Books by Sharon Creech always make me wonder. They always involve universal themes, but have characters on the edge or out of bounds of what I know of life. This is a book primarily about a girl Reena whose family moves from the urban life in a city to the boonies of Maine. She has a wide-eyed wonder about her, an innocence if you will. As she learns and adapts to the very different life in Maine, she jumps right in, not afraid of the various aspects of rural life. Her parents meet a crotchety old lady and have Reena and her brother Luke help her around the house. As you can imagine, struggles ensue, as the woman is particularly incompetent about giving directions. In these tasks Reena completes, she has to befriend a cow and ends up taking the cow to show at the state fair. The challenges Reena meets are entertaining and I found myself rooting for her and her brother.
This is a cute story of innocence and the benefits of working hard. The prose itself is written almost in poetry format, as periodically there is a concrete poetry quality about it which doesn’t distract as much as I would have thought. It actually enhances the voice. It was an easy read.
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