Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

By Kate Douglas Wiggin

Copyright 1903

This copy published 1910

On Christmas Day in 1922, Lucille Kaufman received this book from Florence.  Ninety-five years later, I read it and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I hope Lucille did too!  It looks well-read, yet in good shape for its age, so I’m thinking she loved this book enough to read it over and over and took very good care of it.

I hadn’t read Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm before, and was surprised at how it instantly reminded me of Anne of Green Gables, which was written just a few years after this.  

Rebecca Randall is sent at the age of 11 to live with her two spinster aunts.  Her family is quite poor and she is one of seven children, so she is sent to where she can be fed, clothed, and educated properly.  One aunt is strictly no-nonsense and the other is softer and more affected by Rebecca’s spunk and imagination.  But as the years go by, neither of the aunts nor anyone else in town is left unaffected by Rebecca.  Plain of face, yet full of charm and imagination, Rebecca brings joy to all she meets.  

Reading this book provided a pleasant escape and a fresh perspective.  Rebecca was poor and plain and she knew it.  Yet those facts didn’t negatively affect her outlook on life one bit.  The lack of outward beauty and riches didn’t stop her from achieving love, success, or admiration.  Spunk and imagination are much more admirable and worthwhile than wealth or beauty ever will be!

The Settlement Cook Book

By Mrs. Simon Kander

1936 edition

As I write this, I am quite grateful to Mrs. Simon Kander, although I really wish I could think of her by her own name, not just her husband’s!  I am enjoying a slice of peanut butter bread, taken from page 65 of her very comprehensive cook book.  

Notice the title on the cover, “The Settlement Cook Book – the way to a man’s heart”.  I looked up some information about this book online and was relieved to see “the way to a man’s heart” phrase removed from more recent editions because this is a really great cook book – for women or men alike, whether cooking for themselves, to steal someone’s heart, or to feed a crowd. 

To be sure, the nutritional guide at the front of the book is outdated.  It is no longer suggested that “Every infant should receive cod liver oil from the second month on…Beginning with a few drops at a time, the dose is increased until the baby receives ½ to 1 teaspoonful of cod liver oil twice daily.”

What I love most about this particular copy is noticing the obvious favorites of the cook it belonged to.  This cook baked a lot of small cakes and cookies!  Sugar cookies appear to have been a favorite.  Besides the taped pages, I can still see remnants of flour and other food stains on its pages. 

Thanks to Michelle who thought of me when she saw this book and to the book’s finders for passing it on and not throwing it away!