Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas By Ruth Sawyer

An eight-year-old Maine girl determines in June to sell enough berries that summer so that she and her shiftless family can give a proper celebration for her birthday Christmas. Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas

Brought the tears to my eyes. Great book! The moral of the story is: hard work is rewarded. English This is one of my favorite Christmas books. In the spirit of The Best (Worst) Christmas Pageant Ever, this story reminds us of the humility of the Nativity. 0060252014 This book strikes just the right note. 9780060252014 This industrious, imaginative girl does the best she can to put on a party for herself. Planning ways to earn and save money, giving up her summer with a long-term goal in mind. The way it comes to fruition is a little unexpected but very sweet. Childrens Oh goodness gracious!!!! I think this is the best children's fiction book I've ever read in my life. How did it ever go out of print?? 9780060252014

Please do not miss this sweet Christmas story. Just delightful about a little girl and how she rallies her family to throw a Birthday Christmas. It is one of my top five Christmas read alouds. The others are the Miracle of Jonathan Toomey, The Birds Christmas Carol, I Saw Three Ships, and The Lion in the Box. And I just discovered that Ruth Sawyer was Robert McCloskey's mother in law. This book is also set in Maine, just like some of my favorites by him. Small world!! English Who better to write a kind of grown-up version of Robert McCloskey's Maine books than his very own mother-in-law?

When it began, I wasn't sure this was going to be all that special, but it soon became just perfect. Maggie Rose is a very winning character, and readers will find her just as irresistible as her neighbors do. There's a bit of Mary Call (Where the Lilies Bloom) in her. Her family - those Bunkers - have some of the makings of Herdmans (The Best Christmas Pageant Ever). But Ruth Sawyer knows how to write a real Christmas story better than just about anyone, and this one is magnificent.

The only problem might be that it isn't what you'd expect to read aloud to the family during the week going into December 25, since the book starts on June 24 and a good deal of time is spent in the summer, moving from picking strawberries to raspberries to blueberries. Christmas is certainly never far from Maggie Rose's mind, though. One might be able to parcel out the story over the half a year it describes, but I don't know if it would have the same impact.

Quite early for Sendak - his illustrations are very good, but perhaps a bit not-quite-there-yet. There are hints of the little kids from the Ruth Krauss books. Though I do kind of wonder why McCloskey didn't get the job. He illustrated Sawyer's Journey Cake, Ho! the very next year. English Most reviews will say this is a story about people, and it is. But it's also a story about place: life in a somewhat isolated part of Maine, as it was sixty years ago. There are coves and boats, clams and wild berries, summer cottagers...and tramps. More on the tramps in a minute.

The lifestyle of Maggie Rose's large family is summed up like this: Every autumn, when cottages were being closed, the occupants had a way of saying: 'Better give this stuff to those Bunkers.' The parents and older children whistle-while-they-don't-work, almost to the point of stretching credulity. (Maggie Rose bought diapers herself for the baby?) But this is not a Cinderella make-her-work scenario; the rest of the family are irritated by her initiative, and suggest that her constant begging to improve things is a slap in their family face.

Maggie Rose is not discouraged by the lack of parental support; she has other adults around her, including a storekeeper and a teacher friend, who try to help her out without overstepping. With their encouragement, she finds ways to make some money over the summer, with the grand idea of hosting a neighbourhood party on Christmas Eve. (Christmas Eve is her birthday too.) But because she has to hide her hard-earned loot in a tree (her family are well-meaning but can't be entirely trusted), it gets stolen by a tramp.

No, life isn't fair. Yes, there is a lot of evil in the world. However, the robbery is the needed kick in the pants for Maggie Rose's family to get busy and make up for her loss. And they had better hurry, because Christmas is coming.

Tim said: 'Never seen anything like it before. I'd call it plain handsome.'
'It was Maggie Rose who spoke last: 'It's a place fitten to celebrate a birthday Christmas. And I'm thinking of His.' 0060252014 If you like a feel-good story with a happy ending then this book is for you! This story is about a little girl with a lot of spunk, a large, lazy family with a lot of love, and a small town with a generous heart.

I read this book to my two little girls, (ages 7 and 9) they loved it and so did I. Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas I would certainly give this book two and a half stars, and I was very close to rounding that rating up rather than down.

One of my favorite things about Ruth Sawyer's books is the permeating quality of old-fashioned goodness and sincerity that always marks them. Her novels are a throwback to several decades before she began her writing career, when legends of literature such as Mary Mapes Dodge, Louisa May Alcott, Kate Douglas Wiggin and Frances Hodgson Burnett were the ones who ruled the roost as the foremost children's writers of their day. There was a certain quality of childlike honesty and sturdy faith to the stories that those great authors wrote, and perhaps more than anyone else, Ruth Sawyer was responsible for carrying that quality forward into the twentieth century. Another thing that I'm partial to about Ruth Sawyer's work is her tendency to write stories about Christmas. She did more writing (by far) about this particular holiday than any other author with a Newbery Medal to their credit, and when Ruth Sawyer's name is on the cover, you know you're in for a unique treat that the whole family will be able to enjoy and appreciate.

Maggie Rose Bunker, at eight years old, is easily the most ambitious member of her large, disorganized family. The book refers to the rest of the family as lazy on a number of occasions, which may be true, though perhaps undisciplined might be a more accurate term. Maggie Rose's family just isn't ever able to save up any money, and barely gets by most of the time on handouts and donations from the rest of the town. When the Christmas season rolls around every year, Maggie Rose has to be content with taking a walk down the streets and looking at the fancy lights and decorations on everyone else's homes, because her own family lacks the motivation to put in the necessary work to construct a good holiday display. Christmas is a particularly special time of year for Maggie Rose, since her birthday falls on its Eve, and she has always harbored a deep-down desire to put together something really spectacular in celebration of the two connected events. For once, Maggie Rose would like for the Bunkers to give something really nice to all of their neighbors, rather than the support always being one-way; and this year, even if she has to do all the work herself to make it happen, she's determined to turn Christmas into a truly festive season.

I think it's impossible not to be affected by Maggie Rose's indomitable spirit as she plows ahead with her plans for Christmas, starting in on the hard work six months ahead of time. She figures out a way that she can earn enough money to support all of the wonderful plans she has concocted, and then goes about the work with a diligence that will bolster anyone's heart to see. Maggie Rose isn't totally alone in her efforts, either; she has a few kind, strong friends on her side, good souls who in their own ways are as admirable as Maggie Rose, and these friends are willing to do whatever Maggie Rose asks of them to draw her grand plans closer to fruition. Maggie Rose's family, too, want to do their part when they see how ardently the hard-working young girl is going about her business. Her parents may be undisciplined, but they sure are proud of Maggie Rose, and wouldn't ever let anything bad happen to her; and her brothers and sisters may generally regard tedious labor as an enemy to be avoided, but they, too, are capable of being swept up in the spirit of excitement that Maggie Rose has started, as the calendar flips over and Christmas comes into sight.

Ah, but such a lofty goal as Maggie Rose has in mind is never as straightforward in its accomplishment as one envisions. Though her work is planned out exceedingly well, unforeseeable bumps in the road cause a great deal of trouble for Maggie Rose as she strives to earn all of the money that she needs. Facing some roadblocks that should never have impeded the path of such an industrious and determined girl as Maggie Rose, the entire idea of a great Christmas for the Bunker family is suddenly placed in serious jeopardy, and it will require a community-wide rallying of time and resources for Maggie Rose's idea to once again become feasible. More than that, though, it will require a sustained, heartfelt effort on the part of the normally apathetic Bunker family if Maggie Rose's fantastic vision is to become reality in time for the quickly approaching Christmas season that she had worked so hard to enliven.

I really like this book. It's not a normal Christmas storyâ€"in fact, most of it doesn't even take place in Decemberâ€"yet somehow the narrative breathes the spirit of Christmas at every moment, and fosters a deeply felt attitude of thankfulness and excited wonder at the advent of the holiday season. One could hardly do better in looking for a good juvenile Christmas novel than this underrated gem, the moving creation of a masterful author. I certainly give it my recommendation. Hardcover