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A review by tcbueti
The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton
5.0
Reread, still love:
Scene when they are mice is amazing. All their senses, so vivid. And Eleanor “leaned against Edward, enjoying his brotherly warmth, and savoring the sense of being nothing at all, a part of the night and of the woods and nothing more.” And the breadcrumb “tasted like more”!
However:
In the first few paragraphs, Edwards has ambitions, dreams of being the explorer Trebor Nosnibor, or President of the United States. Eleanor likes a boy in her class, Benjamin Parks.
In the scene where the great minds of the past trudge through the sand and give their lights to Mrs. Truth, although there are a few unnamed people from “Asian” and “Oriental” lands, there are no women. P. 132 “Some had come by other routes, paths lay down by pioneers in other sorts of clothes, odd clothes of bizarre and foreign make, Asian garments, Oriental silks and robes, or the rags and tatters of mystics and ascetics.“
In the mirror chapter, Eleanor chooses being a mother over any of her other options: “lady-doctor”, artist, poet, teacher. Edward isn’t given a father option, He gets various scientists, mathematician, writer, professor, lawyer.
Why does Louisa May Alcott have to get married? Why does Eleanor hate her freckles so much [even though she eventually realizes (in the mirror dream, when she sees that applying make up could lead her to become “tawdry”) they’re fine] she worries that no one will ever marry her.
Romantic, exotic Prince Krishna.
Published in1962, but when IS this? Eleanor wearing a middy blouse. Edward in short pants? Uncle Freddy in knickers (but he’s daft). P170 Model T car in the garage, and Uncle Freddy bundled into police car at Walden Pond, and then Aunt Lily drives in her car to the police station—but they walk to the train station heading off to India via...?
Scene when they are mice is amazing. All their senses, so vivid. And Eleanor “leaned against Edward, enjoying his brotherly warmth, and savoring the sense of being nothing at all, a part of the night and of the woods and nothing more.” And the breadcrumb “tasted like more”!
However:
In the first few paragraphs, Edwards has ambitions, dreams of being the explorer Trebor Nosnibor, or President of the United States. Eleanor likes a boy in her class, Benjamin Parks.
In the scene where the great minds of the past trudge through the sand and give their lights to Mrs. Truth, although there are a few unnamed people from “Asian” and “Oriental” lands, there are no women. P. 132 “Some had come by other routes, paths lay down by pioneers in other sorts of clothes, odd clothes of bizarre and foreign make, Asian garments, Oriental silks and robes, or the rags and tatters of mystics and ascetics.“
In the mirror chapter, Eleanor chooses being a mother over any of her other options: “lady-doctor”, artist, poet, teacher. Edward isn’t given a father option, He gets various scientists, mathematician, writer, professor, lawyer.
Why does Louisa May Alcott have to get married? Why does Eleanor hate her freckles so much [even though she eventually realizes (in the mirror dream, when she sees that applying make up could lead her to become “tawdry”) they’re fine] she worries that no one will ever marry her.
Romantic, exotic Prince Krishna.
Published in1962, but when IS this? Eleanor wearing a middy blouse. Edward in short pants? Uncle Freddy in knickers (but he’s daft). P170 Model T car in the garage, and Uncle Freddy bundled into police car at Walden Pond, and then Aunt Lily drives in her car to the police station—but they walk to the train station heading off to India via...?