Winter Cottage

Title: Winter Cottage
Author: Carol Ryrie Brink
Major Themes: Wisconsin, Winter, Friendship, Family
Synopsis: When a family in dire distress moved into a summer cottage for the winter without the owner’s knowledge, all sorts of things happened.

When I was a girl, my family went to the library at least once a month. Each of us was allowed to choose three books to check out, and I always made sure I got that many. One that I remember finding was Winter Cottage. If I remember right, we found Caddie Woodlawn first, and then read all the other books we could find by Carol Ryrie Brink, and enjoyed them all. Several years later, I read Winter Cottage to my young family, and now, some 15 years later I read it aloud again. Before we started, no one could remember it at all, but as we went along, my husband and oldest daughter said that they were remembering the scenes as we went. 

Near the beginning of the Great Depression, Minty and Eggs and their father, Mr. Sparkes, were on their way from their failed grocery store in Chicago to Aunt Amy’s house in Minneapolis. When the car finally refused to go any farther, they found themselves on a deserted back road they had accidentally turned onto after passing through Scandian Corners in Wisconsin. Exploring the woods around them, they found a closed-up summer cottage with an unlocked window. Soon, they decided to spend the winter there and leave money for rent along with a note of explanation on the table in the spring.

Before long, a boy showed up at just the right time to nurse Pop through a serious illness—and Joe, too, decided to spend the winter in the cottage. Then one night during a blizzard two more strangers showed up. Minty was sure they were the bank robbers she heard about on the radio—could she get them reformed before the storm was over?

Winter Cottage is a great story, although there are parts I don’t care for. It’s not right to just move into someone else’s house, and several times Minty lied to try to cover up what they were doing. However, I love the way this family is portrayed. Pop is a vague, unpractical sort who just loves to go fishing and quoting the poets, and Eggs is scatterbrained and the opposite of sensible, while Minty has to hold the family together. They all love each other and work together, and Joe becomes part of the family very quickly. I guess what I love about the book is all the love and the portrayal of what can happen when love is an integral part of a family. Don’t miss this great family read-aloud! I was delighted to see that it is in print still; I assumed that it wouldn’t be anymore.

WARNING: Chapter 2: Gee. Chapter 3: by golly, gee twice. Chapter 4: golly, gosh. Chapter 6: My golly, gee. Chapter 7: Darn. Chapter 8: Gee. Chapter 10: Dumbest darn hunting dog, gee twice. Chapter 11: Oh, gee twice. Chapter 12: Oh, gee. Chapter 13: Gee twice, tarnation. Chapter 14: Gee four times. Chapter 15: Gee three times, by gum. Chapter 16: Gee. Chapter 17: Gosh all fishhooks.

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Caddie Woodlawn Caddie Woodlawn’s Family More Stories From Grandma’s Attic Cotton in My Sack