TALE OF FAMILY IN 1886 MAKES GREAT READING TODAY

The Nickel Plated Beauty

Author: Patricia Beatty.

Publisher: Morrow Junior Books.

Price: $15 (hardcover).

Pages: 255.

In 1886 people really helped one another. In The Nickel Plated Beauty, author Patricia Beatty does a good job of telling about a family who loves each other so much that they would do anything for each other.

Beatty created an interesting book, with likable characters and an exciting, enjoyable storyline.

Twelve-year-old Hester narrated the story of her family - two parents and six children ranging from age 6 to 13 - who lived during pioneer times. Their family didn't have a lot of money and couldn't afford luxury items like stoves and other store-bought items.

Their father and oldest brother, Whit, worked to earn just enough money to buy seeds to plant a garden for food, material for making clothes, and money for other bare necessities.

The family did have an old stove, but it was falling apart. They would need to buy a new one soon, before the old one baked its last meal:

The old stove began to go on a Saturday morning in late April 1886. One of the screws in the oven door had rusted, and it fell out when Momma stooped down to fetch the hot biscuits for our breakfast.

". . . Joseph," Momma said quietly, "there's going to have to be a new stove."

One of the children decided to try to raise all the money by himself, and when he couldn't, the others decided to help out. Secretly, they found side jobs and worked until each one earned $25 to buy a new stove for their mother for Christmas.

Hester explains how the children planned to raise the money:

"It's going to be a hard secret to keep. We'll sell raspberries from our bushes every summer. . . . We'll have to work harder and get more clams than we did last year, too. And we won't be able to earn $25 just from clams and raspberries. We'll have to do it some other way. You got any ideas?"

"We can pick wild strawberries," (Cameron) said.

Clarrie sighed. I knew why. That was real hard work. You could pick all day and have only half a lard pail of them, they were that tiny; but everybody knew they made the best jams and preserves you ever stuck a spoon into. Our wild strawberries would sell. Even though the sand dunes were covered with strawberry plants, everybody hated to pick them bad enough to buy them.

"There's other kinds of berries, too," (Cameron) went on. "We can pick salmonberries in June, and in July and August we can pick blackberries."

. . . Anna spoke up. "We can go to the crab holes, too, early in the morning."

"I can go fish off the dock at Nahcotta," Clarrie put in. She loves to go fishing.

"I can chase Bert Hogan's old Holstein cows home. They're always getting away from him." This last was Tom's nickel's worth. He was too little to chase the Holsteins, though; the rest of us would have to do it. But it wasn't a bad idea. Tom was going to be a thinker someday.

I liked this part because as the children began to raise money for a stove for their mother, it was obvious how much they loved each other. Beatty's story made me feel happy because it seems that families aren't as caring toward each other today.

Beatty paints the story in such a way that it makes you want to read the book again.

I would recommend this well-crafted book to children 9 years old and older.