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Amy and Laura #7
The Truth About Mary Rose
A little girl who idolizes her late aunt, learns about both herself and her namesake when she stumbles upon a shoebox in her grandmother's attic
159 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1973
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
February 6, 2022
2-1/2 stars
My adult take on this story is very different.
I found the living Mary Rose kind of irritating, and a little weird with the way she goes on about how much she loves her cousin, Pam, who she's met since moving to New York and getting to know her maternal uncle Stanley's family. I was also irritated by the constant reference to "my cousin, Pam," (a) because I would never put a comma there (I know it's technically correct but I never speak with a comma before my cousins' names, so I wouldn't write one, either), and (b) because once it's established that Pam is a cousin, it started feeling repetitive to see it stated so often. I thought it's sweet that Mary Rose likes her cousin so much, but it just felt odd.
As an adult, I didn't really relate to Mary Rose's obsession with her dead aunt, but I know I felt the same burning curiosity when I read it as a kid. I did still relate to Mary Rose's constant eavesdropping, because I do remember being desperate to know what adults weren't telling me, too, when I was a child. I didn't really like Mary Rose's family, either. I think I should appreciate how complex the family relationships are, but I just found them gritty and unpleasant to spend time with.
I almost didn't bother finishing this reread, because I was so aggravated and not enjoying the book. But it's short, so I did. And the ending ticked me off as well, just brushing traumatic events under a rug of "people can be happy one minute and jealous/frustrated/disappointed the next and then laughing again, so everything evens out," which is true in one sense but also dismissive of difficult emotions, and "trauma is just your interpretation of experiences/events but your interpretation is not necessarily real or true" which really ticked me off.
So I'm demoting this to 2 stars. It was just dreary and the attempt to wrap it all up in platitudes at the end did not work for me at all.
Mary Rose Ramirez is named for her mother's sister, who died at 11 when the apartment building the family lived in burned -- but she died a hero after ringing all the doorbells so everyone else in the building escaped. The second Mary Rose wants to know everything about her aunt, and when her family moves from Lincoln (Nebraska? I wasn't sure) to New York where her mother grew up, she gets the chance to learn a lot more.Since I reread The Truth About Stone Hollow recently, it got me thinking about this other "Truth About" book that I read around the same time when I was a kid, and had 4-starred based on my memory of it. As of my reread, the only thing I actually remembered about the book was that I learned the word "peignoir" from it (and have never had any reason to use it since). I realized while reading that this is also the book I learned the word "posthumously" from.
My adult take on this story is very different.
I found the living Mary Rose kind of irritating, and a little weird with the way she goes on about how much she loves her cousin, Pam, who she's met since moving to New York and getting to know her maternal uncle Stanley's family. I was also irritated by the constant reference to "my cousin, Pam," (a) because I would never put a comma there (I know it's technically correct but I never speak with a comma before my cousins' names, so I wouldn't write one, either), and (b) because once it's established that Pam is a cousin, it started feeling repetitive to see it stated so often. I thought it's sweet that Mary Rose likes her cousin so much, but it just felt odd.
As an adult, I didn't really relate to Mary Rose's obsession with her dead aunt, but I know I felt the same burning curiosity when I read it as a kid. I did still relate to Mary Rose's constant eavesdropping, because I do remember being desperate to know what adults weren't telling me, too, when I was a child. I didn't really like Mary Rose's family, either. I think I should appreciate how complex the family relationships are, but I just found them gritty and unpleasant to spend time with.
I almost didn't bother finishing this reread, because I was so aggravated and not enjoying the book. But it's short, so I did. And the ending ticked me off as well, just brushing traumatic events under a rug of "people can be happy one minute and jealous/frustrated/disappointed the next and then laughing again, so everything evens out," which is true in one sense but also dismissive of difficult emotions, and "trauma is just your interpretation of experiences/events but your interpretation is not necessarily real or true" which really ticked me off.
So I'm demoting this to 2 stars. It was just dreary and the attempt to wrap it all up in platitudes at the end did not work for me at all.
February 12, 2024
One of the books from my past that I was not to crazy about honestly.
Mary Rose is in awe of her Aunt..whose name is also Mary Rose and for whom the young Mary Rose was named for.
Mary Rose worships her Aunt and has idealized her to great lengths. But the truth is..according to her concerned family..Mary Rose wasn't such a nice person. In fact there is much the younger Mary Rose does not know about her Mysterious Aunt. Will Mary Rose have the courage to find out the truth?
I did not like this book honestly. I found it morose and kind of gloomy. Mary Rose (the Aunt) was just a kid when she died and was made to be quite the villain and indeed she wasn't nice but one never knows how or what she may have been had she lived.
This is not a book I would give high ratings to mainly because the subject matter was a bit much for me and it did not really hold my interest all that much.
Mary Rose is in awe of her Aunt..whose name is also Mary Rose and for whom the young Mary Rose was named for.
Mary Rose worships her Aunt and has idealized her to great lengths. But the truth is..according to her concerned family..Mary Rose wasn't such a nice person. In fact there is much the younger Mary Rose does not know about her Mysterious Aunt. Will Mary Rose have the courage to find out the truth?
I did not like this book honestly. I found it morose and kind of gloomy. Mary Rose (the Aunt) was just a kid when she died and was made to be quite the villain and indeed she wasn't nice but one never knows how or what she may have been had she lived.
This is not a book I would give high ratings to mainly because the subject matter was a bit much for me and it did not really hold my interest all that much.
November 8, 2010
I absolutely loved this book when I was a kid, but rerading it now I'm not sure why. I *think* it had to do with the discovery of secrets -- there was something very compelling in Mary Rose finding her aunt's box and going through it and being vaguely disappointed by the contents, but I think that as a child I both understood that a) the stuff in the box indicated a very different Aunt Mary Rose than the child Mary Rose imagined, and b) *didn't* understand that the child Mary Rose was ignoring/denying that. Of course it's tough reconstructing how me-at-10 felt about something that me-at-35 read, but when I was rereading it I had a great sense of surprise that the child Mary Rose was so 'dense'.
Anyway, the book itself is really well written; Sachs clearly knew exactly where she was going & how she wanted to get there. As an adult I was less interested in the mystery (which I remembered) and much more fascinated by the period-piece aspect of the mixed-race Ramirez family in early 1970s New York. Mary Rose's father is a Puerto Rican artist, her mother a white American dentist, and her maternal grandmother is racist as all heck even when she tries her best not to be -- although all the racism is aimed at her son-in-law, not at the grandkids. I hadn't remembered that aspect of the novel at all, and I was surprised & very pleased with how it was handled. I also liked watching the family settle into their new life in Brooklyn, and Sachs does a great job interweaving the stories about the past and the present to create a sense of who Mary Rose would become in the future.
I already have way too much to read, but I'm tempted to go on a Sachs rereading spree; I read everything I could find by her as a kid, and don't remember much about it, so it'd probably be an interesting journey.
Anyway, the book itself is really well written; Sachs clearly knew exactly where she was going & how she wanted to get there. As an adult I was less interested in the mystery (which I remembered) and much more fascinated by the period-piece aspect of the mixed-race Ramirez family in early 1970s New York. Mary Rose's father is a Puerto Rican artist, her mother a white American dentist, and her maternal grandmother is racist as all heck even when she tries her best not to be -- although all the racism is aimed at her son-in-law, not at the grandkids. I hadn't remembered that aspect of the novel at all, and I was surprised & very pleased with how it was handled. I also liked watching the family settle into their new life in Brooklyn, and Sachs does a great job interweaving the stories about the past and the present to create a sense of who Mary Rose would become in the future.
I already have way too much to read, but I'm tempted to go on a Sachs rereading spree; I read everything I could find by her as a kid, and don't remember much about it, so it'd probably be an interesting journey.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 30, 2010
An beautifully-written follow up to the Peter and Veronica books--former-bully Veronica is now a grown woman with children of her own, including Mary Rose, a daughter named for her late sister. (Fans will remember the whiny Mary Rose from the Veronica books.) Little sniveling brother Stanley is a fine man and father. Young Mary Rose worships the long-dead aunt for whom she was named, but the truth about Veronica and Stanley's sister will shake the entire family. A moving and memorable children's novel.
February 14, 2008
I was obsessed with this book in 5th grade.
July 3, 2015
I didn't really like it, I thought it was boring and the truth about Mary Rose wasn't very exciting or anything.
June 17, 2019
Young Mary Rose has a kind of unhealthy obsession with her Aunt Mary Rose. Mary Rose the elder died in a fire years before Mary Rose the younger was born, and each of the surviving family members remember her a different way, those of who can even bear to speak of her, that is. Our plucky young heroine is determined to find out the truth about her namesake, not realizing that it just might send her into an existential tailspin when she finds out that the woman she's spent her life idolizing and trying to emulate was slightly less than perfect. In the end she learns that people, and memories, are complicated. There's also some fantastic social commentary happening subtly in the background as the grandmother's racist and narrow-minded views are revealed.
Fun fact: this book has nothing at all to do with Hitler or World War II, despite my twisted memory of it that had me expecting Nazis to make an appearance at any moment. I think I had it conflated with A Certain Magic, which also has a kid learning about a beloved aunt's childhood and only has the threat of Hitler, but when I was a kid I read them both at about the same time -- along with Devil in Vienna, which has no aunts but a lot of Nazis-- and all three are hopelessly linked in my head.)
Fun fact: this book has nothing at all to do with Hitler or World War II, despite my twisted memory of it that had me expecting Nazis to make an appearance at any moment. I think I had it conflated with A Certain Magic, which also has a kid learning about a beloved aunt's childhood and only has the threat of Hitler, but when I was a kid I read them both at about the same time -- along with Devil in Vienna, which has no aunts but a lot of Nazis-- and all three are hopelessly linked in my head.)
December 1, 2009
Was absolutely obsessed with this book as a child. Haunting - a little girl dies in a house fire and becomes saintly in the eyes of her family and in particular her cousin and namesake who worships her memory. When she discovers the dead girl's treasure box, it is a Pandora's box, exposing Mary Rose as selfish and cruel.
January 1, 2016
As a kid I remember being fascinated by this book. As an adult can see why, despite the fact that much of the story has lost its appeal. While I still find it haunting, the suspense of solving the mystery of who Mary Rose was was less palpable.
March 26, 2014
I'm so pleased to find out that I still love this book as much as I did when I was a kid.
February 20, 2018
While on the site Open Library I came across this book & it brought back memories. This book has been in the back of my mind for a while & I just couldn't remember the title of it. I read it when I was in the 4th grade and many years after that I have been trying to to think of the name of it. I was going to post it on "What's the Name of that Book?" but I didn't have any specific details of it. All I could remember was there was a girl who walks up into an Attic she finds an old trunk with some papers about her Aunt that holds secrets of her Aunt's life, a fire starts and the girl runs out of the building with the papers in her hand. Anyway I remember it being a very good mystery/thriller book.
January 29, 2021
Mary Rose is named after her mother's sister, who died tragically as a child. Mary Rose and her family recently moved in with her grandmother in New York, due to her father's art career. The dynamic and interaction of the family members was interesting and realistic. Mary Rose is a bit obsessed with her namesake, especially since she is "martyred" by some of the family ("never speak ill of the dead" isn't always the healthiest coping strategy). Sachs teaches us in this novel that truth is powerful, different people have different truths, and people are not one-dimensional.
July 18, 2018
I remembered reading this book several times as a kid. It was definitely one of my favorites. Out of nostalgia, I decided to read it again. I'm glad I did and I can see why I liked it. It was very well-written and still a great read,although seen through the eyes of an adult now. I recommend this a good pick for a pre-teen. (And the parent can enjoy it,too!)
June 21, 2017
This book was not driven by the plot at all and the discovery of the (notably boring) secret didn't happen until the last couple pages. This book just dragged on. Even as a child this book would be extremely boring and a waste of time to me.
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March 19, 2014I enjoyed this book as a child. I wonder if my grown up self would still like it. Doubt I'll ever know!
January 22, 2026
This is one of those books that I remember being mildly obsessed with as a child. I just reread it and enjoyed it. It's definitely of its time (1973) but I think it's fairly insightful about how people see ~ and remember ~ other people differently. The truth about the original Mary Rose depended on who you asked, and their point of view. The whole truth of the particular tragic night could never be known in the story, but I think that makes it true to life. I did feel like there were a lot of side characters and it was a bit hard to keep up with them all. The present-day Mary Rose is a good narrator.
February 15, 2025
Super weird, morbid, pointless --- what is this story?? I'm participating in a BookTube event called, The Wasted Weekend, where we read the most throwawayable books we can find. I guess, in that case, this was a great pick!
Codependent whiny grandmother who undermines her daughter's parenting , spoiled manipulative granddaughter who thinks she's perfect. A lot of other wussy characters --- all come together for 159 pages of speaking ill of the dead in a plotless pile of ew.
Codependent whiny grandmother who undermines her daughter's parenting , spoiled manipulative granddaughter who thinks she's perfect. A lot of other wussy characters --- all come together for 159 pages of speaking ill of the dead in a plotless pile of ew.
September 1, 2019
I'm not sure that, as a 12-year-old, I realized this book was part of a series.
September 27, 2025
4.5 stars
Mary Rose is named after her aunt who dies in a fire after she rang the door bells of the other people in their apartment building. At least that's the story Mary Rose has heard for the past 12 years. Now that she lives with her grandmother, Mary Rose wants to be more like her idolized aunt but will the truth come out? and will this Mary Rose be able to handle it.
Mary Rose is named after her aunt who dies in a fire after she rang the door bells of the other people in their apartment building. At least that's the story Mary Rose has heard for the past 12 years. Now that she lives with her grandmother, Mary Rose wants to be more like her idolized aunt but will the truth come out? and will this Mary Rose be able to handle it.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews