Blos in A Gathering of Days would necessarily be all that textually appealing to many if not even most younger children. However, even with my personal enjoyment, I do have to wonder and question whether the journalistic, whether the diary format presented by Joan W.

Blos writing as, pretending to be Catherine, which for me is of the utmost importance for an enjoyable first person narrative such as journal novels always are and should be). Blos' 1980 Newbery Award winning A Gathering of Days (and in particular, the minute details of early 19th century New England farm life, information both happy and indeed also at times sad and painful).Īnd yes, Catherine's voice shines naturally and realistically (and I for one also always do feel as though I am reading the words of a typical thirteen year old 19th century New Englander and not in fact the musings of author Joan W.

And a clever, observant girl learns about herself, the meaning of right and wrong, trust and acceptance, laughter and tears.įilled with historical details of home, school, labor, and folklore in the early 19th century, this is also a delicate and gently persuasive story that may win its way into your heart.As an older adult who has come to very much enjoy journal-like (as well as epistolary) novels, I very much have loved Joan W. Juvenile romance blooms–and some of the more mature kind, too.

Purchase here A Gathering of Days: A New England Girls Journal, 1830-32įramed by letters in which a great-grandmother in 1899 hands over her girlish diary to her thirteen-year-old namesake, this 1980 Newbery Medal winner takes the form of the diary of Catherine Hall, a New Hampshire farm girl in a time of simple, hard country life, growing controversy over the issue of slavery, and changes in her circle of family and friends.ĭuring the year and a half or so of the journal, Catherine records a crisis of morals brought about by a runaway slaves plea for help the difficult adjustment to having a new stepmother and stepbrother the grief of losing someone near and dear and beneath all, the years round of farm work, weather, nature, and school.

A gathering of days by joan w blos