STRAWBERRY GIRL

With STRAWBERRY GIRL, Lois Lenski captures a slice of life in rural Florida of the 1940s, and with it she won the 1946 Newbery Medal. In the tradition of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House books, the listener is welcomed into the Boyer home and witnesses firsthand the joys and sorrows of their hardscrabble life and the friction with neighbors who have varying viewpoints on cattle ranching and truck farming. Natalie Ross establishes a deliberate pace for her narration, allowing listeners time to picture each episode. Her nonjudgmental tone affords listeners the opportunity to experience the events up close—from heartbreak over a trampled strawberry bed to the destruction of property and cattle and to the growing respect between the children in each family. Additional information about the time period concludes the production. A.R. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine [Published: APRIL 2012]