Thee, Hannah! Marguerite de Angeli. 1940. 98 pages. [Source: Library] [children's classic; j fiction]
First sentence: Hannah stopped talking for a moment to listen to the night watch cry out the time. She heard the cry again, going on down the block, "Nine o'clock," and went on talking.
My thoughts, part one: Thee, Hannah may have the dimensions of a picture book, but it is not a picture book. It is not an early chapter book. Yes, it has illustrations--occasionally--but consider it more a novel in a very odd format.
Premise/plot: Hannah, our heroine, is a Quaker. Hannah spends most of the novel feeling out of sorts about that. Why can't she dress like others? Why can't she talk like others? Why can't she be more like others? She isn't necessarily questioning faith--just how that faith is lived out. And not questioning in a twentieth-century or twenty-first century way. Hannah is not deconstructing. She's just wanting to wear a different kind of bonnet, a bonnet more like her friends wear. She dreams about owning a red dress, for example. Or having a sash like her friend has. The book doesn't have much of a plot--not really. It's just Hannah being Hannah day after day, week after week, month after month. It does offer a glimpse of the Quaker way of life in the nineteenth century. But is that a plot? Maybe. Maybe not. The most eventful event of the novel is when Hannah helps a runaway slave. (Her family--like many Quakers--were part of the underground railroad).
My thoughts: I like historical fiction, generally. I like classics, mostly. I wasn't expecting this to be so text-heavy because of the [deceptive] picture book format. Maybe this was not an unusual format or layout in 1940. The novel is definitely a quiet, simple book. Definitely character driven and not plot-driven. Will the novel be easy to sell to children in 2023? I doubt it. I think the book could still be enjoyed by readers of various ages, but it will be a special reader that will be the best match.
I do think that religion and spirituality are rarely tackled in modern writing and publishing. So it was nice that faith was so matter-of-fact in this story.
© 2023 Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews
2 comments:
This seems like something I would have read back in the day, but I'm not sure. I'm surprised you were even able to find a copy. Fascinating from a historical perspective. Historical, historical fiction!
How interesting to be able to read such an old book. Thanks for sharing your review with the Historical Fiction Reading Challenge!
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