Aunt Jo's Scrap-Bag VI an Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, Etc.

Aunt Jo's Scrap Bag #6

by Louisa May Alcott

Sixty years ago, up among the New Hampshire hills, lived Farmer Bassett, with a house full of sturdy sons and daughters growing up about him. They were poor in money, but rich in land and love, for the wide acres of wood, corn, and pasture land fed, warmed, and clothed the flock, while mutual patience, affection, and courage made the old farm-house a very happy home.

Genres: Classics, Short Stories, Fiction

240 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 1882

About the author

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet best known for writing the novel Little Women (1868) and its sequels Good Wives (1869), Little Men (1871) and Jo's Boys (1886). Raised in New England by her transcendentalist parents, Abigail May Alcott and Amos Bronson Alcott, she grew up among many well-known intellectuals of the day, including Margaret Fuller, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry David Thoreau, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Alcott's family suffered from financial difficulties, and while she worked to help support the family from an early age, she also sought an outlet in writing. She began to receive critical success for her writing in the 1860s. Early in her career, she sometimes used pen names such as A.M. Barnard, under which she wrote lurid short stories and sensation novels for adults that focused on passion and revenge.
Published in 1868, Little Women is set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House, in Concord, Massachusetts, and is loosely based on Alcott's childhood experiences with her three sisters, Abigail May Alcott Nieriker, Elizabeth Sewall Alcott, and Anna Bronson Alcott Pratt. The novel was well-received at the time and is still popular today among both children and adults. It has been adapted for stage plays, films, and television many times.
Alcott was an abolitionist and a feminist and remained unmarried throughout her life. She also spent her life active in reform movements such as temperance and women's suffrage. She died from a stroke in Boston on March 6, 1888, just two days after her father's death.

Reviews

[Katja Labonté · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars & 5/10 hearts. I enjoyed this final volume. It was sweet & simple, humorous, but mostly sweet. The only story I’m not sure about is the last one, where a mermaid supposedly becomes a real girl. 

A Favourite Quote: “Be not like Bubble, Headstrong, rude, and vain, Seeking by violence Your object to gain; But be like the rock, Steadfast, true, and strong, Yet cheerful and kind, And firm against wrong.”
A Favourite Beautiful Quote: “...wild roses bloomed all along the path, ferns and scarlet berries filled the little dells, squirrels chattered, birds sang, and pines whispered musically overhead.”
A Favourite Humorous Quote: “Having relieved her feelings..., Poppy rested, and then set about amusing herself. Observing that the spilt oil made the table shine, she took her handkerchief and polished up the furniture, as she had seen the maids do. 
“‘Now, that looks nice; and I know mamma will be pleased 'cause I'm so tidy,’ she said, surveying her work with pride, when she had thoroughly greased every table, chair, picture-frame, book-back, and ornament in the room. Plenty of oil still remained; and Poppy finished off by oiling her hair, till it shone finely, and smelt—dear me, how it did smell! If she had been a young whale, it couldn't have been worse. Poppy wasn't particular about smells; but she got some in her mouth, and didn't like the taste.“

[Beth · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially grabbed this as a Kindle freebie because of the "Thanksgiving" themed title story, but I ended up reading more because I enjoyed the first few stories so much.

Some of the following stories were very moralistic; I can see how they would be boring for children these days, or just a bit odd. In The Whale's story, for example, a little boy has a conversation with a whale's jawbone, or rather, the whale talks about his life and cautions against pride. The didactic nature was a bit grating in this and a few of the stories, but then again, I suppose that was the point at the time that these were written.

I also thought it was interesting that there were hints of Alcott being an abolitionist, which I had read before in biographical notes about her, but never really noticed in her writings previously (although by today's standards it didn't seem as open-minded as you might think).

All in all, I did enjoy most of these stories - "An Old-fashioned Thanksgiving," "The Doll's Journey from Minnesota to Maine," and "Morning-Glories" being a few of my favorites.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I chose this after reading Reisen's biography of Louisa May Alcott. The 'scrap bag' series was one Alcott did for the holidays - this was a random selection, because there are others. Some of the stories were covered in the biography, which tells that Alcott went wandering in her green shoes as a child, she jumped out of the loft in the barn with alarming regularity and was injured, and did polish her hair with lamp oil. Poppy, the heroine of one of the scrap bag stories, has adventures that are nearly identical. In other stories, poor young children are provided with a wealth of Christmas gifts by neighbors, and the young children of a large family cook Thanksgiving dinner to help their parents, and three young fairly-well-off scamps trade places with their shadows for a day and discover how selfish they have been. I felt bad for the children who behaved as children tend to and then felt that unless they were "very good" they would 1) not be loved by their parents or 2) die. Alcott felt this way often, based on the journals recorded in the biography.

Other stories reflected her silly imagination - she sails off to Mother Goose island - and her abolitionistic viewpoint. In the biography, Alcott is reported to have become an abolitionist at a very young age (possibly 3 or 4).

More interesting to read from the perspective of rounding out the experience of reading her biography, and getting a sense of what a wildly popular author produced so long ago. Slow reading if you choose to read at night, though not bad for falling asleep...

[Jody Masch · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a recon mission, & 1 I would not recommend — but here I’ve done it so you don’t have to. The Little Women trilogy is an absolute joy to read & has I think a well-earned place in ‘the canon.’ This collection of short stories feels like an off brand version of the well-loved trilogy. This collection contains 11 short stories. The first 8 were quite didactic, like the trilogy, but without the magic of the March family. Out of nowhere, the final 3 stories contain hearty elements of magical realism. The grand finale involves a mermaid & a moral & a very sad ending, & I’m left wondering if this was meant to hearken back to Hans Christian Andersen? (“The Little Mermaid” was published about 50 years before this collection.) All in all, a weird collection.

I do think it’s quite cute that her 6 short collections are all part of ‘Aunt Jo’s Scrapbag’ — alluding to the Jo of Little Women.

[Jennifer Mitchell-Shirley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am so happy I found these collections of short stories by Alcott! I am a quilter and the term Scrap-Bag caught my eye, and I borrowed the 1st volume to find out what it was about. A wonderful collection of short stories that made you laugh, cry, teach you lessons; orphans, widows, the wealthy, all sorts of life situations that are written with passion, emotion, sadness, joy, comedy, fantasy and life lessons.

[Carla · Rating 3 out of 5]

An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving is a lovely, feel-good Alcott story about children, who had little, but appreciated everything, especially their family, and made what would likely have been the best and most memorable Thanksgiving dinner of their lives.

[Abigail G · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some stories don't do well after a hundred years and this book contained a few. Otherwise it was comparable to the rest with a lot of morals and mishaps.

[Kristi · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very charming and entertaining collection of short tales, to delight children and adult readers alike. Edifying, humorous, and as moving; characteristically Alcott. Stand-outs in this volume include: "How it All Happened," "Dolls Journey from Minnesota to Maine," "Shadow Children," and "Poppy's Pranks" (which was loosely based on Alcott's own childhood).

[Sharon Kalt · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories, including An Old-Fashioned Thanksgiving, to be read to young children (but I liked it too ;)). Some stories, of course, were more enjoyable than others. Not Little Women, but gentle, comfortable reading like one might imagine drifting asleep to, cuddled on a mother's lap.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sweet little story in the vein of the Little House books. ❤️ Would make for a good read-aloud.

[Sharon L. Sherman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard cover copy

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

These are lovely, charming short stories. My favourites were "An Old Fashioned Thanksgiving" and "How it All Happened".