were small, Bernice wrote for them an ongoing story about their lives in Millbrook, Ontario with themselves as heroines. (Her first manuscript, Kimberley of Millpond, has been published 55 years later in 2010 by her daughter.) Her stories were written in longhand because Bernice didn't own a typewriter. It was not until her children were grown that she decided to try to publish. She obtained an old Underwood typewriter and tapped out a story about her first grandchild, aptly titled, "A Grandchild Can Make Life Beautiful Again". She sent it to The Toronto Star and they published it and sent her a cheque for fifty-dollars. After that she wrote and published numerous stories for children in magazines and anthologies and then went on to publish 17 novels.
Bernice's novels, especially the "Booky" trilogy, are autobiographical in nature. Her strength as a writer lies in her ability to bring her childhood memories vividly to life for her young readers. Because the setting and tone of her novels accurately capture the past, she was acknowledged by the Toronto Historical Society and her books are used in history as well as language programs in schools. She was in constant demand as a guest speaker in schools and libraries across Canada and her daughter, Heather Hunter, now goes in her stead. Heather gives a power point presentation on Bernice's life and works.
Of her school visits, Bernice once said: "My favourite part of a school visit is 'que
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
December 13, 2019
Book 2: read with Hilary 2019/12/10-12/12
With Love from Booky, book 2 = 2019/12/10-12
I read this in this omnibus edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
I loved it.
I was afraid I wouldn't like books 2 or 3 which is why I hadn't read them 7-1/2 years ago when I read book 1 and the story, but I love this and I think I'll love book 3 too.
It’s a testament to her mother for being such a good housekeeper to see what the “new house“ was like in another family’s/women’s hands. Booky’s family seemed poorer than the family of her friend so finances wouldn’t be an excuse.
Her first kiss, well that was the 1930s and I think those sort of games went out in the 1950s because when I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s at those ages nobody was doing that kind of thing and I don’t think kids play that now but maybe. I have heard about recently younger people doing that or maybe seen it in movies? In this book the kids were very sweet and innocent and the mother on the premises did not seem at all perturbed.
Such a difference to have a great teacher vs. a horrid one. So glad that Booky did so well her last year before high school.
So sad for Willa. Hope a way is found for her to get the education she wants and that the family wants for her. We’ve come a long way as far as sexism/discrimination. With all of Willa’s squeamishness I wouldn’t have thought she would have being a doctor as a goal.
It was very sad about Grandpa but I'm so glad everyone was kind and helpful to Booky when she was grieving. What a great relationship they had!
I was afraid the end of book 2 wouldn’t feel like the end of a book but it did.
Thanks again to Gundula for the book!!!
With Love from Booky, book 2 = 2019/12/10-12
I read this in this omnibus edition: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
I loved it.
I was afraid I wouldn't like books 2 or 3 which is why I hadn't read them 7-1/2 years ago when I read book 1 and the story, but I love this and I think I'll love book 3 too.
It’s a testament to her mother for being such a good housekeeper to see what the “new house“ was like in another family’s/women’s hands. Booky’s family seemed poorer than the family of her friend so finances wouldn’t be an excuse.
Her first kiss, well that was the 1930s and I think those sort of games went out in the 1950s because when I was growing up in the 1960s and 70s at those ages nobody was doing that kind of thing and I don’t think kids play that now but maybe. I have heard about recently younger people doing that or maybe seen it in movies? In this book the kids were very sweet and innocent and the mother on the premises did not seem at all perturbed.
Such a difference to have a great teacher vs. a horrid one. So glad that Booky did so well her last year before high school.
So sad for Willa. Hope a way is found for her to get the education she wants and that the family wants for her. We’ve come a long way as far as sexism/discrimination. With all of Willa’s squeamishness I wouldn’t have thought she would have being a doctor as a goal.
It was very sad about Grandpa but I'm so glad everyone was kind and helpful to Booky when she was grieving. What a great relationship they had!
I was afraid the end of book 2 wouldn’t feel like the end of a book but it did.
Thanks again to Gundula for the book!!!
June 18, 2022
So yes, the second novel of Bernice Thurman Hunter's Booky trilogy, With Love From Booky, is very much similar in both scope and general feel to the first book of the series (That Scatterbrain Booky) and being in ALL WAYS equally entertainig, poignant and evocative (and I cannot really choose which of the two stories I would consider my favourite, as both novels are simply and equally lovely), with the main storyline of With Love From Booky showing Beatrice (Booky) Thomson being sent to her paternal grandfather's farm in Muskoka for her health (due to a tuberculosis scare), and actually that With Love From Booky then concludes with another visit to the farm, after the death of her maternal grandfather (Grampa Cole) has left Booky feeling depressed and melancholy.
And indeed, Booky is as charming a narrator in this second installment, in With Love From Booky, an astute observer of human nature (with both a sense of humour and a critical eye towards not only the faults of others, but towards her own pecadilloes as well). Now the Great Depression is still an ever-present entity and threat in With Love From Booky, and although Booky's father is actually gainfully employed for most of the novel (except for a couple of desperate weeks when he is temporarily laid off), money always remains tight, and poverty seems to lurk just around the corner. However, even with the specter of the Great Depression looming, the possibility of Beatrice perhaps contracting consumption, the sadness of Grampa Cole's death, With Love From Booky is still never ever either depressing or overly sentimental. Humour, love and fun are deftly and naturally combined by Bernice Thurmam Hunter with more serious questions, problems and scenarios to present a realistic, informative, and entertainingly readable account of 1930s Toronto (of family life, of childhood during that era, with a realism that for me always glowingly demonstrates that the author is obviously writing from not only experience but from her own life story). Highly recommended for anyone who has enjoyed the first novel of the Booky trilogy, for anyone who enjoys realistically-based Depression era children's fiction (and I would consider With Love From Booky suitable for readers above the age of nine or ten, with the caveat that the death of Grampa Cole is sad and pretty much realistically portrayed).
But truth be told, and even though I read all three Booky novels as single books, I definitively would tend to suggest that interested potential readers consider Booky: A Trilogy (for not only does Booky: A Trilogy contain all three novels in one handy volume, it also contains two previously unpublished Booky short stories, and is furthermore much more readily and cheaply available for purchase).
And indeed, Booky is as charming a narrator in this second installment, in With Love From Booky, an astute observer of human nature (with both a sense of humour and a critical eye towards not only the faults of others, but towards her own pecadilloes as well). Now the Great Depression is still an ever-present entity and threat in With Love From Booky, and although Booky's father is actually gainfully employed for most of the novel (except for a couple of desperate weeks when he is temporarily laid off), money always remains tight, and poverty seems to lurk just around the corner. However, even with the specter of the Great Depression looming, the possibility of Beatrice perhaps contracting consumption, the sadness of Grampa Cole's death, With Love From Booky is still never ever either depressing or overly sentimental. Humour, love and fun are deftly and naturally combined by Bernice Thurmam Hunter with more serious questions, problems and scenarios to present a realistic, informative, and entertainingly readable account of 1930s Toronto (of family life, of childhood during that era, with a realism that for me always glowingly demonstrates that the author is obviously writing from not only experience but from her own life story). Highly recommended for anyone who has enjoyed the first novel of the Booky trilogy, for anyone who enjoys realistically-based Depression era children's fiction (and I would consider With Love From Booky suitable for readers above the age of nine or ten, with the caveat that the death of Grampa Cole is sad and pretty much realistically portrayed).
But truth be told, and even though I read all three Booky novels as single books, I definitively would tend to suggest that interested potential readers consider Booky: A Trilogy (for not only does Booky: A Trilogy contain all three novels in one handy volume, it also contains two previously unpublished Booky short stories, and is furthermore much more readily and cheaply available for purchase).
March 21, 2019
3rd re-read of 2019
Was there ever a character as loveable as Booky? I just loved to read and re-read the scrapes that this young Canadian girl got into!
It's now 1935 in Toronto Ontario Canada and Booky is heading off to " Senior Fourth" learning some tough life lessons. Bernice Thurman Hunter truly knows how to write a good story.
Was there ever a character as loveable as Booky? I just loved to read and re-read the scrapes that this young Canadian girl got into!
It's now 1935 in Toronto Ontario Canada and Booky is heading off to " Senior Fourth" learning some tough life lessons. Bernice Thurman Hunter truly knows how to write a good story.
October 30, 2019
Beatrice Thomson, better known to her friends and family as Booky, returns in this second installment of Bernice Thurman Hunter's trilogy of children's novels - begun in
That Scatterbrain Booky
, continued here, and concluded in
As Ever, Booky
- devoted to her experiences growing up in Depression-era Toronto. Opening the summer that Booky is sent from her home on Veeney Street, in the Swansea neighborhood - so-named because its settlers (Booky's extended maternal family) hailed from Swansea, in Wales - to the Muskoka farm of her paternal grandfather, With Love from Booky chronicles the ups and downs of its heroine's life, as she gradually moves from child to young woman. Booky's letters to and from home, her close family ties and friendships, her first job and first date, are all detailed here, in a narrative every bit as humorous and heartwarming as the first.
The charm of With Love from Booky is owing, in no small part, to the narrator herself, whose perceptive appreciation (despite some natural naivete) of the people around her makes her world truly come alive for the reader. I don't think I have read any work, intended for children, that gives a better sense of the real suffering and hardship of the Great Depression, than this book, and its predecessor. But despite the ever-present reality of need - which is, admittedly, a little less harsh in this volume, as Booky's father is (mostly) employed - the story still manages to feel lighthearted, probably due to its focus on those childhood and adolescent experiences common to so many young people, despite economic circumstance. There is humor here, and pathos - not least of all, when Booky's Grampa Cole unexpectedly dies, leaving her with all the regrets of the young, who, having thought they had all the time in the world to spend with loved ones, instead discover true loss for the first time. Highly recommended, to all those young readers who enjoy historical fiction, and tales with strong female characters. Just be sure to start with the first volume of Booky's adventures!
The charm of With Love from Booky is owing, in no small part, to the narrator herself, whose perceptive appreciation (despite some natural naivete) of the people around her makes her world truly come alive for the reader. I don't think I have read any work, intended for children, that gives a better sense of the real suffering and hardship of the Great Depression, than this book, and its predecessor. But despite the ever-present reality of need - which is, admittedly, a little less harsh in this volume, as Booky's father is (mostly) employed - the story still manages to feel lighthearted, probably due to its focus on those childhood and adolescent experiences common to so many young people, despite economic circumstance. There is humor here, and pathos - not least of all, when Booky's Grampa Cole unexpectedly dies, leaving her with all the regrets of the young, who, having thought they had all the time in the world to spend with loved ones, instead discover true loss for the first time. Highly recommended, to all those young readers who enjoy historical fiction, and tales with strong female characters. Just be sure to start with the first volume of Booky's adventures!
March 5, 2010
A quick read, full of interesting tidbit about Toronto during the depression.
September 8, 2025
Booky Teaches History In Her Journey
Her name is Beatrice Thomson. Her nickname is Booky. But it feels pretty obvious this is really all about the author, the late Bernice Thurman Hunter.
Booky A Trilogy is three novels, That Scatterebrained Booky from 1981, and With Love from Booky from 1983 and As Ever, Booky from 1985 and the short story Visitors from Saskatoon from 1981, make up the tale of this young girl growing up.
And yes, this is one of those fictionalized biographies just like Mildred D Taylor and Watson Choy and Louise Fitzhugh and Betty Smith have done as well.
Booky has one big advantage for these other books, which I dearly loved, in that it takes place in my hometown Toronto, and the other big advantage is that it is filled with history. Two great things together!
But back to the story of Booky itself.
Booky is Beatrice’s childhood nickname, a young girl living in Depression era 1930’s Toronto with her loving family. Her dad looks for work, they go by Eaton’s department store, have to money, move quite abit, hang around relatives, write letters, and many many many more small adventures over the course of time. Booky lives and learns and loves and becomes the person who will one day, when she is much older, write a version of her life.
To compliment this journey, Hunter has photos and old ads scattered throughout the book, which massively helps brings this past to life.
While family love and surviving the Depression being major themes here, another is the turmoil in Europe leading to World War Two. Many books cover this same territory, and from the youth perspective, so some would say Booky just adds to that chorus. My diplomatic response is…. so what? World War Two was one of the most traumatic world events ever, and every story, whether fictional or non-fictional or semi-fictional, should be documented. Because we hope we all learn from it so it never happens again.
Thankfully the Booky series was extremely popular, so its lessons could be absorbed. To help with this, Booky was made into a television movie and a play, that I have never seen.
I got this amazing volume at a Little Free Library and is so very very very glad I did.
Scoopriches
https://scoopsmentalpropaganda.wordpr...
Her name is Beatrice Thomson. Her nickname is Booky. But it feels pretty obvious this is really all about the author, the late Bernice Thurman Hunter.
Booky A Trilogy is three novels, That Scatterebrained Booky from 1981, and With Love from Booky from 1983 and As Ever, Booky from 1985 and the short story Visitors from Saskatoon from 1981, make up the tale of this young girl growing up.
And yes, this is one of those fictionalized biographies just like Mildred D Taylor and Watson Choy and Louise Fitzhugh and Betty Smith have done as well.
Booky has one big advantage for these other books, which I dearly loved, in that it takes place in my hometown Toronto, and the other big advantage is that it is filled with history. Two great things together!
But back to the story of Booky itself.
Booky is Beatrice’s childhood nickname, a young girl living in Depression era 1930’s Toronto with her loving family. Her dad looks for work, they go by Eaton’s department store, have to money, move quite abit, hang around relatives, write letters, and many many many more small adventures over the course of time. Booky lives and learns and loves and becomes the person who will one day, when she is much older, write a version of her life.
To compliment this journey, Hunter has photos and old ads scattered throughout the book, which massively helps brings this past to life.
While family love and surviving the Depression being major themes here, another is the turmoil in Europe leading to World War Two. Many books cover this same territory, and from the youth perspective, so some would say Booky just adds to that chorus. My diplomatic response is…. so what? World War Two was one of the most traumatic world events ever, and every story, whether fictional or non-fictional or semi-fictional, should be documented. Because we hope we all learn from it so it never happens again.
Thankfully the Booky series was extremely popular, so its lessons could be absorbed. To help with this, Booky was made into a television movie and a play, that I have never seen.
I got this amazing volume at a Little Free Library and is so very very very glad I did.
Scoopriches
https://scoopsmentalpropaganda.wordpr...
July 30, 2018
A continuation of the first book.
July 27, 2019
A delightful sequel to That Scatterbrain Booky. I really enjoy Booky as a character so I'm glad her story continues on!
March 7, 2010
This book was very interesting!
May 10, 2015
Is a good representation of life in Toronto during the Depression
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews