The Wonder of Charlie Anne
Charlie Anne’s mother has died in childbirth, and the Depression has forced her father to go north to find a job. Charlie Anne and her siblings have to endure cousin Mirabel as a stand-in parent. Mirabel is determined to “civilize” Charlie Anne, forcing her to listen to passages from an etiquette book on how young ladies should behave. There’s no escape via school, because the townspeople can’t afford to pay a teacher. But that’s fine with Charlie Anne, who endured humiliation from the previous teacher for not trying hard enough to learn to read.
Then a neighbor brings home a new young wife, Rosalyn, along with her adopted African American daughter, Phoebe, who is Charlie Anne’s age. Mirabel forbids Charlie Anne to associate with them, but she becomes friends with Phoebe anyway, and enjoys Rosalyn’s help and encouragement. When Rosalyn offers to open the school and teach with Phoebe’s help, the townspeople refuse to have their children taught by a “colored.” Will Charlie Anne be courageous enough to stand up for her new friends against Mirabel and the whole town?
I was nearly late for work two days in a row because this book was hard to put down. I loved the multiple rounded characters. For example, Mirabel starts out like a fairy tale stepmother, but she grows towards the end. The author kept me guessing as to how a character might act, or where the plot would take me next. The story has an element of whimsy, when lonely Charlie Anne holds conversations with both the family’s cow and her dead mother’s spirit. While the ending seems almost too good to be true, I still enjoyed the book very much and plan to watch for Fusco’s next book.
