Title: Away Goes Sally
Author: Elizabeth Coatsworth
Series: Sally
Major Themes: Maine, New England
Synopsis: A little girl who lives with her aunts and uncles goes on an amazing trip with them.
My 6-year-old needed to choose a story for me to read to him a little while ago, so I was looking through the shelves with him. I noticed Away Goes Sally, and suggested we read that, because we hadn’t even opened it yet, but it looked like about his age level. It was; it turned out to be a fairly simple story line that we really enjoyed—for the most part.
Sally lives with her aunts and uncles on a New England farm. One day, they received a letter that sent the household into a flurry: Cousin Ephraim wanted them to move to Maine to be near him! Should they go? Some members of the family wanted to, others were adamantly opposed. What would happen?
The result, which involved a house on runners, is lovely. We enjoyed the account of Sally’s trip, and the bear. The scene in which the bear invaded the cat’s domain, the house, is especially cute. This is a delightful story of life in a simpler time, although the ingenuity that was displayed in making the trip was not exactly simple!
Our only problem with this story is in chapter 4. One of the aunts badly wanted to know what the final decision about moving would be, and she visited a witch to find out. There are a fair number of details about that visit. I read it, but we discussed the issue in some depth, talking about what the Bible says about it. I’m thinking I won’t keep this book on our shelf, now that I’ve read it, and I’m not very interested in reading more by this author.
WARNING: See last paragraph.
Age levels:
Listening Level—Ages 5 – 8
Reading Independently—Ages 8 – 12
Links to buy this book:
Amazon: Paperback | Hardcover
AbeBooks: View Choices on AbeBooks.com
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